The Scholars' Circle

With the world facing multiple crises, we speak with three preeminent scholars from psychology, anthropology and philosophy about the crossroads before us and ways that we can navigate them for the betterment of humanity. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* David Livingstone Smith is a professor of philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind, The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, and his latest On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist it.

* Ervin Staub is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His numerous publications include Overcoming evil: Genocide, violent conflict and terrorism, The roots of evil: The origins of genocide and other group violence, and The roots of goodness: Inclusive caring, moral courage, altruism born of suffering, active bystandership and heroism.

* Doug Fry is Professor & Chairperson in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. With Riane Eisler he has co-authored, Nurturing Our Humanity: How Domination and Partnership Shape Our Minds, Lives, and Future. He is also the author of ,Beyond War: The Human Potential for Peace and the editor of War, Peace, and Human Nature: The Convergence of Evolutionary and Cultural Views.

This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

What are our assumptions about poverty in America? How much of it is just mistaken? How do the assumptions we make influence the policies we adopt? We explore these assumptions and the realities. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Mark Robert Rank is currently the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. He is the author of Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America, One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All, and Chasing the American Dream: Understanding the Dynamics that Shape Our Fortunes (with Thomas Hirschl). His forthcoming book is POORLY UNDERSTOOD: What Americans Get Wrong About Poverty (with Lawrence M. Eppard and Heather Bullock.).

* Lawrence M. Eppard is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Shippensburg University. He is the author of Rugged Individualism and the Misunderstanding of American Inequality (with Mark Robert Rank and Heather Bullock) and the forthcoming POORLY UNDERSTOOD: What Americans Get Wrong About Poverty (with Mark Robert Rank and Heather Bullock.).

* Peter Edelman is the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Law and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law and is faculty director of the Georgetown Center on Poverty and Inequality. He is the author of Searching for America’s Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope, So Rich So Poor: Why It’s So Hard to End Poverty in America and Not a Crime to Be Poor: The Criminalization of Poverty in America.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

The Republican Party is at a crossroads. Parties that lose presidential election frequently reconsider their trajectories and their political messaging. How much will the party be determined by the politics and policy of the last four years? How much will it try to reconceptualize and rebrand itself for the 2022 and 2024 elections? We discuss the future of the Republican Party. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Geoffrey Kabaservice is the Director of Political Studies at the Niskanen Center. He is the author of The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment and Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, from Eisenhower to the Tea Party.

* Paul Djupe is Associate Professor of Political Science at Denison University. His is the co-editor of The Evangelical Crackup? The Future of the Evangelical-Republican Coalition and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion.

* Brian Conley is Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies in the Government Department of Suffolk University. He is the author of The Rise of the Republican Right from Goldwater to Reagan.

* Marcus Witcher is an Assistant Professor in the History Department at Huntingdon College. He is the author of Getting Right with Reagan: The Struggle for True Conservatism, 1980-2016.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

What is the future of impeachment as a constitutional tool after the Second Trump Impeachment Trial? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 33mins. ]

* Frank Bowman III is Floyd R. Gibson Missouri Endowed Professor of Law at the University of Missouri School of Law. He is an expert on the impeachment of the president and other federal officers. Bowman is the author of High Crimes and Misdemeanors: A History of Impeachment for the Age of Trump. His writes the blog “Impeachable Offenses”.

* Eric M. Freedman is a Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Rights at Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University. He is the author of Habeas Corpus: Rethinking the Great Writ of Liberty and Making Habeas Work: A Legal History.

How will Biden change American immigration policy? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 25mins. ]

* Joanne Lin is National Director of Advocacy and Government Affairs at Amnesty International, USA.

* Hiroshi Motomura is a Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has authored many books including Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States and Immigration Outside the Law.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

The Burmese military has again overthrown the democratic government in Myanmar. What is the future of the government and how should democracy advocates respond? We discuss how international actors committed to democracy in Myanmar should use their influence to counter the military coup. Also, Burma has been a nation of trauma. We look at how the coup continues this pattern. Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Seinenu M. Thein-Lemelson is Visiting Scholar in the Anthropology Department at UCLA and a senior research scientist for the Foundation for Psychocultural Research (FPR). She is the author of forthcoming book chapter Healing Our Sacrifice: Trauma and Translation in the Burmese Democracy Movement and her forthcoming book is entitled, Naingkyin: Body of Sacrifice, Spirit of Resilience.

