Podcasts about Vanderbilt University

Michael delves into how the body, mind and spirit impact wellness with three featured guests at this summer's Nantucket Wellness Festival.We can't beat the guest introductions delivered by the Festival's co-founder, Joann Burnham: Dr. Shieva Ghofrany, MD: “We knew we had to have a gorgeous goddess represented on the panel... goddess is a big word. So finding a science-based goddess was our mission. And we think Shiva Gofrani fits that bill. She's a board certified OBGYN who's been caring for women since 1999. She blends decades of clinical expertise along with a really deeply personal, empathetic approach to medicine. She has a private practice in Stamford, Connecticut. She also leads a telehealth practice dedicated to supporting women through midlife. Her ability to translate evidence-based OBGYN knowledge into real, relatable conversations has helped countless women feel seen, informed and motivated to advocate for their own wellbeing at every stage of their life.”Ben Rein, PhD:“Now when you get into this wellness thing, people always ask, is there any science behind it? So it was really important to me that we had a science guy. And Ben Rein is our science guy. He's an award-winning neuroscientist, author, science communicator. He's the chief science officer of the Mind Science Foundation, head of Science Communication and Research Hub Foundation. Is that enough science for you? He's an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University and a clinical assistant professor at SUNY Buffalo. He has published over 20 peer reviewed papers on neuroscience and his book is available throughout the weekend Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection. Ben is also an overall great guy and he's a brand new dad.”Ian Lopatin:“Ian Lopatin is a visionary entrepreneur, author and frequency architect. He's best known as the founder of Course Sanctuary and Spiritual Gangster. Who has a spiritual gangster T-shirt? I do. He graduated from Vanderbilt University, UCLA Law School, and he's widely regarded as a bridge between business and spirituality. His core philosophy, My Frequency Creates My Reality. His first book, which we are so excited about... [is] called The Way of a Spiritual Gangster, and it will be released later this year. It's offering readers a roadmap to higher frequency living and purpose-driven success.”

This week I'm joined by Arthur C. Brooks, Harvard professor, bestselling author and one of the world's leading experts on the science of human happiness, and someone who has spent his life answering one of the most fundamental questions we all ask and what does it actually mean to live well?We explore happiness, meaning, love and what the science really says about building a life that feels worth living.Arthur Brooks is a professor at Vanderbilt University and senior fellow at Harvard Business School. He is the author of 16 books including three number one New York Times bestsellers. He has spent decades studying happiness not as a feeling but as a skill and teaching people how to practise it.What we explore together:Why happiness is not a destination and what the arrival fallacy is really costing youThe four idols your brain tells you will make you happy and why they never doWhat the neuroscience of love actually looks like and the two things that keep couples bondedHow the failure journal works and why writing down your disappointments makes you happierWhy meaning and happiness are not the same thing and which one actually lastsWhat it means to love and be loved and why Arthur believes that's the whole answerLove, Sarah Ann

Michael delves into how the body, mind and spirit impact wellness with three featured guests at this summer's Nantucket Wellness Festival.We can't beat the guest introductions delivered by the Festival's co-founder, Joann Burnham: Dr. Shieva Ghofrany, MD: “We knew we had to have a gorgeous goddess represented on the panel... goddess is a big word. So finding a science-based goddess was our mission. And we think Shiva Gofrani fits that bill. She's a board certified OBGYN who's been caring for women since 1999. She blends decades of clinical expertise along with a really deeply personal, empathetic approach to medicine. She has a private practice in Stamford, Connecticut. She also leads a telehealth practice dedicated to supporting women through midlife. Her ability to translate evidence-based OBGYN knowledge into real, relatable conversations has helped countless women feel seen, informed and motivated to advocate for their own wellbeing at every stage of their life.”Ben Rein, PhD:“Now when you get into this wellness thing, people always ask, is there any science behind it? So it was really important to me that we had a science guy. And Ben Rein is our science guy. He's an award-winning neuroscientist, author, science communicator. He's the chief science officer of the Mind Science Foundation, head of Science Communication and Research Hub Foundation. Is that enough science for you? He's an adjunct lecturer at Stanford University and a clinical assistant professor at SUNY Buffalo. He has published over 20 peer reviewed papers on neuroscience and his book is available throughout the weekend Why Brains Need Friends: The Neuroscience of Social Connection. Ben is also an overall great guy and he's a brand new dad.”Ian Lopatin:“Ian Lopatin is a visionary entrepreneur, author and frequency architect. He's best known as the founder of Course Sanctuary and Spiritual Gangster. Who has a spiritual gangster T-shirt? I do. He graduated from Vanderbilt University, UCLA Law School, and he's widely regarded as a bridge between business and spirituality. His core philosophy, My Frequency Creates My Reality. His first book, which we are so excited about... [is] called The Way of a Spiritual Gangster, and it will be released later this year. It's offering readers a roadmap to higher frequency living and purpose-driven success.”

We are happy to welcome back actress Erin Áine and director Kyle Valle to talk about the series Autonomous Autonomous: A couple boards a Gomo — a self-driving rideshare cab — only to find themselves trapped with no way out. 16 episodes of pure claustrophobic terror. Kyle Valle is known for ZombieCON (2018), Journeyman (2015) and ZombieCON Vol. 1 (2024). He has been married to Erin Áine since 2024. They have one child. Growing up in Atlanta, Erin began performing in school plays and musicals as well as singing in Atlanta's International Youth Chorus before signing with a theatrical agent at 11. Erin built a thriving acting career, booking roles in Bobby Jones, A Stroke of Genius, indie darlings Dance of the Dead and The Fat Boy Chronicles, NBC's Field of Vision, and worked as a host in Guatemala for travel series WayFinder. While studying at Vanderbilt University., she booked co-star and lead roles in shows and films including The Vampire Diaries, Revolution, Quarantine 2: Terminal, and Tom Holland's Twisted Tales, etc. Since relocating to Los Angeles, Erin co-founded production company Big Squid Productions and streaming platform MewNowTV with husband Kyle Valle and has produced, cast, and worked as 1st or 2nd Director while occasionally starring in over a dozen short films, series and features. If you want to support the show, head over to http://tee.pub/lic/HIbVFqhaUyA and grab a shirt! We are proud to be part of The Dorkening Podcast Network https://www.thedorkeningpodcastnetwork.com/ Find out more at https://wicked-horror-show.pinecast.co Send us your feedback online: https://pinecast.com/feedback/wicked-horror-show/528c058b-2e1e-4e49-ba5c-072007d8860e This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Adani chats with Cynthia Osborne, Professor at Vanderbilt University and Executive Director of the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center. Prof. Osborne's work focuses on translating developmental science into effective, evidence-based policies for families and young children in the U.S. We discuss what the field of Early Childhood Policy entails, the ongoing work that Prof. Osborne and the Impact Center conduct, and why the first three years of childhood are so critical. Prof. Osborne also tells us about her path into her current work, how she built the Impact Center's wonderful team, and what advice she would pass on to students seeking to bridge research and policy!Cynthia Osborne's page: https://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/bio/cynthia-osborne/ Cynthia Osborne's publications: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=tRc8EmMAAAAJ Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center: https://pn3policy.org/Policy Impact Calculator: https://pn3policy.org/policy-impact-calculator/Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap: https://pn3policy.org/pn-3-state-policy-roadmap-2025/ Adani's website: https://stanford.edu/~aabutto/Adani's Bluesky @adaniPodcast Twitter @StanfordPsyPodPodcast Substack https://stanfordpsypod.substack.com/Let us know what you thought of this episode, or of the podcast! :) stanfordpsychpodcast@gmail.com

Who gets to be a creative worker? In Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking Into the Creative Economy, (Princeton University Press, 2026) Alexandre Frenette, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, examines the relationship between work and education in the difficult moment of the early career transition from university to industry. Drawing on a detailed case study of the music industry, the book explains and critiques the way internships have come to dominate routes into many careers in contemporary society. An accessible yet theoretically rich read, the book will be of interest to creative workers at any point in their career, as well as sociologists and humanities scholars, along with any reader interested in how and why our workplaces are so unequal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Who gets to be a creative worker? In Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking Into the Creative Economy, (Princeton University Press, 2026) Alexandre Frenette, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, examines the relationship between work and education in the difficult moment of the early career transition from university to industry. Drawing on a detailed case study of the music industry, the book explains and critiques the way internships have come to dominate routes into many careers in contemporary society. An accessible yet theoretically rich read, the book will be of interest to creative workers at any point in their career, as well as sociologists and humanities scholars, along with any reader interested in how and why our workplaces are so unequal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/critical-theory

Who gets to be a creative worker? In Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking Into the Creative Economy, (Princeton University Press, 2026) Alexandre Frenette, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, examines the relationship between work and education in the difficult moment of the early career transition from university to industry. Drawing on a detailed case study of the music industry, the book explains and critiques the way internships have come to dominate routes into many careers in contemporary society. An accessible yet theoretically rich read, the book will be of interest to creative workers at any point in their career, as well as sociologists and humanities scholars, along with any reader interested in how and why our workplaces are so unequal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

Who gets to be a creative worker? In Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking Into the Creative Economy, (Princeton University Press, 2026) Alexandre Frenette, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, examines the relationship between work and education in the difficult moment of the early career transition from university to industry. Drawing on a detailed case study of the music industry, the book explains and critiques the way internships have come to dominate routes into many careers in contemporary society. An accessible yet theoretically rich read, the book will be of interest to creative workers at any point in their career, as well as sociologists and humanities scholars, along with any reader interested in how and why our workplaces are so unequal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/music

Who gets to be a creative worker? In Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking Into the Creative Economy, (Princeton University Press, 2026) Alexandre Frenette, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, examines the relationship between work and education in the difficult moment of the early career transition from university to industry. Drawing on a detailed case study of the music industry, the book explains and critiques the way internships have come to dominate routes into many careers in contemporary society. An accessible yet theoretically rich read, the book will be of interest to creative workers at any point in their career, as well as sociologists and humanities scholars, along with any reader interested in how and why our workplaces are so unequal.

Who gets to be a creative worker? In Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking Into the Creative Economy, (Princeton University Press, 2026) Alexandre Frenette, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, examines the relationship between work and education in the difficult moment of the early career transition from university to industry. Drawing on a detailed case study of the music industry, the book explains and critiques the way internships have come to dominate routes into many careers in contemporary society. An accessible yet theoretically rich read, the book will be of interest to creative workers at any point in their career, as well as sociologists and humanities scholars, along with any reader interested in how and why our workplaces are so unequal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who gets to be a creative worker? In Blame the Intern: On (Not) Breaking Into the Creative Economy, (Princeton University Press, 2026) Alexandre Frenette, an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University, examines the relationship between work and education in the difficult moment of the early career transition from university to industry. Drawing on a detailed case study of the music industry, the book explains and critiques the way internships have come to dominate routes into many careers in contemporary society. An accessible yet theoretically rich read, the book will be of interest to creative workers at any point in their career, as well as sociologists and humanities scholars, along with any reader interested in how and why our workplaces are so unequal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It seems absolutely bonkers that an animal can muster ELECTRICITY, especially enough to send out a zap like a taser.But that's exactly what electric eels can do, and the world record holder more than doubles the voltage of the Australian electricity supply.More than that, electric eels inspired the design of Volta's first batteries, but (hold onto your socks so they don't get blown off) they're not the only ones who've got electricity pumping through their bodies.Featuring:Professor Will Crampton, University of Central Florida.Professor Ken Catania, Vanderbilt University.Professor Kate Trinajstic, Curtin University.Production:Ann Jones, Presenter / Producer.Petria Ladgrove, Producer.Additional mastering: Emrys CroninThis episode of What the Duck?! was originally broadcast in 2024 and was produced on the land of the Wadawarrung and Kaurna people.Find more episodes of the ABC podcast, What the Duck?! with the always curious Dr Ann Jones exploring the mysteries of nature on ABC Listen (Australia) or wherever you get your podcasts. You'll learn more about the weird and unusual aspects of our natural world in a quirky, fun way with easy to understand science.

