SCOTUS Nominee, Diverse Homeschooling, Deep Kindness

09/28/20 • 104 min

The Race to Confirm President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee (0:30) Guest: James Curry, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Utah President Trump has nominated federal judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill the seat of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Four years ago, Senate Republicans refused to consider President Obama’s nominee to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia because the vacancy happened in a Presidential Election year. And here we’re less than two months from the election, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised that Republicans will confirm President Trump’s nominee anyway. Confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin in two weeks. Exploring Sensory History (19:38) Guest: Mark Smith, Professor of History, University of South Carolina In ten or twenty years, when you talk about the year 2020, will there be certain smells or tastes or sounds that come flooding back? Maybe the smell of hand sanitizer. Or the way the streets were so eerily quiet in the early days of pandemic quarantine. History books will cover the who, what and when of 2020. Sensory historians like Mark Smith want to make sure the smells, tastes and sounds are remembered, too. A Look at President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett (36:59) Guest: Stephanie Barclay, Associate Professor of Law, Notre DameUniversity President Trump’s pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the US Supreme Court is Amy Coney Barrett. She’s a judge on the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago with a conservative track record who clerked for conservative Supreme Court icon Justice Antonin Scalia. Judge Barrett’s addition to the Supreme Court will give conservatives a solid 6-3 majority and Judge Barrett is 48 years old, so she’s likely to serve a very long time in this lifetime appointment. Breaking The Homeschooling Stereotype (52:48) Guest: Amber O’Neal Johnston, Homeschool Parent, Consultant, Heritage Mom blog and Instagram Two big movements have been front and center in America these last few months–race relations and homeschooling. Amber O’Neal Johnston has found herself as a sought-after voice on both. She’s a homeschool mom in Georgia with a big following on her Heritage Mom blog and Instagram feed. She’s also black and has become a leading organizer of homeschool groups and resources for families of color. Lately, she’s also been asked to help homeschool families of all backgrounds find the best resources to teach children about racism. It’s Not Enough to Be Nice. Let’s Work on Being Deeply Kind. (1:10:11) Guest: Houston Kraft, Co-Founder of CharacterStrong, Author of "Deep Kindness: A Revolutionary Guide for the Way We Think, Talk, and Act in Kindness" Are you a nice person? When was the last time that you did something intentionally kind, something that required you to step outside of your comfort zone or summon an uncomfortable amount of forgiveness and compassion? It’s not enough to be nice, says Houston Kraft. The world needs Deep Kindness. First Community of British Wild Beavers in Centuries Allowed to Stay (1:29:28) Guest: Mark Elliott, Wetland Ecologist, Devon Wildlife Trust in England Beavers were driven to extinction more than four centuries ago in England. But then one day, a family of wild beavers just showed up in a river. That was seven years ago, and scientists have been studying their progression and effects on the ecosystem the whole time. There are now 15 families of beavers there, and the British government recently ruled they can stay permanently.

