For decades, Alejandro Portes (CASBS fellow 1980-81) has been among our most distinguished scholars elucidating the causes and consequences of immigration and assimilation. René D. Flores (CASBS fellow 2023-24) engages Portes in a conversation spanning large swaths of Portes's formidable intellectual biography, including his personal journey from Cuba and its influence on his academic trajectory, as well as his approach to social science inquiry and its delivery of insights leading to some of his most celebrated and consequential works.

ALEJANDRO PORTES: Princeton faculty page | CV | Univ. of Miami faculty page | Wikipedia page | on Google Scholar | 

Biographical sketches of Portes: American Sociological Association | National Academy of Education | Princeton | National Institutes of Health | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 

Robert K. Merton's full quote about Alejandro Portes is contained in the September/October 1998 issue of Footnotes, a publication of the American Sociological Association. Access the full text. 
 

Works referenced in this episode

Alejandro Portes, "Rationality in the Slum: An Essay on Interpretive Sociology," Comparative Studies in Society and History, v13 n3, June 1972.

Alejandro Portes, "Dilemmas of a Golden Exile: Integration of Cuban Refugee Families in Milwaukee," American Sociological Review, v34 n4, August 1969.

Alejandro Portes and Robert Bach, Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States. Univ. of California Press, 1985.

Alejandro Portes and Min Zhou, "The New Second Generation: Segmented Assimilation and its Variants," Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, November 1993.

Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Immigrant America: A Portrait, Univ. of California Press, 2024 (fifth ed.)

Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut, Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation, Univ. of California Press, 2001.

Jennifer Lee and Min Zhou, The Asian American Achievement Paradox, Russell Sage Foundation, 2015. (Notably, Jennifer Lee was a CASBS fellow in 2002-03; Min Zhou was a CASBS fellow in 2006-06.)

Bonus: 2019-20 CASBS fellow Catherine Ramírez discusses the influence of Alejandro Portes in "What Does Assimilation Mean?" Public Books, Feb. 27, 2020. The essay was written as part of CASBS's partnership with Public Books. Ramírez writes, "By showing that there are many strata in society into which people assimilate, and many outcomes of assimilation, Portes and his coauthors have enriched our understanding of the processes by which people become American, however precarious that status may be.” 

René D. Flores: Univ. of Chicago faculty page | CASBS page | on Google Scholar | Personal website | 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Generative AI tools built on large language models are increasingly "intelligent" yet lack a baby's common sense – the ability to non-verbally generalize to novel situations without additional training. What can developmental science contribute to AI? Tech journalist and former CASBS fellow John Markoff chats with 2023-24 CASBS fellow David Moore, a developmental scientist with expertise in infant cognition, on evaluating the efforts of DARPA's Machine Common Sense program as well as prospects and concerns associated with creating AIs with common sense.

DAVID MOORE: Personal website | Claremont Infant Study Center | Wikipedia page | 

DARPA Machine Common Sense program

Related resource:

David Moore, et al. "Leveraging Developmental Psychology to Evaluate Artificial Intelligence," 2022 IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL), Nov. 2022. DOI: 10.1109/ICDL53763.2022.9962183

Recommended by David Moore:

Esther Thelen and Linda B. Smith. A Dynamic Systems Approach to the Development of Cognition and Action. MIT Press, 1994.
 

Read John Markoff's latest book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand  (Penguin Random House, 2022)

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Given deeply polarized domestic politics and insufficient international commitment to the Paris Accord, can we reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avert some of the worst effects of climate change before it's too late? It's an elemental question that warrants despair, yes, but plenty of hope too. Political scientist Leigh Raymond, a 2021-22 CASBS fellow, explores the implicated issues through a conversation about "Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere" with its author, sustainability scientist Rob Jackson. Jackson launched the book project as a 2019-20 CASBS fellow.