Uno dei miti più persistent negli investimenti è che un ETF a leva due dia il doppio del rendimento del mercato, e uno a leva tre il triplo. È falso. Non solo nei casi estremi, ma in valore atteso sull'orizzonte temporale che conta davvero per te. In questo video analizziamo la complessa meccanica finanziaria dietro gli strumenti a leva (Leveraged ed Inverse ETFs). Basandoci sulle ricerche della Vanderbilt University e sugli studi di AQR (Buffett's Alpha), smontiamo il funzionamento di questi prodotti: dal ribilanciamento giornaliero alla path dependency (dipendenza dal percorso), fino all'effetto devastante del contango sulle materie prime. Vediamo con simulazioni storiche qual è la reale soglia matematica della leva sostenibile e come grandi investitori la sfruttano senza azzerarsi. ✅ Il Mio Broker che uso da Sempre INTERACTIVE BROKERS:

The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk www.LearningLeader.com Order my new book, "The Price of Becoming." www.LearningLeader.com/Becoming This is brought to you by Insight Global. If you need to hire one person, hire a team of people, or transform your business through Talent or Technical Services, Insight Global's team of 30,000 people around the world has the hustle and grit to deliver. My Guest: Clark Lea is the head football coach at Vanderbilt University. He spent 14 years as an assistant coach, including three as defensive coordinator at Notre Dame, before returning to his alma mater in 2021 to inherit a program that had gone winless the year before. He's now the back-to-back SEC Coach of the Year and the architect of one of the great turnarounds in college football history. We recorded this conversation live at our 2026 Learning Leader Growth Summit in Nashville, surrounded by members of the Learning Leader Circle. Key Learnings Clark inherited a Vanderbilt program that went winless the year before. He says he probably screwed up 50% of his first year. The game is how quickly you can pivot. Losing is a powerful teacher. It cleanses and purifies you in ways you don't want but need. You can blame other people, sink into self-pity, or ask: "What am I meant to be learning right now?" Fast-forward 15 years. Look at this moment from a future place of breakthrough. What did you do now that allowed change to occur? "What do I wanna be proud of in the attempt?" Letting go of expected outcomes is what allows you to refine and simplify the way you see the world. Enter the building unguarded. The clearer you are about who you are and what you want, the more obvious it becomes who fits and who doesn't. Different ball, same problems. Clark spends time learning from the Milwaukee Brewers, the Baltimore Ravens, and others. Different industry, same human challenges. Sometimes the different ball is the gift, because you walk in without preconceptions. Knowledge is limiting. Questions illuminate. Once you know something, you stop pursuing it. The questions you ask are the first constraints you put on knowledge. Get past the touchy-feely. Ask: "Tell me what's screwed up here." Problems are always there. Your job is to be willing to look for them. Check the cabinets. Living in a 700-square-foot LA apartment with his wife, Clark would open the cabinets and find them swarming with roaches. The building was fumigated. Two months later, they were back. You can move the pots out and stop checking, or you can keep opening the cabinets. Leaders keep opening the cabinets. Tell people what TO do, not what NOT to do. Rick Neuheisel's lesson. Stop coaching against the bad thing. Manifest what you want to have happen. Hire bunker guys, not logo people. Logos are easy to change. Hire people who'll fight for you in the bunker when it's hard. The Michigan Reset. Before his first game as Notre Dame defensive coordinator, Clark told the team's mental performance coach: "We're gonna be down 50 to nothing at halftime. BK's gonna fire me on the spot. Jerome Bettis and Rocket Ismail will be screaming at me in the tunnel." She asked, "Why don't you trust your players? You think this is all about you?" Have more captains. Clark sits in a room each summer with around 25 players he identifies as leaders. If the people at the leadership table are good, the locker room will be good. The team votes. He draws the line wherever the vote naturally falls. When you try to go opposite of what you're trying to avoid, you eventually become it. Clark spent his first years at Vanderbilt rejecting the program's past. Going opposite. Then he realized it was just attaching his identity to the very thing he was trying to escape. Now he plots toward the vision instead. What got you here won't keep you here. As Clark has grown, the program has grown. Once he understood that, he could sit with a player and listen first, instead of looking to them for affirmation. The mission is winning. Clark scrapped a beautiful, eloquent, unclear mission statement and replaced it with three words. Now every dollar spent, every coach hired, and every player retained is measured against the same lens. Well-better-learned. Vanderbilt's after-action review for every game and every process. What did we do well? What do we need to do better? What did we learn? On Alabama week, Clark's team had the best practice he's ever been a part of. His job each week isn't to tell the team the challenges. It's to give them the plan to win. At halftime against the number one team in the country, he kneeled the team down and said, "It's on a platter for you. Go take it." They beat Alabama.  Stewarding 17-to-22-year-olds means helping them decouple their worth from outcomes. Clark cries in front of his team. His kids are around. His wife is there. His dad is at every practice. The players see a man. A human. A son. "An asshole in a Nike Tech Fit is still an asshole." In the NIL era, Clark fights to keep the locker room from splitting into a million-dollar club, a $500K club, a $30K club, and a $0 club. What you drive doesn't make a man. NIL value doesn't make a man. The grounding is the work. Reflection Questions What are you holding too tightly right now? Whose job are you doing because you don't trust them to do it themselves? Which cabinet have you stopped checking because you're tired of finding the same problem?  Fast-forward 15 years. Looking back at this moment from a place of breakthrough, what are you meant to be learning right now that you've been avoiding? More Learning #681: Clark Lea - Belief is a Practice #281: George Raveling - 8 Decades of Wisdom, from Dr. MLK to Michael Jordan #637: Tom Ryan - Chosen Suffering, Becoming Elite & Life & Leadership  Podcast Chapters 00:00 The Price of Becoming - Pre-Order Now! 00:47 Welcome Back, Clark Lea 02:38 Taking Over a Winless Vanderbilt Program 04:18 What Losing Taught Clark About Hiring 07:52 The Three Things That Light Clark on Fire About Coaching 10:27 Different Ball, Same Problems: Learning From the Milwaukee Brewers 13:14 Knowledge Is Limiting. Questions Illuminate. 18:09 The Introvert Who Had to Learn to Lead the Room 20:13 Brian Kelly and the Bet on Clark Lea 23:19 Why Clark Has More Team Captains Than Anyone in College Football 28:58 The Transfer Portal Pivot and the Culture Reset 33:58 The Mission Is Winning 34:51 "If We Don't Have $3 Million by December, We Won't Have a Program" 37:26 Why Candice Lee Took a Bet on Him 39:53 Inside Alabama Week: The Best Practice He's Ever Been a Part Of 44:03 The Bye Week Reset: Penalties, Third Down, and the Ball 46:11 Beating the No. 1 Team in the Country 49:50 Replacing Diego Pavia's Locker Room Leadership 51:39 Decoupling Worth and Identity From Outcomes 56:27 Hiring Bunker Guys, Not Logo People 01:01:47 "An Asshole in a Nike Tech Fit Is Still an Asshole" 01:04:47 EOPC

It's a hard time to run a university: public trust is low, political pressure is high, and finances are fragile. But Daniel Diermeier, who trained as a political scientist, has Vanderbilt humming. How? He says the key is choosing magnets over wedges.   SOURCES: Daniel Diermeier, chancellor of Vanderbilt University.   RESOURCES: "Higher Ed's New Crisis Managers," by Lee Gardner (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2026). "Professors Need to Diversify What They Teach," by Jon Shields, Yuval Avnur, and Stephanie Muravchik (Persuasion, 2025). "A Call for Constructive Engagement," (American Association of Colleges and Universities, 2025). "2020 Statement on Anthropology and Human Rights," (American Anthropological Association, 2020). The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander (2010). "Kalven Committee: Report on the University's Role in Political and Social Action," (The University of Chicago, 1967).   EXTRAS: Sign up here to pre-screen our new video show. "'A Low Moment in Higher Education,'" by Freakonomics Radio (2024). "'If We're All in It for Ourselves, Who Are We?'" by Freakonomics Radio (2024). "Do Boycotts Work?" by Freakonomics Radio (2016). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

EPISODE 731 - Lance Hillsinger - Child Welfare Social Worker to Author - Navigating Legal Documents to AuthorshipIn this thoughtful episode, author and retired social worker Lance Hilzinger joins us from San Luis Obispo, California, to reflect on a lifetime of service in the child welfare system and his journey into writing. With three decades of experience advocating for children and families in Los Angeles and San Luis Obispo Counties, Lance offers a candid look behind the courtroom doors of juvenile and foster care cases. He shares how both frustration and hope became the foundation for his writing, leading to several books that examine social policy, history, and faith.Lance began his career with a master's degree in psychology from Vanderbilt University before realizing that academia wasn't his calling. A twist of fate led him to a social work position where he found his true purpose—helping families heal, understanding parents struggling with addiction, and advocating for vulnerable children. Over the years, he witnessed the evolution of the foster care system, including new programs supporting youth up to age twenty‑one, and the ongoing challenges of poverty, substance abuse, and a shortage of foster homes.Discussing his writing, Lance explains how technical report writing in court shaped his clear, factual, and concise storytelling style. His first book captured the evolution—both progress and pitfalls—of child welfare practices, inspiring readers to consider becoming foster parents or court advocates. Later works broadened his focus: “Build a Better Bridge: Social Policy for the Twenty‑First Century” revisits America's War on Poverty, calling for smarter, long‑lasting solutions to chronic social issues, while “Beyond Amelia: Lesser Known Women of Yesteryear” celebrates unsung female pioneers in science, leadership, and exploration. His newest book, “Matthew, Mark, Luke and John: A Court Investigator Examines the Gospels,” blends logical analysis and faith, exploring timeless biblical truths through a modern lens.Lance also shares his experiences with publishing—its rewards, challenges, and lessons learned about contracts, editing, and choosing the right partner. Throughout the conversation, he returns to one unshakable theme: the importance of compassion, honesty, and consistency, whether in social work, writing, or personal faith. He reminds listeners that real change happens slowly but meaningfully, through persistence and integrity.Key Takeaway:Lance Hilzinger's story is a testament to serving others with empathy and endurance. Whether guiding a family through hardship or crafting a book that bridges understanding, his work invites us to believe that steady, thoughtful effort can make systems—and lives—better.https://www.lancehillsinger.net/Support the show___https://livingthenextchapter.com/podcast produced by: https://truemediasolutions.ca/Coffee Refills are always appreciated, refill Dave's cup here, and thanks!https://buymeacoffee.com/truemediaca