* Kosal Path is Associate Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Master’s Program in International Affairs and Global Justice at Brooklyn College, City University of New York. He is the author of the book Vietnam’s Strategic Thinking During the Third Indochina War.

* Jonathan Lijeblad is Senior Lecturer at Australian National University. He’s the author of the forthcoming book chapter The Prospects for Amending Myanmar’s 2008 Constitution in its Transition to Democracy and Democracy, Rule of Law, & Legal Ethics Education: Directing Lawyers to Support Democratization in Myanmar.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

Several Arab states have signed normalization agreements with Israel. What do these “Abraham Accords” mean for security in the region and for the future of Palestinian people? What are the solutions to the Palestinian conflict? What are the alternatives to a two state solution and should the focus for Palestinians be on their civil rights? Hosted by Doug Becker. [ dur: 58mins. ]

* Laurie A. Brand is the Robert Grandford Wright Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California. She is the author of Citizens Abroad: States and Migration in the Middle East and North Africa and Official Stories: Politics and National Narratives in Egypt and Algeria.

* Mira Sucharov is Professor of Political Science and University Chair of Teaching Innovation at Carlton University. She is the author of Borders and Belonging: A Memoir and the co-editor (with Aaron J. Hahn Tapper) of Social Justice and Israel/Palestine: Foundational & Contemporary Debates.

* Hamoud Salhi is a Professor of Political Science and Middle East, and Associate Dean of the College of Social and Natural Sciences at California State University, Dominguez Hills. He is a political commentator for Arabic media. Hamoud is a host of SWANA Region Radio on KPFK, Los Angeles.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

The US has rejoined the Paris Climate Accords. What next steps should the US and the world take to mitigate the damage from the climate crisis? And then, vaccine distribution for the Covid virus has begun. What human rights issues are raised with the process of distributing the vaccine? How much do wealth and privilege determine who gets vaccinated? We take a global approach to vaccine nationalism and equitable distribution of the vaccine.

Covid-19 has worsened prison conditions worldwide. This week we explore the human rights implications of the pandemic on prisons. Followed by interview with author of The future is Autonomous.

The mob seizure of the US Capitol this week has raised several concerns about the future of American democracy? Was this a coup attempt? Is this beginning an era of undemocratic actions against peaceful transitions following elections? And is the Trump Presidency an anomaly to American democracy? [ dur: 27mins. ]

* Anne Meng is Assistant Professor in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. She is the author of Constraining Dictatorship: From Personalized Rule to Institutionalized Regimes.

* Naunihal Singh is Associate Professor at the U.S. Naval War College. He is the author of Seizing Power: The Strategic Logic of Military Coups and this analysis article on Washington Post: Monkey Cage Section.

The authoritarianism of the Trump Administration has lasting implications for the Presidency. We discuss this authoritarianism and his impact on the Republican Party. [ dur: 31 mins. ]

* Andrew Rudalevige is Thomas Brackett Reed Professor of Government at Bowdoin College. He is co-author of Managing the President’s Program: Presidential Leadership and Legislative Policy Formulation and the author of The New Imperial Presidency.

* George C. Edwards III is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Jordan Chair in Presidential Studies at Texas A&M University. His books include On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit , The Strategic President: Persuasion and Opportunity in Presidential Leadership and Predicting the Presidency: The Potential of Persuasive Leadership. He is the editor of Presidential Studies Quarterly.

This program is produced with generous contribution from Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin and Sudd Dongre.

Is the age of privacy over? We spend the hour on technology, spying and privacy, exploring how privacy, and the lack of it, affects security, democracy and society. What exactly is at stake when we lose our privacy? [ dur: 58 mins. ]

For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ

* Helen Nissenbaum is Professor of Information Science at Cornell Tech. She is the author of Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social Life, and co-author of Obfuscation: A User’s Guide for Privacy and Protest and Values at Play in Digital Games.

* Michael Patrick Lynch is Professor of Philosophy & Director of the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data, True to LIfe: Why Truth Matters and In Praise of Reason.

* Bruce Schneier is Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He is the author of 14 books including the New York Times best-seller Data and Goliath: The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World, Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World, and The Electronic Privacy Papers: Documents on the Battle for Privacy in the Age of Surveillance. His blog is “Schneier on Security.”

* Joshua A.T. Fairfield is William Donald Bain Family Professor of Law at Washington and Lee School of Law. He is the author of Owned: Property, Privacy and the New Digital Serfdom, Privacy as a Public Good , and Smart Contracts, Bitcoin Bots, and Consumer Protection.

Produced by the Scholars’ Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.