The US has rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. What next steps should the US and the world take to mitigate the damage from the climate crisis? [ dur: 31mins. ]

• Pamela Chasek is a Professor of Political Science at Manhattan College. Among many publications she is the co-author of Global Environmental Politics.
• Shannon Gibson is Associate Professor of Political Science, International Relations, and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. She is the author of the forthcoming book Politics of Global Environment.
• Larry Schweiger is a former president and CEO of National Wildlife Federation. He is the author of Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth.

Vaccine distribution for the Covid virus has begun. What human rights issues are raised with the process of distributing the vaccine? How much do wealth and privilege determine who gets vaccinated? We take a global approach to vaccine nationalism and equitable distribution of the vaccine. [ dur: 26mins. ]

• Heather Wipfli is an Associate Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). She is the author of Investigating global mental health: Contributions from political science and Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty.
• Joanne Lin is National Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at Amnesty International, USA.

Amnesty’s report on this topic is Fair Shot: Ensuring Universal Access to Covid-19 Diagnostics, Treatments and Vaccines.
Amnesty’s report on Vaccine for Palestinians
Amnesty’s report on Human Rights Approach to Eradicating Covid-19.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Covid-19 has worsened prison conditions worldwide. This week we explore the human rights implications of the pandemic on prisons. [ dur: 32mins. ]

• Steve Swerdlow is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. He was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. He has co-authored reports on violations of freedom of expression and the crackdown of media freedom in Azerbaijan and has conducted human rights field research in the region. His recent article for CABAR.asia is Rehabilitation Here and Now: Pursuing Transitional Justice in Uzbekistan
• John Raphling is Senior Researcher at Human Rights Watch. He is the author of the report Averting an imminent catastrophe: Recommendations to US Local, State, Federal Officials to Covid-19 in jails and prisons.

China is winning the race for autonomous cars, despite inherent advantages for the United States. We explore this race and why China is winning. [ dur: 26mins. ]

• Phillip Wilcox received his M.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California. His expertise is in analyzing the economic, political, and security dynamics between U.S. and China. He is the author of The Future is Autonomus : The US and China Race to Develop the Driverless Car.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

The mob seizure of the US Capitol this week has raised several concerns about the future of American democracy? Was this a coup attempt? Is this beginning an era of undemocratic actions against peaceful transitions following elections? And is the Trump Presidency an anomaly to American democracy? [ dur: 27mins. ]

• Anne Meng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. She is the author of Constraining Dictatorship: From Personalized Rule to Institutionalized Regimes.
• Naunihal Singh is Associate Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups and this analysis article on Washington Post: Monkey Cage Section.

The authoritarianism of the Trump Administration has lasting implications for the Presidency. We discuss this authoritarianism and his impact on the Republican Party. [ dur: 31 mins. ]

• Andrew Rudalevige is Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College. He is co-author of Managing the President’s Program: Presidential Leadership and Legislative Policy Formulation and the author of The New Imperial Presidency.
• George C. Edwards III is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies at Texas A&M University. His books include On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit , The Strategic President: Persuasion and Opportunity in Presidential Leadership and Predicting the Presidency: The Potential of Persuasive Leadership. He is the editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Is the age of privacy over? We spend the hour on technology, spying and privacy, exploring how privacy, and the lack of it, affects security, democracy and society. What exactly is at stake when we lose our privacy? [ dur: 58 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

• Helen Nissenbaum is Professor of Information Science at Cornell Tech. She is the author of Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life, and co-author of Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest and Values at Play in Digital Games.
• Michael Patrick Lynch is Professor of Philosophy & Director of the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data, True to LIfe: Why Truth Matters and In Praise of Reason.
• Bruce Schneier is Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He is the author of 14 books including the New York Times best-seller Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World, Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World, and The Electronic Privacy Papers: Documents on the Battle for Privacy in the Age of Surveillance. His blog is “Schneier on Security.”
• Joshua A.T. Fairfield is William Donald Bain Family Professor of Law at Washington and Lee School of Law. He is the author of Owned: Property, Privacy and the New Digital Serfdom, Privacy as a Public Good , and Smart Contracts, Bitcoin Bots, and Consumer Protection.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

We spend the hour on good food politics, the food revolution, and the movements to build equitable and sustainable food systems. First, we’re joined by Will Allen author of Good Food Revolution. Hosted by Maria Armoudian [ dur: 25 mins. ]

• Will Allen is the author of Good Food Revolution and the founder of the non-profit Growing Power.

Then, our guests have studied the food system and what it means to have an equitable and sustainable system. What are the problems in the system and what are the solutions? [ dur: 33 mins. ]

• Saru Jayaraman is Director of the Food Labor Research Center at University of California, Berkeley . She is the co-founder and co-director of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC United) which has more than 18,000 worker members, 200 employer partners, and several thousand consumer members in a dozen states nationwide. She is the author of Behind the Kitchen Door and her latest Forked: A New Standard for American Dining.
• Raj Patel is a Research Professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy – a New York Times and international best-seller – and his latest, co-written with Jason W. Moore, A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things. He co-hosts the fortnightly food politics podcast The Secret Ingredient .

