The Scholars' Circle

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The Scholars' Circle episodes

May 18Scholars’ Circle – SCOTUS Allows Access to Medication Abortion Pill Delivery by Mail – May 17, 2026
In 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, which guaranteed a constitutional right to an abortion. But previously the Court had allowed restrictions on abortions, making access quite challenging in a large part of the country. In response to these restrictions, women had gained access through prescription drugs, or what is called medication abortion. This involves two prescription drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol. Last week, a federal court issued an order disallowing mifepristone to be prescribed via telehealth and then distributed by mail. As we record today, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on this federal court order. So on today’s show, we take account to the status of access to medication abortion and what it means both for reproductive rights and health and for the law on this issue. [ dur: 58mins. ]
Rachel Rebouché is Professor of Law at the University of Texas at Austin. She is the author of Abortion Rights as Human Rights and co-author of The New Abortion Battleground and Abortion Pills (with David S. Cohen and Greer Donley).
Carole Joffe is Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology & Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is the author of Doctors of Conscience: The Struggle to Provide Abortion before and after Roe v. Wade and the co-author of After Dobbs: How the Supreme Court ended Roe but not Abortion with David Cohen.
Natalie Fixmer-Oriaz, F Wendell Miller Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Gender, Woman’s the Sexuality Studies at the University of Iowa. She is author of Homeland Maternity: US Security Culture and the New Reproductive Regime (2019) and Doing Gender Justice: Queering Reproduction, Kin, and Care (2025; with Shui-yin Sharon Yam).
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Health, Medicine, Reproductive Health, Courts, Feminism, Mothers
58 min
May 11Scholars’ Circle – Why SCOTUS Ruined the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – May 10, 2026
The Voting Rights Act, or VRA, is viewed as the most important piece of legislation advancing civil rights in the 1960s. Passed in 1965, it was intended to redress the dis-empowerment of African Americans whose voting rights had been restricted due to several states legislation, ranging from poll taxes to literacy tests and other restrictions on voting. Throughout the Roberts Court, the VRA has been restricted and its protections stripped away. In 2026, perhaps the last of these provisions have been overturned, in a decision in the case Louisiana v Callais.
©2026 Rob Rogers. Reprinted with permission
On todays show, we will explore this decision and the impact it has on drawing Congressional districts, in an era of particularly aggressive gerrymandering. [ dur: 58mins. ]
Eric J. Segall, Ashe Family Chair Professor of Law and the Executive Director of Emmet J. Bondurant Center for Constitutional Law, Practice and Democracy at Georgia State University. He is the author of Originalism as Faith and Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court Is Not a Court and Its Justices Are Not Judges.
Seth C. McKee is a Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma State University. He is the author of The Dynamics of Southern Politics: Causes and Consequences and coauthor of Rural Republican Realignment in the Modern South: The Untold Story with MV Hood.
Christian Grose is a Professor of Political Science & Public Policy and the Academic Director of the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Independent Redistricting Commissions Increase Voter Perceptions of Fairness and co-author of Local Election Administrators in the United States: The Frontline of Democracy.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, Elections, Redistricting, Voting Rights, Congress, Courts, Democrats, Republicans
58 min
May 03Scholars’ Circle – Prosecuting War Crimes – May 3, 2026
The last few years have been a particularly challenging time for the international law framework outlines at Nuremberg. The trial of the German leadership at the end of the Second World War, coupled with the creation of the UN and the UN Charter, codified a series of legal obligations for state leaders. It outlawed waging war or even threatening war. It held individual leaders as criminally liable for violating the rules of war. And it promised prosecutions as a result of these violations. While it had never realized its promise, the past few years, from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to terrorist attacks against Israel and Israel’s waging of war in Gaza and Lebanon, to the Israeli and American war against Iran, have been a particular challenge to the so-called Nuremberg principles. So on today’s show, we explore what these principles are whether international actors can return to their promise. [ dur: 58mins. ]
Elizabeth Borgwardt is former Pozen Professor of Human Rights at the University of Chicago. She is the author of A New Deal for the World: America’s Vision for Human Rights and the upcoming The Nuremberg Idea: Thinking Humanity in History, Law and Politics.
Jennifer Trahan is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Concentration in International Law and Human Rights at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. She is also Convenor of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, and is the author of Existing Legal Limits to the Use of the Veto in the Face of Atrocity Crimes. And the forthcoming The Crime of Aggression and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine.
Mark Drumbl is Professor at Washington and Lee University, School of Law, and Director of the University’s Transnational Law Institute. He is the author of Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law and is the co-editor of Sights, Sounds and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecution with Caroline Fournet.
Hurst Hannum is Professor Emeritus of International Law at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He is the author of Autonomy, Sovereignty, and Self-Determination: The Accommodation of Conflicting Rights, Rethinking self-determination and Rescuing Human Rights: A Radically Moderate Approach.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, Human Rights, Peace / Nonviolence, War / Weapons, War Crimes, Justice
58 min
April 26Scholars’ Circle – Birthright Citizenship, its Historic Roots in Immigration, Slavery, & Indigenous Peoples – April 26, 2026
As the US Supreme Court deliberates over the future of birthright citizenship, we explore its historic roots in light of immigration, slavery, and indigenous peoples. How do contemporary ideas of birthright citizenship fit with those of the past? How might these ideas influence the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision? [ dur: 58mins. ]
Anna Law holds the Herbert Kurz Chair in Constitutional Rights at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. She is the author of The Immigration Battle in American Courts and Migration and the Origins of American Citizenship: African Americans, Native Americans, and Immigrants.
