Seeking Election to the White House in Times of Crisis (0:31)

Guest: Chris Karpowitz, PhD, Professor of Political Science, Co-director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy, BYU; Grant Madsen, PhD, Professor of History, BYU

The 2020 Presidential Election will be surely be remembered as the pandemic election. At least I’ll remember it  that way. Historians probably will, too. How have past Presidential Elections played out amid a crisis–whether caused by disease, economic depression or war?

Understanding the Cancel Culture Debate (23:30)

Guest: Samuel Moyn, Law Professor, Yale University

What does it mean to get “cancelled”? In recent years, it’s come to mean being publicly shamed on social media and maybe even losing your job. A few weeks ago, more than a hundred prominent journalists and authors published an open letter in Harper’s Magazine warning that this rush to call out and ostracize viewpoints threatens both freedom of speech and a free press. The letter was met with calls to cancel many of the people who signed it. That’s the irony of cancel culture. And let me point out that it’s alive and well across the ideological spectrum.

Social Status Plays a Role in Viewing Own Beliefs as Objectively True (40:35)

Guest: Kristjen Lundberg, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology, University of Richmond

Do you know someone who is just so sure of themselves that they think anyone who disagrees must be either stupid or biased? I find this quality seems particularly common right now when you’re talking about politics. But we’re seeing a fair amount of it in the US related to views about the pandemic response. New research tries to figure out who is most prone to think down on people who disagree with them.

Congressman John Lewis About “Good Trouble” and his Graphic Novel Memoir “March” (52:53)

Guest: Georgia Congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis, Author Andrew Aydin and Artist Nate Powell, “March”

Georgia Congressman John Lewis died over the weekend. He was a central figure in the Civil Rights movement, a founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a participant in lunch counter sit-ins and freedom rides. He was bloodied in the Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights and spoke alongside Martin Luther King Junior at the March on Washington. In 2016, Congressman Lewis published a memoir of his Civil Rights work in the form of a graphic novel trilogy called “March.” That year it became the first-ever comic book to win the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. During that same summer in 2016, Congressman Lewis, his co-author Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell came on the show when they were at ComicCon launching the final book of the March trilogy. In remembrance of the late Congressman John Lewis, here’s that interview. (Originally aired 08/01/2016).

Challenges Facing Black Americans in Mental Health Care

Challenges Facing Black Americans in Mental Health Care

Challenges Facing Black Americans in Mental Health Care (1:10:12)

Guest: Altha Stewart, Psychiatry Professor, Director, Center for Health in Justice Involved Youth, University of Tennessee Health Science Center

Nearly one in five adults in the US have a mental illness. But many health professionals say that access to and quality of mental healthcare is not equal among all Americans. Many Black people really need help right now, but struggle to find the right treatment and can be easily misdiagnosed.

What the US Can Learn from Liberia’s Experience Overcoming Public Mistrust During the Ebola Outbreak (1:28:04)

Guest: Rob Blair, Assistant Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, Brown University.

With COVID-19 cases continuing to surge in the US and public health officials unanimously encouraging people to wear facemasks in public, there’s still resistance to making face-coverings mandatory. Why aren’t Americans following the advice of health experts, state and local officials who encourage masks, if not outright require them? In order for a nation to cope with an outbreak of infectious disease, people need to trust the government’s response–and in America, trust in the government is a problem. Back in 2014, the nation of Liberia had a similar problem with public trust during the Ebola outbreak. How the government of Liberia solved that problem could offer some lessons for the United States.