The Scholars’ Circle is hosted by Maria Armoudian. Listen & search our archive of interviews.

 

 

Below are our 10 most recent recordings.

First, thousands of migrants leave their countries in search of safety or a better life, but many are abducted, enslaved or disappeared never to be seen again. We’ll talk with an award-winning journalist who documented the lives of Central American migrants and the life-threatening dangers they faced. Oscar Martinez is the author of The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging the Narcos on the Migrant Trail. [ dur: 25mins. ]

• Óscar Martínez is​ an award winning journalist​. He​ writes for ElFaro.net, the first online newspaper in Latin America and is the author of ​ The Beast: Riding the Rails and Dodging the Narcos on the Migrant Trail.

Then, how have social movements changed in the twenty-first century and how have new communication technologies facilitated change? What makes some social movements sustainable and successful while others are more short term? What is the future for social movements?  [ dur: 33 mins. ]

• James M. Jasper is a Professor of Sociology at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. His books include Protest: A Cultural Introduction to Social Movements, ​T​he Art of Moral Protest: Culture, Biography, and Creativity in Social Movements and The Social Movements Reader: Cases and Concepts.
• Todd Wolfson is a Professor of Journalism and Media Studies and the Digital Media Coordinator for the MCIS Program at Rutgers University. He is the author of Digital Rebellion: The Birth of the Cyber Left and co-author of The Great Refusal Herbert Marcuse and the Contemporary Cycle of Struggle​​.​
• Anita Lacey is Senior Lecturer in Political Studies at the University of Auckland. She is the co-author of Governing the Poor: Exercises of Poverty Reduction, Practices of Global Aid and Networks of social justice: Transnational activism and social change.

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First, our guest argues that strong leaders are not necessarily the best leaders, particularly for democracies. What does history tell us about the best kind of leader for society? We are joined by Professor Archie Brown author of The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age. This is part two of a two part interview. [ dur: 21 mins. ]

• Archie Brown is Professor Emeritus of Politics at Oxford University. His books include The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age, The Gorbachev Factor and The Rise and Fall of Communism.

Then, our next guest traces the history of American Media, particularly in the crucial period of the 1940s and 1950s when citizens and political leaders held vigorous debates about how media could best serve the public. What happened to lead us to where we are today? [ dur: 38mins. ]

• Victor Pickard, Assistant Professor of Communications at Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.  He is author of America’s Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform and co-editor of Will the Last Reporter Please Turn out the Lights: The Collapse of Journalism and What Can Be Done To Fix It

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First, our guest argues that strong leaders are not necessarily the best leaders, particularly for democracies. What does history tell us about the best kind of leader for society? We are joined by Professor Archie Brown author of The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age. This is part one of a two part interview. [ dur: 21 mins. ]

• Archie Brown is Professor Emeritus of Politics at Oxford University. His books include The Myth of the Strong Leader: Political Leadership in the Modern Age, The Gorbachev Factor and The Rise and Fall of Communism.

Then, on the scholars’ circle panel, many observers argue, that the economic forces are corrupting medical care and eroding the trust between patients and their doctors. The problems in health care delivery have wide implications related to how health care should function particularly when there are limited resources. We examine the ethics of medicine and healthcare, and the modern day issues that complicate them. [ dur: 37 mins. ]

• Thomas Pogge is the Director of the Global Justice Program and Professor of Philosophy and International Affairs at Yale University and King’s College. His books include World Poverty and Human Rights, Freedom from Poverty: Who Owes What to the Very Poor? and World Poverty and Human Rights: Cosmopolitan Responsibilities and Reforms.
• Martin Wilkinson is Professor of Political Studies and Deputy Head of Department of Politics & International Relns at the University of Auckland. His books include Freedom, Efficiency and Equality and Ethics and the Acquisition of Organs.
• Richard Cookson is a Reader and Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York. His books include The Humble Economist: Tony Culyer on Health, Health Care and Social Decision Making and Jonathan Bradshaw on Social Policy: Selected Writings 1972-2011.

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First, while many in the West decry the politics of the former Soviet Union countries as corrupt and anti-democratic, our guest Professor Henry Hale argues, that there are much better ways of understanding the processes and politics of patronal systems. Part two of a two part discussion with Professor Henry Hale author of Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective. [ dur: 20 mins. ]

• Henry E. Hale is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at The George Washington University. His books include Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective, The Foundations of Ethnic Politics: Separatism of States and Nations in Eurasia and the World and Why Not Parties in Russia? Democracy, Federalism, and the State.

