Bedrosian Bookclub Podcast

Democracy in Chains begins as the story of James Buchanan, the Nobel Prize winning economist who popularized public choice economist. MacLean argues that Buchanan joined up with wealthy special interest individuals to influence politics. In partnership with the Koch brothers, MacLean argues that Buchanan and other public choice economists, worked directly to benefit a small group of propertied individuals over the will of the majority.

The work was short listed for the National Book Award while also being widely and sharply criticized by conservative think tanks and public choice economists.

Featuring host Jeffery Jenkins (@jaj7d ‏), and guests Matthew Kahn (@mattkahn1966), Anthony Orlando (@AnthonyWOrlando), and Abby Wood (@yesthatabbywood).

For links and further reading, check out the showpage: https://bedrosian.usc.edu/bookclub/democracy-in-chains

Bernstein and Woodward published All the President's Men a mere three months before Nixon's resignation. We're revisiting (or visiting for the first time) this classic work of political journalism in the wake of the many callbacks since the 2016 Presidential election. Are dirty tricks just part of politics? What role does the press play? Are there parallels to the Trump administration?

Featuring host Jeffery Jenkins (@jaj7d ‏), and guests Aubrey Hicks (@AubreyHi), Lisa Schweitzer (@drschweitzer), and Donnajean Ward (@DonnajeanWard).

@BedrosianCenter

For more info: https://bedrosian.usc.edu/bookclub/all-the-president's-men

Historian Kelly Lytle Hernández brings us the lengthy history of how authorities in Los Angeles have used imprisonment as a tool to control both labor and migration.

City of Inmates takes the reader from a brief look at the Tongva Communities in the Tongva Basin, to the Spanish colonial era of the late 18th century, and through the Watts Rebellion in 1965. "This book recounts how the dynamics of conquest met deep reservoirs of rebellion as Los Angeles became the City of Inmates, the nation's carceral core." Our discussion delves into this painstaking history of incarceration, resistance, and rebellion in the changing city.

Featuring host Jeffery Jenkins (@jaj7d ‏), and guests Robynn Cox (@RobynnCox ‏), David Sloane (@dcsloane53 ), and Danielle Williams (@BDanielleW)

@BedrosianCenter

For links and more check out the showpage.

Lolly Willowes: Or the Loving Huntsman is the deceptively simple novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner, about a woman who after 40 years spent in devotion to taking care of her father, and her brother's family, decides to move to the countryside and become a witch! Does she find freedom, or does she exchange one form of subjugation for another?

If you haven't read the novel yet, beware - we assume you've read it, so here's your spoiler alert!

Featuring Aubrey Hicks (@AubreyHi), Lisa Schweitzer (@drschweitzer), and David Sloane (@dcsloane53 )

@BedrosianCenter

To listen to the Bedrosian Book Club discussion of Lolly Willowes click the arrow in the player on this post. Or you can download it and subscribe through ApplePodcasts, Soundcloud, Google Play, Stitcher or your favorite podcasting app!

For links to some of the things we talk about, or to our next book: https://bedrosian.usc.edu/bookclub/bonus-episode-lolly-willowes/

Tom Nichols' The Death of Expertise is a broad look at the antipathy toward "experts" and "expertise" among the citizenry of contemporary United States. Nichols contends that this antipathy is dangerous for our democracy, that this distrust not only makes for unhealthy conversation but damages both political and public relationships with the very experts' guidance.

We discuss the argument, the nature of expertise, the role of the academic in civic education, and the state of civics in general. Find out if we liked this book and who we think should read it. If you haven't read it yet, spoiler alert - we do assume you've read it!

Featuring Richard Green (@keynesianr), Aubrey Hicks (@AubreyHi), Pamela Clouser McCann, and Jan Perry (@JanPerry) Anthony Orlando (@AnthonyWOrlando)

Follow us on Twitter! @BedrosianCenter

bedrosian.usc.edu

For our discussion of Hari Kunzru's White Tears, we return to the question can America overcome its sin of racism? Or will our collective inability to deal with the consequences of our actions win the day?

White Tears is a genre bending look at white male hipster culture, a ghost story of untold American stories, a revenge tale, a dive into the depths of collectors of the Blues, a beautifully written story about friendship, greed, race, music, New York City, the South ... if you have not read this novel, beware - this podcast it mostly spoilers!

We dive into the themes Kunzru explores in this complex novel, relish the strong prose, question the role of cultural memory and American identity.

Featuring Ange-Marie Hancock Alfaro (@AngeMarieH), Aubrey Hicks (@AubreyHi), and David Sloane (@dcsloane53)

Follow us on Twitter! @BedrosianCenter

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Can America overcome its sin of racism? If redemption of sin comes through repentance, can White America meet the demands necessary? Michael Eric Dyson's latest is a sermon for White Americans called Tears We Cannot Stop. We discuss the book, its format, and whether it goes far enough in terms of addressing these quite large questions and the implications behind them.

Can America overcome its sin of racism?

In American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate (2nd edition), Pete Simi and Robert Futrell look at the white power movement. Over 15 years of interviews allow the authors to use real stories to focus on white power families and the different ways the white power movement indoctrinates the next generation of white power warriors.

We discuss the different types of groups, the different gateways people take into the movement, the ties that bind them, the family life, the "safe spaces" that bring them together and form deep bonds between members.

We also discuss the important role safe spaces play, and the role they play within the larger cultural context today. Taking away the freedom to express themselves would have catastrophic consequences.

What is the big picture of extremist violence in the United States? What are the things we, as citizens, can and should do to combat hatred and violence?

For links to some of the things we discuss today: https://bedrosian.usc.edu/bookclub/american-swastika

Looking at academia as microcosm of society at large, we find many Americans can get something from this conversation on the difference between love of wisdom and the need to know (control). What might happen if we gave ourselves time (and permission) to understand and learn, rather than, or in addition to, acquire more and more skills? Is slowness the nature of wisdom?

Inspired by the article, "In Praise of Slowness," in Los Angeles Review of Books, we discuss two books on the idea of slowness in scholarship : The Slow Professor by Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber and Slow Philosophy by Michelle Boulous Walker.

For links and further reading: bedrosian.usc.edu/bookclub/slow-philosophy

The narrator of Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist may be unreliable as he tells his American experience before and after 9/11 with an unknown American dinner guest, but we wonder if he is any more unreliable than the voice inside all of us. We discuss the East/West conflict, the relationship between fundamentalism and nostalgia, the narrator's reluctance and fundamentalism, the narrator's love of America and Erica, as well as puzzle over the ending as we delve into this deep and short novel.

Featuring Caroline Bhalla, Raphael Bostic, Aubrey Hicks, and Lisa Schweitzer