All posts by host

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Founding of Black History Month -/- Worker owned cooperative by African Americans -/- Politics of official apology – February 24, 2019

February 23, 2019 host

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Fraternity of Presidents -/- Politics of team Eisenhower and Nixon circa 1950 – February 17, 2019

February 16, 2019 host

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Advance Men and Women of Presidential Campaigns -/- Use of private military by Nation States – February 10, 2019

February 9, 2019 host

First, a look behind the presidential campaign events with one of the top advance men. How do Advance people shape what we see in mass media? Steven Jacques, author of Advance Man. [ dur: 19 mins. ]

Steven Jacques is author and former Advance team leader for the White House and presidential campaigns. He is the author of Advance Man.

Then, how is the privatization of military activities compromising international conduct in conflict? What does it mean for international law and ethics in conflict? We look at the multi-billion dollar private military industry. Amy Eckert is the author of Outsourcing War: Just War Tradition in the Age of Military Privatization. [ dur: 37mins. ]

Amy Eckert is Professor of Political Science at the Metropolitan State University of Denver where she teaches and studies international ethics and international law. Her books include The Future of Just War: New Critical Essays and, her latest, Outsourcing War: Just War Tradition in the Age of Military Privatization.

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – How, why and effects of corruption led by elected officials – February 3, 2019

February 2, 2019 host

We explore public corruption. We’ll examine the specific allegations related to U.S. President Donald Trump, his family and associates, and what their effects might be on governance and society. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

Matthew Stephenson is Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. His publications include Legislation and Regulation and the book chapter Corruption and Democratic Institutions: A Review and Synthesis. He is Editor In Chief of the Global Anticorruption Blog which tracks corruption in the Trump Administration.
Richard Gordon is Professor of Law at Case Western University. He is also Director of the Financial Integrity Institute and Associate Director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center. He is the author of A Model Regulation on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, Public Corruption And Money Laundering and Moving Money: International Financial Flows, Taxes, and Money Laundering.

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Water crisis: rights, safety and scarcity – January 20, 2019

January 19, 2019 host

The world is facing a water crisis. In a report the World Bank and the United Nations have reported that some 40 percent of the world’s population is effected by water scarcity, two billion people rely on unsafe water, and some 700 million people are at risk of being displaced by water scarcity. We spend the hour with four experts on water and water governance. [ dur: 58 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Robert Glennon is a Regents’ Professor and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy in the Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. He is the author of the books Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It, Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters. and the report Shopping for Water: How the Market Can Mitigate Water Shortages in the American West.
Thomas A Perreault is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Geography at Syracuse University. He is the editor of Water Justice and The Handbook of Political Ecology, and many book chapters and journal articles on mining, development and ecological issues in Latin America.
Aimée Craft is Assistant Professor at the University of Ottawa Faculty of Law and Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Manitoba, Canada. She is the author of Breathing Life Into the Stone Fort Treaty. She directs the Anishinaabe water law project.
Madison Condon is Legal Fellow at Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University School of Law. Her publications include The Integration of Environmental Law into International Investment Treaties and Trade Agreements: Negotiation Process and the Legalization of Commitments, Mixing and Transport in the Stockton Deep Water Ship Channel, and Pesticide Risk Indicators: Unidentified Inert Ingredients Compromise Their Integrity and Utility.

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – US House of Representatives 2019 will affect law and the Trump presidency – January 13, 2019

January 12, 2019 host

With historic changes in the House of Representative, what can we expect from Congress and the President in policy and investigative battles? How will the power struggles play out? Will the Supreme Court weigh in, and if so, how?

Andrew Rudalevige is Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College. He is the author of Managing the President’s Program: Presidential Leadership and Legislative Policy Formulation and 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.
Mark Peterson is Professor of Public Policy and Political Science in the Department of Public Policy’s Meyer and Renee Luskin School of Public Affairs, and Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. 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,
Sean Theriault is a professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of The Power of the People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, and Voter Retribution, Party Polarization in Congress, and The Gingrich Senators: The Roots of Partisan Warfare in Congress.

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Understanding Crypto-Currency – January 6, 2019

January 4, 2019 host

We spend the hour understanding crypto-currency. Will cryptocurrency profoundly alter the monetary system? What is the future of it? What are the pros and cons? And what do they mean for economics, for power and for society? [ dur: 58 mins. ]

David Golumbia, is Associate Professor in the Department of English; Media, Art, & Text Program at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of The Cultural Logic of Computation and The Politics of Bitcoin: Software as Right-Wing Extremism . His blog is uncomputing.org.
Gina C. Pieters is Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Trinity University, and an honorary Research Fellow at the University College London Centre for Blockchain Technologies. She is the author of the research papers Does Bitcoin reveal new information about exchange rates and financial integration?, The Potential Impact of Decentralized Virtual Currency on Monetary Policy and Cross-Country Distribution of Power and Exposure in the Crypto-Market.
Lee W McKnight is Associate Professor in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. He is the co-author of The Gordian Knot:Political Gridlock on the Information Highway, Cloud to Edgeware: Wireless Grid Applications, Architecture and Security for the “Internet of Things”, Knowledge Networks, the Internet, and Development , and co-editor of Creative Destruction: Business Survival Strategies in the Global Internet Economy and Internet Economics.
Emin Gun Sirer is Associate Professor at Cornell University and Co-Director of the Initiative for Cryptocurrencies and Smart Contracts. He is the co-author of Majority is not Enough: Bitcoin Mining is Vulnerable, Managing the Network with Merlin. and On the Feasibility of Completely Wireless Datacenters. He developed the precursor to Bitcoin. His blog is HackingDisturbed.com

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Demands on Fresh Water Resource – December 30, 2018

December 29, 2018 host

While water is a basic human right, some 3 billion people face water scarcity and some countries are running out of water. We’ll explore the realities of water. [ dur: 34 mins. ]

Barbara Cosens is a Professor with the University of Idaho College of Law and the Waters of the West Graduate Program. She is the author of Indigenous Water Justice, The Adaptive Water Governance Project: Assessing Law, Resilience and Governance in Regional Socio-Ecological Water Systems Facing a Changing Climate, and Truth or Consequences: Settling Water Disputes in the Face of Uncertainty.
Rick Hogeboom is Executive Director of The Water Footprint Network. He is a Ph. D. candidate at the University of Twente in Netherland.

Then, how much water is in the jeans we wear or the meals we eat? How our everyday decisions can alleviate the water crisis. Thomas Kostigan discusses his book, the Green Blue Book. [ dur: 22 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

Thomas Kostigen is an author, journalist, and environmentalist. He is the author of The Green Blue Book: The Simple Water-Savings Guide to Everything in Your Life, The Green Book: The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time and The Big Handout

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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The Scholars' Circle Interviews

All posts by host

Scholars’ Circle – Living off the Grid -/- Living an Infinite game of life – March 3, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Founding of Black History Month -/- Worker owned cooperative by African Americans -/- Politics of official apology – February 24, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Fraternity of Presidents -/- Politics of team Eisenhower and Nixon circa 1950 – February 17, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Advance Men and Women of Presidential Campaigns -/- Use of private military by Nation States – February 10, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – How, why and effects of corruption led by elected officials – February 3, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Water crisis: rights, safety and scarcity – January 20, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – US House of Representatives 2019 will affect law and the Trump presidency – January 13, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Understanding Crypto-Currency – January 6, 2019

Scholars’ Circle – Demands on Fresh Water Resource – December 30, 2018

By Maria Armoudian