ROB JACKSON: Faculty page | Stanford profile | CASBS profile | Jackson on Google Scholar | Global Carbon Project | 

Publisher page for Into the Clear Blue Sky: The Path to Restoring Our Atmosphere (Simon & Schuster, 2024)

Media related to Into the Clear Blue Sky: KQED Forum | The Times | Scientific American | Aeon | Wired | Times Literary Supplement | The Conversation | Chemical & Engineering News | Civil Eats | more Scientific American | Literary Hub | Heatmap | Environmental Health News | Orion | Fast Company | Inside Climate News | The Wall Street Journal | Atmos | ACS Publications |

LEIGH RAYMOND: Faculty page | on Google Scholar | 

Publisher page for Reclaiming the Atmospheric Commons: The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and a New Model of Emissions Trading (MIT Press, 2016) | 2017 book award announcement |

"What Climate Policies do Americans Want from Their Legislatures?" Good Authority (July 5, 2022)

"Building Support for Carbon Pricing - Lessons from Cap-and-trade Policies," Energy Policy 134 (2019)

"Framing Market-Based Versus Regulatory Climate Policies: A Comparative Analysis," Review of Policy Research (2022)

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Two-time CASBS fellow and renowned anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann discusses her past and current work as an anthropologist of the mind, both in religious and psychological contexts, in conversation with 2023-24 CASBS fellow Erica Robles-Anderson. Luhrmann's award-winning work investigates visions, voices, psychosis, the supernatural, and other unusual sensory experiences and phenomena, found often at the borderlands of spirit, culture, and the mind.

TANYA LUHRMANN: Stanford faculty page | Stanford profile page | Personal website | Wikipedia page | on Google Scholar | CV |

Luhrmann, Of Two Minds. Winner of: the Victor Turner Prize in Ethnographic Writing, the Bryce Boyer Prize for Psychological Anthropology, the Gradiva Award from the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis

Luhrmann, When God Talks Back. Winner of the Grawemeyer Prize in Religion and the Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year.

Luhrmann, "A life in books," Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2020)

Luhrmann, et al. "Sensing the presence of gods and spirits across cultures and faiths," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021)

ERICA ROBLES-ANDERSON: NYU faculty page | CASBS page | on Google Scholar |

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

There never will be enough independent fact checking of online political advertising and their ecosystems. Can we develop methods and tools to demonetize or at least disincentivize the behaviors of disinformation producers as well as the ad firms and content providers in business with them? 2023-24 CASBS fellow Ceren Budak navigates the disinformation marketplace and illuminates pathways for better design of online communities and platforms in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning tech journalist and former CASBS fellow John Markoff.
 

CEREN BUDAK: Faculty webpage | Personal website | 

Referenced in this episode:

"Misunderstanding the harms of online misinformation." Nature 630, 45–53 (2024)

The Prosocial Ranking Challenge (Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence)

"Intermedia agenda setting during the 2016 and 2020 U.S. presidential elections." Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, 18(1), 254-275. 

Lawrence Lessig's Pathetic Dot Theory (Wikipedia)

----

Read John Markoff's latest book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand  (Penguin Random House, 2022)

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Are jobs requiring high levels of human interaction worth preserving in the age of automation? Can we design machines to achieve something profound – the mutual recognition that occurs when human beings truly "see" each other? CASBS faculty fellow Mitchell Stevens explores these questions with Allison Pugh, author of the 2024 book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World. Pugh launched work on the book as a 2016-17 CASBS fellow.

ALLISON PUGH
 website | Google Scholar page | Interview with Allison Pugh on building a society of connection (CASBS in partnership with Public Books) |

Princeton University Press page for The Last Human Job
 

MITCHELL STEVENS
Stanford GSE faculty page |  Stanford profile |  CASBS page | Google Scholar page |
 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Santi Furnari (CASBS fellow, 2023-24) engages renowned political sociologist & 2015-16 fellow Elisabeth Clemens on the role of private civic volunteer organizations in co-constructing national identity and state capacity as well as serving as tools of governance, solidarity, and inclusion for much of American history. In what form does civic benevolence and philanthropy operate in the contemporary landscape? This absorbing conversation draws inspiration from the multi-award-winning book "Civic Gifts," much of which Clemens wrote during her CASBS year.

ELISABETH CLEMENS: Univ. of Chicago faculty page | Clemens wins 2023 Gordon J. Laing Award | on Wikipedia |

The book is Civic Gifts: Voluntarism and the Making of the American Nation-State (Univ. of Chicago Press), winner of the Barrington Moore Book Award, Comparative and Historical Sociology section, American Sociological Association;  the University of Chicago Press Gordon J. Laing Award; the Outstanding Published Book Award, ASA Section on Altruism, Morality, and Social Solidarity; and the Peter Dobkin Hall History of Philanthropy Prize, Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA).