On Thursday, June 11, our Spotlight Speaker event centered on COURIER's ongoing reporting into Jeffrey Epstein's network and the launch of an AI-powered database designed to make thousands of pages of public records more accessible to journalists, researchers, advocates, and the public. COURIER Journalist Camaron Stevenson and CEO of Thorian AI, Josh Levine, demonstrated how technology can help uncover connections, identify patterns, and accelerate the search for facts hidden within massive volumes of documents.Panelists Nina Burleigh of COURIER and Ambassador Norman Eisen, co-founder of Democracy Defenders Action, emphasized that transparency, accountability, and persistence remain essential to protecting democracy. They discussed the critical role of investigative journalism, litigation, and public engagement in exposing corruption, combating disinformation, and ensuring abuses of power do not go unchecked.A consistent theme emerged throughout the discussion: meaningful change requires informed citizens who stay engaged, support independent journalism, and demand accountability.Find out the latest from COURIER Newsroom:https://couriernewsroom.com/Check out COURIER's “Cover Up” project:https://epsteincoverup.us/Explore COURIER's Epstein Database:https://search.epsteincoverup.us/Read the latest from Nina Burleigh in her Substack newsletter, “American Freakshow”:https://www.americanfreakshow.news/Check out Thorian AI:https://thorian.ai/Follow Camaron Stevenson's reporting in his Substack newsletter “Below The Beltway”:https://www.beltway.news/Explore Amb. Eisen's newsletter “The Contrarian” on Substack:https://www.contrariannews.org/Learn more about Amb. Eisen's organizations Democracy Defenders, States United, and CREW:https://www.democracydefendersaction.org/https://statesunited.org/https://www.citizensforethics.org/ ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:Nina Burleigh is a a journalist, best-selling author, documentary producer, and publisher of a Substack on politics called "American Freakshow". A contributing editor at "The New Republic" and frequent contributor to "The New York Times" and "New York Magazine", her journalism has been published widely including in translation in the Norwegian and Italian press. She's the author of eight books on an array of topics including archaeological forgery, scientists in 18th Century Egypt, James Smithson, Amanda Knox in Italy, and the Trump women, which were reviewed, excerpted or covered in "The New York Times", "The Wall Street Journal", "The Nation", "New York Magazine", "BBC", "ABC", "MSNBC", and other media outlets.Ambassador (ret.) Norman Eisen is a co-founder and board member of Democracy Defenders Action, which has been helping lead the successful national court fights against the Trump Administration, helping secure multiple landmark orders against its authoritarian moves. His work in the courts of law is matched by his efforts in the court of public opinion as the co-founder and publisher of The Contrarian. He is also the co-founder and former chair of other major non-profits including CREW and States United.Camaron Stevenson is a national correspondent for "COURIER Newsroom" and publisher of the "Below The Beltway" newsletter on Substack. A veteran political journalist, he spent more than a decade reporting in Phoenix and served as the Founding Editor and Chief Political Correspondent of "The Copper Courier". His reporting focuses on politics, policy, and the forces shaping American democracy at the national and local levels.Josh Levine is a multi-time entrepreneur (1x exit) building at the nexus of AI, public policy, and the future of data. After an initial career in public finance, Josh founded companies in the education technology and small business M&A spaces. He is now building Thorian AI, which specializes in data processing, extraction, and automation-building across massive, multi-modal datasets. Thorian serves as a data backbone for local government permitting processes, state and federal compliance processes, and complex grant applications/management while keeping costs low through the use of data methods that allow us to use the smallest possible language models for the job. For his efforts, Josh was recently named one of Austin's top five technologists under 40 for the second time in 2026. A native of Texas, he holds a Master of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs and an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit bigtentnews.substack.com

Today's guest is Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal, Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University. Dr. Bar-Tal is a noted psychologist, who since the early eighties has focused on political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peacebuilding, including reconciliation. In this episode, Alon and Daniel discuss differing narratives between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs and how to bridge that gap, the decline of the Israeli peace movement, and changing public opinion toward Israel abroad. Full bio Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal is Professor Emeritus at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University. Dr. Bar-Tal received his graduate training in social psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, and completed his doctoral thesis in 1974. He previously served as a Director of the Walter Lebach Research Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education, Tel Aviv University and as President of the International Society of Political Psychology, and was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Israel Journal. He has won numerous awards, including the Alexander George Award of the International Society of Political Psychology, and Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence. He was awarded the Golestan Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in 2000-2001, and in 2013 received honorary membership in the Polish Society of Social Psychology. Since the early eighties his interest has shifted to political psychology and the study of the socio-psychological foundations of intractable conflicts and peace building, including reconciliation. In the latter area, he studied the evolvement of the socio-psychological infrastructure in times of intractable conflict that consists of shared societal beliefs of ethos of conflict, collective memory, and emotional collective orientations. He also studied socio-psychological barriers to peacemaking and ways to overcome them, and acquisition of the conflict repertoire by children and adolescents. Within this scope of studies he developed with his collaborators theoretical frameworks for concepts like siege mentality, intractable conflict, delegitimization, collective victimhood, socio-psychological infrastructure, culture of conflict, effects of lasting occupation, barriers to peace making, construction and struggle over conflict supporting narratives, acquisition of intergroup psychological repertoire, early development of the ethos of conflict, transitional context, collective identity, and peace education, among many others. The work in these areas has resulted in books, Group Beliefs (1990), Stereotypes and Prejudice in Conflict: Representations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish Society (2005), and Intractable conflicts: Socio-psychological foundations and dynamics (2013). He co-edited a wide variety of volumes, and in addition has published over two hundred articles and chapters in major journals, books and encyclopedias. Through the years he has lectured widely on his work, and worked as Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University, Brandeis University, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, University of Muenster, University of Maryland College Park, Polish Academy of Science, University of Palermo, and Australian National University. He retired in 2015 and decided to devote his second career to political activism. He founded a peace movement Save Israel-Stop the Occupation with the goal to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and establish the Palestinian state.

George Kittle co-hosts Tight End University for the sixth consecutive summer at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, giving NFL tight ends an opportunity to train, study film and network. On "49ers Talk," Matt Maiocco and Jennifer Lee Chan discuss how Tight End University has grown and developed over the last six years. They also assess where the 49ers' star tight end stands in his rehab from an Achilles tear last season and if he's on track to make his season debut in Week 1. -- 0:00 Jennifer checks in from Tight End University 5:00 Still processing the the passing of Aldon Smith 7:00 Addressing the Brandon Aiyuk saga that keeps rolling on this offseason 14:00 Updates on George Kittle's rehab progress as he hosts TEU again 21:00 Kittle discusses how TEU has grown in its sixth year 27:00 How Kittle and Juszczyk went from teammates to best friends 32:00 Juszczyk bringing his experience as a fullback to the tight end position 35:00 Juszczyk details how Kittle has approached his rehab and why his positivity has factored into bouncing back Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Justin Greenfield is joining Melinda Patrick on The Bridge Between Us Podcast.   In Part One, Justin shares a portion of his testimony.    If you would like to understand the root issues of homosexuality, hear a few testimonies of those who now live a life beyond homosexuality through Christ and wisdom, or connect with healthy resources that address homosexuality check out godloveshomosexuals.com    If you're seeking spiritual direction, ministry consultation, would like to discuss a speaking engagement with Justin Greenfield, or would like to hear more about and support his ministry work go to greenfieldministries.com    Also, here are a couple to the study led by Vanderbilt University researchers on the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) of homosexual individuals which Justin mentioned on the podcast:    Synopsis from Vanderbilt https://www.vumc.org/health-policy/LGBTQ-mental-health-adverse-childhood-experiences-research   Full Article: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2789482 (Note that the synopsis does not include the ACE that I mentioned on the show - incarcerated household member. It is only in the full article.)

Disruption is often viewed as something to avoid or manage. But what if it could become one of the most effective catalysts for meaningful change? In this episode of Finding Brave, I sit down with Dr. Patrick Leddin to unpack why disruption is not the enemy many of us believe it to be, and how learning to work with it can truly transform our lives and careers. Dr. Patrick Leddin is a former Airborne Ranger infantry officer, entrepreneur, global keynote speaker, and longtime Vanderbilt University faculty member whose research focuses on how leaders and organizations can thrive through disruption. He is also the host of The Disruption Lab with Patrick Leddin, PhD, and the co-author, with James Patterson, of the New York Times bestselling book Disrupt Everything―and Win. Drawing on years of research and conversations with leaders across industries, Patrick shares what he's learned about embracing change and using disruption as a force for good. In our conversation, Patrick shares what he's hearing from leaders as AI reshapes organizations and creates new opportunities and uncertainties. Through research, business case studies, and his own experiences in the military and the business world, he explores what it means to thrive in ambiguity when the rules are being rewritten in real time. He explains why the most disruptive thing you can do sometimes is say "no" to change and why taking time to discern the right response can make all the difference when facing uncertainty. He also shares insights on navigating career disruption in the era of AI-driven change, developing the strengths of a Positive Disrupter, and building teams that can adapt when the future feels uncertain. Listen in for a refreshing and uplifting perspective on embracing disruption and what happens when you view it as an invitation to rethink what's possible. Key Points From This Episode: Introduction to Dr. Patrick Leddin and the growing impact of disruption and AI. [00:51] How leaders are approaching AI and navigating uncertainty. [04:17] The Vanderbilt class that led to Disrupt Everything―and Win. [08:44] James Patterson's career journey and the power of positive disruption. [10:04] How Tractor Supply Company leveraged disruption to drive innovation and growth. [14:22] Lessons from Patrick's military experience and thriving in ambiguity. [16:35] Why emotions and discernment matter when responding to disruption. [20:18] Understanding the different roles people can play during disruption, and why the most disruptive thing you can do sometimes is say "no" to change. [28:21] How to navigate career disruption and AI-driven change. [36:54] Positive Disrupter strengths and building teams that embrace change. [43:54] For More Information: Dr. Patrick Leddin Dr. Patrick Leddin on LinkedIn Dr. Patrick Leddin on Instagram Dr. Patrick Leddin on YouTube Links Mentioned in Today's Episode: Dr. Patrick Leddin's podcast, The Disruption Lab with Patrick Leddin, PhD Dr. Patrick Leddin and James Patterson's book, Disrupt Everything―and Win Dr. Patrick Leddin's book The 5 Week Leadership Challenge Kathy's appearance on Patrick's Podcast, The Disruption Lab, Disrupt Career Reinvention with Forbes Contributor Kathy Caprino Kathy's Forbes article featuring Dr. Leddin and James Patterson - World Business Forum Experts Offer Strategies For Navigating Change ——————— READY FOR A BREAKTHROUGH TO ACHIEVE MORE SUCCESS, IMPACT AND FULFILLMENT IN YOUR CAREER & LEADERSHIP TODAY? Work with Kathy and get hands-on, transformative CAREER & LEADERSHIP GROWTH COACHING SUPPORT today! Join me today in one of my top-requested career and leadership growth 1:1 coaching programs and take 10% off the price this week with coupon code 'BRAVEPOD10" as my thank-you for tuning in! Click the links below for more information and register today to save 10%: 60-minute Career Consultation Jumpstart Your Career Success (3 sessions)Career & Leadership Breakthrough program (6 sessions)Build Your Confidence, Success and Impact (10 sessions) ——————— Order Kathy's book The Most Powerful You today! In Australia and New Zealand, click here to order, elsewhere outside North America, click here, and in the UK, click here. If you enjoy the book, we'd so appreciate your giving the book a positive rating and review on Amazon! And check out Kathy's digital companion course The Most Powerful You, to help you close the 7 power and confidence gaps in the most effective way possible.   Kathy's Power Gaps Survey, Support To Build Your LinkedIn Profile To Great Success & Other Resources  Kathy's TEDx Talk, Time To Brave Up & Free Career Path Self-Assessment Kathy's 6 Dominant Action Styles Quiz ——————— Sponsor Highlight I'm thrilled that both Audible.com and Amazon Music are sponsors of Finding Brave! Take advantage of their great special offers and free trials today! Audible Offer Amazon Music Offer Quotes: "One thing that has been helpful to me personally, whether it was starting a business and running a business or being in the military, was the ability to thrive in ambiguity." — Dr. Patrick Leddin [0:16:49] "The disruptions that a lot of people are running into in their lives right now, there isn't necessarily a playbook for it, there aren't standard procedures, and the rules are being rewritten almost in real time." — Dr. Patrick Leddin [0:20:34] "Disruption sometimes blows things up and breaks stuff, and I don't like that. Nobody really does. But maybe it's fertile ground for something new and different." — Dr. Patrick Leddin [0:21:02] "Sometimes the most disruptive thing you can do is go after change. Sometimes the most disruptive thing you can do is chase stability. When everybody else is chasing change, you say no." — Dr. Patrick Leddin [0:30:18] "We have the ability, unlike any other animal in the animal kingdom, to dream up this amazing future, and then begin to manifest." — Dr. Patrick Leddin [0:46:44] "Disruption is going to come at you, but you're wired to handle it." — Dr. Patrick Leddin [0:47:34] Watch our Finding Brave episodes on YouTube! Don't forget – you can experience each Finding Brave episode in both audio and video formats! Check out new and recent episodes on my YouTube channel at YouTube.com/kathycaprino. And please subscribe, leave us a comment and a thumbs up if you like the show!

