Tag Archives: United States

Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Case Against US Supreme Court-/-School to Prison Pipeline in US-October 11th, 2015

First, one of the country’s preeminent law scholars makes his case against the supreme court. We are joined by Erwin Chemerinsky author of, The Case Against the Supreme Court. [ dur: 24 mins. ]

  • Erwin Chemerinsky, UC Irvine Dean School of Law. Author of The Case Against the Supreme Court

Then we spend the rest of the hour discussing a disturbing trend of increasing numbers of school children being conditioned for the criminal justice system, often referred to, as the school to prison-pipeline. What might it mean for society? And how should this situation be addressed? [ dur: 34 mins. ]

  • Dr. Kim Socha, Regional Dir., Save the Kids;
  • Jon Vang ,  mentor , community activist.
  • Anthony Nocella, is a Professor of Education and Sr. Fellow in Dispute Resolution at Hamline University, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
  • Daniel Losen, Director of the Center for Civil Rights Remedies in Civil Rights Project at UCLA;
  • Damien Schnyder, is a Professor of African studies at Scripps College

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Western-Dominance-of-the-World-/-How-ideas-shape-international-power-structures-September 12th, 2015

First, what were the factors that led to Western dominance of the world and how are they changing the world. We discuss the book, Why the West Rules For Now: The Patterns of History and What They Reveal About the Future with Professor Ian Morris. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Ian Morris is Professor of Classics Faculty at the Stanford Archaeology Center. He is a historian and archaeologist. He has excavated in Britain, Greece, and Italy, most recently as director of Stanford’s dig at Monte Polizzo, a native Sicilian site from the age of Greek colonization. His publications include “Why the West Rules–For Now: The Patterns of History, and What They Reveal About the Future“, and “The Measure of Civilization: How Social Development Decides the Fate of Nations“.

Then, on the Scholars’ Circle, how might the power of ideas shape countries and international power structures [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Elizabeth Borgwardt is an Associate Professor of History and is an acclaimed international law and human rights historian whose research focuses on human rights ideas and institutions. Her publications include, “A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights“.
  • Christopher McKnight Nichols is professor of History at Oregon State University. Nichols specializes in the history of the United States and its relationship to the rest of the world, particularly in the areas of isolationism, internationalism, and globalization. His publications include, “Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age“.
  • Tim Lynch is Professor and Director of the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Melbourne.His books include “Turf War: the Clinton Administration and Northern Ireland” and he co-authored “After Bush: the Case for Continuity in American Foreign Policy“.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Antonin-Scalia-/-How-Music-affects-Social-and-Political-Change-August 2nd, 2015

In this hour, the man some call the most polarizing and controversial supreme court justice in American history — The story of Antonin Scalia and why no one predicted who he would become. We speak with Prof. Bruce Allen Murphy author of Scalia: A Court of One. This is part one of a two part interview. We will air part two next week. [ dur: 27 mins. ]

  • Bruce Allen Murphy is a judicial biographer and Professor of law at Lafayette College. His latest book is Scalia: A Court of One.

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle we discuss how music effects social and political change. How do governments/states oppress music and the arts? How has music shaped politics historically and today? [ dur: 31 mins. ]

  • Mark LeVine, Professor of Middle Eastern History, University of California Irvine. He is the author of Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam
  • Josh Kun, Professor of  Communication and Journalism, USC; He is the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America 
  • Richard Flacks, Professor of Sociology, UC Santa Barbara. He is co-author of the book Playing for Change: Music and Musicians in the Service of Social Movements

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Speaking & Moderating

Scholars’ Circle-Society’s-Powerful-/-History-of-Labor-Unions-in-America-May 31st, 2015

First, does power lead people to act in an unethical or immoral way? Does power breed hypocrisy and what are the social and political implications? Adam Galinsky joins us, he is the Chair of the Management Department and a Professor of Business at the Columbia Business School at Columbia University. [ dur: 10mins. ]

  • Adam Galinsky is the Chair of Management Department and Professor of Business at the Columbia Business School at Columbia University. He is the co-author of FRIEND AND FOE: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both​.​

Later, we examine the history of labor unions and how they have shaped America today. We are joined by Philip Dray author of There Is Power in a​ ​Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America. [ dur: 48mins. ]

  • Philip Dray​ is a writer and historian, he is a Fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at NYU, and he was a ​vi​siting ​scholar at the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University​. He​ is the author of There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America​,​ Stealing God’s Thunder: Benjamin Franklin’s Lightning Rod and the Invention of America​, ​and At the Hands of Persons Unknown: The Lynching of Black America, which won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and made him a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-New-Deal-History-/-War-In-Our-Times-Dec. 21st, 2014

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Free-Speech-in-USA-/-Tortured-Dec. 13th, 2014

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Free-Speech-in-USA-/-Influencers-of-American-Congress-Dec. 7th, 2014

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 Gilens, 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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle-Homelessness-in-United-States-Nov. 30th, 2014

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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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle – Organ Trafficking -/- Climate Change 2047 -/- Immigration US-Mexico – Nov. 2nd, 2014

First, the underworld of organ trafficking. [ dur: 10 mins. ]

  • Nancy Scheper-Hughes, is Professor of anthropology at University of California, Berkeley, editor of Commodifying Bodies and author of Violence in War and Peace: An Anthology.
  • Art Caplan, is Professor and head of the division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center and award-winning author of books including Applied Ethics in Mental Health Care: An Interdisciplinary Reader, Ethics and Organ Transplants, and Smart Mice, Not so Smart People.

Then, Professor Mora and his colleagues have calculated how climate change will affect our temperatures around the year 2047. In the future, they found, our coldest year will be warmer than the past hottest years. The changes, which will first occur in the tropics, are already driving some 25,000 species to extinction each year. [ dur: 18 mins. ]

Finally, on the Scholars’ Circle Panel, 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 dig deep into the world of migration, and the systems and policies that perpetuate many of the inhumane conditions. [ dur: 28 mins. ]

  • Kevin Johnson is Dean and  Professor of Public Interest Law at UC Davis School of Law. He has co-authored., Opening the Floodgates: Why America Needs to Rethink Its Borders and Immigration Laws, and authored Immigration Law and the US-Mexico Border.
  • David Shirk is Associate  Professor of Political Science and International, and Director of the Justice in Mexico Project, at University of San Diego. He has co-authored, The Drug War in Mexico: Confronting a Shared Threat, and Contemporary Mexican Politics.
  • David Kyle is Professor of Sociology at University of California, Davis. His publications include, Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives, and Transnational Peasants: Migrations, Networks and Ethnicity in Andean Ecuador.

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Scholars' Circle Interviews

Scholars’ Circle -US-Financial-Crisis-was-a-Political-Crisis- Oct. 26th, 2014

We look at how the financial crisis, like those that came before it, was a political crisis. We spend the hour analyzing the failures of democracy that allowed it to happen, and what reforms are necessary to prevent it from happening again. We are joined by the authors of Political Bubbles: Financial Crisis and the Failure of American Democracy. [ dur: 57 mins. ]

  • Nolan McCarty is the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs and Chair of the Department of Politics at Princeton University, respectively.
  • Keith T. Poole is the Philip H. Alston, Jr. Distinguished Chair and Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of California San Diego.
  • Howard Rosenthal is Professor of Politics at New York University and Professor Emeritus of Social Sciences and of Politics at Princeton University.

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