Podcast appearances and mentions of Harold F Linder

In Remembrance of bell hooks Alondra Nelson, the Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, shares stories of inspiration discussing bell hooks' impact on Black feminism and looks ahead to her lasting influence.  The Takeaway Book Report The Takeaway community is full of book worms and literary lovers, so we spoke with some incredible authors about their work and some titles to look out for this holiday season.  For transcripts, see individual segment pages. 

In Remembrance of bell hooks Alondra Nelson, the Harold F. Linder Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, shares stories of inspiration discussing bell hooks' impact on Black feminism and looks ahead to her lasting influence.  The Takeaway Book Report The Takeaway community is full of book worms and literary lovers, so we spoke with some incredible authors about their work and some titles to look out for this holiday season.  For transcripts, see individual segment pages. 

President-elect Joe Biden has made history: This week, he announced that Rep. Deb Haaland would be his pick for head of the Interior Department, the first Native American person ever to a Cabinet-level position, making Biden’s Cabinet the most diverse in history. This kind of representation is important, but it’s not enough, because far from Washington, Native Americans are dying at disproportionate rates from the Coronavirus pandemic. In October, the death rate from Covid-19 on the Navajo Nation was higher than in any state. In South Dakota, the Cheyenne River Lakota reservation is fighting to keep roadblocks up to prevent the spread of the virus (https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/lakota-tribal-sovereignty-covid/) , despite the order from the state’s governor to take them down. And Neshoba County, Mississippi, home of the Mississippi Band of the Choctaw, had the highest rate of death per capita in the entire of Mississippi due to coronavirus, devastating the tribe (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/08/us/choctaw-indians-coronavirus.html) . Neshoba (https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/fifty-years-after-freedom-summer-voting-rights-act-needed-more-ever/) : If that rings a bell, it’s probably because it was at the Neshoba County Fair in 1980 that then-candidate Ronald Reagan launched his campaign for the Presidency on the platform of “state’s rights,” ushering in four decades of neoliberal (https://www.thenation.com/article/economy/biden-inequality-coronavirus/) policies that have devalued and gutted many of the core functions of government (https://www.thenation.com/podcast/society/coronavirus-public-health/) meant to protect us from...deadly epidemics. On this week’s System Check, Melissa and Dorian follow up on last week’s episode (https://www.thenation.com/podcast/society/coronavirus-public-health/) to explore the system of finding a cure for the coronavirus epidemic that has killed more than 300,000 Americans so far. Finding a vaccine, for sure a scientific feat of epic proportions, is hopeful news. And while necessary, it is not sufficient to understand and transform the systems that have resulted in mind-numbing mass death. We have to push ourselves to also ask the questions: what are the systems that created and sustained the crisis? And how can we bring about a dramatic change not just of the system of science or the system of public health, but rather of the whole ecosystem that made this pandemic possible? We offer a few plausible answers found at the intersection of science, social science and activism. For insight into these intersecting systems, Melissa and Dorian talk to Gregg Gonsalves (https://www.thenation.com/authors/gregg-gonsalves/) , Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Associate Professor of Law at Yale University, to help us think about the Covid-19 pandemic beyond a clinical perspective. And he offers ideas about how to build our social immunity to defeat the virus, and the vast inequalities that make it deadlier for far too many. We then check-in with Alondra Nelson (https://www.ssrc.org/staff/nelson-alondra/) , president of the Social Science Research Council and the Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, New Jersey. She tells us about the creation of the Coronavirus Syllabus (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dTkJmhWQ8NcxhmjeLp6ybT1_YOPhFLx9hZ43j1S7DjE/edit) , and the necessary efforts to mobilize science and social science for the public good. And she reminds us that the solutions to this pandemic are not only biological and clinical (https://www.thenation.com/article/society/black-maternal-reproductive-health/) , but also require communities of social and human sciences working collaboratively to tackle exclusion, exploitation, and inequality. The missing piece, and one too often left out of public health conversations, is grassroots organizing. That’s why our final word this week comes from Lenice Emmanuel (http://www.alisj.org/letter-from-executive-director/) , Executive Director of the Alabama Institute for Social Justice. She reminds us that activism is what system change looks like on the ground, and that what Black people in the South and everyone vulnerable and marginalized across our country need are systems that allow them to thrive. And yes, childcare and coinage. System Checklist Transforming analysis into action, the System Check Team gives listeners three action items this week: Mask Up (https://www.thenation.com/article/society/covid-vaccine-mask-relief/) : We said it last week and we’ll say it again: With vaccines rolling out, there is light at the end of this tunnel. But we’re far from the end of the pandemic, and your actions now could save the lives of people in your community, maybe even people in your own home. Educate yourself: The Coronavirus Syllabus (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1dTkJmhWQ8NcxhmjeLp6ybT1_YOPhFLx9hZ43j1S7DjE/edit#heading=h.kgodab1cx8ey) that Alondra Nelson highlights in this week’s episode is a cross-disciplinary treasure trove of research about the virus, a humane list of music and literature about past pandemics, and helpful syllabi and teaching resources for educating young people about this difficult time in our history. Dig in! RSVP: Lastly, you’re invited to the first ever System Check Book Club. This Saturday, December 19, at 5pm Eastern, join Melissa and Dorian for a live video event—they’ll be talking the authors of some of their favorite books from this year, and looking ahead to titles to watch out for in 2021. Register here for this free event (https://www.facebook.com/110234874208797/posts/140167737882177/?fbclid=IwAR1nkpjSsv1YOR6nYO0j4BC6aQu_CupmJ0iIeq_9UmF3GXBtsa7sbSHtJ48) . As always, we welcome your additions to our Checklist! Use our Twitter (https://twitter.com/SystemCheckPod) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SystemCheckPod/) pages to add your comments, suggested actions, and organizations to support. And if you like the show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/system-check/id1536830138) , Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0vI1wNUVfYbZXMIM6nciaX?si=VoRgIzndRVG4Xw_rQNGKmQ) , or wherever you get your podcasts for new episodes every Friday. System Check is a project of The Nation magazine, hosted by Melissa Harris-Perry and Dorian Warren and produced by Sophia Steinert-Evoy. Support for System Check comes from Omidyar Network, a social change venture that is reimagining how capitalism should work. Learn more about their efforts to recenter our economy around individuals, community, and societal well-being at Omidyar.com (http://omidyar.com/) . Our executive producer is Frank Reynolds. Our theme music is by Brooklyn-based artist and producer Jachary (https://jachary.bandcamp.com/) . Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: http://thenation.com/systemchecksubs.

Today we have a discussion of the social sciences and COVID-19 with Alondra Nelson.Alondra Nelson, President of the Social Science Research Council and Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is an acclaimed researcher and author, who explores questions of science, technology, and social inequality. Nelson’s books include, Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination and The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome. She is coeditor of Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race and History (with Keith Wailoo and Catherine Lee). Nelson serves on the Board of Trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Russell Sage Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Teagle Foundation and the Data & Society Research Institute. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Medicine.