It's been one year since the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an unprecedented move, dismissed all the members of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), kicking off what would turn out to be a very concerning and busy year for infectious disease specialists.  We're going to recap this turbulent period – which includes a resurgence of measles, an unusually rough flu season, the emergence of a new COVID strain and outbreaks of hantavirus and Ebola – with Dr. William Schaffner, one of the country's most frequently quoted medical experts on infectious disease, vaccination, and public health. As a member of ACIP for decades, Dr. Schaffner brings unique insight into the dismantling of the committee and the distrust of vaccines that lies at the root of the changes. As he explains to Raise the Line host Lindsey Smith, while many vaccine critics are beyond reach, there are those he describes as vaccine hesitant that may be persuadable if the right approach is taken. “Beyond providing facts, we have to listen to them and respond to their concerns and make them feel comfortable. Information is fundamental, but behavior change only comes with a change in attitude.” Tune in for a wealth of wisdom and context that includes observations on: What's complicating containment of the Ebola outbreak; Challenges in public health communication in the current social media environment; What grade health authorities should get on their response to the hantavirus outbreak. Mentioned in this episode:Vanderbilt University School of Medicine If you like this podcast, please share it on your social channels. You can also subscribe to the series and check out all of our episodes at www.osmosis.org/podcast

Jesse Montgomery joins Michael Stauch to discuss It Is Not Enough to Survive: The Young Patriots Story (UNC Press, 2026). They examine how young white migrants from Appalachia and the South fought police brutality, racism, economic exploitation, and displacement through community organizing, and even joined forces with Fred Hampton's Black Panther Party and the Young Lords to create the original Rainbow Coalition in the streets of Chicago in the 1960s and ‘70s. Highlights include: How the Young Patriots evolved from street gang to political organizers active in Chicago's “Hillbilly Harlem,” the Uptown neighborhood; A reminder that poor white workers made up the large majority of migrants from the South during the Great Migrations of the 20th century; How the Young Patriots attempted to “re-signify” the Confederate flag, paralleling efforts by “race traitors” like Noel Ignatiev to reframe white workers in a context of interracial class solidarity; How the story of the Young Patriots is also a story of urban renewal, and the fight against it, in Chicago; A discussion of Merle Haggard's “Okie from Muskogee” and the role of country music in the culture wars of the 1960s. Guest: Jesse Montgomery is a visiting assistant professor of English at Berea College who works on American literature after 1945, Appalachian outmigration, and radical culture. Jesse holds a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. His writing has appeared in n+1, Popula, Full Stop, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Host: Michael Stauch is an associate professor of history at the University of Toledo and the author of Wildcat of the Streets: Detroit in the Age of Community Policing, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Jesse Montgomery joins Michael Stauch to discuss It Is Not Enough to Survive: The Young Patriots Story (UNC Press, 2026). They examine how young white migrants from Appalachia and the South fought police brutality, racism, economic exploitation, and displacement through community organizing, and even joined forces with Fred Hampton's Black Panther Party and the Young Lords to create the original Rainbow Coalition in the streets of Chicago in the 1960s and ‘70s. Highlights include: How the Young Patriots evolved from street gang to political organizers active in Chicago's “Hillbilly Harlem,” the Uptown neighborhood; A reminder that poor white workers made up the large majority of migrants from the South during the Great Migrations of the 20th century; How the Young Patriots attempted to “re-signify” the Confederate flag, paralleling efforts by “race traitors” like Noel Ignatiev to reframe white workers in a context of interracial class solidarity; How the story of the Young Patriots is also a story of urban renewal, and the fight against it, in Chicago; A discussion of Merle Haggard's “Okie from Muskogee” and the role of country music in the culture wars of the 1960s. Guest: Jesse Montgomery is a visiting assistant professor of English at Berea College who works on American literature after 1945, Appalachian outmigration, and radical culture. Jesse holds a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. His writing has appeared in n+1, Popula, Full Stop, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Host: Michael Stauch is an associate professor of history at the University of Toledo and the author of Wildcat of the Streets: Detroit in the Age of Community Policing, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Jesse Montgomery joins Michael Stauch to discuss It Is Not Enough to Survive: The Young Patriots Story (UNC Press, 2026). They examine how young white migrants from Appalachia and the South fought police brutality, racism, economic exploitation, and displacement through community organizing, and even joined forces with Fred Hampton's Black Panther Party and the Young Lords to create the original Rainbow Coalition in the streets of Chicago in the 1960s and ‘70s. Highlights include: How the Young Patriots evolved from street gang to political organizers active in Chicago's “Hillbilly Harlem,” the Uptown neighborhood; A reminder that poor white workers made up the large majority of migrants from the South during the Great Migrations of the 20th century; How the Young Patriots attempted to “re-signify” the Confederate flag, paralleling efforts by “race traitors” like Noel Ignatiev to reframe white workers in a context of interracial class solidarity; How the story of the Young Patriots is also a story of urban renewal, and the fight against it, in Chicago; A discussion of Merle Haggard's “Okie from Muskogee” and the role of country music in the culture wars of the 1960s. Guest: Jesse Montgomery is a visiting assistant professor of English at Berea College who works on American literature after 1945, Appalachian outmigration, and radical culture. Jesse holds a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. His writing has appeared in n+1, Popula, Full Stop, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Host: Michael Stauch is an associate professor of history at the University of Toledo and the author of Wildcat of the Streets: Detroit in the Age of Community Policing, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2025.

Jesse Montgomery joins Michael Stauch to discuss It Is Not Enough to Survive: The Young Patriots Story (UNC Press, 2026). They examine how young white migrants from Appalachia and the South fought police brutality, racism, economic exploitation, and displacement through community organizing, and even joined forces with Fred Hampton's Black Panther Party and the Young Lords to create the original Rainbow Coalition in the streets of Chicago in the 1960s and ‘70s. Highlights include: How the Young Patriots evolved from street gang to political organizers active in Chicago's “Hillbilly Harlem,” the Uptown neighborhood; A reminder that poor white workers made up the large majority of migrants from the South during the Great Migrations of the 20th century; How the Young Patriots attempted to “re-signify” the Confederate flag, paralleling efforts by “race traitors” like Noel Ignatiev to reframe white workers in a context of interracial class solidarity; How the story of the Young Patriots is also a story of urban renewal, and the fight against it, in Chicago; A discussion of Merle Haggard's “Okie from Muskogee” and the role of country music in the culture wars of the 1960s. Guest: Jesse Montgomery is a visiting assistant professor of English at Berea College who works on American literature after 1945, Appalachian outmigration, and radical culture. Jesse holds a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. His writing has appeared in n+1, Popula, Full Stop, and the Journal of Popular Music Studies. Host: Michael Stauch is an associate professor of history at the University of Toledo and the author of Wildcat of the Streets: Detroit in the Age of Community Policing, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press in 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is a followup on my interview with Professor Joerg Rieger. The intent of all of Professor Rieger’s work, including the subject of my first interview with him about his book, Theology in the Capitalocene: Ecology, Identity, Class, and Solidarity, is that theology should have an affect on one’s lifestyle and an impact on the world. In order to realize that intent, Professor Rieger established and is the founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice. The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice is an interdisciplinary program located at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Its focus is on issues of justice that arise at the intersection of religion, economics, and ecology. Founded in 2019 and supported by a generous gift from Barbara Wendland, the mission of the program is to develop resources and opportunities for students, scholars, clergy, and activists to envision and create a more just and sustainable world for all. In addition to being the founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program, Professor Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology and The Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair in Wesleyan Studies. Joining us in this interview is Gab Lisi. Gab (she/they/he) is the Assistant Director of the Wendland-Cook Program at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt Divinity School. Gab resides in Columbus, OH and their dog, Franklin (or Frank). They hold an M.Div. from Union Theological Seminary, an MSL from The Ohio State University, and a B.A. in Theology and Criminal Justice from Xavier University (Cincinnati, OH). They are curious about power analysis, class analysis, and Catholicism. In their spare time, you can find them at home reading, camping with Frank, or hanging out with friends. Important links for learning more about the Wendland-Cook Program: Website: https://www.religionandjustice.org/ Solidarity Circles: https://www.religionandjustice.org/solidarity-circles Exchanges Courses: https://www.religionandjustice.org/exchanges Interventions: https://www.religionandjustice.org/interventions Substack: https://religionandjustice.substack.com/ The intro and outro music for this episode is from a clip of a song called ‘Father Let Your Kingdom Come' which is found on The Porter's Gate Worship Project Work Songs album and is used by permission by The Porter's Gate Worship Project.

In this episode of RAPM Focus, Raj Gupta, MD, FASRA, hosts a critical conversation with RAPM Editor-in-Chief Brian Sites, MD, on the intersection of patient care and surgical recovery in healthcare economics, following the December 2025 publication of Dr. Sites's research letter, “Impact of removing liposomal bupivacaine from a health system formulary on length of stay: an observational study in video-assisted thoracoscopic wedge resection.” Dr. Raj Gupta is a professor of anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He is the medical director of Vanderbilt Health Belle Meade Surgery Center. Dr. Gupta previously served on the ASRA Pain Medicine Board of Directors. Dr. Brian Sites is a professor of anesthesiology and orthopedic surgery at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. He is the medical director of the acute pain medicine service. Dr. Sites's clinical passion and research centers around the role of image guidance for regional anesthesiology. *The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. The content of this podcast does not constitute medical advice, and it is not intended to function as a substitute for a healthcare practitioner's judgement, patient care, or treatment. The views expressed by contributors are those of the speakers. BMJ does not endorse any views or recommendations discussed or expressed on this podcast. Listeners should also be aware that professionals in the field may have different opinions. By listening to this podcast, listeners agree not to use its content as the basis for their own medical treatment or for the medical treatment of others. Podcast and music produced by Dan Langa. Find us on X @RAPMOnline, LinkedIn @Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, Facebook @Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine, and Instagram @RAPM_Online.

Ira Helderman PhD, LPC (Adjunct Professor of Religion, Psychology, and Culture, Vanderbilt University; PhD, Religious Studies, Vanderbilt University, 2016) studies how psychotherapists' definitions of what is and is not religious shape their understandings of caregiving, health, and illness. His first book, Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion (University of North Carolina Press 2019), is the first comprehensive examination of the surprisingly diverse ways that psychotherapists have approached Buddhist traditions. Helderman publishes in peer-reviewed journals such as The Journal of the American Academy of Religion and, committed to public scholarship, writes regularly for popular publications such as Psychology Today, Religion Dispatches, and Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. Dr. Helderman is also a practicing psychotherapist and clinical supervisor who has worked in the mental health field for over 20 years in a variety of clinical settings from in-patient addiction treatment centers and psychiatric hospitals to his current private practice. Helderman is currently studying the widespread psychotherapeutic use of Buddhist meditation. Though meditation is often described by patients as a way of easing spiritual yearning, it can also generate "adverse effects" like agitation, traumatic memories, and hallucinations. Dr. Helderman will examine how psychotherapists have conducted a "differential diagnosis" of such cases—distinguishing spiritual experience from psychopathology—and showing that how we define what is and is not "religious" shapes the fields of mental health, psychology, and religious studies. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/templeton-working-group Visit Dr. Ira Helderman: https://irahelderman.com  

When Roberto Baggio missed a penalty in the 1994 Fifa World Cup final at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, more than 94,000 people were there to watch Italian heartbreak and Brazilian ecstasy.To this day, no other World Cup has been as well attended as the 1994 tournament. Tickets were cheap and abundant, and despite the relatively low profile of the game in the US compared to sports like baseball or basketball, people went along to see what it was all about.Now, three decades later, as the 2026 World Cup returns to North America with games across Mexico, Canada and the US, soccer has grown a much larger and more dedicated fan base in America.In this episode, we speak to John Sloop, a professor of communication studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and historian of soccer and its fans in the United States, about what's changed for the men's game in the US and whether the popularity has staying power.This episode was written and produced by Gemma Ware, Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Mixing by Michelle Macklem and theme music by Neeta Sarl. Read the full credits for this episode and sign up here for a free daily newsletter from The Conversation.If you like the show, please consider donating to The Conversation, an independent, not-for-profit news organisation.Is soccer taking over America … or are Americans taking over football?How apartheid, European racism and Pelé helped cultivate a culture of diversity in US soccer that endures into Messi-era MLSSoaring ticket prices could help FIFA pull in $15B this World Cup cycle — where does the money come from, where does it go?

Hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia (HABP) and ventilator-associated bacterial pneumonia (VABP) are serious conditions that often affect critically ill patients in ICUs. These infections carry a high risk of mortality and are frequently caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria like MRSA. On this episode of the ATS Breathe Easy podcast, Scott Micek, PharmD, University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis, explains to host Eddie Qian, MD, Vanderbilt University, why treating HABP/VABP needs to be tailored to the patient, how rapid diagnostics have pros and cons, and the importance of balancing aggressive early treatment with careful reassessment. This episode is sponsored by Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics.

Retired US Air Force Brigadier General Damon Feltman served as the Deputy Chief Strategy and Resources Officer for the United States Space Force. **Feltman holds multiple advanced degrees in space leadership, strategic studies, and business management, serves as Board Chair for the **Association of Commercial Space Professionals, and is a mentor to Vanderbilt University's Space Edge Accelerator program. Today, he is the Chief Executive Officer of the Space Force Association, a 501c3 nonprofit and recognized national military association supporting the U.S. Space Force.

Dr. William Turner and Dr. Ted Olson talk to songwriter, author, and scholar Alice Randall, whose pioneering work in country music garnered her video-of-the-year recognition ("Is There Life out There," Reba McEntire) and acknowledgement as the first black woman to be the co-writer of a number one country song ("XXX's and OOO's," Trisha Yearwood). She is also a New York Times bestselling author (The Wind Done Gone) and serves on the faculty of Vanderbilt University, where she has taught courses on Black country music, coal mining history and culture, and soul food. Randall's most recent book, My Black Country: A Journey Through Country Music's Black Past, Present, and Future, is a memoir tracing her experiences in the Nashville music industry and the roots of Black influence on the genre. Its companion album, My Black Country: The Songs of Alice Randall features her songs performed by artists such as Leyla McCalla, Rhiannon Giddens, and Alice's own daughter, Caroline Randall Williams. Giddens' rendition of Randall's song "Ballad of Sally Anne" received a Grammy nomination in 2025.Dr. William Turner is a longtime African American studies scholar and retired Distinguished Professor of Appalachian Studies and Regional Ambassador from Berea College. He was also a research assistant to Roots author Alex Haley and co-editor of the groundbreaking Blacks in Appalachia. In 2021, Turner received Western Carolina University's individual Mountain Heritage Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to Southern Appalachian Studies. His memoir called The Harlan Renaissance, available from West Virginia University Press, was awarded the prestigious Weatherford Award at the 2022 Appalachian Studies Association Conference. Dr. Ted Olson is a music historian and professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. He is the author of many books, articles, reviews, encyclopedia entries, and oral histories. Olson has produced and compiled a number of documentary albums of traditional Appalachian music, including On Top of Old Smoky and Big Bend Killing, both from Smokies Life. His work has received a number of awards, including nine Grammy nominations. The East Tennessee Historical Society honored Olson with its Ramsey Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2021. 

