Can We Talk About It? with Debi Ghate

As the political climate ebbs and flows, victories and opinions in the courtroom can often last for generations. This week, Carrie Ann Donnell of American Juris Link joins Debi Ghate to discuss the pro bono work of public interest litigation, the coordination between public interest firms to protect the rights of defendants, and the necessity of firms’ donor privacy, as they litigate on many sensitive and controversial issues.

This interview was recorded on January  22, 2021

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Having taken in 10 foster children and adopted four, CEO and founder of Gen Justice Darcy Olsen is intimately aware of the grim reality of the foster care system. In this week’s episode, she joins Debi Ghate to talk about both the joys and heartbreak of fostering – and the work she does with Gen Justice to ensure the legal protection and to protect the rights of the approximately 400,000 children in foster care.

Read: Arizona Passes Law to Provide Lawyers for Abused and Abandoned Children.

This interview was recorded on December 17, 2020

Is there such a thing as a shared American identity? Is one even possible when we have a lack of shared vocabulary and interaction with those who think differently from us? John Wood, Jr., national ambassador for Braver Angels, joins Debi Ghate to discuss his close, personal experience with individuals of various beliefs and backgrounds. He describes the work of Braver Angels to reinvigorate conversation and reduce political polarization, by humanizing partisan opponents – and hopefully discover why they see the world the way they do. We may not agree with one another, but we will understand one another better, a necessary step to improving discourse.

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This interview was recorded on February 23, 2021

The mission of the American Contemporary Ballet is to "produce and present choreographic works of the highest quality that exemplify dance as a musical art form." Yet there have been loud threats and demands that the company and its troupe declare themselves aligned with political causes, sign statements or even change its dance repertoire. 

ACB's director Lincoln Jones talks with host Debi Ghate this week about the nature of ballet, his company and the ideas threatening the essential freedom and individual voice and expression of the artists.

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The interview was recorded on March 19, 2021

On March 26, 2021 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled in favor of Philosophy Professor Nicholas Meriwether in the case of Meriwether v. Trustees of Shawnee State University. What was this case all about? In January of 2018, Meriwether refused to call a biologically male student by the requested pronouns “she/her.” Although he offered to refer to the student by any proper noun requested, his university threatened disciplinary action and later issued an ultimatum. Joining Debi Ghate, Nicholas and attorney Tyson Langhofer discuss the ideological implications of a pronoun, freedom of religion and free speech and the very purpose of the university in this week’s episode.

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This interview was recorded on December 21, 2020.

Around the 60s and 70s, conversations around civil rights and racial equity began to shift from a focus on color blindness and equality of opportunity to color consciousness and equality of results. In this episode, Debi Ghate is joined by Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow Mike Gonzalez as they explore the historical development of critical race theory and race-conscious policies, and the role philanthropy has played in it, identity politics, and his new book “The Plot to Change America.”

The Identity Politics Policy Portfolio by Mike Gonzalez.
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This interview was recorded on December 9, 2020.

Can privilege expand beyond race, gender and sexual orientation to include worldviews? If so, is there such a thing as progressive privilege? Carrie Lukas, President of the Independent Women’s Forum, suggests there is. She says “privilege” does exist, and it is usually aimed at whites, males and straight people. Yet in some parts of our culture, such as the academy and the media, the progressive view dominates in a way that also creates a marginalized and a privileged group. Join Debi Ghate as she discusses Lukas’s monograph, “Checking Progressive Privilege,” a controversial but very thought-provoking piece that challenges us to rethink “privilege.”

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This interview was recorded on December 4, 2020.

Many symbols of the American dream can be found in the construction industry. Debi Ghate hosts president of Michigan Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) Jimmy Greene this week to discuss some of those analogies, protecting merit-based and free-enterprise building, the relationship between merit and justice and the importance of educating against prejudices to produce proactive, rather than reactive justice.

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This interview was recorded on January 26, 2021.

In 2019, the Anti-Defamation League recorded the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents in its 40 years of tracking. This week, Debi Ghate is joined by New York School of Law Professor Nadine Strossen and Kenneth Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. They will discuss the reality of anti-Semitism, the larger context of racism and injustice, censorship and the academy and reducing hateful attitudes through more expression and free speech—not less.

• The Conflict over the Conflict: The Israel/Palestine Campus Debate by Kenneth Stern
• HATE  Why We Should Resist it With Free Speech, Not Censorship by Nadine Strossen

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This interview was recorded on December 22, 2020.

Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. joins Debi Ghate in a conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion mandates. They’ll address how diversity makes for better decision making, the integral nature of diversity and inclusion, and the difference between equality and equitability. Do mandates really create the outcomes we want? Can DEI happen without mandates? And if mandates don’t work for DEI, why do we think they work for other employment issues?

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This interview was recorded on January 27, 2021