Sociologist Alondra Nelson calls it “root-seeking” – individuals wanting to know their ethnic background. Knowing who your people were as a way to know who you are verges on being a human need – witness the Hebrew Bible or the carefully tended genealogies of royal houses. In her own seeking, Nelson has studied the rise and use of direct-to-consumer genetic testing as made popular by companies like 23andme, Ancestry.com and AncestryDNA. Those firms and others promise to decode, at least in part, stories found in your own chromosomal makeup. As Nelson achieved other career milestones, including being the current president of the Social Science Research Council and the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, she’s also spent close to two decades unraveling the story of consumer genetic testing, accounts of which resulted in two of her books, Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race, and History and the new The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome. In this Social Science Bites podcast, Nelson describes her particular interest in those root-seekers whose journeys usually aren’t captured in antebellum church registries or in tales passed down in the same hamlet through countless generations. She's focused on the descendants of people 'stolen from Africa' in the slave trade, who make up so much of the African diaspora. In surveys and later in extensive interviewing among the African-American community, Nelson found a great deal of interest among Black Americans in DNA testing despite some historical misgivings. “Marginalized communities, and in the context of the U.S., African-Americans in particular, have a very understandable historic distrust of genetic research and medical experimentation,” she explains to interviewer David Edmonds. “So the fact that African Americans were early adopters in this space is surprising given that history. What’s not surprising is the genealogical aspiration that many African Americans are trying to fulfill – a profound and pronounced and often very living and present longing sense of loss and longing about identity, original family names, of points and places on the continent of Africa where one’s ancestors might have come from.” She also learned, as her investigations branched out from surveys of the genealogical community to interviews with test-takers, that “getting the test results was really the beginning of the endeavor, rather than the end. “What in the world did you think you could do with this information, besides filing it away in a drawer and telling your family that we now know that we have Ibo, Yoruba, whatever the test provided for ancestry?” Answering that question meant Nelson’s own approach must evolve. “That transformed the methodology to a kind of ethnographic methodology that I call the ‘social life of DNA’ in which I followed what happened with the test, what happened with the information, what did they think that these genetic inferences could do with the world. That really opens up a whole other space of thinking about the importance of genetic testing.” Part of that space she explored is uniquely American. For much of (White) America, one’s ethnic ties to the ‘old country’ – to be Irish or Italian, say -- are a linchpin of identity. “That’s not been available to African Americans,” she notes, whose roots are assigned to an amorphous blob of sub-Saharan Africa, since specific roots were eradicated when now enslaved peoples arrived in the New World. “People lost their given names, lost the languages of their foremothers and forefathers,” Nelson said. “[P]art of the work of what slave-making entailed was taking people from often very different places on the continent of Africa, with different languages, cultural norms, religious backgrounds and to create out of a multicultural and multiethnic diverse group of people of different backgrounds a ‘caste’.” The dark-skinned newcomers were henceforth categorized as a race, and that race was assigned the caste of enslaved person. Genetic testing, in turn opens up that ‘Black box’ of lost identity and reveals what place and culture forebearers were likely ripped from. (Nelson, for example, had her own code analyzed and discovered a component of her heritage was from what is now Cameroon.) In this podcast, Nelson also talks about how Black Americans may respond to their growing awareness of their specific genetic identities, how this might impact the reparations debate in the United states, and why people are primed to be emotional at reveals of their genetic heritage. In addition to her two books on genetic testing, Nelson writes extensively at the nexus of science, technology, and social inequality. Her publications, for example, include the books Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight against Medical Discrimination  and Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life. She is also editor of “Afrofuturism,” an influential special issue of Social Text.

