EP 789 Black Women in America Pursue Higher Education and Respect in Record Numbers
With Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee for President, we have come to know more about the sororities which have become family for Black women in Historically Black colleges. Though bias and biology have made them members of two marginalized groups since the nation’s founding, Black women nonetheless have been enrolling in college at rates higher than any other demographic group since the 1940’s. And when a certain politician calls part of our economy ‘black jobs'(short for menial and low wage)he certainly hasn’t caught up to this trend. While Black women have been going into many fields, well beyond teaching and nursing, the pay inequities with white men and women remains vast. Rachelle Winkle-Wagner in her book, “The Chosen We: Black Women’s Empowerment in Higher Education” we read oral histories of Black women who graduated between 1954 and 2014. Some attended Historically Black colleges and others that are predominantly white. Their need for community was easily satisfied in the former and a challenge in the latter. We go beyond the halls of academia to discuss the experience of Black women in America in challenging times as questions about diversity, equity, and inclusion have taken on a decidedly political caste.
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Is it as easy as just being good at music, painting, writing or other creative pursuits and the world will naturally beat a path to your door? Not really. I asked our guest how many Taylor Swifts wannabees, with talent, may be walking around today without a recording contract a realistic path to fame whose musical story may end with smoky club open mics in her town. He posited a guess of 5,000. That’s just the way it is. There are many variables that go into achieving success and fame for a talent or particular genius in your field. We all know too well that many people in America look to become famous for being well known and, admittedly(the Kardashians are you listening?)having a great sense of style. Honestly, though, why do some folks break through the glut of talent and rise to the top/ Professor Cass Sunstein, of Harvard Law School, considers the elements in his rollicking new book, “How to Become Famous: Lost Einsteins, Forgotten Superstars, and How The Beatles Came to Be.” You will be captivated by stories behind Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, Robert Johnson, Connie Converse, and Sixto Rodriquez, among many others. That’s the point. Some you’ve heard of. Some you haven’t. Why is that? Listen in and find out.
When the discussion turns to inner-city gun violence, many people throw up their hands in despair that it’s just part of the fabric of American life. Can that be true? As long as we choose not to address the root causes of the problem and find innovative approaches to it, I fear it will continue, despite the noble efforts of credible messengers and violence interrupters in cities all across our nation. It is a small cohort of young people, generally Black, young and dispossessed engaging in this deadly gun play which wreaks havoc for people living in their neighborhood, according to a Josiah Bates, a reporter whose beat is this issue and the author of “In These Streets: Reporting from the Front Lines of Inner-City Gun Violence.” While much is fueled by the intersection of drugs and guns, these same young people often have easy access to guns and no conflict resolution skills, leading to a simple slight or unpaid debt as the cause of the mayhem. We will delve into the issues of policing these in these communities and long-term approaches to solving a vexing American phenomenon.
There is a serious economic debate going on in America that hasn’t truly permeated the presidential campaign, but underlies the economic future of the country. These debates are happening among members of the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee as to whether the path forward will be better by maintaining the Biden approach of an industrial policy built on developing a clean energy future and government investments in reshoring computer chips and high tech manufacturing or the Trump approach of extending the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed in his term, which must be renewed in 2025. It cut corporate tax rates from 35% to 21%. This podcast was recorded before President Biden quit the race, but the basic differences between the parties remain. Joining us to discuss this and a range of other economic issues is Kenneth Rapoza an industry analyst from the Coalition for a Prosperous America. He is a former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal and a senior contributor to Forbes covering China. It’s a lively discussion of the American economy and strategies of both parties in reshoring industrial jobs.
While many debate the essence of the Robert Mueller report any fair reading of it details chapter and verse how the Russians tried to influence the 2016 election with social media accounts set up under names like Blacklist or the Heart of Texas as they posed as grassroots activists on one side or the other of the political aisle while targeting much of their activity in swing states. All this in the interest of sowing discord in America. While it’s hard to say definitively that it turned that election, the discord they sought has arrived in a torrent. And now these tactics of disinformation–the deliberate spreading of lies as truth is the most powerful weapon today in our political discourse. It’s capstone activity was Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” challenging the 2020 election results of what his own chief of election security called the fairest and most secure election in our nation’s history. And sixty court cases, when asked to rule on it, threw out his bogus claims. Attorney and University of Michigan law professor, Barbara McQuade, in her new book “Attack from Within: How Disinformation is Sabotaging America” looks at the history of how lies are spread and have become such a malevolent force with the advent of social media. She identifies the central causes and possible solutions to a problem that can make a democracy impossible to sustain.
