The Scholars' Circle

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The Scholars' Circle episodes

November 24, 2025Scholars’ Circle – Book Author interview – North : Future of post climate America – November 23, 2025
Climate change will lead to climate migration. There has been a renewed interest in adaptation strategies. Mitigation efforts seek to limit the amount of greenhouse gases in the environment to slow climate change. But adaptation recognizes that the climate has changed and we as a society and as a planet must adapt to these rising temperatures and the changing ecosystem. We will explore some of the challenges for adaptation.
We Interview Jesse M.Keenan author of the book North: Future of Post Climate America. He surveys places which are vulnerable to climate change effects and what are the state and regional implication of migration North in America. [ dur: 26mins. ]
Jesse M. Keenan is Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning at the School of Architecture and the Built Environment. His research advances the interdisciplinary fields of sustainable real estate and infrastructure finance and development. He is the author of the book North: Future of Post Climate America.
How is climate change affecting place, where we live, who can move off the coasts, and who is immobile despite living in climate-threatened zones? And what does it mean for the well-being, the economy, politics and for the regions themselves? [ dur: 32mins. ]
Jesse M. Keenan is Favrot II Associate Professor of Sustainable Real Estate and Urban Planning at the School of Architecture and the Built Environment. His research advances the interdisciplinary fields of sustainable real estate and infrastructure finance and development. He is the author of the book North: Future of Post Climate America.
Matt Hauer is Charles B. Nam Associate Professor, Department of Sociology – Center for Demography and Population Health at Florida State University. He is the author of Sea-level rise and human migration.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian Sudd Dongre and Anna Lapin.
59 min
November 16, 2025Scholars’ Circle – Nuclear war an imminent threat to humanity persists – November 16, 2025
What is Donald Trump trying to accomplish by resuming nuclear testing? And what impact will this decision have on nuclear non-proliferation? It seems that Trump doesn’t understand either nuclear testing or the basics about nuclear weapons. Does this undermine US policy for non-proliferation? Also, the US is unique in that a single person controls the decision to use nuclear weapons? Could the international response to the US announcement of resuming nuclear testing change this command structure? [ dur: 58mins. ]
Ira Helfand, MD is a member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)s International Steering Committee. He is a co-founder and past president of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), IPPNWs US affiliate. He has co-authored PSRs report Nuclear Famine: 2 billion at Risk?
Wayne Glass is Professor Emeritus in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the former Senior Defense Policy Advisor to Senator Jeff Bingaman on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He has worked extensively with nuclear weapons policies.
Joe Cirincione is a national security analyst and author with over 40 years of experience. He is the author of the books Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late and co-author of Deadly Arsenals: Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Threats.
Active Campaign by Back from the Brink to prevent nuclear war.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.
Politics and Activism, War / Weapons, Nuclear Weapons
59 min
November 09, 2025Scholars’ Circle – Brazil’s militarized police & disappearances ; Insights on innovative technologies to address climate change factors – November 9, 2025
Violent policing and “disappearing” people is continuing in Brazil, even today in 2025. How is Brazilian civil society responding? [ dur: 33mins. ]
Erica Resende is an Assistant Professor of International Relations and Security Studies at the Brazilian National War College in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the co-editor of Defending Memory in Global Politics Mnemonical In/Security and Crisis, Memory and Trauma in International Relations: Theories, Cases and Debates and Crisis and Change in Post Cold-War Global Politics.
People around the world have developed innovative new technologies to mitigate or adapt to climate change. In many cases, adoption has proved difficult as governments and some large corporations have been reluctant to support them. Who are developing these technological solutions? What are some of these technologies? Can they help protect us from the worst of climate change? [ dur: 25mins. ]

Transcript of this interview can be found here : link.
Holly Beals, a strategic director & Senior Innovation Specialist, Aurora Climate Lab Lead at Creative HQ;
Michael Fielding is Chief Executive at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Ventures and Co-Founder of Dot Ingredients.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.