Then, what is the relationship between minerals such as oil, diamonds and gold and conflict, authoritarianism and poverty? This week’s scholars have spent years studying how these so-called extractive industries “mining and drilling” impact people’s lives, their governance and the environment throughout the world. How can countries so rich in mineral wealth remain mired in so much poverty? [ dur: 38mins. ]

• ​Jeffery Mantz is a Professor of Anthropology at George Mason University. His publications include From Digital Divides to Creative Destruction: the Congolese ‘blood mineral’ trade and the fashioning of digital age knowledge economies.​
• Michael Ross is a Professor of Political Science at UCLA. ​His books include The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations and Timber Booms and Institutional Breakdown in Southeast Asia​.​
• Suzana Sawyer is a Professor of Anthropology at ​ ​the University of California, Davis. Her books include Crude Chronicles: Indigenous Politics, Multinational Oil, and Neoliberalism in Ecuador and The Politics of Resource Extraction: Indigenous Peoples, Multinational Corporations and the State.

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First, while many in the West decry the politics of the former Soviet Union countries as corrupt and anti-democratic, our guest Professor Henry Hale argues, that there are much better ways of understanding the processes and politics of patronal systems. Part one of a two part discussion with Professor Henry Hale.[ dur: 27 mins. ]

• Henry E. Hale is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at The George Washington University. His books include Patronal Politics: Eurasian Regime Dynamics in Comparative Perspective, The Foundations of Ethnic Politics: Separatism of States and Nations in Eurasia and the World and Why Not Parties in Russia? Democracy, Federalism, and the State.

Then, on the scholars’ panel, we explore the science of compassion. What is it and how does it impact society? Can we learn to be compassionate? [ dur: 30 mins. ]

• Iain Wilkinson is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent’s School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. He is the author of Suffering: A Sociological Introduction and Anxiety in a Risk Society.
• Dr. Paul Gilbert is the head of the Mental Health Research Unit as well as Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Derby. His books include Compassion-Focused Therapy: Distinctive Features and The Compassionate Mind: A New Approach to Life’s Challenges
• Dr James R. Doty is a Clinical Professor of neurosurgery at Stanford University and founder and Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. He is the co-author of Surgical Disorders of the Sacrum.

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This week on the Scholars’ Circle:

First, why did soldiers on the front line of one of the deadliest wars lay down their arms and play soccer with the very men they were supposed to shoot? We’ll revisit the Christmas truce of 1914, this December marks the 100th anniversary. [ dur: 24 mins. ]

• Stanley Weintraub is Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University. His books include 11 Days in December: Christmas at the Bulge, 1944, Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, Long Day’s Journey into War: December 7, 1941 and A Stillness Heard Round the World: The End of the Great War, November 1918

Next, author Raj Patel discusses his book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market, Society and Redefine Democracy. [ dur: 15 mins. ]

• Rajeev Patel is a Research Professor in the 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 and The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy

Finally, how does the design of a city and its architecture affect democracy, community, our psychology and public health? [ dur: 20 mins. ]

• Jan Gehl is an Architect and is former Professor and Researcher at The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture. His books include Life Between Buildings: Using Public Space, Cities for People and How to Study Public Life.

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First, Michael Hiltzik author of, The New Deal: A Modern History, discusses the politics of the new deal, and what can we learn from the program that reshaped the country. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

• Michael Hiltzik is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author who has covered business, technology, and public policy for the Los Angeles Times for three decades. He currently serves as the Times’s business columnist and hosts its business blog, The Economy Hub. His books include The New Deal: A Modern History, Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of Hoover Dam, Dealers of Lightning: Xerox PARC and the Dawn of the Computer Age and The Plot Against Social Security: How the Bush Plan Is Endangering Our Financial Future.

