IDEAS IN ACTION | USC's Podcast Series

Juneteenth is the oldest celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. But the fight against institutionalized racism continues today. Join USC experts as they discuss critical race theory, voting rights, criminal justice reform, and the ongoing struggle for liberty and justice for all.

Panelists

Jody Armour is the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at USC. Armour's expertise ranges from personal injury claims to claims about the relationship between racial justice, criminal justice, and the rule of law. He studies the intersection of race and legal decision-making as well as torts and tort reform movements. Armour teaches students a diverse array of subjects, including Criminal Law, Torts, and Stereotypes and Prejudice: The Role of the Cognitive Unconscious in the Rule of Law.

Alaina Morgan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at USC. Trained as a historian of the African Diaspora, Professor Morgan's research focuses on the historic utility of religion, particularly Islam, in racial liberation and anti-colonial movements of the mid-to late-twentieth-century Atlantic world. Morgan teaches classes on African American and African Diaspora History; Islam in the Americas; race and ethnicity in America; mass incarceration, discipline, and racialized punishment; Black intellectual history; and Black international movements.

Christian Grose is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at USC. He is the Academic Director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, where he led a team that administered the USC Schwarzenegger Institute nonpartisan democracy grants to local election administrators to open new polling places; and he is now researching how best to improve voter access and voting rights based around this community-engaged work.

Working with the federal government and the city of Los Angeles, USC researchers have identified pathways to a zero-emissions future for the megalopolis in 25 years, a new report shows. But how do you get there from here? What are the challenges and benefits? And can L.A. become a clean-energy model for other cities? Join Sammy Roth, energy reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Lauren Faber O'Connor, city of Los Angeles' chief sustainability officer, Adam Rose, professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy, and Kelly Sanders, professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, for a lively discussion about Southern California's sustainable future.

March 2021 marks the one-year anniversary of the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Illness, distance learning, and social isolation have turned our lives upside down. Depression rates are up among teens and young adults. How have young people fared after a year of lockdowns, remote schooling, and the disruption of social norms?

Join Dean Willow Bay, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy, and Common Sense CEO Jim Steyer for a conversation on how young people use digital devices and media to manage their mental health. The discussion will also cover a groundbreaking new research report on the mental health of today's young adults.

Additional participants include Associate Vice Provost for Student Health Dr. Sarah Van Orman and student co-moderators Josie Bullen, Abel Jaquez and Anushka Joshi.

As part of USC's International Women's Day 2021 celebration, USC President Carol L. Folt sits down with rising filmmaker and USC alumna Channing Godfrey Peoples for an inspiring conversation about Peoples' career and her critically acclaimed, award-winning film, "Miss Juneteenth." USC Cinema Dean Elizabeth Daley provides introductions.

Scientific innovation was put to the test in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, and it resulted in two vaccines in record time that are at least 94% effective in clinical trials. Now the task of vaccinating the population has begun with many skeptics fearing side effects, rushed science in its development, and political involvement. There is also a segment of the population who are generally vaccine skeptics.

Join the USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy and the USC Behavioral Science and Well-Being Policy Initiative for an expert discussion on how to encourage vaccine adoption.

Learn more about the USC Schaeffer Center at healthpolicy.usc.edu

When COVID-19 emerged, it was a new coronavirus we knew little about. Over the past year, experts from across the globe have worked together to better fight the pandemic.

Listen in as faculty experts from the Keck School of Medicine of USC discuss what we've learned so far about COVID-19:

• Paula Cannon, a microbiologist who is an expert in all the ways COVID can, and cannot, be transmitted.
• Susan Butler-Wu, also a microbiologist, is an expert on COVID testing.
• Ali Gholamrezanezhad, a radiologist who has viewed the pandemic through a unique lens: chest x-rays.

Holidays represent normalcy for children during uncertain times. With Halloween around the corner, as well as other fall celebrations, USC's Rita V. Burke, Assistant Professor of Clinical Preventive Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, offers tips for having fun without spreading or catching COVID-19.

Listen in as Caleb Finch and Axel Montagne (in conversation with Leigh Hopper from USC's University Communications), discuss their respective research on Alzheimer's disease, including how pollution may cause inflammation in the human body, contributing to the acceleration of dementia.

Axel Montagne is an Associate Professor of Research Physiology & Neuroscience at Keck School of Medicine at USC and Assistant Director of the USC Functional Biological Imaging Core.

Caleb Finch is University Professor, ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and Professor of Gerontology, Biological Sciences, Anthropology, and Psychology at USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology.

As an undergraduate majoring in history at USC Dornsife, Tracy Walder had planned to become a teacher. Until the CIA recruited her. Not long after graduating, the former sorority sister known for dressing in pink was wearing camouflage fatigues, toting an assault rifle and hunting down Al-Qaeda as a counterterrorism field agent in the aftermath of 9/11. Returning to the U.S., she made the almost-unheard-of-transition to the FBI, where she continued to take down bad guys out of the L.A. field office. Walder sat down with USC Dornsife historian Peter Mancall, divisional dean for the humanities, to discuss her larger-than-life career as a spook — and why she left that life behind to return to her first love: teaching history.

Dornsife Dialogues Join us for stimulating online forums in which leading scholars and distinguished alumni from the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences share new perspectives, research-based findings and fresh insight on timely topics. The free events are open to the entire USC community and general public. https://dornsife.usc.edu/dornsifedialogues/

Listen in on the conversation with experts from USC Dornsife, USC Viterbi and the California Science Center about the NASA Mars 2020 Perseverance rover launch.

Kenneth Phillips is Curator for Aerospace Science at the California Science Center and an adjunct professor of the practice of physics and astronomy at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He's an expert in aeronautics, space exploration and science education.

Anita Sengupta is an associate professor of astronautics at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and a former engineer at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She's an expert in spacecraft design for interplanetary exploration and was responsible for the supersonic parachute system of the Curiosity rover that landed on Mars in 2012.

Ken Nealson is an emeritus professor of Earth science at the Dornsife College. He is an expert in astrobiology, microbial life in extreme environments and the evolution of life in the universe. He led the astrobiology program at JPL, started the geobiology program at USC and is a member of the science team for the 2020 Mars mission.

Garrett Reisman is a professor of astronautical engineering at the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC. He was an astronaut for NASA and conducted missions aboard the Space Shuttles Endeavor, Discovery and Atlantis as well as the International Space Station. He was also director of space operations for SpaceX and remains a senior advisor to the company.