Scholars’ Circle – Nuclear war an imminent threat to humanity persists – November 16, 2025

What is Donald Trump trying to accomplish by resuming nuclear testing? And what impact will this decision have on nuclear non-proliferation? It seems that Trump doesn’t understand either nuclear testing or the basics about nuclear weapons. Does this undermine US policy for non-proliferation? Also, the US is unique in that a single person controls the decision to use nuclear weapons? Could the international response to the US announcement of resuming nuclear testing change this command structure? [ dur: 58mins. ]

  • Ira Helfand, MD is a member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)s International Steering Committee. He is a co-founder and past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), IPPNWs US affiliate. He has co-authored PSRs report Nuclear Famine: 2 billion at Risk?
  • Wayne Glass is Professor Emeritus in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the former Senior Defense Policy Advisor to Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He has worked extensively with nuclear weapons policies.
  • Joe Cirincione is a national security analyst and author with over 40 years of experience. He is the author of the books Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late and co-author of Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats.

Active Campaign by Back from the Brink to prevent nuclear war.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Politics and Activism, War / Weapons, Nuclear Weapons

Scholars’ Circle – Brazil’s militarized police & disappearances ; Insights on innovative technologies to address climate change factors – November 9, 2025

Violent policing and “disappearing” people is continuing in Brazil, even today in 2025. How is Brazilian civil society responding? [ dur: 33mins. ]

People around the world have developed innovative new technologies to mitigate or adapt to climate change. In many cases, adoption has proved difficult as governments and some large corporations have been reluctant to support them. Who are developing these technological solutions? What are some of these technologies? Can they help protect us from the worst of climate change? [ dur: 25mins. ]

Transcript of this interview can be found here : link.

  • Holly Beals, a strategic director & Senior Innovation Specialist, Aurora Climate Lab Lead at Creative HQ;
  • Michael Fielding is Chief Executive at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Ventures and Co-Founder of Dot Ingredients.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Known Environmental impact of the US Military – November 2, 2025

We spend the hour looking at the environmental impact of the US military. How much does the US military pollute the environment? What is their role in climate change causing green house emissions? The military has taken some measures to reduce its impact on the environment and green gas emissions, but our guests say these measures do little to assuage the military’s bigger effects on climate change. What are these effects and what can be done about them?[ dur: 58mins. ]

This interview was recorded July 2019. For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Consequence of Trump’s Gun boat attacks on Venezuelan coast – October 26, 2025

Are the US Navy attacks on ships off the coast of Venezuela and Colombia legal? And are they unprecedented? On today’s show we explore the legality of these attacks and the precedents for them under the global war on terror and the war on drugs. [ dur: 58mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Trump’s anti-green energy policies ; ICJ climate change ruling for all affected states – October 19, 2025

Green energy shunned by the Trump Administration, we examine how this affects US economy, energy costs and green technology leadership. [ dur: 22mins. ]

International Court of Justice (ICJ ) made decision on behalf of Vanuatu in July 2025 Recognizing the “urgent and existential threat” facing the world, granting those harmed by human-caused climate change may be entitled to “reparations”. [ dur: 35mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Environment, Politics and Activism, Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Governance / Law

Scholars’ Circle – Recruiting Informers For The State, case-study of Communist Czechoslovakia (1945-1989) – October 12, 2025

Autocratic regimes often use people throughout the population to serve as informants. Why do people choose to become an informant and collaborate with autocracies? And what constitutes justice against these informants once the state democratizes? We discuss a new book on the topic Informers Up Close with its authors Mark Drumbl and Barbora Hola. [ dur: 58mins. ]

photo of a windows on a multi-tenenat building with tile of the book Informers up close , stories from Communist Prague.

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – President Trump’s use of transactional international diplomacy – October 5, 2025

Donald Trump has asserted himself with the power of the US into multiple ceasefires and conflict negotiations. How does this comport with US policy historically? What might be his motivation? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Continue reading Scholars’ Circle – President Trump’s use of transactional international diplomacy – October 5, 2025

Scholars’ Circle – Impact of Independent Films on diversity of stories we see on big screen- September 28, 2025

Robert Redford’s passing reminds us that perhaps his greatest legacy is his support for independent film. So on today’s show, what is the impact of independent film on the industry? How has independent film changed in recent years. How has the major shift toward streaming affected our access to independent films? [ dur: 58mins. ]

Suggestions of films made by independent film makers which broke new grounds in film making:

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Reasons for political violence and how it becomes inevitable – September 21, 2025

Political violence is on the rise, we get insight into why it happens and ways to mitigate it’s occurrence. With scholars of politics, social inquiry and criminal justice. [ dur: 58mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

Scholars’ Circle – Supreme Court allows deportation based on profiling ; The future of indigenous exhibits – September 14, 2025

How does the US Supreme Court decision to allow ICE to target immigrants based on language, accent, race, and employment affect the sweeps of undocumented immigrants in the US. And what are the social and economic impacts of Trump’s deportation policy? [ dur: 29mins. ]

green book cover with book tile of The Future is Indigenous - Stories from the new Native North America Hall at the Field Museum - Edited by Alaka Wali and Tom Skwerski

Museums are changing their approach to exhibiting Native American artifacts. What is the new model and what is the impact? [ dur: 29mins. ]

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.

By Maria Armoudian