First, what’s behind the rise in suicide? [ dur: 30 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

• Mark S. Kaplan is a professor of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. His publications include, The social nature of male suicide: A new analytic model; Suicide among male veterans: a prospective population-based study; and Physical illness, functional limitations, and suicide risk: a population-based study.

Then, a look at how the unconscious mind and biological predispositions effect political outcomes, waging war and prejudice biases. [ dur: 26 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

• Shankar Vedantam is a science correspondent with NPR. He is the author of The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elects Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives.
• Guillermo Jiménez is an Associate Professor of International Trade at the Fashion Institute of Technology. He is the author of Red Genes, Blue Genes: Exposing Political Irrationality.

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

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First, Scholars’ Circle contributor Doug Becker examines the impact of Jair Bolsonaro’s election on Brazil and globally. How does Bolsonaro compare to other populist leaders in Latin America, as well as President Trump? [ dur: 40 mins. ]

• Erica Resende is Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at the Brazilian War College in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the co-editor of Memory and Trauma in International Relations: Theories, Cases and Debates; and Crisis and Change in Post Cold-War Global Politics.
• Guilherme Casarões is a Lecturer of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas (São Paulo School of Business). He is the author of Brazil and the Middle East, Geo-economic Competition in Latin America: Brazil, Venezuela, and Regional Integration in the 21st century. And the co-author of Brazil, East Asia, and the Shaping of World Politics.

Then, did predatory developers use the law to confiscate thousands of acres from African-American families? [ dur: 16 mins. ]

• Leah Douglas is a reporter and analyst with the Open Markets program at New America Foundation. Her investigative article “African Americans Have Lost Untold Acres of Land Over the Last Century” was just published in the Nation Magazine.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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How is the Trump presidency transforming the United States? How might the resistance affect this? We speak with 4 experts. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

• ​Doug McAdam is The Ray Lyman Wilbur Professor of Sociology at Stanford University and a former Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. His 18 books include the prize winning Freedom Summer and Deeply Divided: Racial Politics and Social Movements in Postwar America.
• Kenneth M. Roberts is Richard Schwartz Professor of comparative and Latin American Politics at Cornell University. He is the author of Deepening Democracy? The Modern Left and Social Movements in Chile and Peru and the co-author of The Resurgence of the Latin American Left .
• David S. Meyer is Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the University of California at Irvine. He is the author of The Politics of Protest: Social Movements in America and co-editor with Sidney Tarrow of The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement. He blogs at politicsoutdoors. com.
• David Karpf is Associate Professor in the School of Media and Public Affairs at the George Washington University. He is the author of the award-winning book, The MoveOn Effect: The Unexpected Transformation of American Political Advocacy and Analytic Activism: Digital Listening and the New Political Strategy.

They’re all contributors to The Resistance: The Dawn of the Anti-Trump Opposition Movement.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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What are the common patterns among violent extremists? [ dur: 14 mins. ]

• Patrick James is project manager for the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS) project at the University of Maryland.

Human history has been drastically changed by our relationship with animals. So much so that our next guest says it would be a different world if not for our intimate bonds with animals. How have they changed us and the world we live in? Joining us is Professor Brian Fagan. [ dur: 41 mins. ]

• Brian Fagan is Professor Emeritus of Archaeology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has authored more than two dozen books, including The Intimate Bond: How Animals Have Shaped Human History and Fishing: How the Sea Fed Civilization.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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First, an analysis of ideology, propaganda and race in Trump’s America. [ dur: 17 mins. ]

• David Livingstone Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others, The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, How Biology Shapes Philosophy and Why We Lie: Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind.

Then, the historical roots of the present day political turmoil, divisions, and partisanship in the United States. The fault lines that fractured the United States. [ dur: 40 mins. ]

• Julian Zelizer is Professor of History and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public & International Affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of many publications including the books Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security—From World War II to the War on Terrorism, On Capitol Hill: The Struggle to Reform Congress and its Consequences, 1948-2000, and his latest Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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First, in most parts of the world inequality is shrinking and the middle class is growing, it is what some call the great convergence. We will speak with Kishore Mahbubani author of, The Great Convergence: Asia, the West, and the Logic of One World. [ dur: 29 mins. ]

• Kishore Mahbubani is Professor in the Practice of Public Policy and Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore

Then, on The Scholars’ Circle panel, scientists are increasingly finding similarities between humans and other animals. Other animals cooperate, communicate, spread culture and experience a wide spectrum of emotions including empathy, joy and jealousy. Their also similarly affected by disorders like addiction, depression, food disorders and self-harm which were once thought to be found only in humans. Just how similar are we to other animals and what might these findings teach us about the human condition and our relationship to other species? [ dur: 29 mins. ]

