Steamboat Springs — Seminars at Steamboat speakers this summer will tackle the upcoming election, differing views on radical Islam, the Russia-United States conflict and economic inequality.

The 14th annual Seminars season begins with the first of four events on Monday, July 11 at the Strings Music Pavilion.

Writer and election reform advocate Norman Ornstein will discuss the upcoming presidential election in a talk titled “It’s Even Worse Than It Was: Examining Our Political Mess on the Eve of the Conventions.”

Seminars at Steamboat Chair Bob Stein said Ornstein, who has written a political book titled “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks,” and an updated version, “It’s Even Worse Than It Was,” will likely bring some humor to all the hype surrounding the 2016 presidential election.

“He’s very funny,” Stein said. “I’m really excited about him coming out to set us straight.”

Ornstein is the co-director of the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Election Reform Project, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal.

The following Monday, July 18, Seminars will host William McCants and Philippe LeCorre to offer varying perspectives on ISIS in a policy talk called “Radical Islam and Terrorism: Views from the U.S. and Europe.”

“I’ve heard them both speak, and the American and European perspectives on the threat and what to do about it can be different,” Stein said. “The group thought it would be really interesting to hear different perspectives.”

On Thursday, July 28, Seminars will welcome back U.S. relations expert Matthew Rojansky, who spoke in Steamboat two years ago.

Rojansky is the director of the Keenan Institute at the Wilson Center and an expert on U.S. relations with the states of the former Soviet Union, particularly Russia.

“He’s coming back to talk about Putin and Russia,” Stein said. “Things have changed since he was here two years ago.”

The Seminars at Steamboat season will close Thursday, August 18 with Richard Reeves, a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute and co-director of the Center on Children and Families.

Reeves’ talk, “Inequality and the American Dream,” will focus on income inequality and social mobility.

Seminars talks will all begin a half-hour later than in previous years, at 5:30 p.m., with the distribution of free tickets beginning at 4:45 p.m.

This year, Seminars at Steamboat has launched a new online discussion forum for people interested in expanding the discussion on topics brought up during the events.

To access the forum, click “Forum” at the top of the Seminars website, seminarsatsteamboat.org.

As in previous years, Seminars talks will be broadcast in abbreviated form through a partnership with KUNC public radio. Information on the broadcasts and full video recordings will be available on the Seminars website.

Seminars at Steamboat is also on Facebook.

To reach Teresa Ristow, call 970-871-4206, email tristow@SteamboatToday.com or follow her on Twitter @TeresaRistow