A Gentlemen’s Disagreement

With the Supreme Court's latest term in the books, we spent this week discussing how some of their major decisions will affect American society and politics moving forward. We began by looking at the Court's term from a high level perspective, and then dug into their decision in the Harvard and UNC affirmative action cases (5:52-32:58). We then discussed the fallout from the Court's decision on President Biden's student debt relief plan (33:03-46:54), and concluded by looking at the decisions involving Freedom of Speech and LGBTQ+ rights and voting rights (46:59-1:04:45).

We are joined this week by St. Louis Treasurer Adam Layne for a wide-ranging conversation about his path from growing up in Boston, to going to college in Washington D.C., to teaching and then working in and for the city of St. Louis. We also discuss the sometimes competing ideas of opportunity and agency, particularly in the wake of SCOTUS ending affirmative action in higher education, get Adam's thoughts on equity and equality, and hear what he is doing in his role as Treasurer to create more of both in his city.

This week we use the celebration of Juneteenth to take a hard look at our history. We discuss and debate the merits of reparations, whether the U.S. is a land of opportunity or oppression or both, and why it is so difficult for us to tell the full story of U.S. history. We conclude by highlighting two Black American figures who may have fallen through the cracks of that story.

We discussed the two big stories of the week: the stunning LIV-PGA merger and the deal to raise the debt ceiling.

We are joined this week by Dr. Bertha Madras who is a Professor of Psychobiology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Madras is one of the founders of the new "Council on Academic Freedom" at Harvard University, which is a faculty-led organization that is devoted to free inquiry, intellectual diversity, and civil discourse. Dr. Madras discusses why she felt like this Council was necessary at Harvard, in particular, and why she thinks protecting academic freedom and freedom of expression at institutions of higher education is so critical, in general.

 

 

 

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and, in that spirit, we were joined by graduate student Wendy-Myrbell Napoleon who has been researching the intersection of social media and mental health among adolescents and young adults (5:10-43:05). We used her research as a foundation to have a larger conversation about mental health issues in our society, and she provided some policy recommendations our elected officials should consider to address the growing mental health crisis in our particularly vulnerable populations.

We are joined this week by Nicaela Chinnaswamy and Maureen McInerney for a draft of sixteen potential Republican presidential candidates. We run through the true favorites, the outside contenders, the dark horses and the longshots for the nomination. Fun conversation and a great primer of the 2024 Republican presidential field.

We hit six topics (plus a bonus topic!) that have been in the news lately in (roughly) ten minute segments. We begin by talking about all of the goings-on at Fox News (8:05-22:26), the ethics of the Supreme Court (22:30-32:00), JPMorgan buying First Republic Bank (32:04-43:35), the impending debt ceiling (43:39-55:53), President Biden's re-election campaign (55:58-1:03:10), and recent incidents of gun violence (1:03:14-1:13:05), plus a bonus topic for those of you who stick with us.

We are joined this week by Jennifer Nassour, former chairperson of the Massachusetts Republican Party, founder of The Pocketbook Project, and host of the Political Contessa podcast (4:16-39:28). We talk to Jenn about her crusades to get more women into politics and to bring fiscal conservatism back to government, as well as the importance of having a legitimate opposition party for the sake of democracy, among many other topics.

On the heels of President Biden's "Democracy Summit," we discussed the state of democracy globally, specifically in India, Israel, and in the U.S.