This is Democracy

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary talk with special guest Dr. Mark Atwood Lawrence about the Vietnam War and its continuing legacies in American society, global policy, as well as recent similar conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “It is Hard to Build Utopias”. Mark Atwood Lawrence is Director of the LBJ Presidential Library and Museum in Austin, Texas. Until January 2020, he taught history at UT-Austin, where his classes focused on American and international history. Lawrence is author of Assuming the Burden: Europe and the American Commitment to War in Vietnam, The Vietnam War: A Concise International History, and, this fall, The End of Ambition: The United States and the Third World in the Vietnam Era, as well as several edited books and numerous articles, chapters, and reviews on various aspects of the history of U.S. foreign relations. Lawrence has held the Cassius Marcellus Clay Fellowship at Yale University (2006-2008) and the Stanley Kaplan Visiting Professorship in American Foreign Policy at Williams College (2011-2012). He earned his BA from Stanford University and his PhD from Yale University. This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Ean Herrera.

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary talk with special guests Dyana Limon-Mercado, and Sarah Wheat about how women are responding to the latest abortion restrictions in Texas. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “About Freedom”. Dyana Limon-Mercado is Executive Director of Planned Parenthood Texas Votes. Sarah Wheat is Chief External Affairs Officer at Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas. This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Isaiah Thomas and Ean Herrera.

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary talk with special guest, Dr. Sheila Olmstead about climate change, the environment, and how the pandemic has exacerbated and changed our policies in handling it. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Fuelless”. Dr. Sheila Olmstead is a Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs, a University Fellow at Resources for the Future (RFF), and a Senior Fellow at the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC). Professor Olmstead is a Charter Member of the Science Advisory Board at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 2016-2017 she served in the White House as Senior Economist for Energy and the Environment on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Professor Olmstead has published in leading journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Journal of Economic Perspectives, the Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, the Journal of Urban Economics, Science, Water Resources Research, and Environmental Science and Technology. This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Alejandra Arrazola and Ean Herrera.

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary talk with special guests, Dr. James Goldgeier and Dr. Joshua Shifrinson, about NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and discuss why the alliance exists, the roll it has played, and how we should think about the alliance's future. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Transatlantic Elegy”. James Goldgeier is a Professor of International Relations and served as Dean of the School of International Service at American University from 2011-17. He is also a Robert Bosch Senior Visiting Fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution, and he serves as the chair of the State Department Historical Advisory Committee. He has authored or co-authored four books including: America Between the Wars: From 11/9 to 9/11 (co-authored with Derek Chollet); Power and Purpose: U.S. Policy toward Russia after the Cold War (co-authored with Michael McFaul); and Not Whether But When: The U.S. Decision to Enlarge NATO.  Joshua Shifrinson is an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University. Shifrinson’s book, Rising Titans, Falling Giants: How Great Powers Exploit Power Shifts, explains why some rising states challenge and prey upon declining great powers, while others seek to support and cooperate with declining states. He has additional related projects on U.S. grand strategy, the durability of NATO, U.S. relations with its allies during and after the Cold War, and the rise of China. His work has appeared in International Security, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Foreign Affairs, and other venues.  This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Ean Herrera.

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary talk with special guest, Jeffrey Rathke, about the upcoming elections in Germany and what implications they could have for politics within Germany, the European Union, and the United States. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Something We Should Remember Having Done.” Jeffrey Rathke is the President of the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at the Johns Hopkins University in Washington, DC. Prior to joining AICGS, Jeff was a senior fellow and deputy director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where his work focused on transatlantic relations and U.S. security and defense policy. Jeff joined CSIS in 2015 from the State Department, after a 24-year career as a Foreign Service Officer, dedicated primarily to U.S. relations with Europe. He was director of the State Department Press Office from 2014 to 2015, briefing the State Department press corps and managing the Department’s engagement with U.S. print and electronic media. Jeff led the political section of the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur from 2011 to 2014. Prior to that, he was deputy chief of staff to the NATO Secretary-General in Brussels. He also served in Berlin as minister-counselor for political affairs (2006–2009), his second tour of duty in Germany. His Washington assignments have included the deputy director of the Office of European Security and Political Affairs and duty officer in the White House Situation Room and State Department Operations Center.