Kelly Brownell interviews Jon-Paul Bianchi, Director of Systems Change at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, about the foundation's systems-change approach linking food, health, early childhood, and family economic security to address inequities affecting children and families. Bianchi describes his path from PhD research to policy work and then to Kellogg, and explains how integrated grantmaking focuses upstream on policies, practices, resource flows, narratives, and long-term investment in people and relationships rather than isolated programs. He highlights Vermont's inclusion of food quality in childcare ratings and the foundation's Farm to Early Childhood efforts connecting procurement, regional food systems, and state policy, with examples from states like North Carolina, Iowa, and Wisconsin, and notes Brazil's national local purchasing policy as a model for success. Transcript As I was mentioning before we got started, I've long admired the work of the Kellogg Foundation. Working with the concept of food systems or connecting agriculture with nutrition and thinking about regenerative agricultures. There are a lot of places where your foundation was out front. So, I salute you and your colleagues for that. And it'll be interesting to find out what's happening right now. Tell us a little bit about yourself, and how did you get into the philanthropic work and your work with Kellogg in particular? I'm Jon-Paul Bianchi. I'm the director of the Systems Change team at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. And what that essentially means is I'm the director of national programs at the foundation. But we call it systems change because we really do see in the different areas of work that we focus on- health, family economic security, food, and early childhood- that these things are all interconnected by some distinct systems. But also, common systems that overlap across them. And so, that's the approach that we take. And I'll spend some time sort of diving into that today. You know, to answer the question of how I got here... you know, a master stroke of luck. I was set to be an academic researcher. I was working on my PhD at the University of Wisconsin. I was ABD and decided that I didn't want to be a researcher and I wanted to work in policy. And I moved to Colorado to take a job sort of sight unseen, being the policy director of an organization that worked in K-12 and children's health, and food and early childhood education. And did that for a few years and learned to translate research into practice; into policy. And was giving a presentation and got a tap on a shoulder from somebody that worked at the Kellogg Foundation who was interested in what I was saying. And we had one conversation, and six months later, I wound up having a new job and leaving Colorado and moving to Michigan. That was 15 years ago. Well, you went into this with a great background having done the science as a graduate student and then into the policy world. And you're right, the intersection of those two is really where the magic can occur. You began talking about this, but let's talk about it a little bit more. So, when you say that there are systems that cut across different problems like food and health and economic security, etc., and I know you structured your team to reflect that cross-cutting kind of view of things. But tell us a little bit more about that. And how is this different than what's usually done, and how does it affect the way your work gets carried out? So, big picture at the Kellogg Foundation, we envision a society where every child can thrive. But we know that there's too many kids and families that still can't access good food or quality childcare, or their parents can't find quality jobs because of inequities that are embedded in the policies and the practices and narratives that shape our systems. And so, having a multi-issue integrated grant making team, it's made us more effective by better understanding the points of intersection and collaboration across those bodies of work. So, our food systems program officers are in the same team, and they work closely with our program officers in early childhood and family economic security and health. And those collaborations strengthen the work in a variety of ways. We have experts in each of those areas, but because they're spending time with each other and working in the same team, they're exposed to, and they learn about each other's work and each other's worlds. And that creates powerful collaborations in the foundation, but more importantly, out in the field. And it helps us to see that we can't fix any of these systems, including food systems, with surface level or patch kinds of solutions. We really have to work together to get upstream and focus on policies, focus on practices, focus on resource flows and narratives that really sustain the inequities that we see. And so, the foundation partners with organizations to dismantle barriers in food systems in the other areas so that children and families can access quality food. But I think we also recognize that's about investing in people. And it's about investing in people over time to drive transformational change in any of these systems, including food. For people listening to this who aren't in the world of philanthropy or academics or science or policy they might be saying, "Well, this kind of makes common sense. Isn't this the way it's usually done?" And in fact, it's not usually done to have this cross-cutting work accomplished the way you're doing it. It's actually a pretty impressive thing. Yes, thank you. And I have a lot of respect for our philanthropic partners and peers, and we work very closely with a lot of large and small foundations. And I think the adage in philanthropy is you know one foundation you know one foundation. So, we do it this way and somebody else will do it differently. And I think there's a lot of connection for us back to our founder. You mentioned Will Keith Kellogg at the top of the call. He was ahead of his time in terms of understanding the interconnectedness between food and the land and opportunity and people's education. And a lot of that came out of his tradition as a Seventh Day Adventist. But also, I think just as a person coming up in the Depression and seeing what happened afterwards and really beginning to understand in his own community of how these things were sort of connected to one another. And so, for us, both inside and outside the foundation, systems change really means betting on people long term to reshape those systems from the outside in. But also, from the inside out. And that's really what we're striving for. You mentioned the history of Dr. Kellogg. The history of that family is so interesting, and what went on in, you know, the sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan, and how the concept of breakfast cereals came about. And how the focus on natural foods was so important. It's worth spending a little time even on just Wikipedia to try to find out what that history is, because I find it fascinating. So, let's go back to food and go a little bit deeper and talk about what this systems approach looks like in practice. You're a philanthropic organization. You exist in the context of a capitalist society where businesses are out to do as well as they can. How is the foundation's work different from, say, funding a food pantry, launching a single nutrition program somewhere, which is what typically might be done? Yes, I think what we intend to do and how I think our systems approach is a little different from, say, you know, funding a single nutrition program, is that we mean to design and redesign practice and policy based on how kids and families actually live their lives. Right? So, where food and health and early childhood and family economic security show up together in a community, right? Families experience these things simultaneously in their everyday lives. They don't experience these things in silos. And so, we try to have our team and our work reflect that. So, instead of treating food as a narrow problem to fix with one program, we try to think about how the entire system around a child and their caregivers works or doesn't work and find those opportunities and levers to move that whole system. I'll give you a concrete example that will bring in our colleague Linda Jo Doctor, who you mentioned at the top of the conversation. Early in my time at the foundation, I was a reviewer for the Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Grant. This was an Obama era competitive grant process for building early childhood systems in states. And the state of Vermont did something really interesting that I had the good fortune to review as part of that team. They included the quality of food and access to fresh, healthy food in childcare centers as part of their quality rating and improvement system for childcare. They didn't just talk about teacher quality or curriculum or reflective practice. They actually said, "If we care about child development, then what children are eating every day in those childcare centers is part of what quality means." That's a systems approach. They connected food policy and procurement directly into early childhood policy and practice so that nutrition and education and child wellbeing were all being advanced simultaneously. I brought that back to the foundation and brought it back to Linda. And we had a really great conversation about it, and then another, and then another, and then another. And that experience helped shape how I think and how many people think about our work at the foundation. And it led to things like the expansion of our Farm to Early Childhood work, which again, leans heavily on procurement as the strategy to drive systems change, but connects it into early childhood policy. Tell us about that. You know, the Vermont example you gave is a terrific one. And you talked about Farm to Early Childhood. What does that mean in practice? In practice for the foundation, it really leaned heavily first on, sort of, understanding the landscape of where there was capacity to connect regional food hubs, farmers and producers and growers to systems of early childhood. At the same time that you have these burgeoning and developing systems of early care and education with regard to financing and sophistication, you have something similar going on in them in the food system movement, depending on the state that you're in. And so, we work diligently in a subset of states to really connect those policy levers, pull them together, and try to create essentially more situations like Vermont, you had partnership at the local community level, at the regional level, and then at the state systems level. So, syncing up the actual practice on the ground, syncing up how the relationships between different organizations are formed and maintained with regards to better food and early childhood. But then also trying to codify that into state policy and practice. And we did that for a number of years and had remarkable success in places like Iowa and Wisconsin and even in North Carolina, and a handful of other states. And we very much saw this as a build off our successful farm-to-school work, but doing it in a system that comparatively in terms of early childhood, was a little more fragile, right? And it wasn't necessarily as easy to do it, but all the more important and helpful because of the age and the vulnerability of the kids and families that we're talking about. The systems approach is very powerful, and so I'm going to ask a question not to be challenging, but to in some ways give you a softball for proving the systems approach. If at the end of the day, the most important thing in a childcare setting is to get healthy food into the bodies of the children so they can thrive intellectually and medically and everything else. Couldn't you accomplish that by just giving a good shopping list, a Costco shopping list to the daycare directors, and they could go buy good foods? And why does it need to be connected with farmers and, you know, the broader connection into the community at large, why is that important? Yes. Well, backing up, I wouldn't want to state, as an early childhood person, that the only thing that, you know, makes an early childhood program high quality would be the quality of the food and that that would, you know, lead to optimal child development and school readiness. I think, you know, there's other things in there that actually matter too. But this is definitely a key component. I would say, you know, to your question, that that system that you named already exists. We have the Child and Adult Care Food Program. We have the ability to subsidize the cost of food, and to have that good shopping list in play. But, I think, what the systems approach does is it asks different questions, right? It seeks to say, where does the food come from? How is it grown? Who is benefiting economically, right? How are schools and childcare centers and farmers and communities connected? And how do we strengthen those, connections and relationships so that we can begin to shift policy and practice so that children and families can reliably have access to good food. And they know that it's coming from the community in which they're situated. And the people on the side that are actually producing the food, the farmers and the folks doing procurement and others, that they're actually connected to it too. And they know where the food is going. And so there is this social kind of interstitial benefit to connecting those systems in a way that I think brings value beyond just you get a healthy meal today. I think it begins to shift culture. And if you could shift culture in the institutions that people are participating in, you can actually shift culture in people. So, you could see if a parent that potentially wasn't exposed to that before, or maybe didn't have access, or didn't know how to get access to that kind of food, if their expectations suddenly shifted because in their childcare program they're getting access to quality food, that then becomes an opportunity to engage in a different way. But it also becomes an opportunity for that parent to become empowered and to come together with other parents and other community members and begin to insist that's a reality in everyday life for them. That becomes a norm rather than an exception. I really like your answer because, you know, in some ways, people in our country have become distant from their food. You know, it used to be you could just go to the store, and there might've been one agent between you and who grew the food. The farmer would deliver it to, and now there are factories and machines that process the food, and 10 steps, and it comes from different countries, and all that kind of thing. And what you're talking about is shrinking that gap again to decrease the distance, so people are more in touch. And you could easily see that if the food is coming from farmers and the daycare providers know that they're going to feel better about the food. They're more likely to tell a story about it to the children. The farmer might come to the daycare center, or the children go to the farm. And you could see there's a lot more going on here than nutrition, and that's the beauty of this systems approach, isn't it? I mean, the children want to have a garden, right? I mean, how many times have we seen that? It seems like a small thing in early childhood, but just that simple act of having a garden and being able to understand how things are cultivated and grown. Even for a small child, and I have two small kids, we have a small garden in our backyard: it's meaningful. And it also, I think, establishes a norm that the tomato that you pick off the vine or the pole bean that you pick off, that you eat, that you find just unbelievably delicious, then that becomes normative for them. That's a normative experience, and kids are not as frightened by things when they encounter it. And I think we have a real opportunity in the early childhood space to link up those two systems to say, "Yes, we can affect change." And I think that, again, back to this notion of investing in people long term, the investment in those kids long term and what they come to expect will be the norm matters very much to how we think about our work at the Kellogg Foundation. So you're talking about both practices and policies and a cross-sector approach to these things. And let's talk about policy for a moment. Where does policy typically break down? And what kind of people need to be at the table, and what sort of partnerships need to be established in order to have better food policy? I think if we take seriously that food policy is cross-sector, I believe that we need to build tables that look like the food system. And that means not just public health experts or nutrition advocates or academics, but farmers and food workers, and those childcare providers and teachers, and leaders in K-12, and tribal leaders, community organizers, local state government officials, right? And the funders, right? The funders who are willing to invest in the long slow work of doing systems change. And, you know, one place I would highlight is in your home state of North Carolina. For years, there was significant investment that helped really build a dense ecosystem. You established regional food hubs and meat processing infrastructure, and anchor institutions into schools and early childhood centers. And a really strong network of organizers and philanthropic partners. And that made it possible to fully integrate farm to early childhood in your state's definition of early childhood. And as an aside, I would say North Carolina was also one of the leading states back when I was first coming into the field of building out a high-quality system of childcare. North Carolina led that. And so, these two things converging is a very powerful example, but again, we're getting back to local sourcing. We're getting back to bigger things than just doing food education, right? Those things are now built into the system. And they're not just a side project of the system. They actually are the system. So, you're talking about a foundation doing a lot more than getting proposals, seeing what needs to be funded, and then sending money out the door. You're talking about connecting people in innovative and unique ways. And building bridges that didn't exist before. And getting people to understand the systems change approach. And it just can lead to so many interesting and innovative things that just weren't possible using traditional models. So, really my hat's off to the work you do, and I can see why it's creating such powerful outcomes. One piece I would be remiss if I didn't say this, right? What makes all those partnerships work or fall apart? Usually, it's not the brilliance of a single policy idea or practice idea. I. Sort of. Sound like a broken record, but I'm going to come back to this. Investing in that people infrastructure that sits underneath it is really important. And the places that we find that make progress in any of the issues we're talking about, family economic security, food, health, Medicaid, early childhood, K-12, right? The places that make progress really do have varied and diverse voices at the table, and they're able to build real trust. And they're able to cultivate champions and also the next generation of champions and the next generation of champions who can move between those sectors, right? And the funders are involved, but they really understand that they're financing relationships and governance and people. They're not financing programs. And I think as a grant maker, that's an interesting distinction to think about. Think we know it implicitly and we know it when we see it. It's a lot harder to stick it in a white paper and define it and disseminate it in Stanford Social Innovation Review, for example. No, I totally agree. In the work that we've done over the years with, uh, community partners in Durham, it's been my impression that they get this systems thing from the very get-go. That they understand that if poverty is too severe, then nothing else is going to work, and if housing is a problem, then these other things are going to be affected in pretty serious ways. And they understand the importance of these. And in a way you're letting the flowers bloom. You're taking, I think, what some people understand intuitively and would like to accomplish, but they've been forced into silos. And then once a funder comes along and can allow this to prosper, I think it's sort of a natural thing that occurs. I think so. And I think the tricky thing there is to not be seduced by the programmatic solution. Like, do you remember several years ago when the notion of collective impact was this very popular term that folks talked about? And it's a good thing. I mean, I think the framework and the model is powerful, and it's a useful thought exercise. But what I found in a lot of collective impact work was that it focused very much on aligning the programs. Sufficiently funding the programs and aligning the programs, but not the human side of design and redesign of how do those programs function, right? Who do they serve? Who's at the table when building them or rebuilding them? Do you have the ability to change them midstream if you feel that you need to? And I think a slightly different approach with systems change is you're sort of engaging in a loose hold of the policies and the practices and the issues to give people and the people infrastructure and the relationships time to come together and figure out how they want to move them individually, and how they want to move them collectively. And that's a subtle difference. That's a nuance that I think has really worked in our particular corner of the world. One thing I bet some people are interested in is how the Kellogg Foundation might be distinct from Kellogg as a company. You've described beautifully the innovative work you're doing. The company is off doing what it does commercially. How do these two things intersect? And what's been the history of the connection between the foundation and the company? Yes. So, when the foundation was founded in the 1930s, Will Keith Kellogg, as you said, he endowed the foundation and created it separate and apart from the company. So, it's an independent philanthropic organization. And so, while we bear the name of Will Keith Kellogg, the foundation does not have a formal connection or stake in the company any longer. As you may know, the company split into two companies a few years ago, one called Kellanova and one called the W.K. Kellogg Cereal Company. And since then, I believe both companies have been acquired. I think Mars now owns Kellanova, and Ferrero, an Italian company, owns W.K. At present, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation does not have any connection to either of those companies because they've been acquired by other groups. And aside from having some stock with the foundation, that was sold to support our endowment, we don't have any formal connections anymore. But I think the proximity of the foundation to the company in Battle Creek, and I think the shared history of Battle Creek and the shared history of Mr. Kellogg's vision is actually important to note. And I think it does matter to how the two institutions are connected. I said this a little while ago in the conversation, but in the 1930s, Mr. Kellogg knew that you couldn't separate food from health and education, family economic security, and he knew this while he was making cornflakes, right? And so he helped make sure in the late 1930s that children in Battle Creek had access to fresh milk in schools at the same time that he was doing work in soil conservation and in building healthy land. And he had a sense of knowing that how the food is grown and how kids are nourished, it's part of the same story. And I think that DNA has pulled forward into the foundation, and it makes it a really special place to work because we still carry that memory of him, and we still carry that vision of him into the work that we do. Thanks. You know, a long time ago, when I first became familiar with the Kellogg Foundation, I wondered about the history and the independence of the foundation from the company. And I pretty quickly came to learn that the foundation, as you said, is quite independent from the company. But you've enriched my knowledge even beyond what I've known over the years, so thank you. That's a fascinating history. So, let's end with one final question. If you fast-forward and kind of look ahead, what do you think is on the way? And what does success look like to you and your colleagues? Yes, it's a good question. I mean, I think if we got this right, you know, 10- 20 years from now, success would look like children and families living in communities where good food is just a part of everyday life. It's normal and reliable and not something that folks are lucky to find. I talked a little bit about how Mr. Kellogg thought about this in the '30s, but we also see what's possible in other places, right? When that vision can become a reality in terms of policy and practice. So, we had done some work in the country of Brazil. And we see now that national policy in the country of Brazil now requires that at least 50% of school food be purchased from local sources, grown with high-quality standards, right? That one decision reshaped incentives all along the food chain. What farmers grow, what institutions buy, what kids eat. That's a powerful example of institutions using their everyday purchasing power to build healthier and a more just system. So, you know, 10- 20 years from now, if we've done our job, it would mean that the kinds of innovations in places like Brazil or North Carolina or even in Michigan with our 10 Cents a Meal program, that those types of things would have become the norm. That schools and early childhood centers and hospitals and tribal and local governments would be routinely buying good, locally rooted food. And that workers and farmers are earning a fair and stable wage, and they have incomes. And the communities most affected by hunger and inequity are actually at the core of leading and designing new systems. And food policy would no longer be a patch on top of the inequity. It would be one of the main ways that we build healthier and more equitable futures for kids and families. BIO Jon-Paul Bianchi is the Director of Systems change at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) in Battle Creek, Michigan. In this role, he leads WKKF's national grantmaking strategy focused on early childhood care and education, health equity, employment equity and food systems. As a longtime philanthropic leader and national expert with a focus on early childhood education, Bianchi provides strategic oversight to the foundation's national programmatic work to support thriving children, families and communities. Bianchi holds a doctorate of Education from Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education and Human Development, a master's degree in child development and a bachelor's degree in child and family studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He helped found and currently serves on the board of Valley Settlement in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.

“History repeats itself,” the saying goes. Or, as another saying goes, “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” There’s also “History doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.” Together these sayings suggest the value of history in our culture and our belief that it can help us understand the present. This hour, we’re talking about history and our current political moment. This episode is the second featuring a live event with Pulitzer Prize-winning historians Jon Meacham and Jill Lepore. If you missed the first episode, don't worry— this discussion will stand on its own. The event was the final discussion of The Connecticut Forum’s 34th season. GUESTS: Jill Lepore: the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker and bestselling author. Her books include These Truths: A History of the United States and We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution. Jon Meacham: Distinguished Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University. His bestselling books include And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle and the Pulitzer prize-winning American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the start of May, Khalilah sat down for a conversation with historians Jill Lepore and Jon Meacham. The conversation was titled “Lessons from History,” and it came at a time when a lot was going on in U.S. politics. In just the past week there had been gunshots fired outside the ballroom where the White House Correspondents' Dinner was being held, a Supreme Court ruling that impacted the Voting Rights Act and developments that continued to shape the Iran war. It also came at a notable time for Jill Lepore: just three days after the conversation, she was announced as this year's winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History. Jon Meacham also won a Pulitzer Prize back in 2009. The event was the final discussion of The Connecticut Forum’s 34th season. We enjoyed hearing from these award-winning historians so much that we decided to extend the conversation to two episodes. If you like what you hear today, you can hear more next week. GUESTS: Jill Lepore: the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker and bestselling author. Her books include These Truths: A History of the United States and We the People: A History of the U.S. Constitution. Jon Meacham: Distinguished Visiting Professor at Vanderbilt University. His bestselling books include And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle and the Pulitzer prize-winning American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. Disrupted is available as a podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify, TuneIn, Listen Notes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and never miss an episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As part of the US HUPO sponsored "All the Parts", Ben and Ben sat down to talk with Dr. Kevin Schey, Vanderbilt University.keywords: lens; retina; newts; salamanders; macular degeneration

Photo by Heidi Ross American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, published by Random House in February 2026, is the latest book by this Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and historian. Meacham has authored New York Times bestsellers, including And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle; Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power; American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House; Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship; Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush; and His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair at Vanderbilt University and is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. Fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell interviewed Jon Meacham.

