Emerging research has shown us that plants have the ability to communicate with other plants, react to sound and touch, store memories, deceive animals to their benefit, and protect themselves and their kin. These scientific discoveries challenge us to rethink the ways we conceive of agency, intelligence, and consciousness. Are plants intelligent, even conscious? Join us as Zoë Schlanger, author of “The Light Eaters” and staff writer for The Atlantic, welcomes us into the unseen world of plants.

Zoë Schlanger is a staff writer at The Atlantic, and her writings on climate change and the environment have appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, NPR, and Quartz. She was the recipient of a 2017 National Association of Science Writers reporting award for coverage of air pollution in Detroit, and a finalist for the 2019 Livingston Award for a series on water politics at the Texas-Mexico border.

Robert Perkinson (moderator) is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and director of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

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American civil rights advocate Kimberlé Crenshaw shares the origins and development of both “Critical Race Theory” and “Intersectionality.” Growing up in the context of the Civil Rights Movement, she highlights her drive to become a lawyer and utilize the law to actualize African American aspirations. In her work, she carries with her the legacies of legal civil rights efforts. Applying an intersectional lens to the way that black women experience violence at the intersection of race and gender, Crenshaw advocates for their stories to be told through the campaign to #SayHerName, also the title of her newest book.  

Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, critical race theory, Black feminist legal theory, and race, racism and the law. In addition to her position at Columbia Law School, she is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Robert Perkinson (moderator) is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and director of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

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How can we incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing into our scientific understanding of the natural world? While native and western science often seem at odds with one another, botanist, professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer shares how bridging the gap between these two perspectives helps us understand the earth in a more holistic way. In this discussion with poet and professor Brandy Nālani McDougall, Kimmerer unpacks her research journey in ethnic ecology, land justice, and indigenous knowledge. Their discussion dives into topics that include indigenous science, cultural erasure and preservation, plant culture, and restoration of relationships to land.

Botanist, professor, and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, Robin Wall Kimmerer is the author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. A SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the founder of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment, Kimmerer has won the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding nature writing and a MacArthur “genius” grant. Her research interests include the restoration of ecological communities, as well as the restoration of our relationships to land.

Brandy Nālani McDougall is a Kānaka ʻŌiwi author, educator, activist, and the Hawai'i State Poet Laureate for 2023–2025. She is an Associate Professor of American studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa specializing in Indigenous Studies. 

Sound editing by Amika Matteson. Graphic by Taylor Hansen.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uh_btss  

Award-winning historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat talks about how today’s rising authoritarians are drawing from a weather-worn playbook  developed by Italian fascists a century ago. By emphasizing virility, bigotry, and perceived victimhood, this new crop of would-be strongmen -- from Putin to Mohdi to Netanyahu to Trump -- are bolstering executive power, personalizing their rule, and endangering democracy itself. 

Ruth Ben-Ghiat is Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University, a Guggenheim fellow, and Advisor to Protect Democracy. She is an MSNBC opinion columnist and a regular contributor to CNN and The Washington Post. She publishes Lucid, a newsletter on threats to democracy. Her latest book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, looks at how illiberal leaders use propaganda, corruption, violence, and machismo — and how they can be defeated. Professor Ben-Ghiat was the spring 2023 Dan and Maggie Inouye Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.

Peter Arnade (moderator) is the Dean of the College of Languages and Letters at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is also an author and researcher that specializes in European History.

Sound editing by Leandro Nuckols. Graphic by Kaia Hutchison.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uh_btss  

We all recognize that infrastructure like highways, water systems, and electricity are essential for leading healthy and productive lives. But what about our systems of care? Ai-jen Poo–Director of Caring Across Generations and President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance–argues that care work is critical to making the world work. Caregiving, says Ai-jen Poo, from child-rearing to elder care, allows all of us to thrive–as individuals, as families, and as a society.