59 min
November 02, 2025 Scholars’ Circle – Known Environmental impact of the US Military – November 2, 2025
We spend the hour looking at the environmental impact of the US military. How much does the US military pollute the environment? What is their role in climate change causing green house emissions? The military has taken some measures to reduce its impact on the environment and green gas emissions, but our guests say these measures do little to assuage the military's bigger effects on climate change. What are these effects and what can be done about them?[ dur: 58mins. ]
This interview was recorded July 2019. For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ
Benjamin Neimark is Senior Lecturer at the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom. He is the author of Speaking Power to ‘Post-Truth’: Critical Political Ecology and the New Authoritarianism and co-author of Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war” Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military.
Oliver Belcher is an Assistant Professor in Human Geography at Durham University, United Kingdom. He is the author of Anatomy of a village razing: Counterinsurgency, violence, and securing the intimate in Afghanistan, and co-author of Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war” Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military.
Neta C. Crawford is Professor of Political Science and Department Chair at Boston University. She is the author of the book Accountability for Killing: Moral Responsibility for Collateral Damage in America’s Post-9/11 Wars and the research paper Pentagon Fuel Use, Climate Change,and the Costs of War
Produced by the Scholars' Circle team: Ankine Aghassian, Melissa Chiprin, Anaïs Amin, Tim Page, Mike Hurst and Sudd Dongre.
58 min
October 26, 2025 Scholars’ Circle – Consequence of Trump’s Gun boat attacks on Venezuelan coast – October 26, 2025
Are the US Navy attacks on ships off the coast of Venezuela and Colombia legal? And are they unprecedented? On today's show we explore the legality of these attacks and the precedents for them under the global war on terror and the war on drugs. [ dur: 58mins. ]
Marten Willem Brienen is associate professor of Global Studies at Oklahoma State University. He is the author of book chapter Coca, Organized Crime, and (Non-)Violence in Bolivia and the book Prisons in the Americas in the Twenty-First Century: A Human Dumping Ground .
Gabor Rona is Professor of Practice at Cardozo Law School. He is the author of 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 .
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.
59 min
October 23, 2025 Scholars’ Circle – Trump’s anti-green energy policies ; ICJ climate change ruling for all affected states – October 19, 2025
Green energy shunned by the Trump Administration, we examine how this affects US economy, energy costs and green technology leadership. [ dur: 22mins. ]
Shannon Gibson is Associate Professor of Political Science, International Relations, and Environmental Studies at the University of Southern California. She's also the author of Climate Change or Social Change? Environmental and Leftist Praxis and Participatory Action Research and State-led social boundary change: Transnational environmental activism, ‘ecoterrorism’ and September 11.
Dr. Kelly Twomey Sanders is an Associate Professor in the University of Southern California’s Sonny Astani Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. She is the co-author of Integrating Sociodemographic, Health, and Environmental Data to Assess the Spatiotemporal Trends of Vulnerability to Heatwaves in California .
International Court of Justice (ICJ ) made decision on behalf of Vanuatu in July 2025 Recognizing the “urgent and existential threat” facing the world, granting those harmed by human-caused climate change may be entitled to “reparations”. [ dur: 35mins. ]
Johanna L. Gusman Regional Adviser for Human Rights and Social Development at the Pacific Community (SPC) based in Suva, Fiji. She has authored Pacific Island Countries Make Historic Submissions to the International Court of Justice Climate Change Advisory Opinion.
Dr. Justin Sobion Lectures on Environmental Law at University of Auckland, New Zealand. He has contributed chapter to Reflections on Earth Trusteeship. Mother Earth and a new 21st-century governance paradigm.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.
59 min
October 16, 2025 Scholars’ Circle – Recruiting Informers For The State, case-study of Communist Czechoslovakia (1945-1989) – October 12, 2025
Autocratic regimes often use people throughout the population to serve as informants. Why do people choose to become an informant and collaborate with autocracies? And what constitutes justice against these informants once the state democratizes? We discuss a new book on the topic Informers Up Close with its authors Mark Drumbl and Barbora Hola. [ dur: 58mins. ]
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 , Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy and he is the co-editor of Sights, Sounds and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecution with Caroline Fournet.
Barbora Hola, Senior Researcher, NSCR & Professor Department of Criminal Law & Criminology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She is a Senior Researcher at the NSCR. She has an interdisciplinary focus and studies transitional justice after atrocities, in particular (international) criminal trials, sentencing of international crimes, rehabilitation of war criminals and life after trial at international criminal tribunals. She is co-editor of Punishment in International Society: Norms, Justice, and Punitive Practices.
