Scholars Strategy Network's No Jargon

Join us for the official relaunch of the No Jargon Podcast! For our first episode since our eleven-month hiatus, we take on Big Tech and government. Tech giants like Amazon and Facebook have been in the news a lot lately, especially after the House Judiciary Committee approved several antitrust bills this past summer that aim to curb the power of the tech industry. We decided to have a conversation with Margaret O’Mara, a renowned historian who has spent most of her career examining the love/hate relationship between Big Tech and government. Dr. O’Mara shares colorful stories about Silicon Valley – from its early beginnings to the days of the internet boom – all while explaining the Valley’s ever-present intersection with US politics. She takes us on a journey through the ups and downs of the intensely eventful relationship between the two.   For more of Margaret O’Mara’s work: Read her most recent book The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America. Check out her opinion pieces about the tech industry in The New York Times.

The 2020 election is quickly approaching and there is no lack of challenges for election administrators to overcome. From a pandemic that’s made finding poll workers difficult, to a massive influx of vote-by-mail ballots that are likely to delay results, to perhaps the biggest challenge of them all: the false rhetoric coming from the White House around the validity of the entire process. In this special episode, Professor Thessalia Merivaki lays out how election administrators are addressing these challenges, what we can expect come November, and what types of voter suppression to watch out for. For more on this topic: Read Merivaki’s piece in The Conversation, Poll workers on Election Day will be younger – and probably more diverse – due to COVID-19 Read her piece in Forbes, Building Civic Engagement Capacity From The Ground: Voter Registration On College Campuses Check out her SSN brief, What Provisional Ballots Tell Us about the Remaining Challenges in America's Local Voting Systems Find her new book, The Administration of Voter Registration: Expanding the Electorate Across and Within the States    

No Jargon is back for a special episode featuring Dr. Emma Sandoe. Medicaid has become the largest source of health care coverage in America. Just this year, even more states expanded their Medicaid programs, meaning that this trend is only going to continue. And yet, many people still don’t know much about this program. Dr. Sandoe explains how we got here, what lessons we can learn from the history of this program, and what the future of Medicaid looks like amidst the coronavirus pandemic. For more on this topic: Check out Sandoe’s article mentioned in the interview, How Foundational Moments In Medicaid’s History Reinforced Rather Than Eliminated Racial Health Disparities Read her other public writing at the Health Affairs Blog

Since the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police at the end of May, the United States has been rocked by weeks of nationwide protests against police brutality, and it doesn’t look like they’re going anywhere anytime soon. Professor Vesla Weaver dives into how this movement is different from protests of the past, what brought us to the current situation, how our nation’s police system has affected Black and Brown people’s lives and understanding of our democracy, and what to make of calls for changes, such as abolishing the police. For more on this topic: Check out the Portals Policing Project and the research coming out of it Read Weaver’s pieces in The Washington Post and Vox Find her two SSN briefs, How Harsh Policing and Mass Imprisonment Create Second-Class American Citizens and How Mass Imprisonment Burdens the United States with a Distrustful Civic Underclass Note: This episode includes some explicit language.

The 2020 election was already shaping up to be one of the most consequential and contentious in recent memory, and then came the COVID-19 pandemic. While much about the future is uncertain, we know this: the election cannot be run as originally planned. Professor Amel Ahmed lays out what policymakers can do to ensure that all voters can exercise their right to vote, what research can tell us about these various proposals, and how we can ensure that the public knows everything they need to vote before November comes. For more on this topic: Check out Baker’s policy recommendation, Ensure Safe Elections for All Read her SSN brief, When Election Rules Undermine Democracy

Even at the best of times, accessing abortion care in the United States can be an arduous process. During a pandemic, the challenges only mount further. Clinics are closed down and, in some places, politicians have begun using COVID-19 to block abortion, calling it “nonessential” healthcare. Professor Carrie Baker explores whether telemedicine abortion could provide a solution, what barriers exist to implementing it, and what this all means for the future of reproductive rights in the United States. For more on this topic: Check out Baker’s policy recommendation, Increase Access to Abortion Pills via Telemedicine Read her column in Ms. Magazine

In cities and towns across the country, protests have erupted following the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and others. While many of the protests remained peaceful, others turned violent, with buildings being destroyed or looted and clashes breaking out between the police and protestors. In this archive episode, Professor Ashley Howard explains the history behind these protests, why protests sometimes turn violent, how governments often respond, and what the role of social media is in all of this. For more on this topic: Check out Howard’s interview in The Chronicle of Higher Education and her multiple pieces in The Black Scholar. Read her SSN brief, How U.S. Urban Unrest in the 1960s Can Help Make Sense of Ferguson, Missouri, and Other Recent Protests This episode originally aired on February 14, 2017.

Being a college student can be stressful enough, but when you’re an undocumented immigrant, there are many additional hurdles in your way. Dr. Sayil Camacho unpacks what it’s like to be an undocumented student at our nation’s colleges and universities, what more university administrators and faculty can do to support them, and how DACA and the upcoming Supreme Court decision on the program factor into it all. For More on This Topic: Read the report Camacho worked on with Roberto Gonzales, Kristina Brant, and Carlos Aguilar, “The Long-Term Impact of DACA: Forging Futures Despite DACA’s Uncertainty” Check out the webinar Camacho put together on Scholar Allyship with and for the Undocumented Community Find the essay by Itziri Gonzalez-Barcenas mentioned in the episode, Growing Up Undocumented

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, it’s widely accepted that without a vaccine, life cannot go back to normal. But as it turns out, not everyone is on board. Over the last several years, an anti-vaccine movement has gained steam in the United States, with more and more people deciding to skip vaccines for themselves and their children. In this archive episode, Dr. Matthew Woodruff dives into the science and history behind vaccines and how we can better educate people on their value. This episode originally aired on August 8, 2017. For More on This Topic: Read Woodruff’s brief, Why "Personal Belief" Vaccine Exemptions Place Many Vulnerable Americans at Risk Check out his former podcast, Audiommunity

The scene is so common it’s almost cliche: two beautiful young people meet at a rowdy college party and drunkenly fall into bed together. American pop culture is fascinated by college hookups, but is casual sex really as widespread as it seems? Professor Lisa Wade breaks down who participates in hookup culture, what they get out of it, and as more students speak up about the problem of on-campus sexual assault, what role universities have to play in shaping their sexual cultures. For more on this topic Check out her book, American Hookup: The New Culture of Sex on Campus Read her opinion pieces in The Guardian, Time, and The Conversation