Over a half million Americans are currently homeless. What is causing this crisis? And what are the solutions? How do we get the resources to build the housing we need to address the homelessness crisis?

We discuss why services to address mental health and addiction are essential to resolving the homelessness crisis. [ dur: 58mins. ]

• Deborah Padgett is a Professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work. She is the co-author of Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Changing Systems and Transforming Lives, with Benjamin Henwood and Sam Tsemberis, and Homelessness, housing instability and mental health: Making the connections.
• Paul A. Toro is Professor of Psychology at Wayne State University in Detroit. He is the co-author of Research on homelessness and mental health: What we’ve learned from the United States and nations in Europe and Homeless Youth in the United States:Recent Research Findings and Intervention Approaches.

This recording is from December 2022.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin, Mihika Chechi, and Sudd Dongre.

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How does deep listening to nature promote biodiversity and a deeper relationship with the natural world?

We discuss the book THE SOUNDS OF LIFE: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants. [ dur: 34mins. ]

• Karen Bakker ( 1971 – 2023 ) was Professor of Geography and Associate at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She was Visiting Professor at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. She was the author of Smart Earth: A meta-review and implications for environmental governance, The human right to water revisited (in The Right to Water), and THE SOUNDS OF LIFE: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants.
  Professor Karen Bakker passed away on August 14, 2023 after a brief illness.

References to clips of nature sound recordings included in the interview with Karen Bakker :

• Healthy Coral Reef
• Seals among calving glaciers and colliding icebergs
• Glacier Bay Humpback Whales

The American Thanksgiving story is one of cooperation and coexistence between white European settlers and the native peoples. But the real story is much darker.
How does this Thanksgiving narrative get the history wrong?

We discuss the history, the memory, and the meaning of Thanksgiving in the contemporary relationship between the United States and Indigenous people. [ dur: 24mins. ]

• Robert J. Miller is Professor of Law at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He is Interim Chief Justice at Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals. He is the author of American Indian Sovereignty versus the United States (in Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies) and A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v. Oklahoma. You can access the Scholars’ Circle interview on the book A Promise Kept here . He is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe.

This show was recorded November 27, 2022.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi and Sudd Dongre.

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With the release of the critically acclaimed new film, Killers of the Flower Moon, there is a new interest in the murders of the Osage tribe following the discovery of oil on tribal lands. But how much do we know about the Osage, their history, and their life experiences? And how typical was this particularly gruesome set of murders on tribes in the US and in particular in Oklahoma. On Today’s show, we will explore the history of the Osage. We will get to know their story in greater detail and ask, what did the film get right and what did it miss? [ dur: 35mins. ]

• Robert Warrior is Hall Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of Kansas. He is a citizen of the Osage Nation. He is the author of Tribal Secrets: Recovering American Indian Intellectual Traditions. He is past president of the American Studies Association and was the founding president of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association. Professor Warrior was the founding co-editor of Native American and Indigenous Studies and edits the Indigenous Americas series. In 2018, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• Robert Miller is Professor of Law at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. He is Interim Chief Justice at Pascua Yaqui Tribe Court of Appeals. He is an enrolled citizen of the Eastern Shawnee Tribe. In 2014, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society. He is the author of A Promise Kept: The Muscogee (Creek) Nation and McGirt v Oklahoma. You can access the Scholars’ Circle interview on the book A Promise Kept here. .

In addition to highlighting the violence against the Osage, the film Killers of the Flower Moon focuses on the distinctly gendered relationships between the Osage and their white spouses. The film itself focuses on Osage women (notably Lily Gladstone’s Molly) and their white husbands. So, what were the gender dynamics of the Osage people? [ dur: 23mins. ]

• Tai S. Edwards is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Kansas Studies Institute at Johnson County Community College. She is the author of Osage Women and Empire: Gender and Power.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi and Sudd Dongre.

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LGBTQ communities are marginalized in so many places around the world. While their presence in international politics is growing, they still face quite a lot of threats and challenges. We explore LGBTQ communities and their impact on global politics.

• S. N. Nyeck is Associate Professor of Africana Studies in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. She is the author of African(a) Queer Presence: Ethics and Politics of Negotiation (Palgrave 2021) and co-author of Frontiers and pioneers in (the study of) queer experiences in Africa Introduction.
• Nick Mulé is Professor in the School of Social Work and the School of Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies at York University, Canada. He is the author of Mental Health Issues and Needs of LGBTQ Asylum Seekers and Refugee Claimants, and Refugees in Toronto, Canada, The Growing Presence of LGBTQIs at the UN: Arguments and Counter Arguments and Politicized Priorities: Critical Implications for LGBTIQ Movements.
• Manuela Picq is Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Political Science and Sexuality, Women’s and Gender Studies at Amherst College and Professor of International Relations at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Ecuador). She is the author of Vernacular Sovereignties: Indigenous Women Challenging World Politics (University of Arizona Press 2018) and (with our other guest) Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ Claims Shape International Relations , co-editor with Markus Thiel (New York: Routledge, 2015).
• Markus Thiel is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University, Miami and director of FIU’s Jean Monnet Center of Excellence. His publications include ‘The EU’s international LGBTI rights promotion: promises & pitfalls’ (Routledge, 2021) and co-author of The Politics of Social In/Exclusion in the EU: Civic Europe in an Age of Uncertainty.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi and Sudd Dongre.