Then, scholars note that the world is waging fewer wars, but that the wars that are waged are more brutal and intractable. How far have we come in the science of making peace? [ dur: 31 mins. ]

• George Lopez  Vice President and Director of international conflict management  at US Institute of Peace and co-author of Sanctions and the Search for Security: Challenges to UN Action
• Ervin Staub, Prof. of Psychology University of Massettuces Amherst.  Author of The Psychology of Good and Evil: Why Children, Adults, and Groups Help and Harm Others
• Norrin Ripsman, Professor of  Political Science at Concordia University. Co-author of Globalization and the National Security State

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First, we continue to trace the birth of free speech in the US, a country that for decades prosecuted dissenters. What caused the radical turn around by the Supreme Court to support free speech? [ dur: 29 mins. ]

• Thomas Healy is Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School. Author of The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind–and Changed the History of Free Speech in America

Then, the senate’s report on CIA torture detailed the intelligence agencies inhumane interrogation techniques, which included rectal hydration, water-boarding and beatings. Members of the Bush administration who had sanctioned the torture, continue defending the program despite international condemnation. Our next two panel discussions explore the realities of torture, both from the individuals’ experiences of being tortured and the broader legal and societal questions..

• Murad Aldin Amayreh is an Independent Film Producer and Director. He produced and directed the recently released documentary, The Tortured: Stories of Survival.
• Hector Aristizabal is one of the interviewees in the film, who was tortured in Colombia. He has a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy, founded ImaginAction to help people tap the transformative power of theatre in programs throughout the US, Latin America, Europe and globally. He is the co-author of, The Blessing Next to the Wound: A Story of Art, Activism, and Transformation.

Also joining the conversation:

• Pamela Merchant is the former President and Executive Director of the Center for Justice and Accountability. Under her leadership, CJA has grown from an organization devoted solely to human rights litigation in the U.S. to one that also engages in human rights litigation in foreign jurisdictions, such as Spain and Cambodia. CJA now represents over 200 clients from 21 countries and has tripled its operating budget. Ms. Merchant has testified before Congress on accountability for human rights abusers and other human rights issues. Ms. Merchant received degrees from Georgetown University and Boston College School of Law
• Gerald Gray is a social worker and psychotherapist who works with torture victims and who has initiated numerous institutes to assist them. He founded Center for Justice and Accountabilityin 1998. Currently, he is on the advisory board at the Institute for Redress & Recovery, Santa Clara University School of Law.
• Stephen Rohde is a constitutional lawyer, founder and current Vice-Chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, Chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and a Vice President of Death Penalty Focus. He is the author of, Webster’s New World American Words of Freedomand Freedom of Assembly.

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First, after years of allowing censorship and criminal prosecution of dissent, what caused the radical turnaround by the Supreme Court to then support free speech and dissent? Part one of a two part discussion with Thomas Healy.

• Thomas Healy is Professor of Law at Seton Hall Law School. Author of The Great Dissent: How Oliver Wendell Holmes Changed His Mind–and Changed the History of Free Speech in America

Then, we know that the wealthy have more influence than other americans, but just how unrepresentative is the American Congress and the state legislatures?

• Thomas Hayes, is Professor of Political Science at University of Connecticut.
• Martin Giles, is Professor of Politics, Princeton University. Author of  Affluence and Influence: Economic Inequality and Political Power in America
• Patrick Flavin, is Professor of Political Science at Baylor University.

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This week on The Scholars’ Circle we spend the hour addressing homelessness in America:

First, the economic crisis is pushing more people into homelessness, an already pervasive epidemic in America. We’ll look at one duo’s efforts to rescue some of the most vulnerable homeless men and women, one by one, and explore the system’s workings and failures from their experiences. [ dur: 28mins. ]

• Robin Nixon, record producer;
• Dennis Davis, musician, documentary producer;

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel we further examine homelessness in America with three experts. A recent report published in the efforts to end homelessness entitled, The State of Homelessness in America 2014, found on a single night in January 2013, 610,042 people were experiencing homelessness. What are the realities for the homeless? What are some of the causes contributing to homelessness? And what are some of the solutions? [ dur: 30 mins. ]

• Sam Tsemberis is a Professor  Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University. Founder & Executive. Director of Pathway to Housing. He is author of Housing First Manual: The Pathways Model to End Homelessness for People with Mental Illness and Addiction
• James Baumohl is Professor of Graduate School of  Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College. He is author of Homelessness in America.
• Kim Hopper is Professor of Medical anthropology and  research scientist at Nathan S. Klein Institute at  Colombia University. He is author of Reckoning with Homelessness (The Anthropology of Contemporary Issues).

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