Defund PD? Not in Minneapolis! Per Prof. Simonson, historically Democrats funded America's PDs in the name of Civil Rights.  Minneapolis gets to keep its police department. That's the outcome of last week's ballot vote. 

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey called for police officers "to make sure they are working directly with the community to keep us safe." In our podcast conversation, Professor Jocelyn Simonson brings attention to the complexity of the term "community". What is exactly a community and who is in it? Frankly, before this podcast conversation, I was under the impression that the term community had a geographical definition, such as the community within a precinct. But I now understand that a community can be much more diverse than that restrictive definition, and it may include citizens whose voices are not heard or are ignored. The term community is important because it goes to the heart of ordinary people's participation in the criminal system, which Professor Simonson also describes as bottom-up contestation, and it can include laws and ordinances, policing policies and courtroom watching. She also takes us through the history of America's police, how and when it was founded and when it began to receive federal funding for its growth and militarization.   

Professor Simonson, who writes and teaches about criminal law, criminal procedure, evidence, and social change at Brooklyn Law School, explores ways in which the public participates in the criminal process and in the institutions of local governance that control policing and punishment. In this episode, which was recorded prior to the ballot vote in Minneapolis, she also talks about her upcoming book on this subject.  

This is the link to her academic homepage: https://www.brooklaw.edu/Contact-Us/Simonson-Jocelyn, and it lists her research and provides information for her many publications - including those in popular journals such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.'

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Description to featured image: Student loan debt rose from $480.1 billion (3.5% GDP) in Q1 2006 to $1,683 billion (7.8% GDP) in Q1 2020. Orange and red boxes inserted by ThePeel.news. Chart by St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank (Public Domain). 

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Prof. Takacs: America is the only Western democracy not to have any climate change laws! 

President Biden attended the Glasgow Climate Conference, COP26, with much fanfare, suggesting that America could lead the fight against climate change by the power of its example. But as Professor David Takacs explains the history of America's climate change commitments in this episode, the U.S. doesn't come out quite the exemplary leader to spearhead this enormous effort. Ask yourself this: how did the U.S. handle the Kyoto Protocol? Or the Paris Agreement?  But surely, you may say, that even though the U.S. has disappointed the international community in the past when it comes to climate change, we've done a great job back home... right? No. Not right! The United States of America, the biggest historical polluter of greenhouse gases, is the only Western democracy not to have any climate change laws.   

In this podcast episode, Professor Takacs explains how our federal government's climate policies are implemented in the absence of laws, and the real and political ramifications of this lack of laws on climate. Professor Takacs further teaches us that rules and laws won't do any good, and they may not even pass, without the participation of those who are negatively impacted by our shift to a low or zero carbon emission economy. As he tells it, we need a just transition for workers that will lose their jobs due to our efforts to combat climate change.  

To learn more about Professor Takacs's important scholarship and contributions to climate studies, visit his academic homepage at U.C. Hastings College of the Law (link: https://www.uchastings.edu/people/david-takacs/), and read his numerous publications and book (link: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1393231). And here is an Amazon link to Professor Takcas's book on biodiversity: https://www.amazon.com/Idea-Biodiversity-Philosophies-Paradise/dp/0801854008/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=The+Idea+of+Biodiversity&qid=1621394881&sr=8-2. 

One last point, in addition to teaching law, Professor Takacs has a Ph.D. in the history of science and has taught undergraduates for a decade. Prior to that, he has spent time in Keyna and Senegal and witnessed climate change firsthand. In this episode, he shares the depth of his expertise and breadth of experience with us.  

Professor Takacs Recommendations: Novel by Barbara Kingsolver, Flight Behavior (Amazon link). My Octopus Teacher, a film on Netflix.  

Prof. Marks tells the story of human migration from Africa to the Americas - 10,000 years prior than previously believed. 

Did humans first migrate to America by crossing an ice-free land bridge from Asia? This is the familiar story of how Native Americans crossed the Bering Sea, during a time when it was dry land, from Siberia to Alaska. But here is the thing: the latest scientific evidence undermines this belief. According to a study published in the journal Science, human presence is unequivocally shown in America during a period between 21,000 to 23,000 years ago, a period in which glacial ice sheets would have presumably impeded the migration of humans from Asia to Alaska. 

