Beyond asylum seekers heading north, the problems of US/Mexico Border are also about the flow of guns and drugs. How can we understand the totality of problems related to the US southern border? What are the solutions? We speak with Ieva Jusionyte the author of a new book Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border. [ dur: 58mins. ] Ieva Jusionyte is a legal and medical anthropologist and associate professor at Brown University. She is also the author of...

With wars still raging in Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine, we return to an earlier interview on the origins of war. When and how did war begin? While some have argued it evolved in early human behavior within forging bands societies, our guests say, that's not true. Forger bands did not wage war. [ dur: 30mins. ] Douglas P. Fry is Professor and Chair of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is the author of Beyond War, The Human...

April is Genocide Awareness month. Two of the worst genocides in history, the Hutu killing of Tutsis in Rwanda and the Ottoman genocide against Armenians, began in April. We explore genocide with two specific questions: Who internationally makes a determination that violence and atrocities are in fact genocide? And what if anything changes when there is a finding that atrocities are genocide? We explore whether a legal approach is the best way to determine whether political violence and...

The expansion of the vote to women throughout the 20th Century has had an impact on the discourses and politics of war and peace. What is the relationship between women voting, electing women leaders, and women-lead groups in civil society on the issue of war and peace? Does the expansion of the vote to women lead to the election of women as leaders? And are these leaders more committed to peace than their male counterparts? We explore a new book, The Suffragist Peace: How Women Shape the...

We look at how to sustainably mitigate urban flooding in the mist of climate crisis. Altering how we think of hardscape in urban design to manage water drainage. [ dur: 30mins. ] Gary Brierley is Professor of Environment at University of Auckland, NZ. He is the author of River restoration as a sociocultural process: A case study from the Waimatā Catchment, Aotearoa New Zealand and Truths of the Riverscape: Moving beyond command-and-control to geomorphologically informed nature-based...

Title IX, the landmark legislation on women’s equality in higher education, was passed to equalize funding between men’s and women’s athletics. What has it achieved? Where does it fall short? When some schools failed to implement Title IX for athletics, activists sued. We look at the landmark cases and what they have achieved. [ dur: 58mins. ] Lisa S. Kaplowitz is Associate Professor of Professional Practice in the Finance and Economics department at Rutgers Business School. She is...

Donald Trump's political rhetoric is becoming more apocalyptic, more dehumanizing, and more violent. What does this mean for the future of American politics and its institutions? Will Trump-ism die with Donald Trump or will it survive after he passes on? [ dur: 58mins. ] David Livingstone Smith is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of New England. He is the author of Less Than Human: Why we Demean, Enslave and Exterminate Others, The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the...

What is reputational security for states? And what exactly do officials do to protect states' reputations? How has social media and other communication technologies affected states and efforts to protect their reputations? This discussion is centered around Nickolas J. Cull's book Reputational Security: Refocusing Public Diplomacy for a Dangerous World. [ dur: 58mins. ] Nicholas J. Cull is Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism at USC. He is...

The US Supreme Court overturned Colorado’s State Supreme Court decision to remove Donald Trump from its ballot based on the 14th Amendment’s prohibition on insurrectionists holding office. What might this signal about the court and its role in the 2024 election and in electoral politics more generally? Polls suggest that voters want to know if Donald Trump is a criminal before voting in November. But the Supreme Court’s decisions make it less likely that this occurs before the election....

What does the death of Russia's high profile dissident, Alexi Navalny, mean for the future of the country? Who was Alexi Navalny and what exactly did he stand for? Navalny was not the only political dissident in Russia. Who else is resisting the government and what are their causes? And what does Alexei Navalny's death portend for Russian leader, Vladimir Putin? Does it suggest he's a strongman or that he is, instead, weaker than he appears? [ dur:58mins ] Steve Swerdlow, esq. is...

With the massive population growths, cities are facing enormous challenges especially with housing, building climate resilience, transportation networks, and addressing the needs of working people. How are cities facing these challenges? We discuss the 21st Century city. [ dur: 32mins. ] Stephen M. Wheeler (Steve) is Professor in the Landscape Architecture Program of the Department of Human Ecology at U.C. Davis. He is the co-author of Re-imagining Sustainable Cities: Creating Equitable,...

