Tag Archives: Politics and Activism

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-US-Senate-/-US-Consitution-Mar. 29th, 2015

Is the U.S. Senate simply too weak to govern? Our next guest suggests it is. Peter Hanson joins us, he is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Denver. His book is Too Weak to Govern: Majority Party Power and Appropriations in the U.S. Senate. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Peter Hanson is a Professor i​n the ​Political Science Department at the University of Denver. He is the author of Too Weak to Govern: Majority Party Power and Appropriations in the U.S. Senate.

Later on the scholars’ panel we examine the politics of the U.S. Constitution. For decades the U.S. Constitution has been treated as a sacred document that should not be criticized, but some scholars say that many of the provisions within the constitution are at the root of the problems in the U.S.: in governance, in policy making and in political discourse. What are the problematic provisions and how can they be addressed? ​ [ dur: 30 mins. ]

  • Sanford Levinson is a Professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Framed: America’s 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance, Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It) and Constitutional Faith.
  • Louis Michael Seidman is a Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University Law School. He is the author of Silence and Freedom, On Constitutional Disobedience and Our Unsettled Constitution: A New Defense of Constitutionalism and Judicial Review.
  • David S. Law is a Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis and the Martin & Kathleen Crane Fellow in Law and Public Affairs at Princeton University. He is the co-author of The Declining Influence of the United States Constitution New York University Law Review.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Danny Schechter-/-Children-of-Uganda-/-Bullies-Victims-Trauma-Mar. 22nd, 2015

First, the world has lost another strong voice for ethical journalism. Last week Danny Schechter, often called “the News Dissector,” lost his battle to pancreatic cancer.

Danny Schechter is an award winning investigative journalist, documentarian, author and activist. He has produced a long list of important works with wide ranging topics, from Apartheid to economic scandals. In honor of Danny Schechter’s life we are re-airing an interview that we did with him, here on the Scholars’ Circle in 2010. We discussed the state of the media, media culture and its role, response and impact on the financial crisis, war and WikiLeaks. Danny Schechter’s kind heart, dedication and commitment to human rights and dignity can be heard in his voice, truly an honor to air this segment. Our hearts go out to Danny Schechter’s Family, Loved Ones and Friends.

  • Danny Schechter is an award winning investigative journalist, documentarian, author and activist. He is the author of When South Africa Called, We Answered: How the Media and International Solidarity Helped Topple Apartheid, Madiba A to Z: The Many Faces of Nelson Mandela, and The Crime Of Our Time: Why Wall Street is Not Too Big To Jail.

Later, what becomes of the children who are abducted and forced into sex slavery and child soldiering? Our guest Jane Ekayu, a child trauma therapist, is helping children heal and rebuild their lives.

  • Jane Ekayu is a child trauma therapist and Founder and Executive Director of Children of Peace Uganda

Finally, on the scholars’ panel we take a close look at bullying. Bullies and victims of bullies are much more likely to develop psychological disorders such as agoraphobia, panic disorder, suicidal thoughts and aggressive behavior, as adults. In both adult and adolescent settings bullying cultures can emerge when bystanders and others disengage and allow the behavior to continue, ultimately creating abusive organizations. What is the long term effect on individuals and by extension on societies at large, resulting from bulling behaviors?

  • Joyce T. Heames is Chair and Professor of Management and Industrial Relations in the College of Business & Economics at West Virginia University. She is the author of A bully as an archetypal destructive leader.: An article from: Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies [HTML] [Digital], Bullying: From the Playground to the Boardroom.
  • Catherine Bradshaw is a Professor in the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and has a joint appointment in the Johns Hopkins School of Education. She is the Deputy Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence and the Co-Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Prevention and Early Intervention. Catherine Bradshaw is the co-author of Bullies, gangs, drugs, and school: Understanding the overlap and the role of ethnicity and urbanity.
  • Jaana Juvonen is Professor of Developmental Psychology in the Department of Psychology at UCLA. She co-authored Peer harassment in school: The plight of the vulnerable and victimized and Focus on the wonder years: Challenges facing the American middle school.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Trans-Pacific-Trade-Partnership-Status-Mar. 15th, 2015

We spend the hour exploring what could become the world’s largest trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). What could it mean for the countries that are considering signing onto it? Can it be democratic, humanitarian and transparent?