Raj Patel and Saru Jayaraman are contributors to The Nation magazine’s special issue, “The Future of Food: Setting the table for the next generation“.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Last month a nearly three decade cease fire in Western Sahara broke and the war raged once again. The United Nations is taking up the Western Sahara issue despite opposition from powerful countries. Meanwhile, the Trump Administration proposed a change the long standing US position on Western Sahara. What does this mean for the conflict? What is the likelihood of peaceful resolution? [ dur: 58mins. ]

• R. Joey Huddleston is Assistant Professor at the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University. He is the author of the articles The Roots of the Catalan Independence Crisis: And What Madrid’s Next Steps Should Be and Can John Bolton Thaw Western Sahara’s Long-Frozen Conflict?
• Randi Irwin is a casual lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at The University of Newcastle. She is the author of the article Contested language in the making and unmaking of Western Sahara’s extractive economy.
• Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of numerous publications including Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism, Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution co-authored with Jacob Mundy. His most recent article in Foreign Policy is The East Timor Model Offers a Way out for Western Sahara and Morocco.
• Jacob Mundy is Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Colgate University, New York. He is the co-author with Stephen Zunes of Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution, author of article Performing the nation, pre-figuring the state: the Western Saharan refugees, thirty years later and the author of the forthcoming book chapter, A Theory of the Middle East: Oil for Insecurity, Permanent War, and the Political-Economy of Late Imperial America.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Promise in a new Covid-19 vaccine is tempered by the huge spike in cases in the United States. What lessons will nations learn from the virus response and when can we expect to control the pandemic? [ dur: 27mins. ]

• Mark Peterson is Professor of Public Policy, Political Science, and Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Legislating Together: The White House and Capital Hill from Eisenhower to Reagan and the editor of Healthy Markets? The New Competition in Medical Care and co-editor of the volume Institutions of American Democracy: The Executive Branch.
• Heather Wipfly is an Associate Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine and International Relations at the University of Southern California (USC). She is the author of Investigating global mental health: Contributions from political science and Network influences on policy implementation: Evidence from a global health treaty.

Arms control discourses are centered around western notions of modernity and civilization. What does it mean to decolonize the language around arms control? [ dur: 30mins. ]

• Ritu Mathur is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Geography at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is the author of Civilizational Discourses in Weapons Control.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

President Elected Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to return to normalcy. He has promised to return to the Iran Nuclear Deal. But what complications does he face to fulfill this promise? [ dur: 58mins. ]

• Ervand Abrahamian is Distinguished Professor at Baruch College at City University of New York. He is the author of A History of Modern Iran and Inventing the Axis of Evil: The Truth About North Korea, Iran and Syria.
• Nader Hashemi is Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor in Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, Colorado. He is the author of Islam, Secularism and Liberal Democracy: Toward a Democratic Theory for Muslim Societies and the co-editor of The People Reloaded: The Green Movement and Iran’s Struggle for Democracy.
• 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.
• Joseph Cirincione is the Director for Non-Proliferation at the Carnegie Institute and the past president of the Ploughsharers Fund. He is the co-author of Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats and co-author of Repairing the Regime: Preventing the Spread of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

The popular media narrative is that countries led by women are performing better with Covid. But is this really true? And if so, what are the reasons? Is it the nature of leadership or is it the values of society that determine the successes or failures of governments confronting Covid? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

• Leah Windsor is a Research Assistant Professor in the Institute for Intelligent Systems at The University of Memphis where she directs the Languages Across Cultures and Languages Across Modalities labs. She is co-author of Women_Leaders_and_Covid_Fatalities and Women World Leaders and The Language of the Political Double Bind.
• Jennifer M. Piscopo is Associate Professor of Politics at Occidental College. Her research on representation, gender quotas, and legislative institutions in Latin America has appeared in leading academic journals and several edited volumes. With Susan Franceschet and Mona Lena Krook, she is editor of The Impact of Gender Quotas.
• Gina Yannitell Reinhardt is Professor in Department of Government at the University of Essex. She is co-author of Women_Leaders_and_Covid_Fatalities and Competing for the Platform: The Politics of Interest Group Influence on Political Party Platforms in the United States.
• Courtney Burns is Associate Professor of Political Science at Bucknell University. She is co-author of these articles Women_Leaders_and_Covid_Fatalities, Women World Leaders and The Language of the Political Double Bind and for Journal of human rights Female chief executives and state human rights practices: Self-fulfilling the political double bind

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Was the election conducted properly? Will mail in ballots be counted and will that count be allowed to stand? Will the US Supreme Court decide the final outcome? And what, in any case, will become of American democracy? In this urgent and timely event, University of Auckland lecturers will use the lenses of law, political science, and psychology to explain this contested election and discuss the implications of the final outcome. This is a recording of the panel gathered at University of Auckland Law School on November 18th, 2020.

• Associate Professor Timothy Kuhner from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland. Professor Kuhner is known for his critical approaches to the law of democracy. His teaching and research focus on comparative constitutional law, corruption, political finance, and law & society. He is the author of Capitalism v. Democracy: Money in Politics and the Free Market Constitution (Stanford University Press, 2014)
• Dr Maria Armoudian from the Faculty of Arts at University of Auckland. Dr. Maria Armoudian is a lecturer at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the host and producer of the radio program, The Scholars’ Circle, and the author of two books, Kill the Messenger: The Media’s Role in the Fate of the World, and Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline Journalists, Their Jobs and an Increasingly Perilous Future.
• Associate Professor Danny Osborne from the Faculty of Science at University of Auckland. Danny Osborne is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Auckland. Danny received his PhD from UCLA in 2011, where he studied social psychology with an emphasis in political psychology and quantitative methods. Danny’s research seeks to understand the causes and consequences of inequality, with a particular emphasis on ideology and collective action. His publications include Ideology and Post-Colonial Society and Opposing Paths to Ideology: Group-Based Relative Deprivation Predicts Conservatism Through Warmth Toward Ingroup and Outgroup Members.
• Associate Professor Scott Optican from the Faculty of Law at University of Auckland.He specializes in evidence, criminal procedure, and comparative criminal procedure, and has written widely on criminal justice and policing issues arising under the New Zealand Bill of Rights. Scott is also a co-author of The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press: 2003), the first comprehensive treatise on the protection of rights and freedoms under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990.

This program is produced by the following team members: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS