Samantha & Walker Talk Politics

This podcast highlights how many high school curriculums throughout the U.S. do not teach enough about Latino history and culture. This podcast was inspired by my personal experience of not learning enough in my own high school. In this podcast I interview 7 of my Dartmouth College classmates, and I compare and contrast the experiences they had about what they did and did not learn about Latino history and culture.

Today, we’ll be talking about protecting access to abortion and reporductive health care. Even though abortions are such a controvertial topic, they are both important and prevelant, specifically becayse right now, the Supreme Court is hearing a case called Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which is a direct challenge to Roe V Wade. So to talk about this case, about how states make it harder to get aboritons even if they’re allegedly legal, and about how young people can protect the right to abortions and full reproductive care, we’ve invited two lawyers from the National Women’s Law Center: Leila Jade Levi and Anna Rodriguez.

This is part two of our two part episode on addressing climate change. In part one we talked about the important role policy plays in addressing climate change, and in this episode, for part 2, we will be talking about business’s ability to create positive change, and why the private sector needs to play a role in addressing climate change. To talk about the role businesses can and should play in curbing climate change, we are so excited to speak with John Replogle.

As a founding partner One Better Ventures, a social impact firm that advises and invests in mission driven consumer goods companies, John Replogle is a leader in the conscious consumer and mission-driven brand movement. He has extensive experience as former CEO of Seventh Generation and Burt’s Bees. Seventh Generation helped to launch the B Corp movement and has been awarded the “Best for the World” distinction from B Labs. He also served as the president of Guinness, and the General Manager of Unilever Skincare, where he launched the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. He has served on the boards of BeautyCounter, Take Your Seat, Dartmouth College, and many other organizations of business.

This episode is part one of a two-part episode on combating climate change. In this first part, we’ll talk with Massachusetts State Representative Joan Meschino about how government policy can lead the push to decarbonize our society and protect our environment.

Climate change is arguably the largest problem society faces today. Industrial activity has released excess greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and those gasses trap heat, dramatically reshaping our atmosphere with catastrophic impact on the water cycle, sea levels, storm patterns, and life itself on Earth. Despite widespread debate among the general population, the consensus among scientists is resounding: climate change is real, dangerous, and eminent and the only way to combat it is to reach carbon neutrality, where we produce only as much carbon dioxide as the Earth can naturally absorb.

The exact estimates on how long we have to reach carbon-neutrality vary from 2030 to 2050. Either way, these numbers give humanity only a few decades to sustainably reinvent our economy, global energy sources, and transportation. The question is, how? In this two-part episode, we’ll explore the two key answers to the question: government policy and businesses.

Just how bad is America's prison problem?

Since 1978 to 2009, the American prison population grew by a factor of 8. Now, the United States incarcerates over two million people -- roughly a quarter of the world’s prison population. We incarcerate 655 people 100,000 -- more per capita than China, Russia, and Iran combined. In fact, America imprisons more people and more people per capita than any other country on Earth -- by a significant margin.

In this episode, we'll be talking with Dr. Matthew Blanton, a history teacher at Milton Academy, and Oami Amarasingham, the legislative director at the ACLU Massachusetts, to better understand mass incarceration and how we can begin creating change.

In this episode, we have the pleasure of talking with Arthur Rizer. We’ll be asking why it is so hard to reform the police, what changes actually need to be made in order to create change, and why the police have become more violent throughout history.

Arthur Rizer is a former police officer and a veteran of the United States Army who was awarded a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart, and two Iraq Campaign Medals. He was then a district attorney and Associate Law Professor. From there, he founded and directed the criminal justice and civil liberties division at R Street, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank. He is now the Vice President of Technology, Criminal Justice, and Civil Liberties at the Lincoln Network, a non-profit NGO.

This week, we’ve invited two inspiring activists on the forefront of the push for Police Reform, for a two-part special. In Part One, we’ll talk with DeRay McKesson and then in Part Two, we’ll sit down with Arthur Rizer. In this episode Deray McKesson explains and helps us understand what kinds of police reform are impactful and how the movement can gain momentum. Walker and I both learned a tremendous amount from this conversation, and that's why we are so excited to share it with our listeners.

DeRay McKesson is a leader in the BlackLivesMatter movement, a co-founder of CampaignZero -- a leading police reform advocacy group, and a host of the podcast Pod Save the People.  He helped organize the 2014 protests in Ferguson, Missouri, later winning recognition from Forbes Magazine as One of the World’s Greatest Leaders in 2015 and from Time Magazine as One of the 30 Most Influential People on the Internet, in 2015.

In this episode, we are exploring the link between our identities and politics, how politicians use that link, and how our using our identities as political tools creates polarization.