This is Democracy

Jeremi and Zachary sit down with Robert Hutchings to discuss the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact it has on us today. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Berlin: 30 Years.” Robert Hutchings is the Walt and Elspeth Rostow Chair in National Security and professor of public affairs at the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and he served as dean of the school from 2010 to 2015. Before coming to UT, he was a diplomat in residence at Princeton University, where he also served as assistant dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and as faculty chair of its Master in Public Policy program. His combined academic and diplomatic career has included service as Director for European affairs with the National Security Council, special adviser to the secretary of state with the rank of ambassador, and chairman of the U.S. National Intelligence Council. Ambassador Hutchings served earlier in his career as deputy director of Radio Free Europe and on the faculty of the University of Virginia. He is author or editor of six books, including American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War, along with many articles and book chapters on U.S. foreign policy and European affairs. His most recent book, written and edited with Jeremi Suri, is Modern Diplomacy in Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming 2020). He is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Jeremi and Zachary sit down with David Judson to discuss the evolution of Turkey as well as the current controversies surrounding Turkey’s relationship with the United States. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Images of Turkey.” David Judson spent many years in Turkey. He first went there as a high school and later college student in the 1970s. He was to return in 2000, joining Turkey’s largest media group in 2003. First, he was managing editor of the Dogan Media Group’s Turkish language business daily, Referans. In 2006, he became editor in chief of Hurriyet Daily News, the group’s English language newspaper founded in 1961. In 2013 he left Turkey to return to the United States as editor in chief of Stratfor Geopolitical Forecasting, based in Austin. Judson left Stratfor in 2018 and now divides his time between the San Francisco-based forecasting firm Global Foresight where is a senior advisor and an Austin-based media start-up focused on the emerging role of cities as geopolitical actors. From the late 1980s to 2000, Judson was a political correspondent in Washington D.C., for Gannett Newspapers, America’s largest newspaper chain. He is a graduate of the University of California at Los Angeles.

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary discuss the Puerto Rico U.S. statehood movement with Prof. Alberto Martinez. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “To Puerto Rico.” Alberto Martinez is originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Most recently, he is the author of Burned Alive: Giordano Bruno, Galileo & the Inquisition (Reaktion, 2018). He is also the author of four other books: The Cult of Pythagoras: Math and Myths (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2012), on the evolution of myths in the history of mathematics. Science Secrets: The Truth About Darwin’s Finches, Einstein’s Wife, and Other Myths (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2011). And previously, he published Kinematics: The Lost Origins of Einstein’s Relativity(Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009), and Negative Math: How Mathematical Rules Can Be Positively Bent (Princeton University Press, 2005).   

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary sit down with Professor Alon Tal to talk environmental activism across the world and the ways we all can help build a better future for our planet. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Nothing.” Alon Tal (Hebrew: אלון טל‎, born 12 July 1960) is a leading Israeli environmental activist and academic; founder of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, and the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies; and a co-founder of Ecopeace: Friends of the Earth, Middle East; This is My Earth; the Israel Forum for Demography, Environment and Society; Aytzim: Ecological Judaism; and the Green Movement political party. Tal was appointed chair of the department of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University in 2017.

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary speak with Tom Mueller about whistleblowing and its role in our government and society. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “A Voice Calling in the Desert.” Tom Mueller is the author of a new book, Crisis of Conscience, on the history of whistleblowing and fraud in the United States. His articles have appeared in the New Yorker, National Geographic Magazine, New York Times Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, and elsewhere, and have been included in anthologies like Best American Science Writing and Best American Travel Writing. He was educated at Oxford (DPhil, Rhodes Scholar), Harvard (BA, summa cum laude), and Alief Hastings High School in rural east Texas, home of the Fighting Bears.

Today a very special guest joins Jeremi and Zachary in the studio. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations under President Barack Obama’s second term shares her experience growing up as an immigrant in the United States, the evolution of her career, and her outlook on toolkits and morality in foreign intervention on behalf of the United States. Zachary introduces the episode with his poem, “To the Rest of Humanity.” Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power is a leading voice internationally for principled American engagement in the world. One of TIME’s“100 Most Influential People,” she is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, war correspondent, and the Anna Lindh Professor of Practice at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School. Her latest book, The Education of an Idealist, chronicles her years in public service and reflects on the role of human rights and humanitarian ideals in contemporary geopolitics.

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary speak with Professor Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra to discuss issues of racial discrimination against the Hispanic community within American universities and society. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Exclusion is a Funny Word.” Professor Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra is the Alice Drysdale Sheffield Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin He is the author of numerous ground-breaking and prize-winning books and papers, including: How to Write the History of the New World; Puritan Conquistadors; and Nature, Empire, and Nation.  The core of his intellectual project has been to demonstrate the deep formative role of “Latin America” to the colonial history of the USA and to the history of “Western” modernity as a whole, not just slavery, globalization, and capitalism but also science, abolitionism, and democracy.

In this episode, Jeremi and Zachary sit down with Professor Paul Stekler to discuss the topic of presidential debates. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “The War of the Botox.” Paul Stekler is a nationally recognized documentary filmmaker whose critically praised and award-winning work includes George Wallace: Settin’ the Woods on Fire; Last Man Standing: Politics, Texas Style; Vote for Me: Politics in America, a four-hour PBS special about grassroots electoral politics; two segments of the Eyes on the Prize II series on the history of civil rights; Last Stand at Little Big Horn (broadcast as part of PBS’s series The American Experience); Louisiana Boys: Raised on Politics (broadcast on PBS’s P.O.V. series); Getting Back to Abnormal (which aired on P.O.V. in 2014); and 2016’s Postcards from the Great Divide, a web series about politics for The Washington Post and PBS Digital. Overall, his films have won two George Foster Peabody Awards, three Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Awards, three national Emmy Awards, and a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. https://rtf.utexas.edu/faculty/paul-stekler

Jeremi sits down with William Inboden to reflect on the lessons and legacies of 9/11. As always, Zachary kicks off the discussion with his poem, “Ghosts of 9/11/2001.” Professor William Inboden is the Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair of the Clements Center for National Security as well as a Distinguished Scholar of the Strauss Center for International Security and Law. He is also an Associate Professor at the LBJ School and Editor-in-Chief of the Texas National Security Review. https://www.clementscenter.org/people/item/12-william-inboden

In this episode, Jeremi discusses unions with Yvonne Flores, President of AFSCME Local 1624, and Jackie Jones, the Chair of the Department of History at UT, to discuss unions. Zachary sets the scene with his poem, “Images of Madison 2011.” Yvonne Flores is the President of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees AFSCME Local 1624 Representing the City of Austin and Travis County employees. Jackie Jones is the Chair of the Department of History at UT, and the Incoming President of the American Historical Association, and a Leading Expert on the history of unions in the United States.