The Gravel Institute

The Gravel Institute ( ) was a progressive left-wing advocacy group founded in 2020 that aimed to counteract American conservative think tanks in general, particularly PragerU. The Gravel Institute was named for its founder Mike Gravel, a former United States senator from Alaska and two-time U.S. presidential candidate. The Gravel Institute promoted left-wing views, including wealth redistribution, criticism of United States foreign policy, and direct democracy.

The Institute ceased producing new video content during 2022; its website was shuttered on July 16, 2023, for lack of payment.

Mission

The Gravel Institute was created with the explicit goal of countering PragerU, with Henry Williams stating "the issues that we've so far focused on were, on the one hand, drawn from looking at PragerU topics and countering them" in an interview with ''Salon''. The Gravel Institute collaborated with a number of organizations, including the People's Policy Project (3P) and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

According to the official website, the Institute's mission was to "build the institutions the left needs to win". According to David Oks, the Institute's "main target audience is people who are in the center, but don't have particularly well-thought-out political beliefs", adding: "I don't really think we're going to be converting people who consume PragerU."

History

After Mike Gravel's 2020 presidential campaign ended in 2019, leadership from the campaign launched The Gravel Institute in 2019 using a $25,000 donation by Tumblr founder David Karp.

The Gravel Institute was mainly run by Williams, Oks, and Henry Magowan, who ran Gravel's 2020 presidential campaign when they were teenagers. Video production and direction was headed by New York filmmaker Tymon Brown. Mike Gravel himself, who was 90 years old when the Institute launched, was not involved in day-to-day operations but served as a consultant and provided advice.

On September 28, 2020, The Gravel Institute uploaded their first video, formally introducing the project, narrated by H. Jon Benjamin. Also on September 28, The Gravel Institute uploaded their first video focused on a specific subject.

In February 2022, The Gravel Institute announced a new board of directors, including former Ohio State Senator Nina Turner and Bhaskar Sunkara, the founder of American socialist magazine ''Jacobin''.

In February 2022, ''The Daily Beast'' alleged that a video released by The Gravel Institute in mid-February on the Azov Battalion, titled "How America Funded Ukraine’s Neo-Nazis" and later renamed "America, Russia, and Ukraine’s Far-Right Problem", contained controversial talking points about the influence of neo-Nazism in the Ukrainian government and claimed that Ukrainian nationalism is linked to Nazism. ''The Daily Beast'' also accused the institute of publishing misinformation about Ukraine. The Gravel Institute responded by claiming that the video was accurate and was reviewed by experts prior to publication, but the video was ultimately pulled from public view.

In June 2023, a banner was posted on the Gravel Institute's website announcing that the site would be taken down due to unpaid hosting costs. The site went down the following July 16. Additionally, the Gravel Institute YouTube channel has not posted a video since August 2022. More recent video posted is "Marianne Williamson: Why You're So Sad", 11 months prior.

Presenters and contributors

Presenters and contributors to Gravel Institute videos included Zephyr Teachout, David Cross, Bhaskar Sunkara, Richard Wolff, and H. Jon Benjamin.

Board of directors

As of 2022, the group's board of directors were Jabari Brisport, Enigma founder Hicham Oudghiri, Veena Dubal, and Nina Turner.

''Jacobin'' founder Bhaskar Sunkara was initially listed on the board as well.

References

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gravel Institute, The
2020 establishments in the United States
2023 disestablishments in the United States
Mike Gravel
Progressive organizations in the United States