  • Raj Bhala is the Associate Dean for International and Comparative Law and Rice Distinguished Professor at The University of Kansas School of Law. He is the author of International Trade Law: Interdisciplinary Theory and Practice Documents Supplement and Trade, Development, and Social Justice.
  • Meredith Kolsky Lewis is a Professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and at Victoria University of Wellington Law School. She is the co-editor of Trade Agreements At The Crossroads and co-author of International Business Law.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Climate-Change-Coastal-Effects-/-Myths-about-Addiction-Mar. 1st, 2015

First, climate change, receding glaciers and melting ice sheets are causing the oceans to rise dramatically. What does that mean for the world’s coastal cities? [ dur: 15mins. ]

  • Andrea Dutton is a Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida. She is the co-author of Tropical Tales of Polar Ice:Evidence of Last Interglacial Polar Ice Sheet Retreat Recorded by Fossil Reefs of the Granitic Seychelles Island published in Quaternary Science Reviews.
  • Brian Fagan is Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is the author of The Attacking Ocean: The Past, Present, and Future of Rising Sea Levels, Elixir: A History of Water and Humankind and The Great Warming: Climate Change and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations

Then, on The Scholars’ Circle panel, science contradicts long held societal myths about addiction. What are the most effective means of addressing addiction? [ dur: 43mins. ]

  • Dr. Lance Dodes is a former Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of The Heart of Addiction: A New Approach to Understanding and Managing Alcoholism and Other Addictive Behaviors, Breaking Addiction: A 7-Step Handbook for Ending Any Addiction and The Sober Truth: Debunking the Bad Science Behind 12-Step Programs and the Rehab Industry.
  • Dr. Jeffrey Foote is the Co-founder and Clinical Director of the Center For Motivation and Change. Previously, he was the Deputy Director of the Division of Alcohol Treatment and Research at Mt. Sinai Medical Center and a Senior Research Associate at The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. He is the co-author of Beyond Addiction: How Science and Kindness Help People Change.
  • Dr. Adi Jaffe is a lecturer at UCLA and the Co-Founder and Executive Director at Alternatives Addiction Treatment.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Climate-affect-on-Ecosystems-/-Wildlife-trafficking-Feb. 22nd, 2015

First, scientists are saying the earth is changing more rapidly than we expected. Ecosystems are shifting and some species are dying out. What exactly is occurring and where are we headed? We speak with Larry Scheweiger, author of, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

  • Larry J. Schweiger is a former president and CEO of National Wildlife Federation, America’s largest conservation organization. Author of Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle panel, wildlife trafficking is putting some species to the brink of extinction. Can a recent international agreement stop this multibillion dollar industry? [ dur: 30 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • David S. Wilkie PhD is a wildlife ecologist specializing in human behavioral ecology and anthropology. He is the Director of Conservation Support at the Wildlife Conservation Society and Adjunct Associate Professor at Boston College, and formerly co-chair of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force. He has numerous scholarly publications and is a contributor to Huffington Post and LiveScience.
  • Tanya Wyatt PhD is lecturer of wildlife criminology at the University of Northumbria in the UK. She is the author of Green criminology & wildlife trafficking: the illegal fur and falcon trades in Russia Far East, and the book Wildlife Trafficking: A Deconstruction of the Crime, the Victims, and the Offenders (Critical Criminological Perspectives).
  • 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

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-The-Great-Convergence-/-Humans-and-Other-Species-Feb. 15th, 2015

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)

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Migrants-Journey-/-21st-Century-Social-Movement-Feb. 1st, 2015

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Strong-Leaders-in-Democracy-/-American-Media-Politics-Jan. 25th, 2015

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Politics-in-Soviet-Union-/-Poverty-in-Mineral-Wealth-Jan. 11th, 2015

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. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

  • ​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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Politics-in-Soviet-Union-/-Science-of-Compassion-Jan. 4th, 2015

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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