The Gravel Institute

The Gravel Institute (/ɡrəˈvɛl/ grə-VELL) was a progressive left-wing advocacy group founded in 2020 that aimed to counteract American conservative think tanks in general, particularly PragerU.^[2][3] 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.^[3]

The Gravel Institute

Formation	2020
Founders	Mike Gravel
Type	501(c)4 Nonprofit[‡ 1]
Location	New York, United States
Key people	Henry Williams (Chair) [‡ 1]
YouTube information
Channel	The Gravel Institute
Years active	2020–2022
Genres	Politics current affairs
Subscribers	396 thousand[1]
Total views	15.9 million[1]
Creator Awards 100,000 subscribers 2020
Last updated: 14 June 2023

The Institute ceased producing new video content during 2022;^[4] its website was shuttered on July 16, 2023, for lack of payment.^[5][6]

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.^[3] The Gravel Institute collaborated with a number of organizations, including the People's Policy Project (3P) and the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).^[7]

According to the official website, the Institute's mission was to "build the institutions the left needs to win".^{[‡ 2]} 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."^[8]

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.^[9][10]

The Gravel Institute was mainly run by Williams, Oks, and Henry Magowan, who ran Gravel's 2020 presidential campaign when they were teenagers.^[9] 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.^[11]

On September 28, 2020, The Gravel Institute uploaded their first video, formally introducing the project, narrated by H. Jon Benjamin.^{[‡ 3]} Also on September 28, The Gravel Institute uploaded their first video focused on a specific subject.^[2]

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.^[12]

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.^[12]

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.^[5] The site went down the following July 16.^[6] Additionally, the Gravel Institute YouTube channel has not posted a video since August 2022.^[4]

Presenters and contributors

Presenters and contributors to Gravel Institute videos included Zephyr Teachout, David Cross, Bhaskar Sunkara, Richard Wolff, and H. Jon Benjamin.^[12]

Board of directors

As of 2022, the group's board of directors were Jabari Brisport, Enigma founder Hicham Oudghiri, Veena Dubal, and Nina Turner.^[13]

Jacobin founder Bhaskar Sunkara was initially listed on the board as well.^[14]

References

1. "About The Gravel Institute". YouTube.
2. Jackson, Gita (October 1, 2020). "The Gravel Institute Is Trying to Make PragerU, But Good". Vice (Motherboard).
3. Rozsa, Matthew (November 30, 2020). "The internet has become captured by the right. The Gravel Institute is trying to take it back". Salon. Archived from the original on December 18, 2020. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
4. "The Gravel Institute: Videos". YouTube. Retrieved July 24, 2023. More recent video posted is "Marianne Williamson: Why You're So Sad", 11 months prior.
5. "Gravel Institute". Gravel Institute. Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved 2023-06-29.
6. "Oops! This is not the site you're looking for". Flywheel. Archived from the original on July 16, 2023. Retrieved 2023-07-22.
7. Pollard, Amelia (2021-05-11). "The Gravel Institute Punches Up". The American Prospect. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
8. "The Gravel Institute Wants to Radicalize Centrists Everywhere". MEL Magazine. 2020-11-11. Retrieved 2021-05-11.
9. Pollard, Amelia (May 20, 2021). "The Gravel Institute Punches Up". The American Prospect. Retrieved May 20, 2021.
10. Bonn, Tess (August 2, 2019). "Gravel to form liberal think tank after suspending campaign". The Hill.
11. McMenamin, Lexi (December 5, 2020). "Can the Gravel Institute compete with the right-wing YouTube machine?". Mic. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
12. Bredderman, William (2022-02-26). "Deleted Tweets Reveal a Progressive Group's Ukraine Meltdown". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2022-03-12.
13. "About – Gravel Institute". Retrieved 2022-03-29.
14. "About – Gravel Institute". 2 March 2022. Archived from the original on 2 March 2022. Retrieved 2 March 2022.

Primary sources

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

1. Williams, Henry. "Henry Williams". Henry Williams. Retrieved 2021-01-23.
2. "The Gravel Institute about page". The Gravel Institute. Retrieved 9 February 2021.
3. "How to Defeat PragerU: The Gravel Institute". YouTube. Retrieved December 20, 2020.