In this episode, we hear from author and journalist Matthew Yglesias about his latest book, One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger. He says we have the space for more people, and more people would make us a wealthier and happier country.

Yglesias co-founded Vox.com with Ezra Klein and Melissa Bell in 2014. He currently writes for Substack and co-hosts The Weeds podcast twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays. He’s worked for The Atlantic, The Center for American Progress, and Slate.

Other books include The Rent is Too Damn High and Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.

Yglesias was born and raised in New York City, but has lived in Washington DC since graduating college in 2003.

What can we learn from the Southern films of the past? What can be done in the future to make new ones as multidimensional and as vast as the region really is?

This week, Dr. Alan Campbell chats with author and film fanatic Ben Beard about his new book, The South Never Plays Itself: A Film Buff’s Journey Through the South on Screen, and more.

The film industry’s idea of the South never seems to capture the true complexities, differences, and beauties that it holds. Beard and Campbell take a trip through time to discuss some of the genre’s most memorable movies -- the good, the bad, and the contentious.

Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Thomas Ricks set out to dig into the foundation of the United States by reading the literature that was read by the first four presidents. This took him on a journey from Aristotle to Cicero to John Locke.

He wrote about the influence of classical education on the American republic in his book, First Principle: What America’s Founders Learned from the Greeks and Romans and How That Shaped Our Country.

Host Dr. Alan Campbell speaks with Ricks about the interesting sources of the structure of our government, including how some difficult choices were made based on centuries-old political mistakes. We also hear who of the first presidents Ricks admires most.

Pulitzer-Prize and Emmy award-winning journalist, Barton Gellman became one of the most notable investigative journalists of our time while working with Edward Snowden to expose the machinery of the U.S. surveillance state.

His new book, Dark Mirror, is the story he couldn’t tell before -- a real-life spy saga and a gripping narrative of the investigative reporting that exposed a different side of national security.

In this episode of Watching America, Dr. Alan Campbell and Gellman dive deeper into not only Snowden’s story, but Gellman’s own determination to stand up for the truth-- and what he discovered about himself along the way.

Actor Stephen Root has appeared in nearly countless roles on television and film—from Star Trek, NewsRadio, West Wing, and King of the Hill on television, to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men, and Idiocracy on film.

Root has worked with HBO on True Blood, Barry, and Boardwalk Empire, and most recently on Perry Mason as Maynard Barnes. That show is in its second season now.

In this episode of Watching America, Dr. Alan Campbell talks with Root about his childhood, dramatic training, comedy, various roles he’s played, and various people in the film and television industry with whom he's worked.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is activist for women’s rights and the author of the book Infidel: My Life, and many others. In this episode of Watching America, Dr. Alan Campbell speaks with Ali about America, religion, cancel culture, the failures of American universities, and more.

Ali was born in Somalia in 1969 and took asylum in the Netherlands when she was 23. Within 10 years, she was a member of the Dutch Parliament. Ali became a U.S. citizen in 2013 and has become an international figure in the conversation of human rights. She is a staunch defender of classical liberalism and western culture from the perspective of an East African asylum seeker.

Her new book, Prey, comes out next year. It explores the alarming rise of sexual violence and harassment in Europe’s cities through statistics, criminal cases, and her own personal testimony.

Practice rigorous authenticity. Surrender the outcome. Do uncomfortable work.

Michael Brody-Waite learned these skills through his continued recovery as a drug addict. He says these same practices made him a successful CEO.

In this episode of Watching America, host Dr. Alan Campbell talks to Brody-Waite about his book, Great Leaders Live Like Drug Addicts: How to Lead Like Your Life Depends on It, and how to remove the “mask” we wear in order to truly thrive at work--and in life.

Dr. Peter Boghossian was one of our first guests on Watching America. In spring 2019, he spoke with us about the Grievance Studies hoax, along with his academic cohorts: mathematician James Lindsay and author/researcher Helen Pluckrose. Listen to that episode: https://mediaplayer.whro.org/program/watchingamerica/e/watchingamerica-thursday-may-2nd-2019

Boghossian and Lindsay recently published the book, “How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide.”

Boghossian says society will collapse if people don’t learn to communicate freely and truthfully. Host Dr. Alan Campbell speaks to him about the value of conversation, disagreement, and cognitive liberty.

Boghossian is a philosophy professor at Portland State University. His fundamental objective is to teach people how to think through what often seem to be intractable problems. His primary research areas are critical thinking and moral reasoning.

To learn more, visit http://peterboghossian.com

On Twitter: @peterboghossian

A man named Rick Singer was at the center of the largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice. Singer helped wealthy parents get their children into colleges of choice with doctored essays, altered test scores, and fake athletic resumes.

And let’s not forget—a whole lot of money.

Wall Street Journal reporters Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz wrote a book detailing what Kirkus Reviews calls “the seamy intersection of ambition, money, and higher education.”

Dr. Alan Campbell speaks with Korn and Levitz about the book, Unacceptable: Privilege, Deceit, and the Making of the College Admissions Scandal.

We hear how Singer managed this scheme for so long, how he was eventually caught, and the social backdrop that created the demand for his services.

Award-winning photographer Mark Laita has used his skills for clients such as Adidas, Apple and Mercedes-Benz, and his photography has been exhibited worldwide. But he might be doing the most important work of his life right now on Skid Row in Los Angeles.

A few years ago, Laita started taking photographs of people living on the street, drug-addicts and prostitutes—and he began interviewing them and recording their stories.

He never imagined his YouTube project Soft White Underbelly would take off the way it has, with over a million subscribers.

Laita says he can’t help all the people he speaks to (though he has tried). But he says raising awareness about the suffering of people we don’t regularly meet could help future generations.

Dr. Alan Campbell has an intimate conversation with Laita, discussing his childhood, how he became a photographer, and the painful but powerful work he’s doing now.

Visit “Soft White Underbelly” https://tinyurl.com/tg232ag

Learn more about Mark Laita http://www.marklaita.com/