Guest: Benjamin Barber — Political theorist, Distinguished Senior Fellow at Demos (a public policy and advocacy organization), president and director of the international non-governmental organization (NGO) CivWorld, and author of Consumed: How Markets Corrupt Children, Infantilize Adults, and Swallow Citizens Whole.

Guest’s Personal Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Should limiting economic inequality be a more important social goal than maximizing economic freedom?

Sources Cited During Interview:

Andrew Hacker (Author)
American Political Science Association — Task Force on Inequality and American Democracy

Length: 29 min.

         

Guest: Walter E. Williams — Professor of Economics at George Mason University and author of six books including Do The Right Thing: The People’s Economist Speaks and More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.

Guest’s Personal Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Should limiting economic inequality be a more important social goal than maximizing economic freedom?

Online Resources Cited During Interview:

Walter E. Williams — Recommended Websites
Library of Economics and Liberty
Freedom House Rankings

Books Cited During Interview:

Death By Government (R.J. Rummel)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments (Adam Smith)
The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)
South Africa’s War Against Capitalism (Walter Williams)
The Law (Frederic Bastiat)
The Road to Serfdom (F.A. Hayek)

Length: 51 min.

    

Guest: Robert Lynch — President and CEO of Americans For The Arts (AFTA), the nation’s largest non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the role of art in American life and advancing appreciation for the arts in American culture.

Americans For the Arts’Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Should secondary education in America value the fine arts over athletics?

Resources Cited During Interview:

Center on Education Policy — Report on “Instructional Time in Elementary Schools”
Dana Foundation Research on Fine Arts & Cognitive Development
Americans For The Arts — Arts Education
National Arts Policy Database ( Search Database )
ArtsEDGE (Kennedy Center)
Arts Education Partnership
Project Zero (Harvard University)
Music Educators National Conference
National Association of Music Merchants

Scholars Cited During Interview: Daniel Pink;  Richard Florida

Length: 51 min.

Resolved: Limiting economic inequality ought to be a more important social goal than maximizing economic freedom.

   

Guest: Mike Feinberg — Co-Founder of the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), a network of free, open-enrollment, college preparatory public schools serving low-income students and underprivileged communities throughout the United States.

Guest’s Education: B.A., University of Pennsylvania (1992)

Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Should secondary education in America value the fine arts over athletics?

Length: 23 min.

Guest: Robert Compton —Entrepreneur, Venture Capitalist, and Producer of 2 Million Minutes, a documentary film which offers an international comparison of high schools in America, India, and China, and asks whether American high schools are adequately preparing their students to meet the competitive demands of the global marketplace in the 21st Century.

Guest’s Education:  B.A., Principia College (1978); M.B.A., Harvard Business School (1984)

Guest’s Personal Website

Guest’s Documentary:  Website /  Weblog /  Purchase DVD

Video Trailer for Guest’s Documentary:

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Should secondary education in America value the fine arts over athletics?

Resource Cited During Interview: The World Is Flat (Tom Friedman)

Length: 45 min.

Guest: Joanne Jacobs — Education blogger, former Knight-Ridder columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, and author of Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea and the Charter School That Beat the Odds.

Guest’s Personal Weblog

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed : Should secondary education in America value the fine arts over athletics?

Resource Cited During Interview: NFHS Article on High School Activities

Length: 43 min.

       

Guest: Lawrence Douglas — James Grosfeld Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought (LJST) at Amherst College and author of The Memory of Judgment: Making Law and History in the Trials of the Holocaust.

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed :  Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States.

Authors Cited During Interview:   Robert Kahn,  D.D. Guttenplan,  Kent Greenawalt

Length: 35 min.

      

Guest: George Fletcher — Cardozo Professor of Jurisprudence at Columbia Law School and author of With Justice For Some: Victims’ Rights in Criminal Trials.

Guest’s Personal Website

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed:  Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States?

Authors Cited During Interview:  Michael Moore & Heidi Hurd, Alon Harel

Length: 36 min.

      

Guest: James Jacobs — Professor of Constitutional Law and the Courts at NYU Law School, Director of NYU’s Center for Research in Crime & Justice, and co-author (with Kimberly Potter) of Hate Crimes: Criminal Law & Identity Politics.

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States?

Length: 32 min.

       

Guest: Jack Levin — Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Northeastern University, co-director of Northeastern University’s Center on Violence and Conflict, author of The Violence of Hate: Confronting Racism, Anti-Semitism, Bigotry, and Other Forms of Bigotry, and co-author (with John McDevitt) of Hate Crimes Revisited: America’s War on Those Who Are Different.

Guest’s Personal Website: http://www.jacklevinonviolence.com/

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States?

Length: 34 min.

     

Guest: Frederick Lawrence — Dean of George Washington University Law School and author of Punishing Hate: Bias Crimes Under American Law.

Host: Mahesha Subbaraman — A high school Lincoln-Douglas debate coach in Minnesota, an Amherst College graduate, the founder/owner of Trinity Briefs, and creator of Colloquy.

Topic Discussed: Are hate crimes enhancements unjust in the United States?

Length: 26 min.