Julie Novkov is the Dean of the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy and Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany.She is the author of Donald Trump, Constitutional Failure, and the Guardrails of Democracy and co-author of American by Birth: Wong Kim Ark and the Battle for Citizenship.
Gabriel “Jack” Chin is Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Legal Education at UC Davies School of Law. The U.S. Supreme Court has cited his work in two cases: Chaidez v. United States and Padilla v. Kentucky. And Justice Sotomyer has cited his law article in Utah v. Strieff. He is the co-author of Birthright Citizenship, Slave Trade Legislation, and the Origins of Federal Immigration Regulation and author of A Nation of White Immigrants: State and Federal Racial Preferences for White Noncitizens.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, Governance / Law, Courts, Immigration, Birthright
58 min
April 20Scholars’ Circle – US Attorney General Pam Bondi Legacy; Prosecuting Presidents for Crimes – April 19, 2026
The Department of Justice has historically been largely independent from the White House, despite the fact that the Attorney General is appointed by the President and approved by the Senate. However, Donald Trump’s DOJ has been different. Recently fired AG Pam Bondi sought to prosecute the President’s political opponents and the Department has gone to great lengths to protect the President amid the revelations of the Epstein Files. On today’s show, we will discuss the legacy of Pam Bondi as Attorney General and what this means for the future of the Justice Department. [ dur: 28mins. ]
Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College. He is the editor of Is Democracy Doomed? and Lethal Injection and the False Promise of Humane Execution and Pam Bondi’s extreme political loyalty to Trump wasn’t enough to save her job, in The Conversation.
The criminal indictments of President Trump have created an unprecedented political crisis. Historically, U.S. presidents have not faced criminal charges—even in cases where guilt appeared likely—due in part to longstanding institutional norms surrounding the presidency. Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon embodies this norm.
What can the U.S. learn from other countries that have prosecuted former presidents? What can we learn from past prosecutions of political figures in American history? Is the prosecution of former heads of state simply the weaponization of justice mechanisms? How common is this political charge? [ dur: 30mins. ]. This is a portion of our hour long discussion originally posted in August, 2023. Link to full interview.
Jeremi Suri is Professor in the Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office and his latest book Civil War by Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight For Democracy. He hosts the podcast This is Democracy.
Tom Ginsburg is Leo Spitz Professor of International Law and Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar at the University of Chicago Law School. He is the author of the books The Endurance of National Constitutions, Constitutions in Authoritarian Regimes, and co-author of the paper The Comparative Constitutional Law of Presidential Impeachment.
Ezequiel González Ocantos is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations and a Professorial Fellow of Nuffield College at the University of Oxford. He is the author of Shifting Legal Visions: Judicial Change and Human Rights Trials in Latin America, The Politics of Transitional Justice in Latin America: Power, Norms and Capability Building, and co-author of Prosecutors, Voters, and the Criminalisation of Corruption in Latin America (w/ Paula Muñoz, Nara Pavao & Viviana Baraybar).
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, Governance / Law, Congress, Courts
58 min
April 13Scholars’ Circle – US Policy of Policing Immigrants; Author Interview on “Borders, Politics and Belonging” – April 12, 2026
Kristi Noem, the controversial Secretary of Homeland Security, was fired from her position in March of 2026. Her short tenure as secretary was marked by numerous accusations of overreach of power, violations of due process particularly with regard to immigrants without proper documentation, and killing of protesters, notably in Minnesota, at the hands of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. On today’s show we will review Secretary Noem’s tenure at the Department and the future of ICE and the immigration raids she instituted. [ dur: 35mins. ]
Naomi Paik is Associate Professor of Global Asian Studies and Criminology, Law and Justice at University of Illinois, Chicago. She is the author of Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary: Understanding U.S. Immigration for the 21st Century and Rightlessness: Testimony and Redress in U.S. Prison Camps since World War II, winner, Best Book in History.
Luke William Hunt is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama. He is the author of The Police Identity Crisis — Hero, Warrior, Guardian, Algorithm and Police Deception and Dishonesty – The Logic of Lying .
How does immigration and the border define identity and belonging? We revisit a book on borders and their impact on immigration, identity, and belonging. [ dur: 23mins. ]
Hiroshi Motomura is the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States and his latest book Borders and Belonging: Toward a Fair Immigration Policy.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, Human Rights, police, Refugees, immigrants
58 min
April 06Scholars’ Circle – Threat to Cuba and Cubans in US Examined – April 5, 2026
After attacking two countries in 2026, will the Trump administration attack Cuba? What is Cuba’s relationship with the US historically and today? In this segment, we explore the island nation’s history, its government and economy, and why the US is targeting Cuba. In addition, we look into the controversy of compensation for property loss for Cuban Americans, as well as the broader issues of appropriation and compensation in Cuba. Lastly, we discuss the country’s political and economic challenges and the potential need for reform, and, if reform is necessary, which should come first: political or economic reform. [ dur: 58mins. ]
Richard Feinberg is Professor Emeritus of International Political Economy at the School of Global Policy and Strategy at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Open for Business: Building the New Cuban Economy.