The Constitution clearly states that Congress shall write our laws. But as the federal government grew larger and more complex, executive branch agencies were given more authority to bring greater definition to Congressional intent because of their expertise in a particular area. Even more power has shifted to those agencies as Congress fails to keep up with the challenges of a modern society. Clearly, courts remain arbiters of whether those same agencies have overstepped the Congressional authority granted to them. Since the Supreme Court’s 1984 decision in what is called the Chevron case, judicial review has been highly deferential and courts are left to uphold agency interpretations as long as they are determined to be “reasonable.” But now the Supreme Court is pushing back on the Chevron decision which has been THE most written about, most cited administrative law decision of all time. Columbia Law Professor Thomas Merrill joins us to discuss the influential thoughts he offers about the decision’s future in his book “The Chevron Doctrine: It’s Rise and Fall and the Future of the Administrative State.” This episode has been updated to get Professor Merrill’s analysis of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning the Chevron Doctrine. He plays out all of the implications of this momentous ruling.
Patients are not just the sum of their often limited check-ups and lab results. They come to their doctor with many behaviors and influences that affect their overall health. How nutritious is their food, how healthy is their living environment and what are their genetic predispositions among other things? Can they even maintain regular contact with the health system absent appropriate transportation? And yet in our medical system, often following the protocols established by large medical groups and insurance companies can a doctor really gain that perspective within the limited amount of time they are able to spend with their patients? Our guest, Dr. Dean-David Schillinger, a primary care physician at San Francisco General Hospital and author of “Telltale Hearts: A Public Health Doctor, His Patients, and the Power of Story” reveals what he has discovered is necessary to truly understand his patients, often poor and marginalized people, who have more chronic conditions than others in our society. Empathy and science create the alchemy necessary to address their needs.
Our most recently posted podcast with Tony Payan focused on the essential relationship between the United States and Mexico. Given the importance of the topic and the many issues involved, we decided to bring another perspective to the subject. Our guest on this podcast, Jennifer Apperti, is the director of the Texas-Mexico Center at Southern Methodist University. She focuses much of her attention on the longest shared border and the issues surrounding the unique Texas/Mexico relationship. It adds another dimension to the subject.
Mexico, not China, is now America’s leading trading partner. Who knew? All we hear in relation to Mexico are issues related to the southern border. And with that, we never have an honest discussion of the many aspects of that border relationship which span geography, natural resources and culture. It all gets boiled down to border security. In short, if there’s a more important bilateral relationship for the United States, I’d like to know what it is. And now with Claudia Sheinbaum becoming the new president of Mexico, the first woman of the Jewish faith to do that, it will be interesting if she follows in the footsteps of her predecessor, Andres Manuel Lopez Orbrador, or sets a new course for our neighbor. To discuss this important issue is Tony Payan, director of the Center for the U.S. and Mexico, at Rice University’s Baker Institute. For a much more nuanced discussion of the relations between the two countries, listen in.
The pressures for adolescents and young adults to maintain a certain standard of beauty in our culture is pervasive. It comes from parents, peers, video of all sorts and social media. And in the wake of the pandemic we find ourselves with a twin mental health crisis amid Face tuned photos, viral makeup tutorials, and misleading online nutritional advice. It’s a complicated picture and no one has been trying to do more to provide help in navigating this territory than Dr. Charlotte Markey who has written books providing body image advice to boys and girls as they approach puberty. Her latest book, “Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life” recognizes that these same issues exist in a different form for those who now make many choices without the benefit of their parents. We tackle a range of topics in the age of Ozempic as to how young adults and others can create a healthy relationship with their mind and body. Please listen to the podcast, but, by all means, get this book as a practical guide to deal with this overarching issue in our culture.