Professor & the Idiot

The unusual 2020 election left us with many questions, so we try to puzzle them out with University of Utah political scientist Matthew Burbank, a longtime fixture in Utah media during election season. We ponder Trump’s refusal to concede, his surprising strength among non-white voters, and what’s in store for the GOP going forward. Finally, Matt offers a surprising prediction about Trump’s own political future.

Dancer, choreographer, and teacher Claudine Naganuma talks to Nick and Amy about the breadth of her work, which includes involving young dancers in her company dNaga, providing dance classes to people with Parkinson’s, and engaging East Oakland girls in self-empowerment activities. We discuss dance as a social statement, the importance of cultural representation in the arts, and whether emotional intelligence should be taught in schools.

Martin Shapiro is Professor Emeritus of law at the University of California, Berkeley, and one of the world’s leading experts on the supreme court and administrative law. A long-time professional acquaintance of the late supreme court Justice Antonin Scalia, Martin provided us with key insights on the limitations of “originalism” as a means of understanding the constitution. He also appraises the strengths and drawbacks of Roe v. Wade, and talks about how a conservative SCOTUS majority strengthened by the addition of Amy Coney Barrett might rule on Roe.

Roger Hallsten has been a speech pathologist for over twenty years and has worked in a variety of settings. We talk, hopefully non-pathologically, about what his work entails. What are common speech problems? How do they get treated? Later in the episode we get even more pathological as we’re graced with the presence of our friend Jodie, a masters student in speech pathology. The four of us ponder the potential pathologies of America’s most famous stutterer, Joe Biden, and his electoral rival.

Last time out we talked to University of Virginia sociologist W. Bradford Wilcox (@WilcoxNMP), who’s championed marriage for its time-tested personal and social benefits. This week we speak to Vicki Larson (@OMGchronicles), a California journalist and coauthor of The New I Do: Reshaping Marriage for Skeptics, Realists and Rebels. Like Brad, Vicki sees the value of marriage, but she views it a flexible institution that can assume different forms in response to a changing world. These range all the way from polyamory to the binding covenant marriages available in Louisiana and elsewhere. We debate the extent to which marriage needs to evolve to stay relevant in 2020, and somehow manage to establish that Vicki and Brad may agree more about marriage than it might first seem.

W. Bradford Wilcox is a University of Virginia professor who’s been studying marriage for two decades. He’s also one of Nick’s longtime collaborators: together Brad & Nick have penned numerous articles and a book. Amy and Nick ask Brad about the state of marriage in contemporary America, and the theory of marital success Brad’s developing for his new book. What contributes to a lasting marriage, and what have family scholars often missed when they talk about marriage? We also ponder how COVID-19 has affected families.

NOTE: We experienced some internet woes during recording, and apologize to our selective fan base about a few rough transitions in the otherwise superlative episode you’re about to listen to.

Amanda Chaudhary is a computer science Ph.D. who works in music tech in the Bay Area. She’s also a woman, a musician, and a trans woman. We talk to her about which of these identities feels most salient to her, and how they intersect in her life. We also discuss cats, architecture, and some of the public discourse involving trans folks.

Religion and pornography both figure prominently in American cultural discourse. Pornography consumption exploded over the same years that organized religion hemorrhaged public support. In public, evangelical elites have vociferously condemned pornography; in private, many evangelicals consume porn just like the rest of us do. Sociologist Sam Perry spoke to us about this contradiction, the subject of his 2019 book Addicted to Lust: Pornography in the Lives of Conservative Protestants. We also talk about Christian nationalism, seemingly a resurgent phenomenon related to Donald Trump’s presidency.

The 2016 presidential election introduced America to the alt-right. What is it, where did they come from, who are they, and is it still a thing? This week we talk to George Hawley, a University of Alabama political scientist, and the author of Making Sense of the Alt-Right and other books on right-wing dissidents in America. George patiently answers our questions as we try to understand how the alt-right figures into both the history of domestic extremist groups and right-wing politics more broadly, both in the United States and abroad.

What’s it like to become a single mother by choice? What are the challenges of life as a single mom and working musician? Today Amy and Nick talk to Amy’s friend and collaborator Jess Ivry about how she decided to become a mom, how she got pregnant, and what it’s been like as a mother. This topic was of particular interest to Nick given his longstanding research and forthcoming book on the economics of single motherhood. And as a refresher for younger and/or more forgetful listeners, Murphy Brown was a TV character played by Candice Bergen who made headlines in the early 1990s when she decided to have a child on her own, both on her TV show and in real life. Her decision was criticized by then Vice President Dan Quayle during the 1992 election, turning her into a cultural touchstone.