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Biodiversity is under extreme attack in the high seas. With roughly 70% of the Earth’s surfaces as oceans, protecting biodiversity needed to extend beyond these national
jurisdictions. Hence, in June of this year, 2023, nearly 200 countries adopted the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction treaty, also called the BBNJ. we will explore what this treaty seeks to accomplish and what mechanisms are in place to protect ocean species. And we will examine the most significant risks to this biodiversity. [ dur: 28mins. ]

• Elizabeth Mendenhall is Associate Professor in the Departments of Marine Affairs at the University of Rhode Island. She is the author of Building a Regime Complex for Marine Plastic Pollution and Nuclear Weapons Free Zones and the issue of maritime transit in Latin America.
• Rachel Tiller is a Chief Scientist at SINTEF Ocean in the Department of Fisheries and New Biomarine resources in Norway. She is also the Director of the key strategic research area of biodiversity and area use at SINTEF. She is the author of Orchestration within plastics governance – From global to Arctic and And so it begins – The adoption of the ‘Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction’ treaty.

Invasive species are wreaking havoc all over the world and costing hundreds of billions of dollars per year. The alarming rate of the spread of invasive species are threatening nature, food security, our economies, and human health. Some areas are more successful than others in maintaining or restoring ecosystems with their indigenous species. How bad is the damage from invasive species and what can be done about it? We explore the south pacific island of New Zealand. [ dur: 28mins. ]

• Jacqueline Beggs is Professor at Waipapa Taumata Rau, the University of Auckland’s School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. She is co-Executive Director of Ngā Ara Whetū (www.ngaarawhetu.org), UoA’s flagship research centre on Climate, Biodiversity and Society, and Director of Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity. She is the co-author of Science-based, stakeholder-inclusive and participatory conservation planning helps reverse the decline of threatened species.
• Al Glen is is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science, Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He is the co-author of What can wildlife-detection dogs offer for managing small mammalian predators?.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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Rage and a desire for vengeance after 9/11 drove the US to violate human rights on a mass scale. What were those mistakes and what lessons do they offer to others dealing with political violence? How much does rage and demands for vengeance undermine peace? [ dur: 28mins. ]

• Steve Swerdlow, esq. is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. A human rights lawyer and expert on the former Soviet region, Swerdlow was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, heading the organization’s work on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and founding its Kyrgyzstan field office. He worked as a human rights monitor for the Union of Council for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) as their Caucasus monitor in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia as well as with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Russia.
• Brent Sasley is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas, Arlington. He is the author of the book Politics in Israel: Governing a Complex Society and the book chapter “The End of Oslo and The Second Intifada, 2000-2005.”

Then, How much does race and class determine legal outcomes in the United States? What role does the prosecutor play in the justice system?
We speak with the co-author of a new book A Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts. Co-authors are legendary death penalty opponent Stephen Bright and legal scholar James Kwak. [ dur: 28mins. ]

• Our guest James Kwak is a former professor of law at the University of Connecticut and chairperson of the board of the Southern Center for Human Rights. His co-author is Stephen Bright. He teaches law at Yale and Georgetown Universities. He was director of the Southern Center for Human Rights and won multiple capital cases in the Supreme Court.

From the publisher:
Almost 70 years ago Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black wrote there “can be no equal justice where the kind of trial a man gets depends on the amount of money he has.” In THE FEAR OF TOO MUCH JUSTICE: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts (The New Press; June 20; 2023), legendary death penalty opponent Stephen Bright and legal scholar James Kwak show the myriad ways the US criminal legal system fails to live up to this ideal of fairness: Innocent people are condemned to death and convicted of crimes because they cannot afford lawyers and because of the color of their skin. Racial discrimination in jury selection still lives in communities that have substantial Black and Latino populations. The mentally disabled are incarcerated instead of given the treatment they need, while the poor are processed through many courts with little or no legal representation in an assembly-line fashion. And many courts act as centers of profit whose main purpose is to raise money by imposing fines on the most vulnerable in their community and jailing them when they cannot pay.

But Bright and Kwak also see the promise of meaningful change on the horizon. They point to jurisdictions across the political spectrum that have made significant progress. The use of the death penalty has plummeted, and the authors see a future where it will remain in only the most ardent holdouts. Public defender offices that protect clients from wrongful convictions have been established across the country, and many places have reduced the use of cash bail and stopped imposing fines and fees on people who cannot afford them.

The book makes the case that prosecutors have too much power and defense lawyers are often out-gunned and incentivized to encourage plea bargains. How should the system rectify this? What is the first step in fixing this imbalance?

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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After the Republican caucus ousted Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House, it has continued to reject those who have stood for election. What does this all mean for the country at such a crucial time? Is there anything in history that can guide the US though this chaos? Why has it come to this and what’s the way forward? [ dur: 28mins. ]

• Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and his latest book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He hosts the podcast This is Democracy.