In today's episode, Jeremi and Zachary have the opportunity to talk with special guests Steven Nadler and Lawrence Sharpiro. They discuss their exciting new book: When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People as well as the topic of moving towards a more open, evidence based, and logical form of thinking in society. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, "The Apparition". Steven Nadler is Vilas Research Professor and the William H. Hay II Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His books include Menasseh ben Israel: Rabbi of Amsterdam (Yale, “Jewish Lives” series, 2018); A Book Forged in Hell: Spinoza's Scandalous Treatise and the Birth of the Secular Age (Princeton, 2011); The Philosopher, the Priest and the Painter: A Portrait of Descartes (Princeton, 2013); Spinoza: A Life (Cambridge, 1999; 2nd ed. 2018); and Rembrandt's Jews (Chicago, 2003, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize). He is also the author, with his son Ben Nadler, of the graphic book Heretics! The Wondrous (and Dangerous) Beginnings of Modern Philosophy (Princeton, 2017). His most recent book is Think Least of Death: Spinoza on How to Live and How to Die (Princeton, 2020). He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Lawrence Shapiro is the Berent Enç Professor of Philosophy at University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research spans philosophy of mind and philosophy of psychology. Within philosophy of mind he has focused on issues related to reduction, especially concerning the thesis of multiple realization. His books include The Mind Incarnate (MIT, 2004) and The Multiple Realization Book (co-authored with Professor Thomas Polger.) His book, Embodied Cognition (Routledge Press), received the American Philosophical Association’s Joseph B. Gittler Award for best book in philosophy of the social sciences (2013). His recent interest in philosophy of religion resulted in The Miracle Myth: Why Belief in the Resurrection and the Supernatural is Unjustified (Columbia University Press, 2016). Drs. Nadler and Shapiro recently co-authored an exciting new book: When Bad Thinking Happens to Good People (Princeton University Press, 2021).  This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Isaiah Thomas and Ean Herrera

Jeremi and Zachary, with special guest, Professor Stephen Vladeck, discuss the Shadow Docket in response to the recent controversial Texas Law that largely restricts access to Abortion. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, "The Right to Choose". Stephen I. Vladeck holds the Charles Alan Wright Chair in Federal Courts at the University of Texas School of Law and is a nationally recognized expert on the federal courts, constitutional law, national security law, and military justice. Professor Vladeck has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, the Texas Supreme Court, and various lower federal civilian and military courts; has testified before numerous congressional committees and Executive Branch agencies and commissions; has served as an expert witness both in U.S. state and federal courts and in foreign tribunals; and has received numerous awards for his influential and widely cited legal scholarship, his prolific popular writing, his teaching, and his service to the legal profession.  Vladeck is the co-host, together with Professor Bobby Chesney, of the popular and award-winning “National Security Law Podcast.” He is CNN’s lead Supreme Court analyst and a co-author of Aspen Publishers’ leading national security law and counterterrorism law casebooks. And he is an executive editor of the Just Security blog and a senior editor of the Lawfare blog. This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Ean Herrera

Jeremi and Zachary, with special guest, Prof. B. Venkat Mani, discuss the refugee crisis in reaction to recent events in Afghanistan Zachary sets the scene with his poem, "The Airplane With the City Clinging to its Wheels". B. Venkat Mani is a Professor of German and World Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is also a Senior Fellow in Race, Ethnicity, and Indigeneity. He was born and brought up in India and migrated to the US as for graduate education. He researches and teaches German literature, literature of migrants and refugees, and world literature. He is the author, among others of Cosmopolitical Claims(2007) and the multiple award winning Recoding World Literature (2017). He has co-edited a A Companion to World Literature (Wiley Blackwell 2020).  His work on racial, ethnic, and religious minorities with a focus on migration has also appeared in  The Wire (Hindi), Inside Higher Ed,Telos, and The Hindustan Times. His most recent article is: "Empires Slay, Publics Pay: The Global Refugee Crisis Unfolding in Afghanistan,” Hindustan Times (Aug 22, 2021): https://www.hindustantimes.com/opinion/empires-slay-publics-pay-the-global-refugee-crisis-unfolding-in-afghanistan-101629631940164.html.  This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Morgan Honaker.

Jeremi and Zachary, with special guest, Steven Pedigo, discuss the results of the recently published U.S. Census and what it means for society. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, "It Is A True Sonnet". Steven Pedigo is a Professor of Practice at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and the inaugural director of the LBJ Urban Lab. Pedigo has advised more than 50 cities and regions across the world on how to build more creative, innovative, and inclusive communities. This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Oscar Kitmanyen and Ean Herrera.

Jeremi and Zachary, with their guest Steve Sonnenberg, discuss the topic of mental health during the global pandemic. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, "In the Park with the Wide Fountain".  Steve Sonnenberg, MD, is a psychiatrist and medical humanities and ethics scholar. He serves as professor and associate chair for education in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Dell Medical School. He also holds the Paul Woodruff Professorship for Excellence in Undergraduate Studies in the School of Undergraduate Studies, where he chairs the faculty panel of the Bridging Disciplines Program “Patients, Practitioners, and Cultures of Care.” That program is designed to prepare healthcare undergraduates with the tools they will need later, as providers, to create a healthcare system where health is a human right and structural disparities in care are eliminated. This episode of This is Democracy was mixed and mastered by Ean Herrera.