In first for 3 segments, we speak with James G. Ingalls a Staff Scientist at the Spitzer Space Telescope / Science Center, and a member of the InfraRed Spectrograph Instrument Support Team that discovered the seven earthlike planets orbiting a dwarf star. [ dur: 12mins. ]

James G. Ingalls is Staff Scientist at the Spitzer Space Telescope / Science Center, and a member of the InfraRed Spectrograph Instrument Support Team. He is co-author of Seven temperate terrestrial planets around the nearby ultracool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1.

Then, secret heroes. We know the role of presidents and other leaders in shaping history, however we hear little about the unsung heroes; many who have risked their lives to liberate and rescue others. Who might some of those secret heroes be? We are joined by Paul Martin author of Secret Heroes: Everyday Americans Who Shaped Our World. [ dur: 14mins. ]

Paul Martin is writer, editor and journalist., He is the author of Secret Heroes: Everyday Americans Who Shaped Our World and Villains, Scoundrels, and Rogues.

Finally, what does the election of Trump mean for the United Nations? [ dur: 33mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Stephen Hoadley is a Professor of Politics and International Relations at The University of Auckland. He is the author of, Asian Security Reassessed, New Zealand and France: Politics, Diplomacy and Dispute Management, and Soldiers and Politics in South East Asia.
Mark Eugene Amsler is a Professor in Cultures, Languages and Linguistics and Director of the Europe Institute at the University of Auckland, He is the author of Effective Literacies: Writing and Multilingualism in the Later Middle Ages.

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This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Melting glaciers and ice sheets -/- Insight into Addiction and it’s treatment – February 26, 2017

February 24, 2017 host

First, climate change, receding glaciers and melting ice sheets are causing the oceans to rise dramatically. What does that mean for the world’s coastal cities? [ dur: 15mins. ]

Andrea Dutton is a Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida. She is the co-author of Tropical Tales of Polar Ice:Evidence of Last Interglacial Polar Ice Sheet Retreat Recorded by Fossil Reefs of the Granitic Seychelles Island published in Quaternary Science Reviews.
Brian Fagan is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is the author of The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels, Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind and The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

Then, on The Scholars’ Circle panel, science contradicts long held societal myths about addiction. What are the most effective means of addressing addiction? [ dur: 43mins. ]

Dr. Lance Dodes is a former Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of The Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviors, Breaking Addiction: A 7-Step Handbook for Ending Any Addiction and The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry.
Dr. Jeffrey Foote is the Co-founder and Clinical Director of the Center For Motivation and Change. Previously, he was the Deputy Director of the Division of Alcohol Treatment and Research at Mt. Sinai Medical Center and a Senior Research Associate at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He is the co-author of Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change.
Dr. Adi Jaffe is a lecturer at UCLA and the Co-Founder and Executive Director at Alternatives Addiction Treatment.

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This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Consumer Choice -/- Earth, Science and Religion – February 12, 2017

February 11, 2017 host

First, how most of what we buy and consume helps create wars, prop up dictatorships and systems of oppression, and some ways to start changing this. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Leif Wenar is Chair of Philosophy and Law at King’s College London. He is the author of Blood Oil: Tyrants, Violence and the Rules That Run the World. Leif Wenar website

Then, how might Big History change our thinking about the role of humanity in the history of the earth and the convergence of science and religion. [ dur: 30 mins. ]

Jonathan Markley is Associate Professor of History at California State University, Fullerton. He is part of the Big History movement and has been featured in many television episodes related to it. Big History Project website

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This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Human rights Laws -/- Challenging USA shutting out Refugees – February 5, 2017

February 4, 2017 host

How is international law changing for human rights and for war? Moving from protecting state security to increasingly protecting individual security. The shifts are influenced by the human rights frame and reshaping what she calls “humanity’s law.” [dur: 15mins. ]

RutiTeitel is Professor of Comparative Law at the New York Law School and Visiting Professor at London School of Economics. She is the author of numerous publications including Humanity’s Law and Globalizing Transitional Justice.

While the worlds deals with an ongoing and escalating refugee crisis, the USA is shutting its door on seven countries. Already states and local governments are seeking ways to challenge the new administration’s orders. We’ll explore the historic, global and legal context with our experts. [ dur: 43mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Kevin Johnson is Dean of the School of Law and Professor of Public Interest Law and Chicana/o Studies at University of California at Davis. He has co-authored., Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws, and authored Immigration Law and the US-Mexico Border.
David Kyle is Professor of Sociology at University of California at Davis. His publications include, Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives, and Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador.
Phil Orchard is a Senior Lecturer in Peace and Conflict Studies and International Relations and the Research Director of the Asia Pacific Centre for Responsibility to Protect at the University of Queensland in Australia. He is the author of A Right to Flee: Refugees, States, and the Construction of International Cooperation and the forthcoming book Protecting the Internally Displaced: Rhetoric and Reality.
Brad Blitz is Professor of International Politics at Middlesex University in London and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics. He is the author of European Union: Displaced, Undocumented and Unwanted, Statelessness and Citizenship: A Comparative Study on the Benefits of Nationality, and Migration and Freedom: Mobility, Citizenship, Exclusion.