In this episode, host Sylvie Legere sits down with Shira Kupperman Boehler and Dr. Kim Sandler to discuss the vital topic of early lung cancer detection. Having been diagnosed after a precautionary scan, non-smoker Shira shares her harrowing journey and advocates for change in diagnostic guidelines. Broadcasting from Wrigley Field emphasizes the importance of transforming how lung cancer is diagnosed, and how it is perceived by the medical community and public. Their conversation dives into the shortcomings of current screening guidelines and the urgent need for change to save more lives, especially for those who don't fall within the traditional risk categories. Through personal narratives and professional expertise, Dr. Sandler and Shira Kupperman Boehler share a holistic approach to detect lung cancer early by employing cutting-edge technologies and personalized medicine.  Act after listening: 1. Find out if you qualify for a free scan. If you're between 50–80 with a significant smoking history, you may be eligible for an annual low-dose CT scan — covered by Medicare and most private insurance. (Link in Resources below) 2. Ask your doctor even if you don't qualify. The current guidelines don't cover never-smokers — but that doesn't mean your risk is zero. At your next appointment, ask: "What is my personal lung cancer risk, and should I be screened?" Don't wait for symptoms. 3. Add your voice to change the guidelines. The screening criteria need to be expanded. Visit the Cancer Doesn't Care Foundation to learn how to advocate for policy change — and to share your own story if you have one. 4. Share this episode. The person who needs to hear this probably thinks they're fine. Send it to someone you love.  Guest Bios Shira Kupperman Boehler is a finance professional and health advocate with degrees in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MBA from New York University's Stern School of Business. A lifelong athlete and mother of four, she now channels her experience into raising awareness about early lung cancer detection and advancing conversations around prevention and policy. Shira and her family live in Tennessee, where she juggles life from her minivan with a coffee in one hand and a carpool schedule in the other.   Dr. Kim Lori Sandler -  Kim is a Nashville native who completed her undergraduate education at Emory University and both medical school and residency at Vanderbilt University. She trained as a cardiothoracic radiologist and is currently a Professor of Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.  Dr. Kim is a clinician-scientist and serves as the Director of the Vanderbilt Lung Screening Program. She is a women's health advocate who is working to leverage the success of screening for breast cancer to improve enrollment of women in lung screening.  Her research also focuses on improving lung cancer risk prediction and early detection with the incorporation of machine learning and both imaging and blood-based biomarkers.  Resources & Links Visit Shira Kupperman Boehler's Website Order Shira's book ‘Cancer Doesn't Care' and learn more about Shira Boehler's campaign to change the national lung screening guidelines Take The American Lung Association's "Saved By The Scan" quiz Take the Lung Cancer Basics & Screening Eligibility Quiz from LUNGevity 

In this episode of the MyHeart.net podcast, Dr. Alain Bouchard is joined by Dr. Norman Winn Seay to discuss chronic kidney disease, the connection between obesity and kidney health, and how early awareness, lifestyle changes, and newer medications can help protect kidney function.To learn more about kidney health and chronic kidney disease, explore our lastest article, Why Obesity Matters for Kidney Health.About the TeamDr. Alain Bouchard is a clinical cardiologist at Cardiology Specialists of Birmingham, AL. He is a native of Quebec, Canada and trained in Internal Medicine at McGill University in Montreal. He continued as a Research Fellow at the Montreal Heart Institute. He did a clinical cardiology fellowship at the University of California in San Francisco. He joined the faculty at the University of Alabama Birmingham from 1986 to 1990. He worked at CardiologyPC and Baptist Medical Center at Princeton from 1990-2019. He is now part of the Cardiology Specialists of Birmingham at UAB Medicine.Dr. Philip Johnson is originally from Selma, AL. Philip began his studies at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN, where he double majored in Biomedical and Electrical Engineering. After a year in the “real world” working for his father as a machine design engineer, he went to graduate school at UAB in Birmingham, AL, where he completed a Masters and PhD in Biomedical Engineering before becoming a research assistant professor in Biomedical Engineering. After a short stint in academics, he continued his education at UAB in Medical School, Internal Medicine Residency, and is currently a cardiology fellow in training with a special interest in cardiac electrophysiology.Medical DisclaimerThe contents of the MyHeart.net podcast, including as textual content, graphical content, images, and any other content contained in the Podcast (“Content”) are purely for informational purposes. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read or heard on the Podcast!If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911 immediately. MyHeart.net does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on the Podcast. Reliance on any information provided by MyHeart.net, MyHeart.net employees, others appearing on the Podcast at the invitation of MyHeart.net, or other visitors to the Podcast is solely at your own risk.The Podcast and the Content are provided on an “as is” basis.

Pulse oximetry is a key technology, providing a quick, non-invasive way to estimate blood oxygen levels. But one issue with this tool is that it can overestimate oxygen levels in patients with darker skin pigmentation, which means they can appear less sick than they are, leading to delays in receiving treatments. Ashraf Fawzy, MD, MPH, Johns Hopkins Medicine, and host Eddie Qian, MD, Vanderbilt University, discuss how this disparity can affect patient care, the push to develop more broadly-tested equitable tools, and more on this episode of the ATS Breathe Easy podcast. 

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of Causes or Cures, Dr. Eeks speaks with Dr. Judson Brandeis, a board-certified urologist, sexual medicine specialist, surgeon, author, and founder of BrandeisMD, about erectile dysfunction, sexual wellness, aging, intimacy, and the rapidly growing men's penile enhancement industry.Dr. Brandeis discusses his recent clinical research exploring whether nitric oxide boosting supplements may work synergistically with medications like Viagra to improve erectile function, as well as broader issues surrounding circulation, lifestyle, vascular health, mental health and sexual performance.He also describes 10 things men can do right now to improve their sexual health.The conversation explores:What causes erectile dysfunction (ED) and why it becomes more common with agingThe role blood flow and nitric oxide play in erectionsHow ED can sometimes signal broader cardiovascular, metabolic or psychological issuesThe difference between prescription ED drugs and supplementsSide effects and limitations of Viagra and CialisShockwave therapy and other emerging approaches in sexual medicine “Sexspan” and maintaining sexual health later in life  Relationship dynamics, intimacy, and communication  Men understanding women's bodies and sexuality after menopause  The psychology and emotional impact of erectile dysfunction  Concerns surrounding the supplement industry and “male enhancement” products The difference between FDA approved medications and dietary supplementsDr. Brandeis also discusses his “P-Long” protocol, which he describes as a safe and effective way to increase the length, girth and function of a healthy man's penis.Dr. Judson Brandeis is a board-certified urologist, surgeon, medical researcher, author, and physician educator with more than 25 years of experience in urology and men's sexual health. Over his career, he has performed thousands of surgeries, helped pioneer surgical robotics, and served as Chief of Urology at John Muir Hospital and Hill Physicians for over a decade. Dr. Brandeis attended Brown University, earned his MD from Vanderbilt University, received a Howard Hughes research award at Harvard Medical School, and completed his surgery and urology residency at UCLA. In recent years, his work has focused on men's wellness, sexual medicine, erectile function, intimacy, and “sexspan,” with an emphasis on helping men improve quality of life, physical intimacy, and overall health as they age.You can learn more about Dr. Brandeis and his work at:BrandeisMDWork with me? Perhaps we are a good match. Keep Causes or Cures Ad-Free with Listener SupportYou can contact Dr. Eeks at bloomingwellness.com.Follow Eeks on Instagram here.Follow Public Health is WeirdOr Facebook here.On Youtube.Or TikTok.SUBSCRIBE to her Newsletter here! (the bits not posted on socia media)Support the show

Scientific Sense ® by Gill Eapen: Prof. Isabel Gauthier is Professor of Psychology, Radiology and Radiological Sciences at Vanderbilt University. She is interested in how we recognize objects visually, and how our experience with objects transforms our visual system.Please subscribe to this channel: http://scientificsense.world

Photo by Heidi Ross American Struggle: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union, published by Random House in February 2026, is the latest book by this Pulitzer Prize–winning biographer and historian. Meacham has authored New York Times bestsellers, including And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle; Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power; American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House; Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship; Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush; and His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Chair at Vanderbilt University and is a fellow of the Society of American Historians. Fellow biographer and BIO member John A. Farrell interviewed Jon Meacham.

Free speech was supposed to be the great settled achievement of liberal democracy. Then came social media, cancel culture, campus speech battles, hate-speech laws, authoritarian tech control, and a new era of governments pressuring platforms from every direction. Michael Shermer speaks with free speech scholar Jacob Mchangama about why speech protections are weakening around the world—not only in dictatorships, but inside democracies. Their conversation moves from the First Amendment and January 6 to hate speech laws in Europe, Section 230, Elon Musk and X, online anonymity, social media bans for minors, and the enormous promise and danger of AI. Mchangama argues that censorship is less a left-wing or right-wing impulse than a human one: once people gain power, the urge to silence enemies becomes almost irresistible. The real test of free speech is not whether we defend ideas we like, but whether we resist using state power against speech we despise. Jacob Mchangama is the founder and executive director of The Future of Free Speech and a research professor at Vanderbilt University. His new book is The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy's Most Essential Freedom.