Colorado disqualified former president Donald Trump from running on its ballot for President, arguing he violated the 14th Amendment's prohibition on insurrectionists from holding public office. What do history and law say about this amendment and its purpose? What would so-called originalism mean as applied to the case? [ dur: 58mins. ] John R. Vile is Dean and Professor of Political Science at Middle Tennessee State University. He is the author of, The Writing and Ratification of the...

Climate Change is an existential threat that demands bold action and a transformation of how humanity uses its resources. Concepts like "net zero" and "carbon offset" have done little toward decreasing the amount of greenhouse gases we emit into the atmosphere. Is the current legal and voluntary structure adequate to meet the challenge of climate change? Are we up to the challenge? [ dur: 58mins. ] William Moomaw is Emeritus Professor of international environmental policy and founding...

Ethiopia is the first nation to recognize a breakaway region of Somalia called Somaliland since its declaration of independence 33 years ago. Why did Ethiopia recognize it and what does it mean for peace in the region. Markus Virgil Hoehne is a lecturer at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Leipzig. He is the author of Between Somaliland and Puntland: Marginalization, Militarization and Conflicting Political Visions and is co-editor of Borders and Borderlands as...

In the summer of 2023, Guatemala elected as President an outsider with a famous last name—Bernardo Arevalo. But his political opponents used ever level of law they could to try to deny his Inauguration. Why was he victorious and what does his election mean for the future of democracy in the Central American nation? [ dur: 28mins. ] Professor Luis Fernando Mack is a Guatemalan independent political analyst and political science professor at Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. He is...

What responsibilities do occupiers have in their occupation of territories? And is there a legal requirement to eventually end the occupation? [ dur: 28mins. ] Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco. He is the author of numerous publications including Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism, Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution co-authored with Jacob Mundy. John B. Quigly is a Professor of Law Emeritus at...

To commemorate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. we explore the impact of Dr. King and his memory on contemporary issues, including the role of women in the movement and the security of people of color as embodied in the Black Lives Matter movement. What is the meaning of Dr. King’s dream today? [ dur: 30mins. ] *This was part of a panel discussion recorded January 2023. To hear the entire discussion please visit: here. David Garrow is Professor of History and Law at the...

For many people, access to universities for study and degrees is a means to future economic success. So families sacrifice to pay for this education, or often take out substantial loans to cover the cost. But what if universities opened their access and became truly abundant as a societal resource. Economist Michael Smith, in his new book The Abundant University, makes the case for rethinking access to higher education. [ dur: 28mins. ] Michael D. Smith is a Professor of Information...

Why do people seem to know so little about politics? And what does that mean for democracy? We speak with Arthur Lupia author of Uninformed: Why People Know So Little About Politics and What We Can Do About It. [ dur: 27mins. ] Arthur Lupia is the Gerald R Ford Distinguished University Professor at the University of Michigan. His research clarifies how people make decisions and form or break coalitions in complex, political environments. He is the co-author of The Democratic Dilemma:...

The latest climate change meetings, COP-28, just ended in Dubai.  After an initial pessimism about an agreement, with controversies over leadership and the location of the meetings, there were some intriguing breakthroughs.  The meeting yielded new agreements on a loss and damage fund and a transition from fossil fuels. But many of previous agreements have yet to be implemented.  What does that mean for addressing climate change? What exactly was accomplished by this meeting, and what remains...

Henry Kissinger was perhaps among the most influential people on US foreign policy and global events, fr which some consider him a war criminal. How should Kissinger be remembered? What does this answer say about the US in the world? 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...

Democracy is eroding in the United States? What are the causes and what should be done? Is the erosion of democracy because of political elites and specifically the reaction of the Republican Party to the 2020 election? Or does it run deeper? [ dur: 58mins. ] Jacob S. Hacker is Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science at Yale University. He is the co-author of Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality, American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us...

Over a half million Americans are currently homeless. What is causing this crisis? And what are the solutions? How do we get the resources to build the housing we need to address the homelessness crisis? We discuss why services to address mental health and addiction are essential to resolving the homelessness crisis. [ dur: 58mins. ] Deborah Padgett is a Professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work. She is the co-author of Housing First: Ending Homelessness, Changing Systems and...

How does deep listening to nature promote biodiversity and a deeper relationship with the natural world? We discuss the book THE SOUNDS OF LIFE: How Digital Technology Is Bringing Us Closer to the World of Animals and Plants. [ dur: 34mins. ] Karen Bakker ( 1971 - 2023 ) was Professor of Geography and Associate at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She was Visiting Professor at Harvard University's Radcliffe Institute...