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This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Propaganda in democratic society, Part 2 of 2 -/- Ways States Resist President Donald Trump agenda – January 29, 2017

January 28, 2017 host

First, how propaganda works, particularly in democratic settings. Jason Stanley is the author of How Propaganda Works. This is part two of a two part interview. Hear part one [ dur: 25 mins. ]

Jason Stanley is Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of How Propaganda Works , Know How and Knowledge and Practical Interests (Lines of Thought).

Then, throughout US history conflict has risen between states’ rights to self-govern and the power of national government to pass laws applying across the country. With Donald Trump as president, many cities and states are gearing up to resist his agenda. How will states’ rights figure into the resistance? IS secession a real possibility? Sanford Levinson is the author of The Undemocratic Constitution and Nullification and Secession in Modern Constitutional Thought. [ dur: 33mins. ]

Sanford Levinson is Professor in the Department of Government and Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School. His numerous publications include, Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance, Constitutional Faith, Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) and, most recently, Nullification and Secession in Modern Constitutional Thought.

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Scholars’ Circle – Propaganda in democratic society -/- Silencing science, how and why – January 22, 2017

January 21, 2017 host

First, how does propaganda work, particularly in democratic settings? This is part 1 of 2 part interview with Professor Jason Stanley. ( Hear Part 2 )[ dur: 26 mins. ]

Jason Stanley is Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. He is the author of How Propaganda Works , Know How and Knowledge and Practical Interests (Lines of Thought).

Then, what are the ways that science is being silenced? and to what end? We get insight from Professor Shaun Hendy. [ dur: 32 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Shaun Hendy, Professor of Physics at University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is the author of Silencing Science.

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Scholars’ Circle – Genes, Culture and Prospect of humanity -/- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. remembered – January 15, 2017

January 13, 2017 host

Is humanity outgrowing planet? We get insight from Bing professor of population studies at Stanford University, Paul R. Ehrlich.[ dur: 28 mins. ]

Paul R. Ehrlich is president of the Center for Conservation Biology and Bing professor of population studies at Stanford University, author of the Population Bomb, Human Natures: Genes, Culture, and the Human Prospect and A World of Wounds: Ecologists and the Human Dilemma.

While much of the country remembers Martin Luther King, Jr. as primarily a leader of civil rights and desegregation and a great orator, our next guests say he stood for so much more. Many aspects of his life, legacy & philosophy remain either unknown or conveniently forgotten. This interview from January, 2014. [ dur: 30 mins.]

David Garrow is Professor of History and Law at University of Pittsburgh, author of FBI and Martin Luther King, Jr: From “Solo” to Memphis.
Joshua Inwood is Professor of Geography and Africana Studies in Geography Department, University of Tennessee. His publications include, Nonkilling Geography, Searching for the Promised Land: Examining Dr. Martin Luther King’s Concept of the Beloved Community,and Street naming and the politics of belonging: spatial injustices in the toponymic commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.
Thomas Jackson is Professor of History at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He is the author of, From Civil Rights to Human Rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Struggle for Economic Justice.

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This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Scholars’ Circle – Ecosystem Tipping Point, how it happens, effects and our response – January 8, 2017

January 8, 2017 host

We spent the hour looking at the science of tippings and what they mean for our climate and our ecosystems on land and in water today. What causes these types of sudden changes? And how can society be better prepared for such events? We spoke with three scientists whose studies involve tipping points, how they happen and their effects.[ dur: 58mins. ]

Peter Ward is a Professor of Paleontology and Biology at the Earth and Space Sciences Department of the University of Washington, Seattle.He is the co-author of the best-selling Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe, the author of many books including, Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth’s Ancient Atmosphere, Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future, and The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive? which was listed by the New York Times as one of the “100 most important ideas of 2009.”
Simon Thrush is Professor of Marine Science and Head of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Auckalnd in New Zealand, He is the co-author of many publications including, Real world biodiversity-ecosystem functioning: A seafloor perspective, The up-scaling of ecosystem functions in a heterogeneous world, and Altered Sea Ice Thickness and Permanence Affects Benthic Ecosystem Functioning in Coastal Antarctica.
George Perry is a Professor at the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. He studies the effects of humans on forest ecosystems. He is the co-author of many publications including, Positive Feedbacks to Fire-Driven Deforestation Following Human Colonization of the South Island of New Zealand, Feedbacks and landscape-level vegetation dynamics, and Pyrodiversity is the coupling of biodiversity and fire regimes in food webs.

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This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

Category Archives: Scholars’ Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Insight into race, propaganda and ideology -/- extinction of species – March 12, 2017

Scholars’ Circle – 7 Earth like planets detected -/- Secret heroes in American history -/- UN during Donald Trump Presidency – March 5, 2017

Scholars’ Circle – Consumer Choice -/- Earth, Science and Religion – February 12, 2017

Scholars’ Circle – Human rights Laws -/- Challenging USA shutting out Refugees – February 5, 2017

Scholars’ Circle – Propaganda in democratic society, Part 2 of 2 -/- Ways States Resist President Donald Trump agenda – January 29, 2017

Scholars’ Circle – Propaganda in democratic society -/- Silencing science, how and why – January 22, 2017

Scholars’ Circle – Genes, Culture and Prospect of humanity -/- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. remembered – January 15, 2017

Scholars’ Circle – Ecosystem Tipping Point, how it happens, effects and our response – January 8, 2017

By Maria Armoudian