Sarah R. Coleman, assistant professor of history at Texas State University, joins us to work through near-term policy options and to talk about ideas for improving the conditions in the countries migrants are fleeing.
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The Human Cost Of Cheap Goods
Journalist Amelia Pang joins us to discuss the extraordinary discovery that led to international outcry – and about why we should re-examine what we’re willing to pay for products.
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The Problem With Creating Our Own Truth
University of Connecticut philosophy professor Michael Patrick Lynch joins us to talk about how people come to believe what they think they know, and why shared foundations of knowledge are crucial to the health of a democracy.
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A Case For Rebuilding The Voting Rights Act
Vann R. Newkirk II, senior editor at The Atlantic and the host of the podcast Floodlines, joins us to talk about how the bill was originally perceived and passed, and what might happen if it again lands at the Supreme Court’s door.
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Why Is It Taking So Long To Get Your Covid Shot?
Kaiser Health News correspondent Rachana Pradhan joins us to explain the very complicated process of producing these vaccines – a process money or even executive orders can only do so much to speed up.
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The Scammers On The Other End Of The Line
Yudhijit Bhattacharjee is a contributing writer at National Geographic, and he joins us to talk about his journey into the world of telemarketers and their phone mills selling dubious products.
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History’s Real-Life Fashion Police
Stanford Law professor Richard Thompson Ford joins us to talk about a long and fascinating list of rules about who could dress in which ways and why, and how they were often used as a cudgel to keep people from rising above their station.
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How The Medical Research System Gets Around Informed Consent
Harriet A. Washington, a lecturer in bioethics at Columbia University, joins us to talk about her research into a patient’s right to decline a procedure and the ethics of forcing experiments or new treatments in the name of research.
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A Dissident Egyptian Comic Takes On Middle School Bullies
Bassem Youssef, the heart surgeon turned political satirist, joins us to talk about the unique experiences of immigrant children and what he learned from observing his own family.
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A Post-Mortem On Texas’s Colossal Energy Failure
University of Houston energy fellow Ed Hirs and Texas Water Resources Institute associate director Wendy Jepson join us to explain why one of the toughest weeks in Texas history was likely preventable – and what the state needs to do to make sure an energy disaster doesn’t strike again.
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Egg Freezing: Empowerment Or Impediment
Lucy van de Wiel, research associate at the Reproductive Sociology Research Group, University of Cambridge, joins us to discuss how this reproductive technology offers a chance at parenting but also can lead to a heartbreaking journey into a largely unregulated industry.
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Rethinking Russia’s Place On The International Stage
Kathryn E. Stoner is the deputy director of Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and she joins us to explain how Vladimir Putin has used his iron grip on domestic power to rachet up his country’s influence on international affairs.
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