• Marc Bekoff ( blog ), is professor emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and co-founder with Jane Goodall of Ethologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. His books include The Emotional Lives of Animals, Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed: The Fascinating Science of Animal Intelligence, Emotions, Friendship, and Conservation, and has co-authored, Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals
• Barbara Natterson-Horowitz is a cardiologist, the Director of Imaging at the UCLA Cardiac Arrhythmia Center and a cardiac consultant for the Los Angeles Zoo. She is the co-author of Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health.
• Stan Kuczaj is director of The Marine Mammal Behavior and Cognition Laboratory at University of Southern Mississippi . He is coauthor/editor of Emotions of Animals and Humans: Comparative Perspectives (The Science of the Mind)

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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Today’s program was recorded in front of a live audience. In this symposium about the future of food, we look at food insecurity, food shortages, food justice and sovereignty. We explore the threats to long term availability of health food: climate change, chemical contamination, soil depletion, loss of land, power politics, mass death of pollinators and host of big business practices. We look at solutions and the changes we need to make to be sure of system is just, sustainable and resilient. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

• Ann Elizabeth Bartos is a Lecturer in the School of Environment at the University of Auckland. She has authored book chapters including ‘Food sovereignty and the possibilities for an equitable, just and sustainable food system”’in Eating, Drinking, Surviving: The international year of global understanding – IYGU and journal articles including ‘The body eating its food politics: reflections on relationalities and embodied ways of knowing‘ in Gender, Place and Culture.
• Gerhard Benjamin McDonald Sundborn is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Population Health at the University of Auckland. His has coauthored journal articles including ‘Low sugar nutrition policies and dental caries: A study of primary schools in South Auckland‘ in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health and ‘Sugar, dental caries and the incidence of acute rheumatic fever: A cohort study of Māori and Pacific children‘ in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
• Daniel Carl Henare Hikuroa is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Māori Studies and Pacific Studies at the University of Auckland. He coedited the book Ara Mai he Tetekura: Visioning Our Futures: New and Emerging Pathways of Maori Academic Leadership and has coauthored journal articles including ‘Ensuring objectivity by applying the Mauri Model to assess the post-disaster affected environments of the 2011 MV Rena disaster in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand‘ in Ecological Indicators.
• Mike Joy is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Agriculture and Environment at Massey University. He authored the book Polluted Inheritance: New Zealand’s freshwater crisis; authored book chapters including ‘Our deadly nitrogen addiction’ in The New Zealand Land & Food Annual; as well as coauthored journal articles including ‘New Zealand dairy farming: milking our environment for all its worth‘ in Environmental Management.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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First, living off the grid. A look inside the movement to live with total freedom and independence. Who is doing it? How are they doing it and why are they doing it? [ dur: 15 mins. ]

• Nick Rosen is writer, author and filmmaker. He is the author of Off the Grid: Inside the Movement for More Space, Less Government and True Independence in Modern America. His website is www.off-grid.net

Then, living life as an infinite game. We speak with Niki Harre author of Infinite Game: How to Live Well Together. [ dur: 43 mins. ]

• Niki Harre is a Professor of Psychology and Associate Dean for Sustainability at the University of Auckland. She is the author of Psychology for a Better World and The Infinite Game: How to Live Well Together. Her website is: http://www.infinite-game.net/

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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First, we’ll revisit the 1920 founding of Black History Month and the pivotal civil rights campaign in Birmingham. [ dur: 15 mins. ]

• V.P. Franklin is the Distinguished Professor of History at University of California, Riverside. He is the author of Living Our Stories, Telling Our Truths: Autobiography and the Making of the African-American Intellectual Tradition as well as the editor of Journal of African American History.

Can worker owned cooperatives transform workers lives and livelihoods? We speak with Jessica Gordon Nembhard author of, Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice. [ dur: 31 mins. ]

• Jessica Gordon Nembhard is Associate Professor of Community Justice and Social Economic Development in the Department of Africana Studies at John Jay College, City University of New York. Her latest book is Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice.

Although governments rarely apologize for crimes committed against humanity or other injustices that they have perpetrated, our guest suggests official apologies are meaningful; they help to change the terms and meanings of national membership. We are joined by Melissa Nobles author of The Politics of Official Apologies. [ dur: 10 mins. ]

• Melissa Nobles is Department Head, and Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology discusses Official apologies. She is the author of The Politics of Official Apology and co-editor with Jun-Hyeok Kwak of Inherited Responsibility and Historical Reconciliation in East Asia.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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First, we speak with Nancy Gibbs about one of the world’s most exclusive and influential clubs. Nancy Gibbs is the co-author of The Presidents Club: Inside the Worlds Most Exclusive Fraternity. [ dur: 29 mins. ]

• Nancy Gibbs is the managing editor of TIME. She is the co-author of The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House and The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity.

Then, we’ll take a peek inside the strange political marriage of Presidents Eisenhower and Nixon and how their terms shaped U.S. politics and policy. [ dur: 29 mins. ]

• Jeffery Frank is a journalist and the author of Ike and Dick: Portrait of a Strange Political Marriage.

This program is produced with contributions from the following volunteers: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

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