On June 15, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects Gay and Transgender individuals from workplace discrimination. ACLU National Legal Director David Cole, who spearheaded the victorious lawsuit, joins Then & Now to discuss this surprise ruling, how the ACLU and its allies framed the argument, what the decision's legal implications are for today, and how the Supreme Court’s approach to discrimination has evolved over time.

The seemingly intractable Israel-Palestine conflict may well be moving into a new phase, one in which the long-dominant two-state solution is no longer viable or desirable to the parties involved.  How did this occur?  And what would replace it? 

Peter Beinart, noted journalist and editor-at-large of Jewish Currents magazine, recently published two pieces in the Jewish Currents and The New York Times about abandoning his own faith in the long-sought two-state solution.  Beinart now proposes a vision of equality for all in a single state. He joins Then & Now in conversation with LCHP Director and UCLA professor of Jewish history David Myers to discuss his shift in perspective and the role of history in his present-day analysis

The conversation revisits the definition and historical foundations of Zionism, the role of the Holocaust in Jewish approaches to Israel, and the related dynamics of other geopolitical conflicts. Ultimately, Beinart complicates the lines between utopianism and realism, challenging listeners to approach a longstanding conflict with new perspective.

What is work? Who is a worker? How have women been perceived and treated as workers?  Who is deemed “deserving” of benefits, welfare, and pensions, and who gets excluded?  Answers to these questions have enormous implications on the the structure of society and policy and how we live our lives. 

Professor Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and Distinguished Professor of Feminist Studies and Professor of History, Black Studies, and Global Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, joins Katherine Marino on Then & Now to discuss the development of the woman worker throughout history, the role of the International Labor Organization in this development, and the division of household labor during the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Jack Johnson to Muhammed Ali, from Tommie Smith to Colin Kaepernick, Black athletes have played a huge role in the social and cultural history of the 20th and 21st centuries.  Ben Carrington, sociologist at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, joins Then & Now to discuss the "racial project" of the Black Athlete.  He observes how Black athletes have been fetishized, commodified, controlled, and celebrated, sometimes all at once. He compares the long history of this project to the present moment, when Black athletes, both at the professional and collegiate levels, are gaining greater agency over their lives and careers.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride Parade and Festival in West Hollywood. Activist, speaker, and founder of the TransLatin@ Coalition Bamby Salcedo joins Then & Now in conversation with LCHP’s Maia Ferdman to discuss Pride's origins as a protest movement spurred by transgender women of color. She discusses the historic exclusion of the transgender community from the gay liberation movement, some of the persistent challenges facing the transgender community today as a result, and a vision for an inclusive and equitable approach to progress. 

Learn more about Bamby's work with the TransLatin@ Coalition here. 

“Battling Bella” Abzug was a Congresswoman, lawyer, and ardent feminist leader — during the 1970s she was one of the most recognizable women in U.S. politics. Abzug biographer and historian Leandra Zarnow joins Then & Now for a conversation with UCLA History Professor Katherine Marino about Abzug’s legacy that touches on an array of pivotal women’s rights policies, the founding of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and an intersectional approach to progressivism. Now, in the era of #MeToo, new political leaders such as  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and an approaching election with an historic number of female candidates, Zarnow reflects on the significance of and need to build upon Abzug’s trailblazing legacy today.

Find Professor Zarnow’s book, Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug” here.

The coronavirus is like rain — it falls on everyone, but some communities are better able to protect themselves.

In this week’s episode, Dr. David Hayes-Bautista talks with the LCHP's Maia Ferdman about the historical origins of these health inequities and their consequences today. A Distinguished Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture (CESLAC) at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Dr. Hayes-Bautista shares his data-driven journey into the study of Latino health, the historical and present-day nuances involved in the study of Latino health, and his current research on COVID-19 case rates.

Find Dr. Hayes-Bautista’s research on COVID-19 here.

"We cannot be the nation we want to be if we wrap ourselves in a flag of mythology, and refuse to look at what lies underneath that flag."

As part of our special coverage on the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing debate over policing and structural racism, we welcome scholar Brenda Stevenson to the program. A leading historian on slavery and the legacy of America's race problems, Dr. Stevenson ranges widely, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, from the murder of Latasha Harlins in 1991 to the recent murder of George Floyd, drawing out major lessons for activists and change-makers today. One major lesson she pulls from the past? Resist, resist, resist.

Find Dr. Stevenson’s writing and other media coverage on these issues at her website.

Historians have the responsibility not only to unearth facts, but to uncover and lift up stories that have been traditionally ignored or excluded. This calling is all the more important in the midst of global pandemic -- and after the murder of George Floyd exposed anew the burdens of oppression against the Black community in the United States. 

Tyree Boyd-Pates, associate curator at the Autry Museum of the American West, sees his role as a public historian as "combatting the historical amnesia and malaise surrounding the Black experience.” In this week’s episode, Tyree discusses his work in collecting and documenting people's experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic (as reported recently in The New York Times).  He also speaks of his prior work as curator at the California African American Museum, including his work on the show titled “No Justice, No Peace” marking the 25th anniversary of the 1992 LA Uprising.

For information about Tyree's and The Autry's response to the current moment in the Black Lives Matter movement, please click here.

Political philosopher Hannah Arendt famously argued - in the case of SS officer Adolf Eichmann - that ordinary people can easily become complicit in evil acts as part of a larger system of injustice and inequality. In this special episode, we discuss the concept of "the banality of evil" with Robin Kelley, prominent scholar and professor of U.S. and African American History. As protests spread across the country over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more, Professor Kelley shares with us his perspectives on our shared responsibilities, revolutionary pessimism, and the historian’s role in the pursuit of justice.