Monthly Archives: February 2013

Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Feb. 24th, 2013

First, how did society develop from bands of hunter and gatherers to our current political system? Where did the concepts of accountability come from? And why was a swell of democracy followed by a decline in democratic gain? What is behind political decay? Francis Fukuyama poses these questions in his latest book, The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Francis Fukuyama, author, senior fellow at Stanford Univ.;

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle, what are the trends and consequences of increasingly unequal society? We look at inequality, its causes and consequences. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

  • Prof. Lane Kenworthy, Sociology and Political science Univ. of AZ.; Author: Progress for the Poor
  • Prof. Miles Corak,  Prof. of Economics, Univ. of Ottawa, Canada; Author: Generational Income Mobility in North America and Europe
  • Prof. Sylvia Allegretto, Center on Wage & Employment Dynamics, Labor Economist , UC Berkeley. Author : The State of Working America:

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Feb. 17th, 2013

Begin with, President Obama used the state of the union address to galvanize support for his agenda. How does his state of the union compare to those of his predecessors? [ dur. 12:51 ]

  • Ryan Lee Teten, Professor of Political Science at Univ. of Louisiana.  Author of  – Evolution of Rehtorical Presidency.

Then, for President’s Day, we’ll take a peek inside the strange political marriage of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon and how their terms shaped US politics and policy. [ dur. 41mins. ]

  • Jeffery Frank, author, journalist;  Author of Ike and Dick of Strange Political Marriage.

Finally, we’ll revisit the 1920 founding of Black History Month and in advance of its 50th anniversary, the pivotal civil rights campaign in Birmingham. [ dur. 18 mins. ]

  • VB Franklin, Distinguished Prof. History at UC Riverside. Author of Education of Black Philidelphia.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Feb. 10th, 2013

For this Valentine’s week:

First, we look at the global advances for marriage equality, just in time for the landmark Supreme Court cases. [ dur. 15  mins. ]

  • Jenny Pizer is Senior Counsel and Director of Law and Public Policy at Lambda Legal.

Then, they may have been some of the world’s greatest thinkers but they were also great failures at love.[ dur. 12 mins. ]

  • Andrew Shaffer is the author of, “Great Philosophers Who Failed at Love,” and “Literary Rogues: A Scandalous History of Wayward Authors.”

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle, what is love? Is it emotional? Biological? Can it be summarized by rational decision? How does it play out in society? [  dur. 28 mins. ]

  • Simon May is a Visiting Professor of Philosophy at Kings College, London. His books include, “Love: A History” and “Nietzsche’s Ethics and his War on Morality’.”
  • Bennett W. Helm is a Professor of Philosophy at Franklin & Marshall College. His books include, “Love, Friendship, and the Self: Intimate Identification and the Sociality of Persons,” and “Emotional Reason: Deliberation, Motivation, and the Nature of Value.”
  • Dr. Robert Epstein is Senior Research Psychologist at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology. He is currently working on a book called “Making Love: How People Learn To Love, and How You Can Too,” which is based on his research on how love emerges over time in arranged marriages. He is also the author of, “Teen 2.0: Saving Our Children and Families from the Torment of Adolescence,” and “Cognition, Creativity, and Behavior: Selected Essays.”

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

The Scholars’ Circle & Insighters Radio- Feb. 3rd, 2013

Can the Lord of the Rings trilogy act as a means to understand complex politics and international relations? Our guest says, indeed, it can. [ dur. 30 mins. ]

  • Patrick James, Professor of International Relations and Director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Southern California. He is the author of, “The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings.”

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle, we look at deception and lying. Some scholars say that deception is ubiquitous and normal in all human interactions, that lying is useful and possibly even biological. Others suggest that there is a cost to lying even for white lies. What is the truth about lying? [ dur. 28 mins. ]

  • Sissela Bok is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, and formerly a Professor of Philosophy at Brandeis University. Her many books include the seminal, “Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life,” “Secrets: on the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation,” and “A Strategy for Peace: Human Values and the Threat of War.”
  • David Livingstone Smith is Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of several books including, “Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind,” “Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others,” and “Hidden Conversations: An Introduction to Communicative Psychoanalysis.”
  • Charles V. Ford, M.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology, in the School of Medicine at the University of Alabama. His books include “Lies! Lies!! Lies!!!: The Psychology of Deceit.”

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