Today’s episode is about proof, identity and DNA. What are you looking for, when you look for your heritage? What can DNA really tell you? And who decides which forms of proof are required when?  To answer this question, we spoke with Dr. Alondra Nelson, president of the Social Science Research Council and Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study and author of The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation After the Genome. The voices from our QVC nightmare future were provided by: Host 1 — Henry Alexander Kelly: Website, podcast La Lisa: A Latinx Podcast Host 2 — Ashley Kellem: Instagram, Website Darcy Noelle Apgar — Shara Kirby: Twitter To get even more, you can become a Flash Forward Presents Time Traveler for access to behind the scenes exclusive content, early access to new shows, and other surprises & goodies. 〰️〰️〰️ More information and show notes here 〰️〰️〰️ Advice For And From The Future is written, edited and performed by Rose Eveleth. The theme music is by Also, Also, Also. The logo is by Frank Okay. Additional music this episode provided by Blue Dot Sessions. To get even more, you can become a Flash Forward Presents Time Traveler for access to behind the scenes exclusive content, early access to new shows, and other surprises & goodies. Show Sponsors: Shaker & Spoon: A subscription cocktail service that helps you learn how to make hand-crafted cocktails right at home. Get $20 off your first box at shakerandspoon.com/futureadvice. Tab for a Cause: A browser extension that lets you raise money for charity while doing your thing online. Whenever you open a new tab, you’ll see a beautiful photo and a small ad. Part of that ad money goes toward a charity of your choice! Join team Advice For And From The future by signing up at tabforacause.org/futureadvice. Tavour: Tavour is THE app for fans of beer, craft brews, and trying new and exciting labels. You sign up in the app and can choose the beers you’re interested in (including two new ones DAILY) adding to your own personalized crate. Use code: futureadvice for $10 off after your first order of $25 or more.  Purple Carrot: Purple Carrot is THE plant-based subscription meal kit that makes it easy to cook irresistible meals to fuel your body. Each week, choose from an expansive and delicious menu of dinners, lunches, breakfasts, and snacks! Get $30 off your first box by going to www.purplecarrot.com and entering code futureadvice at checkout today! Purple Carrot, the easiest way to eat more plants! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Οι ΔΙΑΛΟΓΟΙ του ΙΣΝ και το SNF Agora Institute στο Πανεπιστήμιο Johns Hopkins πραγματοποίησαν την Τετάρτη 24 Ιουνίου μια διαδικτυακή συζήτηση για τις προοπτικές και τα όρια που προκύπτουν από την αλληλεπίδραση τεχνολογίας και δημοκρατίας στο πλαίσιο του Summer Nostos Festival. Ο Γιώργος Ζαρκαδάκης, Digital Lead, Willis Towers Watson, Συγγραφέας ανέφερε πως «χρειαζόμαστε περισσότερες συνελεύσεις πολιτών όπου οι πολίτες συζητούν με ειδικούς και η γνώμη τους μετράει. Είναι πολύ σημαντικό η γνώμη τους να μετράει. Πιστεύω ότι ένας τρόπος για να πάμε την επικοινωνία της επιστήμης και την τεχνολογία στο επόμενο επίπεδο, είναι να κάνουμε τους πολίτες ενδιαφερόμενα μέλη». Αναφερόμενος στο ρόλο της δημοκρατίας, ο Γιώργος Ζαρκαδάκης σχολίασε πως «χρειαζόμαστε μια ενισχυμένη φιλελεύθερη δημοκρατία που να λαμβάνει υπόψη πολύ περισσότερο τη συμμετοχή των πολιτών προκειμένου να ανακτήσει την χαμένη εμπιστοσύνη τους». Η Alondra Nelson, Πρόεδρος, Social Science Research Council - Καθηγήτρια Harold F. Linder, Institute for Advanced Study ανέφερε μεταξύ άλλων: «Σήμερα, περισσότερο από ποτέ, χρειαζόμαστε τόσο τους ειδικούς όσο και εκείνους που δεν είναι ειδικοί αλλά ζουν με τις συνέπειες των αποφάσεων που λαμβάνονται από μια τεχνοκρατική κοινωνία», ενώ για το ρόλο της δημοκρατίας σημείωσε πως «η πρόκληση σε ό,τι αφορά τη δημοκρατία είναι ότι η μετάβαση σε ένα παγκόσμιο καθεστώς δεν είναι πάντα μια κίνηση που παρέχει ίσες ελευθερίες για όλους τους ανθρώπους». Τη συζήτηση συντόνισαν η Άννα-Κύνθια Μπουσδούκου Εκτελεστική Διευθύντρια των ΔΙΑΛΟΓΩΝ του ΙΣΝ , και η Hahrie Han, Διευθύντρια SNF Agora Institute στο Πανεπιστήμιο Johns Hopkins. Τους ΔΙΑΛΟΓΟΥΣ επιμελείται και συντονίζει η Άννα-Κύνθια Μπουσδούκου. *Οι απόψεις των συμμετεχόντων στις εκδηλώσεις ΔΙΑΛΟΓΟΙ εκφέρονται ελεύθερα, χωρίς πρότερη παρέμβαση ή υπόδειξη, εκφράζοντας την προσωπική γνώμη των συνομιλητών, κάθε φορά, αλλά όχι απαραίτητα τις θέσεις και τις απόψεις της ομάδας των ΔΙΑΛΟΓΩΝ του Ιδρύματος Σταύρος Νιάρχος.

