Scholars Strategy Network's No Jargon

By The Scholars Strategy Network

What's Scholars Strategy Network's No Jargon about?

No Jargon, the Scholars Strategy Network’s monthly podcast, presents interviews with top university scholars on the politics, policy problems, and social issues facing the nation. Powerful research, intriguing perspectives -- and no jargon. Find show notes and plain-language research briefs on hundreds of topics at www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/nojargon. New episodes released once a month.

4.5

168168 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Scholars Strategy Network's No Jargon episodes:

04.03.2024
Episode 258: The Past and Future of Big Tech
In March, the Justice Department filed a major antitrust complaint against Apple accusing the tech giant of maintaining a monopoly over the smartphone market. This is just the latest action the government has taken against Big Tech in recent years,...
03.05.2024
Episode 257: Supporting the Needs of Refugees
Border crossings coming into the United States are at some of their highest levels in recent history. Cities like Chicago and New York are struggling to provide services while the immigration system is running out of funding and faces a...
02.06.2024
Episode 256: MLK's Contested legacy
Martin Luther King Jr. holds a special place in the American consciousness and is one of the few people to have a federal holiday celebrating his legacy. But what exactly is MLK’s legacy? From immigrants rights groups to gun rights...
01.09.2024
Episode 255: The Year of Strikes
From healthcare strikes to auto workers strikes to the Writers Guild and Hollywood actors strikes, 2023 was an eventful year for union activity. Professor Nathan Wilmers examined the implications of that activity and what it may mean for the future...
12.05.2023
Episode 254: The Rise and Risks of AI
Since the emergence of ChatGPT in late 2022, new artificial intelligence models have captured the attention and fascination of the world. Some Americans are still acquainting themselves with the tools while for others, these models are already becoming an essential...
11.07.2023
Episode 253: The Long History of Conservatorships
While news over Britney Spears’s 13-year conservatorship turned what was a largely unfamiliar term into one most Americans now know, involuntary care over adults with certain types of disabilities or severe mental illness is nothing new in the United States....
10.03.2023
Episode 252: Ignoring Women's Pain
With abortion bans passing in states all over the country since the overturn of Roe v. Wade, women experiencing miscarriages have been turned away from hospitals because doctors deemed that they weren’t in enough clear danger to receive abortion care....
09.06.2023
Episode 251: Segregation in our Schools
According to a recent, federal report, while racial diversity is at an all time high in the K-12 public school system, racial inequality and segregation on school campuses persists, and continues to increase. Professor Erica Frankenberg broke down what racial...
08.14.2023
Episode 250: Climate, Health Care, and the IRS
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) was signed into law almost one year ago, but Americans are still learning how this giant legislative package impacts them. With provisions targeting different sectors of the economy, the IRA has focused most...
06.06.2023
Episode 249: Unhoused and Underserved
In an annual report, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development found that over half a million Americans were experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2022. According to Professor Megan Welsh Carroll, racial discrimination, criminalization, and of...
05.02.2023
Episode 248: Fifty Years of Mass Incarceration
2023 marks 50 years since the beginning of mass incarceration in 1973, when the U.S. prison population started increasing every single year for nearly four decades, according to Professor Nazgol Ghandnoosh. Ghandnoosh, who works for The Sentencing Project, shared some...
04.04.2023
Episode 247: The Flurry of Anti-Trans Legislation
In states across the country, a flurry of new laws are being considered, and often passed, that specifically target transgender individuals – from bills that bar access to gender-affirming healthcare for youth to legislation that bans transgender people from competing...
03.07.2023
Episode 246: No Box to Check
Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Americans may at times feel as though they’re invisible. An estimated 3 million of them live in the U.S. yet have no box to mark their identities on government forms, such as the Census,...
02.07.2023
Episode 245: Invisible Barriers in STEM Education
In the American school system, math and science are considered essential building blocks of a good education. But for many students, those building blocks can topple over somewhere along the way. We spoke to Professor Lara Perez-Felkner, who laid out...
01.04.2023
Episode 244: Avoiding a Cyber Catastrophe
Gone are the days of file cabinets, wall calendars and phone books, as advances in technology have made storing information easier than ever. But given a slew of high-profile data breaches in recent years – both at governmental agencies and...
12.06.2022
Episode 243: Prison Cell or Recovery Center?
According to the CDC, more than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021. And a record-breaking 627 of those deaths occurred in the state of Maine. Substance use disorder is seen as a public health emergency by the medical...
11.01.2022
Episode 242: Midterm Trailblazers
With the midterm elections around the corner, all eyes are on the record-breaking number of Black female candidates on the ballot. We spoke to professor of government Nadia E. Brown, who shared her research on what’s contributing to the rising...
10.04.2022
Episode 241: In Search of a Home
With rent prices and mortgage rates continuing to skyrocket, finding and keeping stable housing is getting increasingly challenging for many Americans. But according to sociology professor Prentiss Dantzler, those challenges are amplified for members of marginalized groups, such as Black...
09.06.2022
Episode 240: Falling Through the Social Safety Net
Millions of Americans are poor, food insecure, housing cost-burdened, or medically uninsured. This is where the U.S. social safety net comes in – with programs like Medicaid, food stamps, and unemployment insurance – to catch their fall. But how many...
08.02.2022
Episode 239: Supporting the Needs of Refugees
The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine have brought an increased number of refugees to America over the past year. Enter refugee resettlement agencies – organizations that provide food, shelter, and of course, job placement to newly...
06.29.2022
Episode 238: The "Neutral" Umpires of the Supreme Court
The US Supreme Court has a long history of firmly defending its philosophy of neutrality and did the same for the recent and historic overturn of Roe. Wade. But according to law professor Cedric Merlin Powell, the Court’s neutral stance...
06.07.2022
Episode 237: Who’s Really in a Student Debt Crisis?
More and more Americans are facing massive student debt and daunting payment plans once the federal pause on loan payments runs out. But this burden is not spread evenly, and neither are the challenges of paying it off. In this...
05.03.2022
Episode 236: How White Millennials Really Think About Race
Millennials are often seen as a progressive-minded generation – as 80’s and 90’s kids, they grew up in a digital landscape that exposed them to a diversity of perspectives. But while expectations were high that this generation would be on...
04.05.2022
Episode 235: The Real Culprits of Climate Change
