A New Angle

This week Justin speaks with Gillian Glaes and Peter Baker about the value of international experiences and perspectives. Gillian directs the University of Montana’s Franke Global Leadership Initiative, and Peter directs international programs at the Mansfield Center. Together, these two play a significant role in shaping the international experiences and perspectives available to students in Montana.

In this conversation Gillian and Peter talk about how international programs and perspectives enrich not only the student body, but the wider community, and how international engagement can enable a place to better welcome diversity.

Today is the July edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader challenges facing our society.

This episode is a continuation of last month’s conversation on artificial intelligence and its impact on our quality of life. In this conversation, Justin and Bryce discuss the business models and incentives around A.I. and its potential to be a force for good. They also dive into a listener question that harkens back to the duo’s interest in the youth-sports industrial complex.

Listen to last month’s episode here.

This week Justin speaks with Dr. Reed Humphrey, who has held almost every academic position at the University of Montana.

In part two of this two-part episode, Justin presses Reed on the tenuous nature of the provost position at UM. Reed talks about the pros of interdisciplinary initiatives and the importance of stability and institutional knowledge in academic leadership roles, as well as the need to balance innovation and tradition in higher education.

This week Justin speaks with Dr. Reed Humphrey, who sits at the threshold of retirement after a long and winding academic career. Reed has held nearly every academic position possible at the University of Montana, and there’s not much he hasn’t seen.

Reid reached out to Justin and asked if he would be interested in kicking the tires of higher education. Naturally, Justin said he’d love to.Tune in to part two of this conversation next week.

This week Justin talks with Paul Reichert, CEO of Prospera, a nonprofit economic development organization focused on southwest Montana.

Paul explains Prospera’s role helping small businesses as a “navigator and problem solver,” discusses some of the challenges facing the nonprofit — like financing infrastructure and community development projects — and answers Justin’s magic wand question: If Paul had a magic wand, what would he change to make operating and/or owning a small business in Montana easier?

In this week’s episode, Justin speaks with a former student, Eli, about his journey establishing a relationship with artificial intelligence.

Eli turned to Chat GPT to help him with school, in social situations and while working on figuring out his life. He talks to Justin about how he uses Chat GPT as a sounding board and considers it something that really cares about him, while also being aware that it’s a human-made technology with flaws.

Today is our June edition of Incentives & Instincts, a recurring series in which Justin speaks with economist and friend Bryce Ward about some of the broader challenges facing our society. The duo has been putting this episode off for a long time, but now is the time to talk about AI.

In this conversation, Justin and Bryce talk about how AI could impact …

This week is part two of our conversation with John Sommers-Flanagan, director of the Center for the Advancement of Positive Education at the University of Montana’s Phyllis J. Washington College of Education.

John and Justin pick up where they left off last week talking about how lying and parenting intersect, the concept of confirmation bias and the risks of AI-generated content and building relationships with AI.

Check out John’s blog here.

Today’s guest is John Sommers-Flanagan, director of the Center for the Advancement of Positive Education at the Phyllis J. Washington College of Education. John is transitioning to this role after a long tenure as professor of counseling at the University of Montana.

John and Justin talk about good faith, the erosion of trust in institutions and confirmation bias. Within the good faith concept, the two discuss intentional acts of kindness as a counter-balance to negativity and bad faith.

This is part one of a two-part series. Tune in to part two next week.

This week we’re speaking with Sarah Vowell, an author with Montana roots of many bestselling books. She’s a historian, actor, journalist and a regular contributor to This American Life. Sarah recently contributed an essay to Michael Lewis’s edited volume, Who Is Government?

In this conversation Sarah talks about highlighting Pam Wright, an archivist at the National Archives, for Who Is Government? Pam fought to digitize and make archives accessible to the public, something that was not necessarily the case for a rural Montanan. Sarah shares her perspective on the role of government agencies and civic services in solving problems and preserving history.

Read Who is Government here:

https://bookshop.org/p/books/who-is-government-the-untold-story-of-public-service-m[…]mpaignid=22224636854&gbraid=0AAAAACfld427udycKa9ljQn9DFiOXG518