Podcast appearances and mentions of Allison Stanger

Today we were going to explore how "big tech" has woven itself into the fabric of the Trump administration. But after a conversation with Allison Stanger, professor at Middlebury College, we decided to focus exclusively on Elon Musk and his relationship with Donald Trump. What is DOGE, the "Department of Governmental Efficiency?" And while we're at it, what is efficiency anyways? Has DOGE saved Americans any money? What information of ours are they trying to access? And is there any chance they've already succeeded? CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more!To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro.Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it!

My guest today is Allison Stanger. Allison is a Middlebury Distinguished Endowed Professor; an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University; the Co-Director (with Danielle Allen) of the GETTING-Plurality⁠ Research Network, Harvard University; founding member of the Digital Humanism Initiative (Vienna); and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. Allison's next book, Who Elected Big Tech? is under contract with Yale University Press. In this conversation, Allison and I delve into the political science surrounding large tech companies. We explore their effects on consumers and democracy, the interplay between capitalism and democracy, the dangers of fragmented regulation, what the effective governance of social media entails, how to scale and measure it, potential areas of cooperation with China, and the relevance of public choice theory, complexity science, and power laws in shaping our understanding of technology. I hope you enjoy our discussion. *** References Stanger, Allison. "The Real Cost of Surveillance Capitalism: Digital Humanism in the United States and Europe." Perspectives on Digital Humanism (2022): 33-40. https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12657/51945/978-3-030-86144-5.pdf Werthner, Hannes, et al. "Digital humanism: The time is now." Computer 56.1 (2023): 138-142. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10008968 Soros, George. "Fallibility, reflexivity, and the human uncertainty principle." Journal of Economic Methodology 20.4 (2013): 309-329. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10008968

Though it's not always clear when a movement is over, there are many indicators that suggest this is the case of the “New Atheism,” a cultural wave that rose in the 2000s and aggressively attacked religion in the guise of scientific rationalism. Despite the name, the New Atheism wasn't really new, at least not in the sense of presenting new arguments. Instead, leveraging the global shock of 9/11, New Atheists pushed an anti-religious mood along with a vision of a society free from the cobwebs of religion, defined by scientific inquiry, free speech, and a morality not built on God or religious traditions.  In 1996, prominent New Atheist Richard Dawkins articulated this mood in his acceptance speech for the “Humanist of the Year” Award: “I think a case can be made that faith is one of the world's great evils,” he said, “comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate.” There was a commercial aspect to the New Atheism, with bumper stickers and T-shirts carrying well-worn slogans, such as one coined by Victor Stenger: “Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings.”   Though, at the time, it grew into somewhat of a cultural force and platformed a group of minor celebrities, the New Atheism now seems to have run out of steam. Divided by progressive politics and haunted by the obnoxious tone of many of its own founders, the movement is being devoured by other ideologies. Concepts like freedom of expression, scientific realism, and morality without God have all met their antitheses, often in clashes featuring the New Atheists themselves.   One watershed moment was a conflict over the role of science. Just last year, the American Humanist Association revoked Richard Dawkins' “Humanist of the Year” award for his long history of offensive tweets. For example, Dawkins told women who experience sexual harassment to “stop whining” and parents of babies with Down syndrome to “abort it and try again.” These tweets were among the cringeworthy, but the one that completed Dawkins' long transformation from champion of free thought to persona non grata, at least for the American Humanist Association, questioned gender ideology: “In 2015, Rachel Dolezal, a white chapter president of NAACP, was vilified for identifying as Black. Some men choose to identify as women, and some women choose to identify as men. You will be vilified if you deny that they literally are what they identify as. Discuss.”   The New Atheist commitment to seeking truth via the objectivity of science has collided with a new ideology that deifies the subjective sense of self. Ironically, this is the kind of religious dogmatism Dawkins and other New Atheists always accused organized religions of promoting, only less scientific.  New Atheism has been further undermined by a cultural shift in censorship and tolerance for freedom of expression. Organized religion, New Atheists claimed, suppressed dissent. Only by enthroning secularism could we remove the fear of speaking or hearing the truth, even when truth is shocking and offensive. As it turned out, religion's retreat only left a secular progressivism to censor and suppress at will.   In 2017, for example, The End of Faith author Sam Harris ignited a firestorm when he interviewed political scientist Charles Murray. Just a month earlier, a violent mob had shouted Murray down at Middlebury College, injuring moderator Dr. Allison Stanger as the two tried to reach the exit. Harris defended Murray, arguing his research was unfairly maligned as racist and he should be allowed to speak. In retaliation, Ezra Klein published a piece in Vox that landed Harris on the Southern Poverty Law Center's “Hatewatch Headlines,” while in Salon Émile P. Torres accused Harris and the New Atheists of “merging with the far right.”   That same year, Richard Dawkins was barred from speaking at UC Berkeley for his comments about radical Islam, not by Christians or Muslims but by progressives. Turns out that freedom of expression wasn't faring as predicted in a post-religious world.  In addition to their own jarring polemics and personal misfires, the New Atheists failed to realize that religion, especially Christianity, was the proverbial branch upon which they were sitting. For example, the freedom of expression depends on a number of assumptions, that there is objective truth, that it can be discovered, that it is accessible to people regardless of race or class, that belief should be free instead of coerced, that people have innate value, and that because of this value they should not be silenced. Every one of these ideas assumes the kind of world described in the Bible and mediated across centuries of Christian thought. Not one of these assumptions can be grounded in a purposeless world that is the product of only natural causes and processes.   Maybe that's what led Dawkins, just a few years ago, to warn against celebrating the decline of Christianity across the world. Turns out that all of the efforts that he and the other New Atheists extended to root out organized religion have left him with “a fear of finding something worse.”   Today's Breakpoint was coauthored by Kasey Leander. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to colsoncenter.org. 