How were cities born? How did they affect culture, economies, politics, and societies? What changed in the 21st century, especially after the pandemic? Which cities are best for quality of life? And how can cities offer a sustainable and fulfilling future? [ dur: 28mins. ]

• Ian Goldin is Professor of Globalization and Development at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Age of the City, Rescue from Global Crisis to a Better World and Terra Incognota 100 maps to survive the next 100 years.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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Money can distort politics. And the lack of transparency where this money comes from can further distort politics and invite corruption. Since much of the money in campaign finance is not subject to transparency laws, it has taken the name dark money. This specifically references spending by nonprofit organizations created for political spending. How much has dark money skewed American democracy? What role does transparency in spending play in ensuring the legitimacy of democracies? [ dur: 58mins. ]

• Stan Oklobdzija is Visiting Assistant Professor at UC Riverside’s School of Public Policy. He is the author of Public positions, private giving: Dark money and political donors in the Digital Age and Closing Down and Cashing In: Extremism and Political Fundraising.
• Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is Professor of Law at Stetson Law School. She is the author of Corporate Citizen? An Argument for the Separation of Corporation and State and Political Brands.
• Maurice Cunningham is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. He is the author of Dark Money and the Politics of School Privatization.

This interview was recorded October 2022.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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When Elon Musk promised that Twitter ( re-branded as X ) will allow a wider range of content, including some that was previously banned as hate speech, disinformation, or conspiracy-centric, concerns over disinformation in political discourse heightened. But the challenge of democratic discourse in light of misinformation and disinformation is a historic challenge. Social media just speeds the process. Yet a significant concern is discerning who best to regulate what constitutes disinformation, in light of the political power of censorship.
We look at how disinformation has spread worldwide, shifting politics and challenging democracies. What are the most effective ways to counter disinformation? How might it be different for states, than for individuals? [ dur: 58mins. ]

• Elzbieta Drazkiewic is Senior Research Fellow at the Slovak Academy of the Sciences. She is the author of “Taking vaccine regret and hesitancy seriously. The role of truth, conspiracy theories, gender relations and trust in the HPV immunisation programmes in Ireland” and co-author of “What Should Academics Do About Conspiracy Theories? Moving Beyond Debunking to Better Deal with Conspiratorial Movements, Misinformation and Post-Truth” (with Jaron Harambam).
• Nora Benavidez is Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice & Civil Rights at Free Press. She also serves as Faculty Associate at Arizona State University’s Cronkite Institute. She is the author of “Now What? Fixing Facebook to Protect Us All” and “Facebook Ought to be Protecting Democracy Every Day.”
• Corneliu Bjola is Associate Professor in Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford and Head of the Oxford Digital Diplomacy Research Group. He is the author of Digital Diplomacy and International Organizations: Autonomy, Legitimacy and Contestation (with R Zaiotti) and Countering Online Propaganda and Violent Extremism: The Dark Side of Digital Diplomacy (with J. Pamment).

Recorded May 2022.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

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Azerbaijan has attacked the indigenous Armenian people in an area known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, forcing them to flee from their ancestral homelands. Over hundred thousand have fled the region they know as Artsakh. Why has the international community failed to do anything to protect this population who left behind their homes, communities, belongings, and historical heritage?

Russia’s abandoned its role of protector of Armenians who are now victims to atrocities and grave human rights violations. And the US has failed to act on the warnings about Azerbaijan’s aggression toward the civilian population. What should now be done to address Azerbaijan’s campaign of ethnic cleansing and atrocities? [ dur:58mins. ]

• Stephan Astourian recently retired as the William Saroyan Director of the Armenian Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley. He is now Professor in the International Relations and Diplomacy Program at American University of Armenia and the Director of the Turpanjian Center for Policy Analysis. He is the author of State, homeland, and diaspora: The Armenian and Azerbaijani cases and On the Genealogy of the Armenian–Turkish Conflict, Sultan Abdülhamid and the Armenian Massacres.
• Vahram Ter-Matevosyan is Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the American University of Armenia. He is the co-author of the monographs “Turkey, Kemalism, and the Soviet Union: Problems of Modernization, Ideology and Interpretation,” “Islam in the Social and Political Life of Turkey, 1970-2001”, and “Navigating between international recognition paradigms: prospects and challenges for Nagorno Karabakh”,(with Edita Ghazaryan).
• Steve Swerdlow, esq. is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. A human rights lawyer and expert on the former Soviet region, Swerdlow was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, heading the organization’s work on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and founding its Kyrgyzstan field office. He worked as a human rights monitor for the Union of Council for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) as their Caucasus monitor in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia as well as with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Russia.
• Ronald Grigor Suny is the William H. Sewell Jr. Distinguished University Professor of History and Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan and Emeritus Professor of Political Science and History at the University of Chicago. He is the author of The Soviet Experiment: Russia, the USSR, and the Successor States, Red Flag Wounded: Stalinism and the Fate of the Soviet Experiment, and editor of Transcaucasia, Nationalism and Social Change: Essays in the History of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Mihika Chechi, Melissa Chiprin, and Sudd Dongre.

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