In this episode of 1050 Bascom we were excited to welcome back Professor Kathleen Bartzen Culver, the James E. Burgess Chair in Journalism Ethics and Director of the Center for Journalism Ethics in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications here at UW. Prof. Culver was just awarded Teacher of the Year at Scripps Howard, Recognizing Excellence in Journalism. We talked to Prof. Culver about the influence of infographics on social media and political communication in the context of her research and teaching and in the realm of media ethics. Prof. Culver also offered a fascinating and insightful take on the popular politicization of the term “cancel culture” and why she thinks it undermines meaningful discussion about the intent and consequences of harmful and misleading speech in political discourse. As always, we thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Culver.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, were grateful for the opportunity to talk to Heidi Normandin, Director of Legislative Outreach at the La Follette School of Public Affairs. An alumni of the La Follette School, Heidi’s work most recently has focused on two major initiatives: The Wisconsin Family Impact Seminar and Campus Connect, a program that connects legislators with UW-Madison professors and researchers. Both efforts use a nonpartisan approach. We asked Heidi about these two initiatives and how they help realize the Wisconsin Idea in practice. Additionally, Heidi’s colleagues tell us that she could write a book on how to work effectively with legislators on both sides of the aisle. We also asked her about this unique and important skill for all sorts of policy and political related professions as well.

In this episode of1050 Bascom we were grateful for the opportunity to talk to Prof. J. Michael Collins about his teaching, research and consulting work on personal finance and consumer decision-making. Prof. Collins is the faculty director for the Center for Financial Security at UW-Madison and holds faculty positions in the School of Human Ecology and the La Follette School of Public Affairs. He’s also a family economics specialist for the Division of Extension and an affiliate of the Institute for Research on Poverty and Demography and Ecology. Our conversation with Prof. Collins was fun and wide-ranging from his analysis of student debt relief to pandemic consumer decision-making to his invaluable professional development advice for anyone on the job market looking for an internship, first post-grad job or to advance in their current careers. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Collins and hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom we were grateful to interview Tana Johnson, Professor of Public Affairs and Political Science at the La Follette School of Public Affairs, to talk about global governance and institutions as well as policymaking in the public and private sectors. Prof. Johnson’s award-winning book Organizational Progeny: Why Governments are Losing Control over the Proliferating Structures of Global Governance shows that in a variety of policy areas, global governance structures are getting harder for national governments to control. We asked Prof. Johnson about her about her research in this work in the context of the global pandemic. We also talked through an interesting new course Prof. Johnson is teaching called “Public and Private Sectors in Policy Making.” We enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Johnson and learned so much. We hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful to once again have the opportunity to talk to Kacie Lucchini Butcher, a public historian and award-winning museum curator who is the director of UW-Madison’s Public History Project. Last summer, we talked with Kacie about the re-emerging civil rights movement and about the mission of the project to acknowledge and recover “the stories of those who experienced prejudice on the UW-Madison campus.” Given the rise of anti-Asian sentiment in the US over the last year as well as an increase in violence against Asian-Americans, we wanted to talk to Kacie about the Public History Project’s publication of two pieces that dig into the history of individual Asian-American experiences at UW- Madison. The first is entitled, "The University of Wisconsin and Japanese American Students - 1941-44", and the second is, “Japanese American Badgers.” As always, we enjoyed our conversation with Kacie and learned so much. We hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful for the opportunity to welcome back Prof. Scott Straus to talk to him about his summer course, The Comparative Study of Genocide. We also wanted to touch base with Prof. Straus and wish him best wishes as he embarks on a new and exciting next stage of his career journey at UC-Berkeley next fall. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Straus and learned so much.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful for the opportunity to interview Kaden Paulson-Smith, a Ph.D. candidate in the Political Science department and a Law and Society Graduate Fellow at the Institute for Legal Studies here at UW-Madison. Kaden will be teaching a new seminar this fall called The Global Politics of Policing. We asked Kaden about their work on global policing as well as other topics that inform their research and teaching. They also shared some of their plans for the class. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and learned so much. We hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful to once again talk to Barry Burden, Political Science Professor and Director of the Elections Research Center, about how the 2020 elections spurred new battles over voting rights. Prof. Burden shared his insights into why voting rights debates are escalating across the South and the Sun Belt. He also talked us through the disputes about whether some of these news laws will restrict voting or are instead meant to prevent election fraud. As always, we learned so much from Prof. Burden, and enjoyed our conversation.

As the global pandemic continues to raise questions about the future and stability of the job and internship market, 1050 Bascom is reaching out to successful Political Science grads to help us navigate these uncertain times. In this episode, we were grateful for the opportunity to interview Aaron Kutnick. Aaron graduated with a degree in Political Science in 2007 and serves as a valued alumni mentor in our political science mentorship program. We talked to Aaron about his time at UW-Madison as well as his career path into the world of high-level political consulting as well as his current transition into the education sector. Aaron also offered some amazingly thoughtful on-the-ground advice for anyone on the internship or job market. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Aaron and learned so much. We hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful to welcome back Scott Gillespie, Editorial Page Editor and Vice President of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, to talk about media coverage of the Derek Chauvin trial. Scott is a UW-Madison Journalism School and Political Science alum. We really appreciated the opportunity to talk with Scott once again about living and working in Minneapolis over the last eleven months amidst protests, a heated election cycle, and a historic trial.