Allison StangerDaniel DennettFrom Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of MindsCASBS@casbsstanford

Middlebury professor Allison Stanger's new book, "Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump,” recounts the long American tradition of whistleblowing from even before the Revolutionary War, how whistleblowers have been treated (spoiler alert: not very well), and what's at stake in our new digital world.

Misconduct by those in high places is always dangerous to reveal. Whistleblowers thus face conflicting impulses: by challenging and exposing transgressions by the powerful, they perform a vital public service—yet they always suffer for it. Allison Stanger, professor of International Politics and Economics, took Town Hall’s stage to bring us an episodic history of whistleblowing as an important but unrecognized cousin of civil disobedience. With accounts from her book Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump, Stanger highlighted histories of whistleblowing as a tool for holding powerful elites accountable in America. She recounted a range of whistleblowing episodes, from the national security debates surrounding Edward Snowden to the dishonesty of Donald Trump—all the way back to the corrupt Revolutionary War commodore Esek Hopkins, whose dismissal led in 1778 to the first whistleblower protection law. Stanger showed us how, with changing technology and increasing militarization, the exposure of misconduct has grown more difficult to do and more personally costly for those who do it—yet American freedom, especially today, depends on it. Sit in with Stanger for a retrospective on the critical practice of whistleblowing throughout the history of our nation, and an unflinching look at its critical role in our democracy. Allison Stanger is Technology and Human Values Senior Fellow at Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Russell Leng ‘60 Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College, New America Cybersecurity Fellow, and an External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. She is the author of One Nation Under Contract. Presented by Town Hall Seattle. Recorded live in The Forum on Friday, November 15, 2019. 

Prof. Allison Stanger of Middlebury College and UD President Thomas Hibbs discuss the risk of confronting ideas on college campuses in America today on Wednesday, Nov. 13, at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. The event was moderated by Dallas Morning News Deputy Editor of Editorials and UD Director of Journalism Rudy Bush, BA ’97, and was hosted in partnership with the Morning News and the Dallas Institute.

A book talk with Allison Stanger, Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College

A book talk with Allison Stanger, Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College

A book talk with Allison Stanger, Professor of International Politics and Economics at Middlebury College

Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning, Coleen Rowley, and the whistleblower who let us know about the Ukraine call, are just a few whose actions sparked international dialogue and their names may be universally recognized. But brave though they were, their courage isn’t universally revered. Back in 2002 TIME magazine named three whistleblowers as people of the year and famed whistleblowers such as Frank Serpico, Jeffrey Wigand, and Karen Silkwood have been the subject of major films. Yet vitriol continues against individuals willing to speak out when they see crimes being committed. Why are those who dare to expose corruption and worse so frequently ostracized? Why are we so quick to call treason on those who speak truth in the face of power? And what historical and patriotic obligation do we have to support and protect those that speak up? That’s our focus today as I’m joined by Middlebury College professor Allison Stanger to talk about Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump My WhoWhatWhy conversation with Allison Stanger:

Air-date November 3 2019: What does the death if ISIS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi mean for the future of terrorism? And for the endless wars in the Middle East? Former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus (Ret.) joins Fareed to answer these questions and more. Then, the House formalizes its impeachment inquiry into President Trump. This all started with a whistle-blower. Fareed explores the fascinating history of whistle-blowers in America's tradition with authors Allison Stanger and Tom Mueller. GUESTS: Gen. David Petraeus (Ret.), Allison Stanger, Tom Mueller, Jimmy Lai

Misconduct by those in high places is always dangerous to reveal. Whistleblowers thus face conflicting impulses: by challenging and exposing transgressions by the powerful, they perform a vital public service—yet they always suffer for it. This episodic history brings to light how whistleblowing, an important but unrecognized cousin of civil disobedience, has held powerful elites accountable in America. Analyzing a range of whistleblowing episodes, from the corrupt Revolutionary War commodore Esek Hopkins (whose dismissal led in 1778 to the first whistleblower protection law) to Edward Snowden, to the dishonesty of Donald Trump, Allison Stanger reveals the centrality of whistleblowing to the health of American democracy. She also shows that with changing technology and increasing militarization, the exposure of misconduct has grown more difficult to do and more personally costly for those who do it—yet American freedom, especially today, depends on it See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Kathryn interviews Professor of International Politics & Economics, Middlebury College Allison Stanger PhD, author of “Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump.” Whistleblowers face a difficult choice: by exposing corruption, they perform a vital public service yet they historically suffer for it. Stanger reveals the centrality of whistleblowing to American democracy's wellbeing. She's contributed to International Herald Tribune, NY Times, USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, and the Washington Post. Kathryn also interviews Filmmaker, Singer & Songwriter Sofia Lyons, director of “THE LONG GOODBYE: The Kara Tippetts Story.” In 2014 and 2015, one young woman in Colorado dared to explore the raw edges of dying with grace and dignity in real time, and, in the process, unknowingly impacted tens of thousands around the world. Lyons chronicled Kara's story and has been impacting the world as an artist, both musically and visually, for over two and a half decades.

Kathryn interviews Professor of International Politics & Economics, Middlebury College Allison Stanger PhD, author of “Whistleblowers: Honesty in America from Washington to Trump.” Whistleblowers face a difficult choice: by exposing corruption, they perform a vital public service yet they historically suffer for it. Stanger reveals the centrality of whistleblowing to American democracy's wellbeing. She's contributed to International Herald Tribune, NY Times, USA Today, U.S. News and World Report, and the Washington Post. Kathryn also interviews Filmmaker, Singer & Songwriter Sofia Lyons, director of “THE LONG GOODBYE: The Kara Tippetts Story.” In 2014 and 2015, one young woman in Colorado dared to explore the raw edges of dying with grace and dignity in real time, and, in the process, unknowingly impacted tens of thousands around the world. Lyons chronicled Kara's story and has been impacting the world as an artist, both musically and visually, for over two and a half decades.

For years, public health officials have urged people to eat less red meat and processed meats because they have been linked to heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses.  Now, a new analysis says that these dietary guidelines are not backed by good scientific evidence.  There was immediate backlash and several public health organizations pushed back saying these new conclusions could harm the credibility of nutrition science.  Claire Maldarelli, associate editor at Popular Science, joins us for what to know about the latest red meat controversy.  Next, the top story in Washington continues to be the whistleblower complaint against the President.  And as Trump continues to cast doubt on the allegations, we are also learning that Rep. Adam Schiff learned the outlines of the whistleblower's concerns days before he filed his complaint.  Whistleblowing has been around since the beginning of the country and has always been a tool to prevent the abuse of power by those who hold it.  Allison Stanger, author of Whistleblowers: Honesty in American from Washington to Trump, joins us to discuss what prompted the first whistleblower protection law to be enacted and how protecting them is more important than ever. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

The State Department's IG Delivers a Package of Conspiracy Theories; Trump's Escalating War Against the Whistleblower; One Year After Khashoggi's Murder, Has MBS Been Forgiven by Corporate America? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Regardless of which side of the fence you sit, politics feels toxic, increasingly vicious, and often unproductive. We don’t need to debate the whys, but we do need to find ways to engage and exist alongside those with political views different from our own. Political science professor Allison Stanger is setting a noteworthy example, even […] The post Advocating for Politically Diverse Speech on College Campuses & Building Bridges of Understanding: A conversation with Professor Allison Stanger (Episode #35) appeared first on She Said / She Said.