A next generation labor leader and rising voice in the women’s movement, Ai-jen Poo is a MacArthur “genius” fellow, one of Fortune’s 50 World’s Greatest Leaders, and one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her work has been featured in Marie Claire, New York Times, Washington Post, and Jezebel. She is author of The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. In 2017, Ai-jen served as the Dan and Maggie Distinguished Chair in Democratic Ideals at UH Mānoa.

Robert Perkinson (moderator) is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and director of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series.

Sound editing and graphic by Hannah Sambrano. 

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uh_btss  

We all know that the most effective social movements begin locally. But how can we use community organizing to ensure their success? If we are to make tangible change – says renowned author, activist, and organizer George Goehl – we need to start by listening to the community, setting achievable goals, and then mobilizing toward victory using basic principles of community organizing. This is a conversation about what it takes for people without power and resources to win more of both. 

George Goehl started organizing in a soup kitchen in Southern Indiana nearly 30 years ago and has been at it ever since. Today, George is traveling the country helping people launch new organizing projects, training a generation in the fundamentals of organizing. He is the host of the podcasts, To See Each Other and Fundamentals of Organizing. George’s work has been featured in The Atlantic, the New York Times, Washington Post, on CNN, and Rolling Stone.

Robert Perkinson (moderator) is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and director of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series.

Sound editing by Amika Matteson.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uh_btss  

Planner and journalist Henry Grabar explains why bad parking drives us batty and ruins the world

In this searching interview, award-winning journalist Henry Grabar digs deep into the paradox of parking: We all want it, but we ignore the costs. The pursuit of the perfect parking space, he finds, worsens traffic, increases housing costs, hurts small businesses, endangers pedestrians, destroys wetlands, accelerates global warming, and, on a day-to-day basis, drives us to distraction. So what can be done? Based on extensive reporting and research, Grabar argues that smarter policy can make our cities more vibrant, just, and sustainable, one converted parking space at a time. 

Interviewer Kathleen Rooney is transportation policy lead at the Ulupono Initiative, a Hawaii-based investment impact firm. 

Henry Grabar is a journalist, researcher, Harvard Loeb Fellow, and author of Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World.

Sound editing by Leandro Nuckols.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

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Despite its flaws, most Americans believe that child welfare is designed to protect youth from abuse, maltreatment, and neglect. However, Dorothy Roberts – endowed professor of Law and Sociology and the founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science, and Society – argues that in reality the system does more to punish poverty, bolster racism, and tear apart families than it does to safeguard children. In this episode, we sat down with Dr. Roberts to discuss twenty years of research on family safety and social inequity. In order to truly support families and protect children, we need an entirely new approach to the problem.

A specialist on the interplay of gender, race, and class in legal issues concerning reproduction, bioethics, and child welfare, Dorothy Roberts is the author of more than 100 articles and five books, including her latest, Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families--and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. Roberts is an elected member of the American Philosophical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Robert Perkinson (moderator) is Director of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series and a historian at UH Manoa.  He is the author of Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire. 

Sound editing and graphic by Amika Matteson.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uh_btss  

In 2011, social scientists at Harvard launched an ambitious initiative based on a simple, somewhat old-fashioned premise: that evidence and reason should play a greater role in shaping public policy. Since then, the Scholars Strategy Network has added chapters in 38 states and connected hundreds of scholars with local experts, legislators, and eachother. Executive Director Paola Maynard-Moll joins University of Hawaii professor Robert Perkinson to discuss the organization’s efforts to bring facts to power. How can academic research translate into public policy with measurable benefits? And how can the SSN initiative persist in an era of misinformation and devalued truth? 

Paola Maynard-Moll is the executive director of the Scholar's Strategy Network.

Robert Perkinson is an associate professor of American Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and the founder of the Better Tomorrow Speaker Series.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uh_btss  

A conversation with Jean Su, energy justice program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, on why our energy sector is broken and how fixing it can advance social justice, enhance disaster resilience, and help solve the climate crisis.

The Better Tomorrow Speaker Series features incisive conversations on the most pressing issues of our time. The project is a joint venture of the University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i Community Foundation, and Kamehameha Schools.

BTSS website: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/speakers/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@uhbtss

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/uh_btss/  

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UHBTSS/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/uh_btss