Conversations around climate change often focus on the consumption habits of everyday people: the cars we drive, the food we eat, our electricity bills. But according to geography professor Matt Huber, the carbon footprints of consumers are not what we...
03.01.2022
Episode 234: Election Disinformation
The 2020 presidential election brought disinformation – defined as false information with the intent to mislead – to the forefront of public conversation. Subsequent events, such as the January 6 riot, reveal the serious danger disinformation can pose to democracy....
02.01.2022
Episode 233: Pandemic Postpartum
The postpartum experience can be challenging enough for American mothers in normal times, but add a pandemic to the equation, and you may be left with a postpartum nightmare. To better understand what the birthing and postpartum experiences looked like...
01.04.2022
Episode 232: Reflecting on Two Years of Trauma
Amidst the dizzying onslaught of crises facing the nation – and the world – over the past several years, we are starting the new year by reflecting on how Americans react and respond to traumatic events, both as individuals and...
12.07.2021
Episode 231: Broken Promises for Native American Healthcare
Tribal communities are entitled to federally funded healthcare under treaties signed with the U.S. government. And yet, Native Americans often struggle to access quality healthcare, creating health disparities that take a tremendous toll on their lives . In this episode,...
11.02.2021
Episode 230: America's Childcare Crisis
The decades-long childcare crisis in America -- worsened by the pandemic -- continues to deepen: parents all across the nation have been facing immense challenges in finding quality, affordable childcare, all while childcare providers continue to deal with poor working...
10.05.2021
Episode 229: Rolling Back Roe
With a near-total abortion ban that was recently passed in Texas and Mississippi’s request to overturn Roe v. Wade making its way to the Supreme Court, many are asking what the uptick in abortion restrictions in the US will mean...
09.08.2021
Episode 228: The Past and Future of Big Tech
Join us for the official relaunch of the No Jargon Podcast! For our first episode since our eleven-month hiatus, we take on Big Tech and government. Tech giants like Amazon and Facebook have been in the news a lot lately,...
10.09.2020
Episode 227: Elections Rule
The 2020 election is quickly approaching and there is no lack of challenges for election administrators to overcome. From a pandemic that’s made finding poll workers difficult, to a massive influx of vote-by-mail ballots that are likely to delay results,...
09.25.2020
Episode 226: The Past and Future of Medicaid
No Jargon is back for a special episode featuring Dr. Emma Sandoe. Medicaid has become the largest source of health care coverage in America. Just this year, even more states expanded their Medicaid programs, meaning that this trend is only...
06.25.2020
Episode 225: Black Lives Matter, Police, and America’s Democracy
Since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police at the end of May, the United States has been rocked by weeks of nationwide protests against police brutality, and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. Professor Vesla...
06.18.2020
Episode 224: Voting in 2020
The 2020 election was already shaping up to be one of the most consequential and contentious in recent memory, and then came the COVID-19 pandemic. While much about the future is uncertain, we know this: the election cannot be run...
06.11.2020
Episode 223: The Future of Abortion Care?
Even at the best of times, accessing abortion care in the United States can be an arduous process. During a pandemic, the challenges only mount further. Clinics are closed down and, in some places, politicians have begun using COVID-19 to...
06.02.2020
Episode 222: Violence in Resistance
In cities and towns across the country, protests have erupted following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and others. While many of the protests remained peaceful, others turned violent, with buildings being destroyed or looted and...
05.28.2020
Episode 221: America’s Undocumented Students
Being a college student can be stressful enough, but when you’re an undocumented immigrant, there are many additional hurdles in your way. Dr. Sayil Camacho unpacks what it’s like to be an undocumented student at our nation’s colleges and universities,...
05.21.2020
Episode 220: Vaccination Education
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, it’s widely accepted that without a vaccine, life cannot go back to normal. But as it turns out, not everyone is on board. Over the last several years, an anti-vaccine movement has gained...
05.14.2020
Episode 219: The College Hookup
The scene is so common it’s almost cliche: two beautiful young people meet at a rowdy college party and drunkenly fall into bed together. American pop culture is fascinated by college hookups, but is casual sex really as widespread as...
05.07.2020
Episode 218: When Disasters Strike
In any sense of the word, the COVID-19 crisis can be considered a disaster. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives, millions have lost their jobs, and nearly everyone is experiencing a sense of shock at how quickly...
04.30.2020
Episode 217: Feeling the Economic Pain
Every Thursday since America started locking down to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus, a tragic new number is released: the latest unemployment claims. Tens of millions of Americans have already filed for unemployment, and that number is likely...
04.23.2020
Episode 216: A Model for Care
With the COVID-19 crisis spreading rapidly across the US, much attention has been paid to the hospitals on the front lines of this pandemic. But there is another set of healthcare providers that also has a crucial role to play...
04.16.2020
Episode 215: Polarization in a Pandemic
We’re in April, as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic. Today, the U.S. has more reported cases than any other nation on earth - a fact that may in part be due to testing levels, but could also be...
04.09.2020
Episode 214: A Second Safety Net
As policymakers on Capitol Hill work to expand America’s safety net in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic downturn, it’s becoming increasingly clear that it might not be enough. So where can we look for guidance on what more...
04.02.2020
Episode 213: Learning from Ebola
With governments rushing to put in place policies and guidelines to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, it’s important to look to the past to inform the present. And we don’t have to look far. Just 5 years ago,...
03.26.2020
Episode 212: Fighting Hunger During a Pandemic
Around the United States, schools are shutting down due to coronavirus. For some Americans, this means setting up a home office and learning to work with children underfoot. But others are facing a far more serious crisis: with school cafeterias...
03.19.2020
Episode 211: Rethinking Global Philanthropy
Money. Power. Knowledge. Health. Education. When you look around the world, when it comes to resources and opportunities, there are massive imbalances between countries and even inside countries. In the name of making the world a better place, people and...
03.12.2020
Episode 210: Students at the Polls
With the 2020 primary in full swing, college campuses are full of conversations about politics, policy, and the future of American democracy. But many of these college students don’t turn out when it actually matters, on Election Day. In fact,...
03.05.2020
Episode 209: Reporting from the Twittersphere
Social media has permeated countless aspects of our daily lives. But perhaps no platform has influenced the media like Twitter, shaping not only what many journalists cover, but also how they cover it. Professor Shannon McGregor dives into the role...

