Our guest on today’s podcast, Rafael Martinez, is an assistant professor of Southwest Borderlands at Arizona State University. There he focuses on immigration, migration, the US-Mexico Borderlands, and the American Southwest. Through that work he demonstrates how communities along the US-Mexico border contribute to the social, political, and economic fabric of the US. He calls …
For some years, we’ve been told that the ice melt in Antarctica, Greenland and other places in the cryosphere represent the harbinger of things to come announcing the profound effects of global warming on the planet. Little did I know that a new discipline has developed around ‘ice patch archeology,’ which ties us to the …
The U.S Senate has many important responsibilities. Among them are making laws, ratifying justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts and approving presidential nominees for key Cabinet positions. For the newly re-elected Donald Trump Administration the latter responsibility is key to determining whether the chamber is ready to step up to its …
The real question is whether that is even the goal and purpose of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Or is it retaliation for Donald Trump’s inability to bring bureaucrats to heel in his first administration? We will find out in short order because it’s a race against several clocks–the ‘mandate’ claim which gets smaller …
Zoning has been used by local communities to open up possibilities for some and shut them down for others; to beautify some spaces or change their character not for the better and to recognize current realities or live in the past. Once we recognize the power of zoning, we can harness it to create walkable …
But isn’t that unconstitutional? That was the basis of my line of inquiry on this podcast with esteemed professor, Ira Lupu, George Washington Law Professor Emeritus and a nationally recognized scholar in constitutional law with an emphasis on the religion clauses of the 1st Amendment. Legal or not, Oklahoma’s superintendent of schools, Ryan Walters, has …
Since Hamas’s attack on Israel last October 7,2023 the term “settler colonialism” has become central to public debate about Israel and the Palestinians, particularly in academic circles and among young people. And while the concept may be new to most Americans, settler colonialism is shaping the way many people think about the history of the …
Benjamin’s Franklin’s contributions to his times, and our country, are too numerous to restate. His greatest gift, however, may have been his philosophical approach to living a ‘useful’ life right until the very end. And while the self-help movement of our day has its own exemplars, going back and revisiting his 13 virtues and …
Our guest, Peter Schwartzstein, is a journalist on the climate security beat. He’s immersed himself in some of the hot spots of the world, like Syria, for years during its civil war to unpack the story of how global warming is adding to, if not a key precipitant of, conflicts in many parts of the …
How polarized are we, really? While the extremes in both ideological camps may be smaller in numbers than mainstream opinions their effect on our political dialogue and the conveyor belt of lies and distortions on social media amplify and accelerate those differences. Thus, it feels like we are in a pitched battle for the soul …