Talk Policy To Me

Emily Nguyen started working in the government as a teenager. Can teenagers get taken seriously in San Francisco City Hall? And why does it matter that youth like Emily participate in civics? Welcome to the first episode of Season 6, a story about the joys, surprises, and struggles of being young in local government. This episode hosted by Avalon Bauman features a conversation with Berkeley Institute for Young Americans policy director Dr. Erin Heys.

• Youth Commission ‘23 Budget and Priorities Report
• Lowering the Voting Age Policy Brief

A new season of Talk Policy to Me is launching soon.

Professor Robert B. Reich was voted by the graduating students of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy to be their faculty speaker. Always a beloved teacher, this occasion was especially meaningful because it marked Professor Reich's retirement from teaching. 

Robert Reich was introduced by Master of Public Policy student speaker Abraham Eli Bedoy.

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/professor-robert-reich-speaks-at-goldman-school-commencement

Tennessee Representative Justin Jones addressed the graduates at the Goldman School of Public Policy's commencement on May 14, 2023.

Representative Jones came into the national spotlight when he was expelled from the Tennessee legislature for taking to the assembly floor to protest gun violence and the refusal of the legislature to take up this issue.  

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/bonus-episode-tennessee-representative-justin-jones-speaks-at-gspp-commencement

This year, researchers found that the last 22 years were the driest consecutive years in the North American southwest in over a millennium. The pace and scale of climate change is forcing states and counties to adapt rapidly. In California, one of the industries at the forefront of the adaptation predicament is agriculture. In today’s episode, reporter Elena Neale-Sacks speaks with resilience researcher Amélie Gaudin, Sacramento Valley farmer Scott Park, and water policy research fellow Caity Peterson to understand how farmers and growers are, and aren’t, building resilience to drought.

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-512-talking-agriculture-drought-and-resilience

The annual number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed has skyrocketed over the past several years, from 41 in 2018 to 240 and counting in the first three months of this year. Half of these bills are targeting transgender people specifically. At the same time, surveys of the general public show over 70% say they support same-sex marriage and laws preventing discrimination across the LGBTQ community. And Gen Z are proudly and loudly identifying with both gender and sexual fluidity. How do we square these two realities? In this episode, Talk Policy to Me reporter Amy Benziger dives into how the rise in representation of people from across the gender and sexual spectrum in media, business, and government has caused a policy backlash by the old guard to solidify their conservative base. 

Our guests include Fran Dunway, Founder of TomboyX; Corey Rose, a student at UC Berkeley Journalism School and former reporter for South Florida Gay News; and Pau Crego, Executive Director of the SF Office of Transgender Initiatives.

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-511-talking-the-rise-of-anti-lgbtq-legislation

In 2016, California voters legalized recreational cannabis through Prop 64. Now, five years after legalization, city’s are grappling with the difficulty of prioritizing social equity in the cannabis licensing process for Black, brown, and formerly incarcerated small business owners who were negatively impacted by the war on drugs. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me Reporter Noah Cole talks with Amber Senter, a cannabis advocate and Executive Director of Supernova Women and Chaney Turner, Chair of the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission.

This episode was supported by research from Nabil Aziz and Victor Vasquez of the Cal in Sac Diversity and Entrepreneurship Summer 2021 fellowship program.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/business/cannabis-dispensaries-oakland.html?smid=url-share

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-27/california-pot-industry-social-equity-broken-promises

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/01/in-billion-dollar-cannabis-market-racial-inequity-persists-despite-legalization.html

https://escholarship.org/content/qt7pb360bg/qt7pb360bg.pdf

https://escholarship.org/content/qt1wx6w6w2/qt1wx6w6w2.pdf?t=qzvyay

https://amberesenter.com/

https://www.beyondequity.online/

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-510-talking-social-equity-cannabis

The Republican Party and the Democratic Party take different approaches to talking about race and racism. While politicians in the Republican Party have used coded language or “dog whistles” to stoke racial division, politicians in the Democratic Party either avoid talking about race in favor of talking about class issues or talk about race as a matter of white over nonwhite conflict. Each of these approaches have had difficulty resonating with a broad multiracial coalition of voters needed for electoral success. Berkeley Law Professor Ian Haney López has an alternative approach to messaging around race that could resonate with most Americans: Race-class fusion politics. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me Reporter Noah Cole speaks with Ian Haney López (Author of 2019’s  “Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America”) about the race-class fusion approach to building a multiracial coalition for elections. Noah and Professor Lopez discuss the historical precedent for the approach, the focus groups that demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, and criticisms of the approach. References

Can Democracy (and the Democratic Party) Survive Racism as a Strategy?- - Ian Haney Lopez Medium Article

Merge Left- Ian Haney López

Dog Whistle Politics - Ian Haney López

https://projectjuntos.us/ - Fusion politics messaging focus group findings

https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ - Poor people's campaign

https://peoplesaction.org/ People’s action

https://race-class-academy.com/  Race-Class Academy resources for learning about race-class fusion politics

AOC Demolishes Lauren Boebert's Welfare Hypocrisy- The Young Turks (Youtube)

Ron DeSantis slams critical race theory as 'poison'- Fox News (YouTube)

The First Presidential Debate: Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump (Full Debate) | NBC News NBC News (Youtube)

Poor People's Campaign asks America to face the injustices keeping millions in poverty PBS Newshour (Youtube)

George Goehl: If Dems Don't Embrace Populism They Will Be Destroyed People’s Action (Youtube)

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-509-talking-race-class-fusion

This is the second episode in a two-part series about changing how we vote in the United States. In today’s episode, Talk Policy To Me reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks with voting systems researchers Sara Wolk and Clay Shentrup about what they think the order of operations should be to get to a place where everyone can vote their conscience and votes accurately translate into who ends up in power. GSPP researcher and policy analyst Charlotte Hill will be back with her thoughts too.

To learn more about STAR voting, which Sara discusses in the episode, go to starvoting.us.

For more information on ranked-choice voting, go to fairvote.org/prcv.

And check out a brand-new initiative to bring proportional representation to the House of Representatives at fixourhouse.org.

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-508-talking-a-voting-overhaul-part-2

In recent months and years, legislation meant to make it more difficult to vote, especially for Black and brown people, has proliferated in some state legislatures. But problems with the way we vote in the United States go deeper than these laws. In Part 1 of this two-part episode, Talk Policy To Me reporter Elena Neale-Sacks talks to GSPP researcher Charlotte Hill about what it would look like to fundamentally change how we vote in this country.

Look out for Part 2 next week.

To learn more about proportional representation and what it could look like in the U.S., go to fixourhouse.org.

See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-507-talking-a-voting-overhaul-part-1