What's Scholars Strategy Network's No Jargon about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Scholars Strategy Network's No Jargon episodes:

Episode 258: The Past and Future of Big Tech

Episode 257: Supporting the Needs of Refugees

Episode 256: MLK's Contested legacy

Episode 255: The Year of Strikes

Episode 254: The Rise and Risks of AI

Episode 253: The Long History of Conservatorships

Episode 252: Ignoring Women's Pain

Episode 251: Segregation in our Schools

Episode 250: Climate, Health Care, and the IRS

Episode 249: Unhoused and Underserved

Episode 248: Fifty Years of Mass Incarceration

Episode 247: The Flurry of Anti-Trans Legislation

Episode 246: No Box to Check

Episode 245: Invisible Barriers in STEM Education

Episode 244: Avoiding a Cyber Catastrophe

Episode 243: Prison Cell or Recovery Center?

Episode 242: Midterm Trailblazers

Episode 241: In Search of a Home

Episode 240: Falling Through the Social Safety Net

Episode 239: Supporting the Needs of Refugees

Episode 238: The "Neutral" Umpires of the Supreme Court

Episode 237: Who’s Really in a Student Debt Crisis?

Episode 236: How White Millennials Really Think About Race

Episode 235: The Real Culprits of Climate Change

Episode 234: Election Disinformation

Episode 233: Pandemic Postpartum

Episode 232: Reflecting on Two Years of Trauma

Episode 231: Broken Promises for Native American Healthcare

Episode 230: America's Childcare Crisis

Episode 229: Rolling Back Roe

Episode 228: The Past and Future of Big Tech

Episode 227: Elections Rule

Episode 226: The Past and Future of Medicaid

Episode 225: Black Lives Matter, Police, and America’s Democracy

Episode 224: Voting in 2020

Episode 223: The Future of Abortion Care?

Episode 222: Violence in Resistance

Episode 221: America’s Undocumented Students

Episode 220: Vaccination Education

Episode 219: The College Hookup

Episode 218: When Disasters Strike

Episode 217: Feeling the Economic Pain

Episode 216: A Model for Care

Episode 215: Polarization in a Pandemic

Episode 214: A Second Safety Net

Episode 213: Learning from Ebola

Episode 212: Fighting Hunger During a Pandemic

Episode 211: Rethinking Global Philanthropy

Episode 210: Students at the Polls

Episode 209: Reporting from the Twittersphere