Interviews with fascinating people on science, ethics, and politics.
Episodes
Monday Jul 29, 2019
Monday Jul 29, 2019
Brianna Rennix is an immigration lawyer and a Senior Editor at Current Affairs magazine. She works near the border in Dilley, Texas, helping prepare detained immigrant women for their asylum hearings. This is a job that requires you to ask people about the worst things that have ever happened to them. And if you fail, they may be deported to their death.
Immigration has been in the news a lot recently, particularly the torturous conditions immigrants are being held in. Unfortunately, a lot of this coverage isn't properly contextualized and there's a lot of misinformation about how our immigration system actually works. I've wanted to have Brianna on for a while because, as I tell her, she writes about immigration with more analytical and moral clarity than anyone else I've come across. We touch on a lot of it here, and I really encourage you to read her work on immigration that can be found in the show notes.
We cover:
Brianna's work as an immigration lawyer, how Clinton and Obama laid the groundwork for Trump's immigration policies, the push and pull factors driving immigration, America's role in stoking violence in Central America, the origins of MS13 and Barrio 18, Trump's efforts to destroy the asylum process, asylum claims in theory and in practice, the intensity of asking people to relive their worst experiences day in and day out, and what you can do to help.
Brianna's work:
This Week in Terrible Immigration News 7-29-19
Waiting for the Holy Infant of Atocha
The Case for Opening Our Borders
Crammed into cells and forced to drink from the toilet – this is how the US treats migrants
Things You Can Do Beyond Calling Your Congressperson
Understanding the Administration’s Monstrous Immigration Policies
What Would Human Immigration Policy Look Like?
Can We Have Humane Immigration Policy?
Links:
Majority of undocumented immigrants show up for court, data shows
A Century of U.S. Intervention Created the Immigration Crisis
US Involvement in Regime Change in Latin America
Polls: Most Voters Are Cool With Trump’s Deportation Raids, But Not His Racist Tweets
Video of Ihlan Omar being welcomed home
‘Nobody Opened the Door’: Neighbors Rally During an ICE Raid in Houston
Video: Town Of Trump Voters Angry After Local Businessman Gets Deported
Tuesday Jul 23, 2019
Tuesday Jul 23, 2019
Spencer Greenberg is a mathematician, social scientist, and entrepreneur. He received his PhD in applied math from NYU and is the founder of SparkWave, a social venture foundry. As we discuss, SparkWave has created a number of apps tackling problems like depression, anxiety, and finding participants for academic studies. Spencer also created the site www.clearerthinking.org, which offers free online tools and training programs to help users avoid bias and make better decisions. This site has a lot of fun and thought-provoking exercises. My favorites that we didn’t dig into: common misconceptions, political bias test, and leaving your mark on the world. Spencer has spoken at Effective Altruism Global and been published in the New York Times.
We cover: life changing questions you can ask yourself, intrinsic values, some hard problems for utilitarianism, Sparkwave’s apps for anxiety and depression, how to ensure social ventures don't become evil, Effective Altruism, the profound challenge of doing good in the world, the connection between our happiness and the news, gaming Facebook for your happiness, the best legal approach to prostitution, Spencer's thoughts on fiction and nonfiction, why memorizing is underrated, and the best description of Burning Man I've heard.
When I conceived this show, Spencer was one of the first people that came to mind. As you’ll soon see, he has informed and well-developed thoughts on a huge range of topics. He’s changed my mind quite a few times, and I appreciate his approach to thinking through the hardest problems we face as a species.
Spencer’s referenced work:
Spencer’s presentation at Effective Altruism Global on “Value traps, and how to avoid them”
Facebook post on 10 policies Spencer supports
Other links:
The 36 Questions That Lead to Love
Current Affairs article on Wikipedia
Is it fair to say that most social programmes don’t work?
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
Tuesday Jul 16, 2019
Emily Bazelon is a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and the Truman Capote Fellow for Creative Writing and Law at Yale Law School. She is the author of Charged: the New Movement to Transform American Prosecution and End Mass Incarceration. Emily is also the co-host of Slate’s “Political Gabfest” podcast. She has appeared on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Fresh Air, This American Life and pretty much all the other big shows. Needless to say, I’m grateful she took the time to come on my show.
In our discussion, we cover:
The outsized and unchecked power of prosecutors in our criminal justice system, what one thing Emily would do to change that system, whether she's a prison abolitionist, Tiffany Cabán’s prospects should she wins the Queens DA race, whether it's better to get progressive prosecutors in office or pursue state level reforms, what Jeffrey Epstein says about the rule of law, and Kamala Harris's record as a prosecutor and what it means for her candidacy.
Shownotes:
Emily’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/emilybazelon
Emily’s work referenced:
Her book Charged
Kamala Harris, a ‘Top Cop’ in the Era of Black Lives Matter
Other links:
The Paradox of the Progressive Prosecutor
Solitary Confinement: a Threat to Denmark’s Credibility
KAMALA HARRIS FAILS TO EXPLAIN WHY SHE DIDN’T PROSECUTE STEVEN MNUCHIN’S BANK
Kamala Harris calls Manafort’s relatively light sentence unfair
Friday Jul 12, 2019
Friday Jul 12, 2019
Today’s guest is attorney, and writer Vanessa A Bee. Vanessa is the Social Media Editor and now Associate Editor at Current Affairs Magazine, where she runs a fiery and informative Twitter account: @curraffairs (in addition to her own: @vanessa_abee). You can also catch her on Current Affairs’s wonderful podcast.
On this episode, we cover:
The role of social media in our politics, whether writers need to be on Twitter, Vanessa's ideological and religious journey, prison reform vs abolition, #Metoo, the boring importance of antitrust law, how standard labor contracts restrict our freedoms, the revolving door between regulators and the companies they used to regulate, and why innovation may actually be better under socialism.
There are some audio issues with this episode. Some processors can’t keep up with the recording software I use. I did what I could for this episode, and am looking into workarounds for future episodes.
Shownotes:
Vanessa’s articles:
How Not to Talk About Uncomfortable Shoulder Rubs
Can Penitent Sexual Predators Ever Be Granted Redemption?
Court-Packing is Necessary to Save Democracy
Other links:
WashPost article where Terry Cruz details his alleged sexual assault
Wednesday Jul 03, 2019
Wednesday Jul 03, 2019
Sam Miller McDonald is pursuing a PhD at Oxford studying the intersection of energy production and political power. He’s also an editor at The Trouble, a news site looking at climate change from a left perspective. In 2015, Sam co-founded ActivistLab, an online publication focused on improving social change. Sam is a prolific writer, with work in Current Affairs, the New Republic, the Baffler, In These Times, and elsewhere.
I should warn you up front that this is a bummer of a conversation, but I’m glad we had it. I found Sam to be informed and honest about the challenge before us.
We touch on:
Sam's research, the problem of climate change, whether industrial agriculture is actually efficient, what would be in Sam's Green New Deal, whether cities are as good for the environment as we may think, the challenge of resettling the predicted hundreds of millions of climate refugees, dealing with the despair that climate change uniquely inspires, Extinction Rebellion, the role of nuclear power, and how you can fight climate change most effectively.
Show notes:
Sam’s articles we discuss:
Beyond Fluorescent Bulbs: 4 Things Millennials Can Do To Fight Climate Change
Other stuff:
Effective Altruism forum post on whether climate change is an existential risk
Sam on the BBC discussing climate anxiety
Episode photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash