1050 Bascom

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful to have the opportunity to talk with Prof. Reed Lei, a new faculty member in the Political Science Department. We talked to Prof. Lei about growing up in China where he received his undergraduate degree at the China Foreign Affairs University. Prof. Lei also shared his personal and professional pathway to an MA and MPA at University of Southern California and a PhD at New York University before moving to a UW-Madison faculty position amidst the global pandemic. Prof. Lei offered his take on the current state of US-China relations as well as his analysis of Xi Jinping’s efforts to create short- and long-term economic and political success for China.

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 alumni to help us navigate these uncertain times. In this episode, we were grateful to have the opportunity to talk to Sherry Kaiman. Sherry, who continues to offer her time and valuable insights to our majors as an active alumni mentor in the department, was a consultant in the areas of education, workforce and health care issues. She spent over two decades on Capitol Hill where she held an array of senior legislative positions, including staffing the 1988 Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic. She is currently a Senior Advisor at Resolve. We learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Sherry, and hope you will too.

As we continue to await the results of Tuesday’s presidential election, 1050 Bascom reached out to Prof. Burden for his insights on this historic week in American politics. Prof. Burden offered his take on what the pre-election polls got right, where the race is this afternoon, and how the next couple of days might play out. Prof. Burden also offered his take on President Trump’s election night remarks claiming victory, and walked us through his possible legal challenges. Prof. Burden told us he sees the high voter turnout rates across the country (amidst a global pandemic!) as very encouraging for the future of democratic elections in the US no matter which candidate prevails.

This afternoon, 1050 Bascom reached out to Prof. Canon for his final pre-election day thoughts on tomorrow’s historic presidential election. Prof. Canon offered his insights on the latest polls, and talked us through each candidate’s path to an electoral college victory. He also shared with us why he’s going to have an eye on Georgia, and offered his insights on why he hopes media reports of exit polls remind audiences that 94 million people have already voted. We really appreciated Prof. Canon’s discussion as we enter the last hours of the presidential campaigns.

Today, as the 2020 presidential campaign enters its final days, 1050 Bascom moderated a discussion and debate between UW-Madison College Republicans and College Democrats. We appreciated the time that Keeley Collins, Communications Director of College Republicans, and Rianna Mukherjee, Chair of the College Democrats, took to spend with us this afternoon. We thought it was an informative and engaging discussion, and hope you will too.

In this episode of1050 Bascom, we were grateful to to have the opportunity to speak with Prof. Richard Keller, Professor of the History of Medicine and Bioethics at UW-Madison. His research and teaching speak directly to so many of the pivotal issues confronting American politics and society today including Covid-19 and the intersection of race and medicine. Prof. Keller is currently at work on a project examining the global history of the environment. We spoke with Prof. Keller about the global pandemic in a historical context as well as the recent wildfires across the North American West. We learned so much from our conversation with Prof. Keller and hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful to interview Hilary Miller who graduated with a B.A. in Political Science, History, and Jewish Studies from UW-Madison in 2019. After working as a Goldman Fellow in Chicago joined UN Watch—an independent human rights watchdog NGO— in Geneva, Switzerland where she lived for a year. In June 2020, Hilary testified before the U.N. Human Rights Council on a debate on human rights violations committed by Russia in Crimea. Hilary previously testified before the Human Rights Council on issues related to Israel and Equatorial Guinea. We learned a lot from Hilary and hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we had the opportunity to ask Prof. Schweber about the state of democracy in the US amidst a global pandemic, a contentious, partisan Supreme Court nomination process, and an historical presidential election. Our conversation with Prof. Schweber was informative and fun. We appreciated his insights on Supreme Court politics, the Amy Coney Barrett hearings, what might or might not happen on election night, and why he is hopeful about the future of American constitutional democracy.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful to have the opportunity to talk to Young Mie Kim, Professor in the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication and a faculty affiliate of Political Science and the Elections Research Center. Over the last several years, Prof. Kim’s work on the role of Russian interference in the 2016 election has received national and international attention. She has spent much of the first half of 2020 at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington DC where she researched federal solutions to digital political advertising. We talked to Prof. Kim about her research into social media, propaganda, foreign influence in US elections, and the impact on the electoral process and democracy more generally. We learned a lot from our conversation with Prof. Kim, and hope you will too.

In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we had the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Cramer back to the podcast to discuss the upcoming presidential election. We talked to Prof. Cramer about her research and life-long devotion to helping citizens engage in the democratic process. Prof. Cramer shared her insights about potential barriers to voting and how to overcome them. She also offered her analysis of the presidential election polls in WI and nationally. We thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Cramer and hope you will too.