Episodes
Raising White Kids: Jennifer Harvey
The Reverend Dr. Jennifer Harvey is an educator, activist, and author of Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in a Racially Unjust America. We discuss the importance of race-conscious parenting in the smog of racism, fostering healthy white identity, and creating a more just future.
Equity in Healthcare: Georges Benjamin, MD
Dr. Georges Benjamin is the Executive Director of the American Public Health Association. We discuss achieving better health outcomes by expanding access to both health insurance and healthcare providers, the disproportionate impact of COVID on minority communities, and racism within the healthcare system.
Inclusive Excellence: Franklin Gilliam
Dr. Franklin Gilliam, Jr. is the Chancellor of UNC Greensboro. We discuss the real harm of discrimination to our broader society, the power of striving for excellence in higher education through inclusion, and the lifetime benefits of social mobility.
Implicit Teacher Bias: Walter Gilliam
Walter Gilliam is the Director of The Edward Zigler Center in Child Development and Social Policy, and Professor at the Yale University Child Study Center. We discuss implicit bias in preschool teachers, expulsion rates among preschoolers, and the role of universal Pre-K to access early learning.
Unapologetically Indigenous: Sarah Pierce and Amy Sazue
Sarah Pierce and Amy Sazue work on education policy for NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization dedicated to building Indigenous power. Honoring the narrative of the Indigenous is an important step towards education equity, since US curriculum now perpetuates the erasure of Indigenous history.
Separating Children: Laura Briggs
Laura Briggs is the author of Taking Children: A History of American Terror. We discuss the history of child separation for political ends, ranging from the enslaved and Native children, to the children of the poor and Central American refugees. The legacy of these racist policies still haunt us today.
Unions & Racial Justice: Tamara Lee
Tamara L. Lee, Esq. is an industrial engineer, labor lawyer, and professor at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations. We discuss wage discrimination, innovation and equity in organized labor, and a new framework for justice in our times.
State-Sponsored Segregation: Richard Rothstein
Richard Rothstein is a journalist, historian, and author of The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America. We learn about state-sponsored segregation, its continuing legacy and impact on disparities in wealth and income, and a new movement to redress racial segregation.
Ending The Filibuster: Eli Zupnick
Eli Zupnick is the spokesperson for Fix Our Senate, a group dedicated to ending the Senate filibuster. We discuss how the filibuster rule actually works, why it’s deeply anti-democratic, and why the time has come to eliminate it.
Critical Race Theory: Mari Matsuda
Mari J. Matsuda is a lawyer, activist, law professor, and founding practicioner of Critical Race Theory. We discuss the various ways inequality threatens our freedom, the dangers of harmful speech, and the way racism is systemic to our institutions.
White Too Long: Robert P. Jones, Ph.D.
Robert P. Jones is the founder of the Public Religion Research Institute and author of White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. We learn about the historical role of white churches in perpetuating white supremacy, stunting the morality of white Americans, and in working to achieve justice going forward.
Fixing High Schools: Ted Dintersmith
Ted Dintersmith is an education reform advocate and author of What School Could Be: Insights and Inspiration from Teachers Across America. We discuss how schools fail students and how we can create innovative, high-quality learning around the country.
Reimagining Higher Education: Leon Botstein
Leon Botstein is president of Bard College, chancellor of the Open Society University Network, and music director of the American Symphony Orchestra. We discuss the relationship between democracy and education, the bankruptcy of American education today, and the foundational pillars of high-quality education.
Ending the Counter-Revolution: Bernard Harcourt
Bernard Harcourt is a critical theorist, professor at Columbia University, and the author of The Counterrevolution: How Our Government Went to War Against Its Own Citizens. We discuss the American counterinsurgency governing paradigm, the fragility of our democracy, and bringing about an alternative, just government.
Reimagining Law Enforcement: Norm Stamper
Norm Stamper is a former Chief of Police of Seattle and author of Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police. We discuss his 34-year experience as a police officer, the deeply institutionalized nature of cop culture, ending the war on drugs, and reimagining public safety through community policing.
The Precarity of Taxi Work: Veena Dubal
Veena Dubal is a law professor at UC Hastings whose research focuses on the intersection of law, technology, and precarious work. We discuss how taxi work became precarious work as a result of de-unionization, de-regulation, and concerted efforts by transportation network companies to exploit workers.
The Future of Antitrust: Zephyr Teachout
Zephyr Teachout is an activist, professor, and author of Break ‘Em Up: Recovering Our Freedom from Big Ag, Big Tech, and Big Money. We discuss how monopolies are deeply anti-democratic and how we can break them up by enforcing existing anti-trust laws, which protect our democracy.
A Keynesian Future: Zach Carter
Zach Carter is the author of The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes, which was just selected as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by Publishers Weekly. We learn about Keynes, his economic theories, and potential future applications of his principles in today's uncertain world.
Lasting Civic Engagement: Maria Yuan
Maria Yuan is the founder of IssueVoter, a non-partisan civic engagement platform whose mission is to give everyone a voice in our democracy. It helps voters track bills before Congress, sends their opinions to their representatives, and puts together a personalized scorecard on the representative’s voting record. We discuss how we can create a healthier democracy through technology and civic engagement.
October Surprise: Devlin Barrett
Devlin Barrett is a Washington Post reporter and author of October Surprise: How the FBI Tried to Save Itself and Crashed an Election. We discuss how the FBI’s work culture and its transformation to a national security agency led to a series of monumental misjudgments, and examine how a similar future fate can be averted.