Authoritarians, Communists, privacy, Civil Liberties, Politics & Activism
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.
59 min
October 08, 2025Scholars’ Circle – President Trump’s use of transactional international diplomacy – October 5, 2025
Donald Trump has asserted himself with the power of the US into multiple ceasefires and conflict negotiations. How does this comport with US policy historically? What might be his motivation? [ dur: 58mins. ]
Amy Skonieczny Professor at San Francisco State University in the International Relations Department. She is the author of a book chapter titled The Trump Shock: Populism and Changing Narratives of US Foreign Policy and author of Globalization and The Occupy Movement: Media Framing of Economic Protest
Mary Jane Parmentier is a clinical professor in the School for the Future of Innovation and Society, and the College of Global Futures at Arizona State University. Her publication appears in Teaching Global Development edition. Author of article Cross-National Active Learning in Global Development Studies: De-Colonizing the Curriculum .
Lui Hebron, formerly of California State University. He is the editor of Asian Security in the Age of Globalization.
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.
59 min
September 30, 2025Scholars’ Circle – Impact of Independent Films on diversity of stories we see on big screen- September 28, 2025
Robert Redford’s passing reminds us that perhaps his greatest legacy is his support for independent film. So on today’s show, what is the impact of independent film on the industry? How has independent film changed in recent years. How has the major shift toward streaming affected our access to independent films? [ dur: 58mins. ]
Cynthia Baron is a Professor of Arts in Department of Theater & Film at Bowling Green State University. She is the author of Modern Acting: The Lost Chapter of American Film and Theatre and Acting Indie – Industry, Aesthetics, and Performance.
Sherry B. Ortner is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UCLA. She is the author of Not Hollywood: Independent Film at the Twilight of the American Dream and Screening Social Justice – Brave New Films and Documentary Activism.
Dan Mirvish ( website ) is a director, screenwriter, producer and author. His films include 18 1/2 and Bernard and Huey. He is the author of The Cheerful Subversive’s Guide to Independent Filmmaking. He is also co-founder of Slamdance film festival showcasing independent films.
Suggestions of films made by independent film makers which broke new grounds in film making:
Dan Mirvish : Bong Joon Ho’s ( link ) first film: Barking Dogs Never Bite , Chris Nolan’s ( link ) first film: Following the film that beat Chris’ film Following at Slamdance, Chi Girl by Heidi Van Lier another one I mentioned was Low, directed by Lise Raven, produced by Frank Hudec ( link ), Omaha (the movie) by Dan Mirvish.
Sherry B. Ortner : Anything by Kirby Dick ( link ) and Charles Ferguson ( link ) – Inside Job . Documentaries from Brave New Films.
Cynthia Baron : Films by Debra Granik film Winter’s Bone, films by Gus Van Sant ( link ), Films in the archive of LA rebellion ( link ) among them Charles Burnett ( link ), Juli Dash ( link ), Monona Wali ( link ) and Haile Gerima ( link ).
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.
59 min
September 22, 2025Scholars’ Circle – Reasons for political violence and how it becomes inevitable – September 21, 2025
Political violence is on the rise, we get insight into why it happens and ways to mitigate it’s occurrence. With scholars of politics, social inquiry and criminal justice. [ dur: 58mins. ]
Roger Petersen is the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science at MIT. He is the author of Understanding Ethnic Violence: Fear, Hatred, Resentment in Twentieth Century Eastern Europe, Death, Domination, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention, and Emotions and backlash in US society and politics.
David L. Altheide is a Regents Professor Emeritus on the faculty of Justice and Social Inquiry in the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University. He is the author of Terrorism and the Politics of Fear, The Media Syndrome and Gonzo Governance: The Media Logic of Donald Trump.
Brian Levin is Director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism and Professor of Criminal Justice at California State University, San Bernardino. He is co-author of the book The Limits of Dissent and co-author of the publications Report to the nation: hate crimes rise in US cities and counties in time of division and foreign interference, Posing the Why Question: Understanding the perpetration of racially motivated violence and harassment, and Fact Sheet: Anti-Asian Prejudice 2020 (March 2, 2021).
This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.
59 min