      Dr. Paul D. Biddinger, Chief Preparedness and Continuity Officer at Mass General Brigham and one of the nation's foremost authorities on disaster medicine, joins WarDocs to deliver an unflinching assessment of the United States' readiness to manage mass battlefield casualties in a large-scale combat operations (LSCO) scenario.     Drawing on nearly 30 years as a practicing emergency physician, his leadership of the National Special Pathogen System, and his co-PI role on a Henry M. Jackson Foundation-funded LSCO readiness project, Dr. Biddinger illuminates the critical gaps — and the urgent solutions — that will determine whether Team America can meet the medical demands of tomorrow's wars.       The conversation opens with Dr. Biddinger's distinctive academic trajectory: international relations and public policy at Princeton before medical school, a combination that instilled a deep appreciation for the policy infrastructure that either enables or obstructs effective healthcare coalitions. That framework shapes his entire approach to LSCO readiness, where the challenge is never a single hospital or a single physician — it is always the system.  Dr. Biddinger identifies data silos as the foundational failure threatening LSCO response.    The civilian healthcare system is already operating at or above capacity in most American cities, and the Federal Coordinating Centers within the National Disaster Medical System lack the real-time clinical expertise needed to make sophisticated patient regulation decisions. He argues for urgent integration of civilian-side patient transfer intelligence with military command structures — ensuring that warfighters returning home at scale are routed to the right bed, with the right subspecialty capability, rather than flooding Level I trauma centers and displacing civilian critical care.      The Ukraine conflict provides sobering real-world data: drone-driven injury patterns unfamiliar to most civilian trauma surgeons, extended evacuation timelines that demand adaptive point-of-injury care, and an overwhelmed rehabilitation pipeline that the U.S. system is wholly unprepared to replicate. Dr. Biddinger draws direct parallels to the Boston Marathon bombing response, where tactical combat casualty care principles — rapid hemorrhage control, aggressive patient distribution, and relentless questioning of old-school disaster assumptions — saved lives that a conventional mass casualty protocol would have lost.                       The episode closes with two pieces of career advice for young military medicine professionals: question every assumption respectfully and within proper command structures, and be a passionate, data-driven advocate for systems change. The Joint Trauma System's continuous learn-and-adapt model is held up as the gold standard. Dr. Biddinger's message is clear — the next large-scale conflict will be won or lost in part by how effectively military and civilian medicine learn to speak the same operational language before the shooting starts.   Chapters (00:00-02:30) From International Relations to Emergency Medicine: Building Systems-Level Thinking (02:30-07:37) LSCO Readiness Gaps: Data, Capacity, and the Civilian Healthcare System (07:37-13:58) Federal Coordination, Ukraine Lessons, and the Rehabilitation Crisis (13:58-19:24) AI, Heat Injury Prevention, and Patient Surge Load Balancing (19:24-26:30) National Special Pathogen System and All-Hazard Response Leadership (26:30-38:40) Boston Marathon Bombing Lessons, Innovation Culture, and the Future of Military Medicine   Chapter Summaries (00:00-02:30) From International Relations to Emergency Medicine: Building Systems-Level Thinking Dr. Biddinger traces his unconventional path from Princeton's international relations program to nearly 30 years as a practicing emergency physician. He explains how policy training shaped his conviction that no individual doctor or hospital succeeds in isolation — effective disaster response is fundamentally a systems problem, and the policy infrastructure surrounding those systems determines everything.   (02:30-07:37) LSCO Readiness Gaps: Data, Capacity, and the Civilian Healthcare System Drawing on his Henry M. Jackson Foundation LSCO project, Dr. Biddinger identifies the civilian healthcare system's chronic overcapacity as the primary threat to absorbing mass battlefield casualties. He quantifies the challenge — a hundred thousand extra patients over a hundred days — and explains why real-time data integration across hospital systems, state lines, and trauma center capabilities is the non-negotiable foundation of any viable patient distribution plan. He specifically flags EMS workforce shortages as an underappreciated rate-limiting factor.   (07:37-13:58) Federal Coordination, Ukraine Lessons, and the Rehabilitation Crisis Dr. Biddinger critiques the current Federal Coordinating Center structure as insufficiently connected to civilian-side clinical expertise, and calls for direct integration of military command data with civilian patient tracking systems. He applies lessons from the Ukraine conflict — drone injury patterns, extended evacuation timelines, and rehabilitation system collapse — to underscore how fundamentally different LSCO will be from the counter-insurgency environments most current military medical leaders trained in.   (13:58-19:24) AI, Heat Injury Prevention, and Patient Surge Load Balancing Dr. Biddinger describes his IBM Sustainability Accelerator collaboration developing AI-driven early warning systems for extreme heat events, and explains how that same data integration logic applies to battlefield thermal stress monitoring and real-time casualty tracking via the Joint Trauma System. He then walks through the COVID-era Boston hospital load-balancing system he helped build — competitive hospitals sharing real-time bed and ICU data and making collaborative surge decisions multiple times daily — and explores how that model translates to theater patient regulation.   (19:24-26:30) National Special Pathogen System and All-Hazard Response Leadership Dr. Biddinger explains the tiered architecture of the National Special Pathogen System — the infectious disease analog to the trauma center hierarchy — and its identify-isolate-inform framework, developed from the 2014 West African Ebola outbreak. He applies the framework directly to military medicine, emphasizing the importance of maintaining high clinical suspicion, knowing real-time global outbreak data, and preserving robust reach-back capability to specialty expertise. He closes with field lessons from Hurricane Katrina, Nepal earthquake response, and the Haiti earthquake on integrating civilian and military assets under ESF-8 and WHO cluster structures.   (26:30-38:40) Boston Marathon Bombing Lessons, Innovation Culture, and the Future of Military Medicine Dr. Biddinger credits tactical combat casualty care principles from Gulf War I and II for the lives saved at the Boston Marathon bombing, specifically the pivot away from staged triage toward rapid hemorrhage control and immediate hospital distribution. He documents how Boston EMS cleared more than 60 critical casualties in 18 minutes. The episode closes with career guidance for young military medicine professionals: question every assumption within appropriate command structures, remain data-driven, and be a fierce advocate for systems that better serve the injured warfighter.   Biography    Dr. Paul Biddinger is the Chief Preparedness and Continuity Officer at Mass General Brigham (MGB) and the Chief of the Division of Emergency Preparedness in the Department of Emergency Medicine at MGB.  He holds the Ann L. Prestipino MPH Endowed Chair in Emergency Preparedness and is also the Director of the Center for Disaster Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).  Dr. Biddinger additionally serves as the Director of the Emergency Preparedness Research, Evaluation and Practice (EPREP) Program at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and holds appointments at Harvard Medical School and at the Chan School.   Dr. Biddinger serves as a medical officer for the MA-1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) in the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) in the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).     Dr. Biddinger is an active researcher in the field of emergency preparedness and has lectured nationally and internationally on topics of preparedness and disaster medicine.  He has authored numerous articles and book chapters on multiple topics related to disaster medicine and emergency medical operations and has responded to numerous prior disaster events, including Hurricane Katrina, Superstorm Sandy, the Boston Marathon bombings, the Nepal earthquakes, and many others.     He completed his undergraduate study in international relations at Princeton University, attended medical school at Vanderbilt University, and completed residency training in emergency medicine at Harvard. Episode Keywords military medicine, large-scale combat operations, LSCO, disaster medicine, emergency medicine, Paul Biddinger, Mass General Brigham, patient surge, civilian military integration, Henry M. Jackson Foundation, National Disaster Medical System, NDMS, Federal Coordinating Centers, trauma system, combat casualty care, Boston Marathon bombing, Ukraine war lessons, drone injuries, mass casualty, hemorrhage control, tactical combat casualty care, TCCC, National Special Pathogen System, Ebola preparedness, AI in medicine, heat injury prevention, hospital capacity, patient distribution, military healthcare, WarDocs podcast Hashtags #MilitaryMedicine, #WarDocs, #LargeScaleCombatOperations, #DisasterMedicine, #CombatCasualtyCaree, #EmergencyMedicine, #MilitaryReadiness, #TCCC Honoring the Legacy and Preserving the History of Military Medicine The WarDocs Mission is to honor the legacy, preserve the oral history, and showcase career opportunities, unique expeditionary experiences, and achievements of Military Medicine. We foster patriotism and pride in Who we are, What we do, and, most importantly, How we serve Our Patients, the DoW, and Our Nation.   Find out more and join Team WarDocs at https://www.wardocspodcast.com/ Check our list of previous guest episodes at https://www.wardocspodcast.com/our-guests Subscribe and Like our Videos on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@wardocspodcast Listen to the “What We Are For” Episode 47. https://bit.ly/3r87Afm   WarDocs- The Military Medicine Podcast is a Non-Profit, Tax-exempt-501(c)(3) Veteran Run Organization run by volunteers. All donations are tax-deductible and go to honoring and preserving the history, experiences, successes, and lessons learned in Military Medicine. A tax receipt will be sent to you. WARDOCS documents the experiences, contributions, and innovations of all military medicine Services, ranks, and Corps who are affectionately called "Docs" as a sign of respect, trust, and confidence on and off the battlefield, demonstrating dedication to the medical care of fellow comrades in arms.     Follow Us on Social Media Twitter: @wardocspodcast Facebook: WarDocs Podcast Instagram: @wardocspodcast LinkedIn: WarDocs-The Military Medicine Podcast YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@wardocspodcast        

676. Part 2 of our conversation with Frances Kolb Turnbell about Spanish Colonial Louisiana. Frances recently published an important history entitled, Spanish Louisiana: Contest for Borderlands, 1763–1803.  What happens when a fading French colony is handed over to a Spanish Empire determined to impose order? In this episode, we dive into Frances Kolb Turnbell's landmark book, Spanish Louisiana. We explore a Mississippi Valley that was far more than just a line on a map—it was a "fluid zone" where Spanish governors, defiant French colonists, Indigenous diplomats, and enslaved people seeking manumission constantly negotiated the terms of their own freedom. From the violent New Orleans Revolt of 1768 to the secret trade networks that fueled the American Revolution, Turnbell reveals how the people of the borderlands often shaped imperial policy more than the monarchs in Madrid ever did. Frances Kolb Turnbell is a historian of Early America and the Atlantic World with a specialization in the eighteenth-century Lower Mississippi Valley. She earned her PhD from Vanderbilt University and currently serves as the editor of the Tennessee Historical Quarterly while teaching at the University of North Alabama. Now available: Liberty in Louisiana: A Comedy. The oldest play about Louisiana, author James Workman wrote it as a celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. Now it is back in print for the first time in 222 years. Order your copy today! This week in the Louisiana Anthology. Gael Stirler. "The History of Beignets." "To Make Bennets" (quoted from The Book of Cookrye, 1584) Put butter and water over the fier in a faire pain, and when it boyleth put therto fine Flower and Salte, and so let them boyle, but stir them well for brenning, and when it is wel thick, put it into an earthen pan, then break Egs into it and boyle them so togither, than boyle a good quantitye of Butter clarified over the fire, and with a spoone put in your other stuffe and so frye them till they be browne, and that doone, serve them foorth with Sugar on them. This week in Louisiana history.May 2, 1862. Gen Benjamin Butler's Order #28 is issued. This week in New Orleans history. May 1, 1821: The New Orleans City Council officially designated Congo Square as the only place where enslaved people were permitted to gather and dance. This week in Louisiana. Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival Parc Hardy, 1290 Rees Street Breaux Bridge, LA 70517 May 2-4, 2026 Website: festivalguidesandreviews.com Email: info@bbcrawfest.com Phone: (337) 332‑6655 The Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival is one of Louisiana's signature spring celebrations, featuring live Cajun and Zydeco music, fresh crawfish dishes, and a lively family‑friendly atmosphere: Fresh Crawfish: Boiled crawfish, 'touff'e, pies, and other festival favorites. Music & Dancing: Cajun and Zydeco bands on multiple stages throughout the weekend. Local Culture: Arts, crafts, cooking contests, and events honoring Breaux Bridge's title as the Crawfish Capital of the World. Postcards from Louisiana. Doreen the Clarinet Queen.

Yascha Mounk and Jacob Mchangama discuss how democracies and dictatorships alike have turned against online speech freedom. Jacob Mchangama is the Executive Director of The Future of Free Speech and a research professor at Vanderbilt University, as well as a Senior Fellow at The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. His latest book, with Jeff Kosseff, is The Future of Free Speech: Reversing the Global Decline of Democracy's Most Essential Freedom. In this week's conversation, Yascha Mounk and Jacob Mchangama discuss why we're experiencing a global free speech recession despite technological advances, how hate speech laws are being weaponized against their original intent, and whether democracies can resist the authoritarian playbook for controlling online discourse. If you have not yet signed up for our podcast, please do so now by following this link on your phone. Email: leonora.barclay@persuasion.community Podcast production by Mickey Freeland and Leonora Barclay. Connect with us! Spotify | Apple | Google X: @Yascha_Mounk & @JoinPersuasion YouTube: Yascha Mounk, Persuasion LinkedIn: Persuasion Community Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recently a surprising ruling came down from U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth. The Reagan-appointed judge found that Kari Lake - (formerly best known as the loser of two state-wide races in Arizona), had acted unlawfully in running the United States Agency for Global Media, the body that oversees Voice of America and the handful of other government-assisted media outlets.  Kari Lake, wrote the judge "satisfies the requirements of neither the statute nor the Constitution," potentially making all of her actions this past year null and void. Lake, who once described herself to a gaggle of reporters as "your worst fricking nightmare" told NPR that she would appeal the ruling.  Last spring February when Lake started slashing and burning the 80-year old service, Micah spoke to Nicole Hemmer, a historian at Vanderbilt University to learn about the history the VOA. On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.