Knox Pods

Dr. Mark McGrail discusses Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy for Books Sandwiched In. Macy reveals the relentless physical, structural and social forces behind the opioid crisis and how to work for the transformational change required to overcome them.

Music credit: "Three Stories" by Blue Dot Sessions, CC BY-NC 4.0

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In this podcast episode, Dave Wells summarizes the key points in Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt. Bestselling author Arthur C. Brooks, president of American Enterprise Institute, shows that abuse and outrage are not the right formula for lasting success. Brooks offers a better way to lead based on bridging divides and mending relationships.

Wells is a Tennessee state coordinator for Better Angels, a national civic  movement to reduce political polarization in the United States by bringing liberals and conservatives together to understand each other beyond stereotypes, teaching practical skills for communicating across political differences.

Music credit: "Three Stories" by Blue Dot Sessions, CC BY-NC 4.0

In American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment, Shane Bauer weaves a deep reckoning of his experience as a prison guard together with a thoroughly researched history of for-profit prisons in America.

Julie Gautreau, an attorney with the Knox County Public Defenders Community Law Office, adds local context to the issues in this discussion for Books Sandwiched In. "American Prison exposes all the moving parts of our industrialized system of incarceration: its roots in slavery, its disproportionate exploitation of minorities and the poor, the complacency of the justice system and the cynicism of the legislative bodies that use it for political leverage. American Prison is a study in everything that is wrong with American justice and American business," Gautreau said.

Music credit: "Three Stories" by Blue Dot Sessions, CC BY-NC 4.0

Dr. Maria Fernanda Campa considers the facts revealed in Saudi America: The Truth about Fracking and How It's Changing the World by Bethany McLean.

"In addition to easy access to investment capital, the oil and gas industry enjoys the biggest subsidies of any energy sector—yes, more than renewables," Campa said. "Further, the oil and gas industry is exempted from environmental policies, such as the Clean Water Act, to facilitate and support oil and gas sector production growth rate. However, even with all these economic and political advantages, it is quite interesting to read that the fracking industry is still not generating enough cash flow to carry itself."

Campa is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment at the University of Tennessee studying issues in hydraulic fracturing.

Music credit: "Blue Dot Sessions" on https://www.sessions.blue, CC BY-NC 4.0

Dr. Kelsey Ellis drives home the point of The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters by Robert Muir-Wood in her work on individual behavior responses to tornado warnings.

In The Cure for Catastrophe, global risk expert Robert Muir-Wood argues that our natural disasters are in fact human ones. Recognizing how disasters are manufactured gives us the power to act. Ellis, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee, is a hazard climatologist focusing on weather and climate hazards with a holistic approach in an attempt to lessen human risk.

Music credit: "Blue Dot Sessions" on https://www.sessions.blue, CC BY-NC 4.0

Dr. Zach McKenney appreciates Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein, calling it "a harrowing account of the human consequences of plant shutdowns and the rippling effects that they have throughout affected communities."

In Janesville, Wisconsin, the nation’s oldest operating General Motors assembly plant shut down in the midst of the Great Recession. With intelligence, sympathy, and insight into what connects and divides people in an era of economic upheaval, Goldstein shows why it’s so hard in the twenty-first century to recreate a healthy, prosperous working class.

"Janesville is not so much an economic treatise on deindustrialization as it is a stunning ethnography of the tragedy and resiliency of a small Midwestern town," McKenney said.

McKenney is a lecturer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville where he received his doctorate in sociology with a concentration in political economy and globalization.

Music credit: "Blue Dot Sessions," CC BY-NC 4.0

Does every vote count? Attorneys Julie Gautreau and Tammy Kaousias grapple with the implications of data and laws that challenge voter access and representation. This podcast episode is excerpted from their remarks during the Democracy and the Informed Citizen Symposium on September 28, 2018, sponsored by Humanities Tennessee.

Gautreau is a lawyer practicing with the Knox County Public Defender's Community Law Office. As an outgrowth of her work in indigent criminal defense, she has become involved with several organizations advocating for the rights of incarcerated people.

Kaousias was appointed to the Knox County Election Commission as an Election Commissioner in the 2013–2015 term. She has worked for the restoration of rights for those with criminal records and advising candidates on qualification issues, in addition to her practice in the areas of real estate and entertainment businesses and ventures.

Music credit: "Blue Dot Sessions," CC BY-NC 4.0

Dr. Rocio Huet focuses on what's most important in her assessment of Natural Causes: an epidemic of wellness, the certainty of dying, and killing ourselves to live longer by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Ehrenreich describes how we over-prepare and worry too much about what is inevitable. We may buy expensive anti-aging products or cosmetic surgery, get preventive screenings and eat more kale, or throw ourselves into meditation and spirituality. But all these things offer only the illusion of control. Ehrenreich decides to focus on how to live well, even joyously, while accepting mortality.

This podcast is condensed from Huet's remarks last month for Books Sandwiched In, highlighting an integrative doctor's responses to the author's main points.

Music credit: "Blue Dot Sessions," CC BY-NC 4.0

Cliff Rodgers, Knox County Administrator of Elections, explains what happened when the county website was attacked during the May 2018 election, and what his employees do to protect the voting machines from tampering. This episode is excerpted from Rodgers' remarks (September 28, 2018) during the Democracy and the Informed Citizen Symposium sponsored by Humanities Tennessee.

Music credit: "Three Stories" by Blue Dot Sessions, CC BY-NC 4.0

Dr. Nick Geidner discusses Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future by Joi Ito and Jeff Howe, who lay out the unprecedented changes in a world that is more complex and volatile today than at any other time in our history.

The mind-blowing transformation in our modern existence to faster, cheaper, and smaller—combined with the immediate connectivity of billions of strangers—has created an unpredictable new world across business and culture, from the public sphere to our most private moments. The authors present nine organizing principles for navigating and surviving this tumultuous period in all facets of our lives and in our organizations.

Geidner said, "I have more ambivalence and cognitive dissonance about social media than anything else in the world." Find out why in this episode.

Music credit: Blue Dot Sessions CC BY-NC 4.0