In Episode 58 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Jonathan Haidt about how trigger warnings, safe spaces, and microaggressions are setting up the iGeneration for failure on America’s college campuses. In the Fall of 2013, the President of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Greg Lukianoff, noticed that something odd was happening on America’s college campuses. Words were increasingly being seen as dangerous. A series of strange reports began to emerge of undergraduates asking for threatening material to be removed from the college curriculum. By the Spring of 2014, The New York Times began reporting on this trend, including demands that school administrators disinvite speakers whose ideas students found offensive. But what was most concerning, beyond the sensitivity and the heckling, were the justifications being put forward by these undergraduates. They were claiming that certain kinds of speech interfered with their ability to function, jeopardizing their mental health and making them “feel unsafe.” In one case, students at Columbia University argued that professors teaching core curriculum classes, which included the works of Ovid, Homer, Dante, Augustine, Montaigne, and Virginia Woolf, should issue “trigger warnings” when reading or assigning passages that might be interpreted as threatening. All of this prompted the publication of an article by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt that made the cover of the Atlantic Magazine in the summer of 2015. The article was titled “The Coddling of the American Mind.” In it, the two chronicled what they believed was happening on college campuses, including the emergence of what are termed, “trigger warnings,” “microaggressions,” and “safe spaces.” Little did Greg Lukianoff or Jonathan Haidt know that in the two years following the article’s publication, all hell would break loose at America’s universities.    In the fall of that year protests over issues of racial injustice erupted on dozens of campuses around the country. Amid these protests arose, however, a series of bizarre incidents leading to the resignations of several highly regarded professors and deans at some of the country’s most progressive universities. This included the physical assault of a professor at Middlebury College by the name of Allison Stanger, who was required to undergo six months of physical therapy and rehabilitation. Perhaps the most bizarre case, however, is that of Evergreen State College in Washington State. In the spring of 2017, the college announced a “Day of Absence” where white students and faculty were expected to stay away from the school. In a letter of protest, biology professor Bret Weinstein refused to leave the college campus, leading to a series of frightening incidents of unrest where campus police became concerned for Weinstein’s physical safety, eventually leading to his resignation in September of last year. This week, on Hidden Forces, Jonathan Haidt joins us for a conversation on trigger warnings, safe spaces, and how good intentions and bad ideas are setting up the iGeneration for failure. Jonathan and Greggory Lukianoff's latest book, The Coddling of the American Mind, is now available in bookstores nationwide.  Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at @hiddenforcespod

Allison Stanger, professor of international politics and economics at Middlebury College in Vermont, talks about students' reaction to the appearance of author Charles Murray on Campus last March. Both were attacked by students following the event. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ralph talks to Professor Allison Stanger about her book One Nation Under Contract and how private contractors have become an integral part of our foreign policy.  We also talk to Bob Hunter, insurance director of the Consumer Federation of America, who warns us about the latest scam that may be affecting your auto insurance rates.  Plus, Ralph tells us how you should be "getting steamed."

While the use of private contractors predates the Bush Administration, the privatization of American foreign policy has risen to unprecedented levels in recent years, becoming one of the most important trends in government and global politics. From the international activities involving homeland security to USAID and the State Department, what is the true extent of outsourcing of US government’s activities, and what has been its impact on American foreign policy? Are public-private partnerships here to stay? And if done right, can these partnerships significantly extend the reach and effectiveness of U.S. efforts abroad? International relations scholar Allison Stanger tells the story of how contractors became an integral part of American foreign policy, and why a new approach using private actors may be essential.

While the use of private contractors predates the Bush Administration, the privatization of American foreign policy has risen to unprecedented levels in recent years, becoming one of the most important trends in government and global politics. From the international activities involving homeland security to USAID and the State Department, what is the true extent of outsourcing of US government’s activities, and what has been its impact on American foreign policy? Are public-private partnerships here to stay? And if done right, can these partnerships significantly extend the reach and effectiveness of U.S. efforts abroad? International relations scholar Allison Stanger tells the story of how contractors became an integral part of American foreign policy, and why a new approach using private actors may be essential.