To better understand the significance of this recent discovery, and to also better understand anthropology, including its history of racism, we spoke with Mr. Jonathan Marks, a Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Professor Marks teaches biological anthropology, human variation and human origins. He is the recipient of many awards and honors, which are listed on his academic homepage: https://anthropology.charlotte.edu/node/131

Among his many publications, Professor Marks is the author of the following books:

Per Prof. Sheffi, global supply chain lacked enough monkeys to develop Covid vaccines. 

Isn't strange that the supply chain has dominated our news? It's strange because the overwhelming majority of us Americans hardly ever think of the supply chain. We order a product, it soon arrives. And if we want to touch and feel things, we go to the store and buy it - physically! But now, we have a supply chain crisis.  To better understand the wide-ranging impact of supply chain and supply chain history, we spoke with Mr. Yossi Sheffi, who is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Professor Sheffi is the Director of the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics and also the Director of the MIT Supply Chain Management Program. He has written many books, including a 2020 book titled The New (Ab)Normal: Reshaping Business and Supply Chain Strategy Beyond Covid-19, and a 2021 book that was published just this week, titled A Shot in the Arm: How Science, Engineering, and Supply Chains Converged to Vaccinate the World. Professor Sheffi has advised many governments and leading manufacturing, retail and distribution enterprises, and he has also founded and co-founded five successful companies. 

This is the link to Professor Sheffi’s academic homepage, which lists his research and provides information for his many publications, projects and awards, is provided in the detailed caption of this episode: https://ctl.mit.edu/about/bio/yossi-sheffi

Lebanon hasn't had a national census since the 1930s! Prof. Makdisi explains historical background to current crisis. 

Sectarian violence erupted in the streets of Beirut this week. This development is the manifestation of deep-rooted and unresolved issues in Lebanon, which include, but are not limited to, Lebanon's dysfunctional sectarian government system. As Professor Makdisi explains in our podcast conversation, for centuries, pluralism was a constant and celebrated feature of the Levant. Prior to WWI, different sects coexisted under the auspices of the Ottman Empire. But the sectarian government system that the French established in Lebanon after WWI created fissures along sectarian lines that continue to widen. The astonishing aspect of Lebanon's sectarian government is that it was initially meant as a temporary step towards forming a united, secular national government.  

Join our conversation with Professor Ussama Makdisi of Rice University to learn more about Lebanon's failed sectarian government, foreign interference and the current economic crisis. He is a Professor of History and the first holder of the Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies at Rice University. Professor Makdisi has been a Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley, a Resident Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Berlin, and was named a Carnegie Scholar in 2009. He was awarded the Berlin Prize and was a Fellow at the American Academy of Berlin.

Here is the link to Professor Makdisi's academic homepage, which includes a list of his books and other publications: https://profiles.rice.edu/faculty/ussama-makdisi.

Prof. Nunan takes us from Soviet occupation of Afghanistan to rise of Taliban and their lack of governing experience. 

Where do the Taliban come from? And how is their version of Islam different than say... Iran's? Saudi Arabia? Or Turkey's? And why is it that most Taliban don't speak English (or French for that matter), but the US-backed Afghan government's technocrats did? In addition to their strict interpretation of Islam, the Taliban are different from the Afghan government they defeated in their ethnicity, language and regional affiliations. The two most striking characteristics of the Taliban are their close ties with Pakistan and their rural origins, both of which sets them apart from the urban residents of Kabul - the Afghanistan that we Americans often saw on TV.  Describing the Taliban of the 1990s, Professor Timothy Nunan highlights an intriguing point - that it's hard to call the Taliban a state, because, in their first run of Afghanistan, they pretty much outsourced most of the administrative matters of the country. And this leads to Professor Nunan's interest in Afghanistan's major theme - that it's a country that for decades has depended on foreign aid to survive!  Although the following is a small point in the great tragedy of Afghanistan's fall to the Taliban, it's important to note that the Taliban are not interested, at least not yet, in exporting their way of government or their Islamic ethos. As Professor Nunan tells it, they are perfectly happy remaining within the bounds and boundaries of Afghanistan.  