The SNF DIALOGUES and the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University held on Wednesday, June 24 an online discussion about the potential benefits technology holds for democracy and any limits to its potential, during the Summer Nostos Festival. George Zarkadakis, Digital Lead at Willis Towers Watson, Author said “We need more citizen assemblies where people come in, discuss with experts and have opinion and their opinion matters. It is important that their opinion matters. I think that this is one way of taking science communication and technology to the next level, which is citizens becoming true stakeholders”. Referring to the role of democracy, George Zarkadakis mentioned that “We need an enhanced liberal democracy that takes into account citizen participation in a much more significant way in order to regain trust”. Alondra Nelson, President of the Social Science Research Council, Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study mentioned: “More than ever before it's both important to have real experts at the table and those who are not experts but live with the consequences of the decisions that are being made by a technocratic society”, while regarding the role of democracy she stated that “The challenge for us in thinking about democracy is that the move to the universal is not always a move that provides equal liberties to all people”. The discussion was moderated by journalist and SNF DIALOGUES Executive Director Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou and SNF Agora Institute director Hahrie Han. The DIALOGUES are curated and moderated by Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou. *The opinions expressed by DIALOGUES participants are solely their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) or the SNF DIALOGUES team. Speakers' remarks are made freely, without prior guidance or intervention from the team.

Alondra Nelson, President of the Social Science Research Council in the US and Harold F. Linder Chair in Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, joins us to question who is assumed to be the disposable demographic, and the politics of genetic data and racial biology being used to understand the ‘black body’ during the Covid-19 pandemic.This conversation was recorded on 8th June 2020Speaker: Alondra Nelson, President of the Social Science Research Council and Harold F. Linder Chair in Social Science at the Institute for Advanced StudyExecutive producer: Paul GilroyProducer and Editor: Kaissa KarhuRead the transcript for this podcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Episode 4: Race, Identity, Reparations, and the Role of Ancestral DNA TestingIn this episode, Shobita and Jack answer listener questions, discuss Jack's trip to the weird world of the World Economic Forum in Davos, and talk to Professor Alondra Nelson about the social life of ancestral DNA testing. Professor Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Chair in the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University, and President of the Social Science Research Council.Links related to our interview with Alondra Nelson:Alondra Nelson (2016). The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome. Boston: Beacon Press. (this page also provides links to supporting information, e.g., articles, reviews, about the book.)"Who should receive Reparations for Slavery and Discrimination?" The New Yorker Radio Hour. May 24, 2019.Ann Morning, Hannah Brückner, and Alondra Nelson (2019). "Socially Desirable Reporting and the Expression of Biological Concepts of Race." Dubois Review: Social Science Research on Race. (This article was discussed in a recent article in The New York Times: Amy Harmon (2019). "Can Biology Class Reduce Racism?" The New York Times. December 7.Alondra Nelson (2019). "The return of eugenics" in "Books for our time: seven classics that speak to us now", Nature. December 13.Alondra Nelson (2019). Lecture on "Genetics and Ethics in the Obama Administration". Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University. March 28. Video.Links to additional books and articles discussed in the episode:Steven Epstein (1996). Impure Science: AIDS, Activism, and the Politics of Knowledge. Oakland, CA: University of California Press.Brian Wynne (1992). "Misunderstood Misunderstanding: Social Identities and Public Uptake of Science." Public Understanding of Science.1: 281-304.Grove-White, Robin & Macnaghten, Phil & Mayer, Sue & Wynne, Brian. (1997). Uncertain World: Genetically Modified Organisms, Food and Public Opinion in Britain. A report by the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change in association with Unilever, and with help from the Green Alliance and a variety of other environmental and consumer non-governmental organisations (NGOs)Full transcript available at thereceivedwisdom.org