William LeoGrande is Associate Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Professor of Government at American University, Washington. He is coauthor of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana.
Guillermo J. Grenier is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Global & Sociocultural Studies at Florida International University. He is the co-author of This Land is Our Land: Newcomers and Established Residents in Miami.
Sebastián Arcos is Interim director of the Cuban Research Institute in the Florida International University. He was part of the Freedom House delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland and advised the U.S. Department of State on issues concerning human rights in Cuba between 1998 and 2000.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, Human Rights, Cuba
58 min
March 30Scholars’ Circle – Türkiye’s Interest in the War With Iran; Author Interview on “I Will Not Abandon You: Queer Women in Nazi Germany” – March 29, 2026
The Israeli and American war on Iran has vast regional implications with the potential to draw other countries into the conflict. Today we explore Türkiye’s interests in the war with a particular focus on the ramifications of arming the Kurds to fight against Iran. [ dur: 28mins. ]
Serhun Al is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Izmir University of Economics. He is the author of Patterns of Nationhood and Saving the State in Turkey , the co-editor of Comparative Kurdish Politics in the Middle East and the co-author of Demographic Anxiety in Turkey.
Mohammad Homayounvash is Founding Director of the Jaffer Institute for Interfaith Dialogue & Education at Miami-Dade College. He is the author of Iran and the Nuclear Question.
There were many victims of Nazi atrocities and genocide but one group has only recently been given recognition for the oppression they endured: the LGBTQ+ community. Today we explore the specific treatment and oppression of the lesbian community under Nazi Germany and how their experiences influence the larger conversation about women under Nazism. We interview the author on his new book titled, “I Will Not Abandon You: Queer Women in Nazi Germany” (Toronto University Press, April 2026). [ dur: 30mins. ]
Samuel Clowes Huneke is Assistant Professor of History at George Mason University. He is also the author of States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, Human Rights, War / Weapons, Gender, Lesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans, Iran, Israel, Turkey, Refugee
58 min
March 22Scholars’ Circle – War Spreads to Lebanon – March 22, 2026
Recent escalations in Israel’s war kill or wound the equivalent of one classroom of children every day, according to the deputy chief of the UN Children Fund (UNICEF). The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said on Thursday that it has recorded more than 10,000 air and ground violations inside Lebanese territory since the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into effect at the end of 2024. Israel’s attack on Lebanon has created both a humanitarian crisis and a potential collapse of the Lebanese government. We explore this attack, the role of Hezbollah, and the future of Lebanon from two different expert perspectives. Our guests join us from Lebanon. [ dur: 58mins. ]
Yeghia Tashjian is the International Affairs Cluster Coordinator of Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy & International Affairs (IFI) and Instructor at American University of Beruit. He is the author of U.S. policy in the South Caucasus: Keep Turkey in, Russia down and Iran out.
Makram Rahab is lecturer of History at American University of Beirut & the Lebanese American University. He is the author of Conflict on Mount Lebanon: Collective Memory and the War of the Mountain.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, War / Weapons, Refugees, Middle East, Israel, Humanitarian Crisis
58 min
March 16Scholars’ Circle – Iran War and War Crime Analysis; Insights on the Study “Powerful People Lack Empathy” – March 15, 2026
The Israeli/American War against Iran continues. On today’s panel we wrestle with the question of the war’s legality. In doing so, we reject US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s assertion that the US will fight this war with “no stupid rules of engagement,,” and his assertion that there will be “no politically correct wars,” and “no nation-building quagmire.” While he dismisses the importance of international laws on war, we do not. So, we ask, is this war legal? Are the tactics of Israeli and American militaries legal? Is Iran’s response aligned with international law? [ dur: 40 mins. ]
Gabor Rona is Professor of Practice at Cardozo Law School. He is the author of Iranian School Strike: Excusable? A Violation? A War Crime, Venezuelan Boat Attacks: Utterly Unprecedented and Patently Predictable, Is There a Way Out of the Non-International Armed Conflict Detention Dilemma? and State Responsibility to Respect, Protect and Fulfill Human Rights Obligations in Cyberspace .
Jennifer Trahan is a Clinical Professor and Director of the Concentration in International Law and Human Rights at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs. She is also Convenor of the Global Institute for the Prevention of Aggression, and is the author of Existing Legal Limits to the Use of the Veto in the Face of Atrocity Crimes. Her book forthcoming this spring is entitled: The Crime of Aggression and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Studies show that powerful people feel less empathy. What does that mean for societies? [ dur: 18mins. ]
Michael Inzlicht is Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto. He is co-author of Stereotype Threat: Theory, Process, and Application and co-author of the article Power Changes How the Brain Responds to Others.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian, Anna Lapin and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, War / Weapons, Middle East, Iran, Israel, humanity
59 min