In this podcast episode, Professor Nunan describes the long history of communism's interest in partnering with the forces of Islam and recruiting Muslims. This background provides a segue to the USSR's occupation of Afghanistan, during which more than one million Afghans died. For more information about Professor Nunan's impressive accomplishments and fascinating research, please visit his academic homepage or his personal website: https://timothynunan.com/.

As Congress debates infrastructure bill, Prof. Petroski explains the history of America's infrastructure and its funding. 

Did you know, that before the 19th century, the only engineering schools were at military academies, such as West Point? Civil engineers that took courses in military schools were later hired by governments and, mostly, by private enterprises to build infrastructure that would make the conduct of business more efficient. So, at its core, infrastructure has always been about commerce and the economy. This statement is timeless - it applied to Roman roads and aqueducts as it applies to American freeway and broadband networks.  When it comes to infrastructure, just as in any other technical discipline, improvement spawns out of failure.  As Professor Henry Petroski tells it, while the French were historically great theorists and designers of infrastructure, the British were better doers. And in their infrastructure efforts, the British kept close records of their progress and failures, something that didn't happen in the U.S. until the 1980s.  

And here is something that I bet you didn't know: 100 years ago, engineers believed that they could build a bridge across the Atlantic. Yes, one hundred years ago. Try getting Congress to pay for that!   

This is the link to Professor Petroski's academic homepage, which includes a list of his many publications, accomplishments and awards: https://cee.duke.edu/faculty/henry-petroski 

Prof. Schuller explains how neoliberal policies and NGOs crippled Haiti's economy, and Haitian women shouldered the burden.

Haitian migrants are at America's Southern border in unprecedented numbers. While many have fled Haiti after the recent assassination of its president, last month's earthquake and the flooding that followed, the overwhelming majority of Haitians are refugees from the aftermath of the 2010 earthquake. This begs the following question: how is it that Haiti hasn't recovered from its 2010 earthquake, despite all the international assistance that it received? 

Professor Schuller dives into the history of Haiti's earthquake recovery, and what role NGOs have played in Haiti. He is a professor of Anthropology and Nonprofit and NGO Studies at Northern Illinois University and its affiliate University in Haiti. Professor Schuller has been studying NGOs and Haiti since the beginning of this century, and he was on the ground in Haiti just 8 days after its calamitous 2010 earthquake.

This is the link to Professor Schuller’s academic homepage, which includes a list of his many publications and accomplishments

In addition, below are links to other interesting episodes:

S2E35: Puerto Rico's history, Dr. Jorge Dunay

I hope you enjoy these episodes.

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

Click to follow us on Twitter

What if Covid predominately killed young Americans? Mr. Barry explains how such a scenario would have altered our response. 

John M. Barry, our guest in this episode, is the author of The Great Influenza, an award-winning book about the Spanish flu pandemic, one that famously became the impetus for President George W. Bush's pandemic preparation plan. Interestingly, President Bush has read another award-winning book by Mr. Barry, one about the history of the Mississippi River's 1927 flood, which President Bush mentions in his autobiography. Although a nonscientist, Mr. Barry has been involved in highly prestigious positions with many scientific institutions. You'll understand how he is qualified for such positions once you read his books (we highly encourage reading The Great Influenza). You can also appreciate the depth of his scientific knowledge and historical research by listening to our conversation with him about the Spanish flu pandemic, and the lessons that can be gleaned from it for our struggle with the Covid-19 pandemic. As you will note, Mr. Barry is not sheepish in sharing his opinions, about how some of our politicians and experts have may have botched our response to our great pandemic.  

Mr. Barry's personal and professional bios are quite fascinating, and he uses wit and humor to tell both. You are welcome to visit his website to learn more about him, including links to his many publications and interviews: https://www.johnmbarry.com/