Previous Episode

Law and Forgiveness, Asperger's, Caregiving

How the Legal System Relies on Justice and Forgiveness (0:34) Guest: Martha Minow, Professor of Law, Harvard University, Author "When Should Law Forgive?" The right to remain silent. The right to an attorney. The right to... forgiveness? Harvard Law professor Martha Minow says the US legal system needs to take a hard look at where forgiveness fits. A more merciful, forgiving system would also be a more just system, she argues. (Originally aired April 28, 2020). Bringing Stories of Women to Life (17:50) Guest: Alison Booth, Professor of English, University of Virginia Women are underrepresented in biographies and other historical works. Part of the problem is that thousands of accounts of women have simply been forgotten. Alison Booth has been tracking them down to bring these stories to light and make them accessible. It’s called the Collective Biographies of Women Project. (Originally aired October 28, 2019). Dr. Asperger and the Nazi Origins of Autism (34:07) Guest: Edith Sheffer, Senior Fellow, Institute of European Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Author of “Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna” More awareness of autism has led to much higher rates of diagnosis over the last 30 years. As many as one in 68 children in the US has autism, according to the CDC. There’s also a lot more awareness of the range of symptoms that might come with an autism disorder. For many years, children with a milder form of autism were referred to as having “Asperger’s Syndrome.” It’s named after an Austrian pediatrician whose dark history we’re only now learning. In fact, his story is so dark, historian Edith Sheffer would like to see us stop using the term Asperger’s. (Originally aired December 16, 2019). Navigating the Unexpected Journey From Loved One to Caregiver (52:56) Guest: Donna Thomson, Caregiver, Activist, Author of “The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned From a Life of Caregiving”; Zachary White, Assistant Professor of Communication, Queens University of Charlotte. Co-authors of “The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation from Loved One to Caregiver” Some forty-million Americans have been the caregiver for an adult in the last year. Many of them are sandwiched between caring for their own children and an aging parent. And anyone who’s done it–even temporarily–knows how jarring caregiving is, how unprepared most of us feel for the physical and emotional toll of it. (Originally aired January 23, 2020). New Discovery Shows That Neanderthals Used Rope (1:31:05) Guest: Bruce Hardy, Professor of Anthropology, Kenyon College From Barney Rubble to the dimwitted cavemen of The Far Side cartoons, Neanderthals have a reputation for being not-so-smart. But that may simply be because the best evidence of their smarts hasn’t survived for us to inspect and appreciate. For example, an excavation of a famous Neanderthal encampment in France has turned up a tiny shred of rope. Making and using rope is pretty advanced. If cavemen could actually do that, we’ll have to rethink the stereotype of stupidity. (Originally aired April 20, 2020).

Next Episode

Breonna Taylor, Ventilation & COVID-19, West Personality

What Does Justice for Breonna Taylor Look Like? (0:31)
Guest: Shawnte West, Adjunct Instructor of Social Work, University of Louisville
Activists who spent months chanting the name Breonna Taylor in the streets of Louisville, Kentucky are angry and upset that a grand jury has declined to charge any of the police officers who shot Taylor in her apartment during a late-night drug raid in March. The raid was targeting an ex-boyfriend of Taylor who was not there. Why has this case been such a focus for the Black Lives Matter movement?

Building Mountain Bikes for the Physically Impaired (19:35)
Guest: Christian Bagg, Designer and Founder, Bowhead Corp
A snowboarding accident left Christian Bagg paralyzed from the waist down when he was 20 years old. A quest to find ways he could still go outdoor adventuring led him to create a motorized mountain bike for people with physical impairments.

Role of Ventilation in the Fight Against COVID-19 (36:35)
Guest: Jeffrey Siegel, Professor of Civil and Mineral Engineering, University of Toronto
The coronavirus has caused 200,000 deaths in America and cases are rising in communities around the country. What will happen when the cold weather hits and people start spending more time indoors? Let’s talk ventilation.

How Living in the Mountain West Changes Your Personality (52:48)
Guest: Friedrich Götz, PhD Candidate in Psychology, University of Cambridge
Where you live in the United States might mean more than just different sales tax and different weather. According to research from a group of international scientists, geography can also influence personality. If you live in a mountain area in the west, you’re more likely to have traits of the cowboys and mountain men of days gone by.

Black Women in the US Are More Vulnerable to Police Violence (1:08:20)
Guest: Michelle S. Jacobs, Professor of Law, Levin College of Law, University of Florida
Kentucky’s Attorney General says he’ll release a recording of the grand jury proceeding that resulted in no charges for Louisville police officers who killed Breonna Taylor in her apartment during a late-night raid. Police were targeting a former boyfriend of Taylor’s, but he was not there that night. The grand jury did charge one former Louisville police officer for “wanton endangerment” because he fired bullets into a neighboring apartment. No one was charged with firing the bullets that killed Breonna Taylor. Grand jury proceedings are typically kept secret, but a judge has ordered them released in this case. What is the broader context of Breonna Taylor's death?

Conservation Efforts Have Saved Up to 48 Animal Species Since 1993 (1:27:12)
Guest: Friederike Bolam, Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Modelling, Evidence and Policy Group, Newcastle University
After a global convention in 1993, the world came together to try and save animals that were going extinct. And it’s working. A study that just came out shows that dozens of animal species have been saved since that convention.