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TEDx Salon
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Today, we begin.
For the next ten days, from July 24 through August 2, 2026, whistleblowers, filmmakers, journalists, and advocates from across the nation and around the world will come together to celebrate truth-tellers and the price they pay for their courage. This year, as America marks its 250th anniversary, we gather under the theme "America 250 – Unity in the Community" — a reminder that accountability, transparency, and the freedom to speak truth to power are founding American ideals worth honoring.
We're proud to present this award-winning festival in partnership with African American Women in Cinema (AAWIC) and the Justice Integrity Project (JIP), with live events on Capitol Hill, at the National Press Club, at Busboys & Poets, and beyond.
Here's how to summit with us.
A Hybrid Festival: Ten Days Online, Five Days Live
This is a hybrid event, blending ten days of online content with five days of live gatherings in Washington, D.C. Wherever you are in the world, there's a way to take part.
The live experience brings you to the heart of it all — panels, screenings, and the chance to be in the room with legendary whistleblowers like Frank Serpico and Jeff Wigand and political leaders like Senator Charles Grassley and Former Representative Jackie Speier. The summit opens on Capitol Hill and culminates with the Pillar Awards Presentation at the National Press Club on July 30th, National Whistleblower Appreciation Day.
The virtual experience unfolds a little differently each day. Every festival day brings a unique mix of:
Live-Stream Panel Discussions — timely conversations on the issues that matter
Featured Film of the Day — a new spotlight selection each day
Historical Panel Archives — landmark discussions from summits past
Together, these produce a fresh combination of content every single day of the festival.
How the Schedule Works
Our schedule includes both live and virtual events. The live events are self-explanatory — but the virtual presentations work in a way worth explaining.
Each film in the festival has a virtual "release date." Think of it less as the only time you can watch and more as that film's moment in the spotlight — a promotional window when we invite the whole community to experience it together. Every film gets its own dedicated date and time.
While all virtual screenings can be accessed anytime during the festival week, our hope is something bigger: a festival community, national and global, watching the same films at the same time, in different places, and coming together on social media to discuss the important stories on screen.
Because that's what this festival has always been about — not just watching, but watching together.
Welcome to the Summit. Let's begin.
As we celebrate 250 years of American independence, we must ask: What has sustained our democracy through challenges, divisions, and crises? The answer includes many factors, but certainly among them are the courageous individuals who, at pivotal moments, chose truth over comfort, country over career, and conscience over compliance.
From the Revolutionary sailors to modern whistleblowers, American truth-tellers have embodied the best of our national character: the refusal to accept wrongdoing, the courage to speak up, and the faith that our democratic institutions can be reformed and perfected.
At a time when trust in institutions is fragile and misinformation proliferates, the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival offers Americans a chance to reflect on what makes our democracy resilient: not the absence of problems, but the presence of mechanisms and people willing to expose and address them.
This is not a partisan message. Whistleblowers exist across the political spectrum, and wrongdoing knows no party affiliation. By celebrating those who speak truth to power, we celebrate a value that transcends politics: the commitment to accountability that makes self-government possible. The Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival embodies the spirit of America250: honoring our history, engaging our present, and inspiring our future.
THE PREMIER PLATFORM FOR WHISTLEBLOWERS
The Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival is the largest gathering of whistleblowers and the only festival dedicated to honoring whistleblowers and first amendment activism. This annual event weaves together film screenings and professional symposiums, creating a powerful nexus where whistleblowers, advocates, policymakers, journalists, and filmmakers converge to engage in groundbreaking investigative storytelling that illuminates issues of free speech, civil and human rights, and social justice."
Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival is its deliberate mission to end the "snitches get stitches" narrative that has long stigmatized whistleblowers. Through carefully curated film screenings, author events, policy panels, and comedic performances, the festival presents whistleblowers as what they truly are: individuals of extraordinary courage who risk everything for the greater good.
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You can help give more power and voice to whistleblowers by supporting the Whistleblower Summit & Film Festival. You will be helping to highlight civil and human rights violations across the globe. Call us at (870) 543-0024 or email us at mccray.michael@gmail.com.
