David Silverman: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the U.S.

David Silverman talks about his book, The Chosen and the Damned: Native Americans and the Making of Race in the United States. When the colonial era began, Europeans did not consider themselves as “Whites,” and Native Americans did not think of themselves as “Indians.” Yet as a genocidal struggle for America unfolded over the course of generations, all that changed. Silverman restores the defining role Native people have played, and continue to play, in our national history. David J.…

David McNally: Slavery and Capital

David McNally discusses his book, Slavery and Capitalism: A New Marxist History. Prof. McNally offers the first systematic Marxist account of the capitalist character of Atlantic slavery. By using colonial travel literature, enslaver records, and slave narratives he makes the case that enslaved labor in the plantation system established a modern capitalist working class constantly fighting for their freedom. David McNally is the NEH Cullen Distinguished Professor of History and Business at…

Emily Dufton: Methadone, Suboxone, and the War on Drugs

Emily Dufton discusses her book Addiction, Inc.: Medication-Assisted Treatment and America’s Forgotten War on Drugs. It’s the history of the federal development and subsequent commercialization of the opioid addiction medication industry. Beginning with the Johnson Administration, the reasons the Federal response to and creation of drug policy moved from harm reduction to carceral solutions are explored. Emily Dufton, drug historian and writer, her writing has appeared in the Washington…

Alec Karakatsanis: Copaganda and the Media

Alec Karakatsanis discusses his book, Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate the News. He outlines the concept of Copaganda which is a process of manufacturing fear of the most powerless to push the idea that our fears are only solved by more money for police, prisons, and prosecutions. By looking at news articles, the sources reporters use, and the repetitive language, he points to huge police P.R. Departments and private actors who shape and feed the news. Additionally, how even the…

Inga Trauthig: Artificial Intelligence and World Elections

Inga Trauthig discusses her co-authored study for the International Panel on the Information Environment, “The Role Of Generative AI Use in the 2024 Elections Worldwide.” What are the implications of GenAI for election administration and voter participation around the world? This assessment delivers the first global, data-driven analysis of its kind, designed to inform policy recommendations Inga Trauthig is a research professor at the Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy at Florida…

J. Russell Hawkins: Segregationist Theology

J. Russell Hawkins discusses his book, The Bible Told Them So: How Southern Evangelicals Fought to Preserve White Supremacy. Why did southern white evangelical Christians resist the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s? Simply put, they believed the Bible told them so. These white Christians entered the battle against integration and civil rights certain that God was on their side. J. Russell Hawkins is Professor of Humanities and History in the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana…

Susila Gurusami: Criminalized Black Mothers 

Susila Gurusami discusses her book, "Break the System Criminalized Black Mothers and the Reproductive Politics of Abolition." By looking closely at the lives of formerly incarcerated Black mothers, Prof. Gurusami shows how state institutions—the criminal-legal, child welfare, and healthcare systems—keep Black mothers from their families, harming Black communities in the process. Susila Gurusami, Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology, Law, and Justice at the…

Oswaldo Zavala: Drug Cartels Do Not Exist

Oswaldo Zavala discusses his book, Drug Cartels Do Not Exist. He argues that stories around narcotics trafficking are largely based on n the claims of the US and Mexican governments and various cultural depictions. Zavala sees little connection to the realities of the trade as it exists. Media, in both countries, uncritically report law enforcement narratives regarding the narcotics trade in service of a national security myth. Oswaldo Zavala, a Mexican journalist and a professor of Latin…