1050 Bascom

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were delighted to talk to Jordan Ellenberg, Professor of Mathematics at UW-Madison to talk through some of the many varied and interesting topics he engages in his new book, Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy and Everything Else. The book, published in May, has received rave reviews nationally and internationally. Prof. Ellenberg offered his insights into the strengths of the rank choice voting process used in the recent NYC mayoral race. He also talked us through his research on gerrymandering and why he thinks it confronts us with the fact that “who sits in the legislature” is not a great formal proxy for “what the people want.” Prof. Ellenberg also made a convincing case for why geometry (and high level math learning more generally) is important for people participating in a democratic society. We thoroughly enjoyed our fun and wide-ranging discussion with Prof. Ellenberg and hope you will too.

Today on 1050 Bascom, we are excited to welcome back Laura Albert, professor of industrial and systems engineering at UW-Madison. Prof. Albert first joined us last summer to talk about Covid-19 testing and tracing and the return of major league baseball. Ten months later, COVID remains a global and national crisis -- though we now have effective vaccines and, in the US, case numbers are declining in seemingly hopeful ways again. We wanted to check-in with Prof. Albert for her insights on what we’ve learned about the virus, what the early models got right and wrong, and the impact of vaccines in the US and around the world. Prof. Albert also offered her take on what a return to something akin “normal” might look like and when we might see it happen. We enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Albert and hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful to collaborate with the Grasskamp Center for Real Estate at the UW-Madison Business School to talk to Stephen Malpezzi, Professor of Real Estate and Urban Land Economics, about the impact of the pandemic on cities across the nation and the world. Prof. Malpezzi shared his insights on how the pandemic has impacted employment rates, transportation, schools, housing costs, retail and consumption patterns and the distribution of wealth and income. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation and learned so much. We hope you will too.

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.