SANTI FURNARI: CASBS page |  City University of London, Bayes School of Business faculty page | on Google Scholar |

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Legendary tech journalist John Markoff (CASBS fellow, 2017-18) chats with 2023-24 CASBS fellow Young Mie Kim on her groundbreaking efforts to identify how shadowy groups use algorithms and targeted disinformation campaigns during presidential election cycles; measure their real-world distorting effects on voter mobilization or suppression; and illuminate our understanding of resulting political inequalities and their implications for American democracy.

YOUNG MIE KIM: CASBS bio |  Univ. of Wisconsin faculty page |  "The Disinformation Detective" (On Wisconsin magazine) |

Kim leads Project DATA (Digital Ad Tracking & Analysis) at UW. | Project DATA on X |

Kim is lead author of the article "The Stealth Media? Groups and Targets Behind Divisive Issue Campaigns on Facebook," Political Communication, v35 n4 (2018). The article won the Kaid-Sanders Award for the Best Political Communication Article of the Year by the International Communication Association.

Coverage of findings: The New York Times here and here | Wired |  

Kim's testimony delivered to the Federal Election Commission | 

Kim is a founding member of the International Panel on the Information Environment. Coverage of IPIE in The New York Times |

Kim among the authors of "The effects of Facebook and Instagram on the 2020 election: A deactivation experiment," Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, v121 n2 (2024) |

Kim a coauthor of several articles appearing in a special issue of Science on Social Media and Elections (2023) |

At the beginning of the episode, Kim discusses the influence of Phil Converse. Converse was a CASBS fellow in 1979-80 and later served as CASBS director (1989-94). Learn more about Converse's work.

---------

Read John Markoff's latest book, Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand  (Penguin Random House, 2022)

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Stefan Link, a 2023-24 CASBS fellow, chats with Barry Eichengreen, a 1996-97 CASBS fellow and world renowned for his expertise at the nexus of international economics and economic history. They discuss some of Eichengreen's most prominent works — including "The European Economy Since 1945," which emerged from his CASBS experience, and "Golden Fetters," his most cited book — interrogating their durability and applicability to contemporary industrial, financial, and monetary policy challenges and governance.

BARRY EICHENGREEN: UC Berkeley faculty page | Homepage & CV | on Wikipedia | 

STEFAN LINK: CASBS bio | Dartmouth faculty page | 

Mentioned in the episode:

Eichengreen's talk on "Steering Structural Change" (session 2) at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (16 April 2024)

Eichengreen & Temin NBER paper on "The Gold Standard and the Great Depression" (June 1997)


Select Eichengreen books

Elusive Stability: Essays in the History of International Finance 1919-1939 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1990)
Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression 1919-1939 (Oxford Univ. Press, 1992)
International Monetary Arrangements for the 21st Century (Brookings Institution, 1994)
Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (Princeton Univ. Press, 1994)
European Monetary Unification: Theory, Practice, and Analysis (MIT Press, 1997)
Toward a New International Financial Architecture: A Practical Post-Asia Agenda (Peterson Institute for International Economics, 1999)
Financial Crises and What to Do About Them (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002)
Capital Flows and Crises (MIT Press, 2004)
Global Imbalances and the Lessons of Bretton Woods (MIT Press, 2006)
The European Economy Since 1945: Coordinated Capitalism and Beyond (Princeton Univ. Press, 2006)
Exorbitant Privilege: The Rise and Fall of the Dollar and the Future of the International Monetary System (Oxford Univ. Press, 2012)
Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, the Great Recession, and the Uses — and Misuses — of History (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015)
 

Stefan Link book

Forging Global Fordism: Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, and the Contest over the Industrial Order  (Princeton Univ. Press, 2020)
Winner of the Stuart L. Bernath Book Prize, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, as well as the Herbert Baxter Adams Prize, American Historical Association

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel | 

Labor historian & 2023-24 CASBS fellow Gabriel Winant in conversation with 2018-19 CASBS fellow Ruth Milkman, among the nation's most renowned sociologists of labor. In addition to interrogating divisions within and segmentation across labor markets in recent decades, Milkman also has remained attuned to the complexity of the overall working class experience, essential for illuminating ways in which workers can unite and organize.

RUTH MILKMAN: CUNY faculty page | personal website | ASA bio |

Milkman's book Immigrant Labor and the New Precariat (2020) | Polity Press Q&A |

GABRIEL WINANT: CASBS bio | Univ. of Chicago faculty page |  faculty Q&A |

Winant's book The Next Shift: The Fall of Industry and the Rise of Health Care in Rust Belt America (2022)

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University

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Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |