Then & Now: Recent Episodes
UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy
Then & Now connects past to present, using historical analysis and context to help guide us through modern issues and policy decisions. Then & Now is brought to you by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Then & Now is produced by Maia Ferdman and David Myers, and features original music by Daniel Raijman.
Guest host and former LCHP Postdoctoral Associate Ben Zdencanovic welcomes Cambridge historian Gary Gerstle to discuss whether Trump and MAGAism represent the end of the neoliberal order. Gary traces American political systems starting with the transition from the New Deal order, which emphasized government regulation of capitalism in the public interest, to the neoliberal order that prioritized deregulation, free markets, and globalization under Ronald Reagan and later gained bipartisan support during the Clinton administration. Gary argues that the 2008 financial crisis undermined the neoliberal consensus, creating the conditions for the rise of populist movements across the political spectrum and the emergence of Donald Trump’s political project. He examines whether the United States is entering a new political order centered on MAGA and emphasizes the risks of democratic backsliding and authoritarianism. Gary highlights sources of democratic resilience, including civic activism and the possibility of a new progressive political coalition.
Gary Gerstle is Paul Mellon Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of Cambridge. Gerstle received his MA and PhD from Harvard University. He is currently the Kluge Chair of American Law and Governance at the Library of Congress. Last year he was Joy Foundation Fellow at the Harvard-Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. His works include over ten books, including his most recent book The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order: America and the World in the Free Market Era(Oxford, 2022) and his current project Politics in Our Time: Authoritarian Peril and Democratic Hope in the Twenty-First Century(to be published 2027/2028 by Penguin Press)
Ben Zdencanovic is an Assistant Professor of U.S. History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge. His research as a historian looks at the United States in the world, domestic and international politics, and social and economic policy. Ben was the inaugural Postdoctoral Associate at the LCHP. Ben is currently working on two book projects. The first is titled Island of Enterprise: The United States in a World of Welfare, 1940 – 1955 (forthcoming from Princeton University Press). His second book is tentatively entitled The Cold War on Poverty: Race, Labor, and Manpower in the U.S. Warfare/Welfare State.
In this episode, host Rose Campbell is joined by Cary Franklin to discuss nationwide efforts to erode the rights of transgender people. While the recent Supreme Court decisions allowing states to ban transgender girls from participating in sports at publicly funded schools have garnered attention, this is only the latest attack by the Trump administration. Beyond barring transgender people from receiving medical care or serving in the military, the Trump administration has sought to give the government control over how, where, and when transgender people can express their gender identity. At the heart of this struggle is the search for equality under the law. Drawing from the history of anti-discrimination and suffragette movements, Cary considers what equality means in a legal sense, and explores how equal standing is created under the law. While the Supreme Court has historically considered discrimination based on gender stereotypes to be illegal, in recent years the Court has shifted away from this inclusive precedent. In the current political climate, the idea of biological sex is being wielded in much the same way earlier administrations treated different genders or races as "separate but equal," an attitude that appears to create equality while actually perpetuating and reifying hierarchical categories under the law. In this climate of constant attacks on the rights of the transgender community, Cary considers recent legislation and speculates about what the future may hold.
The Los Angeles primary elections, held June 2, 2026, were the source of great debate and not a few surprises. In this episode, David Myers, in his farewell episode as founding host of The History-Policy Podcast, interviews longtime LA public official and frequent LCHP collaborator Zev Yaroslavsky to discuss what the primary elections tell us about California’s political climate and what the future might hold. The discussion begins with Zev’s observation that inflation, cost of living, and the high price of gasoline have led to discontent throughout California. This sense of frustration played out in the LA primaries, with Republican candidate Steve Hilton advancing to the final two of the California governor's race. Meanwhile, Xavier Becerra set himself apart by refraining from vitriolic attacks on other candidates. Whether Becerra or Hilton can serve as California's chief executive once elected, rather than simply as a legislator, remains to be seen. At the local level, incumbent LA mayor Karen Bass faces surprisingly stiff competition from Councilmember Nithya Raman, whose platform drew attention to the failures, real or perceived, of Bass’s tenure. As the general election approaches and preparations for the Summer Olympics in 2028 continue, the trajectory of LA and California overall is very much in question.
Read Sueño Incomplete: A History of the Latino Wealth Gap in the United States.
Read The Making of a Crisis: A History of Homelessness in Los Angeles
Zev Yaroslavsky is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He served as LA City Council Member from 1975 to 1994, and as a member of the LA County Board of Supervisors from 1994 to 2014. In 2023, Zev released a memoir, Zev's Los Angeles: From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power, in which he reflected on his long career in politics.
This special episode of LCHP’s History-Politics Podcast features a recording of an event titled “The Future of History: Have We Reached the End of History Again?” This event was the first in a multi-part series by the Luskin Public History Program in conjunction with the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy at the Wende Museum. LCHP Director David Myers moderates a conversation between Miloš Jovanović (UCLA Assistant Professor of History), Natasha Piano (UCLA Assistant Professor of Political Theory, and Terry Tang (Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Times). This panel revisits the conclusion of political scientist Francis Fukuyama in his 1992 book The End of History and the Last Man, that we have reached “the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.” The scholars discuss whether the rise of illiberal authoritarianism marks a new end of history. From the rise of China and contemporary challenges to democracy to the role of journalism, education, and historical thinking in a “post-truth” age, the panelists examine the enduring appeal of liberty, equality, and human dignity. In an era of constant change, how should we think about the next phase of history? As part of an unfolding journey into the future, or as the beginning of the end?
Miloš Jovanović is an Assistant Professor of History at UCLA. His research looks at the Balkans, Ottoman and Habsburg Empires, capitalism, and Marxist theory and history. His first book, Cities of Dust and Mud: Urbanism and Bourgeois Fantasy in the Balkans (Stanford University Press, 2026), explores the social costs of elite-led urban change. His new project, Spaces of Empire: The Habsburg World and its Afterlives, examines the diverse trajectories of urban spaces after imperial collapse.
David N. Myers is Distinguished Professor of History and the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He is the founding director of the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. He also directs the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, the UCLA Dialogue Across Difference Initiative, and the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute. He is the author or editor of more than fifteen books, including American Shtetl (Princeton University Press 2022, winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award).
Natasha Piano is Assistant Professor of Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at UCLA. She specializes in democratic theory and the history of political thought, focusing on realist and empirical traditions in political science and Italian political theory. Her book, Democratic Elitism: The Founding Myth of American Political Science (Harvard University Press, 2025), examines how misinterpretations of elite theory shaped American political systems. She is also the co-editor of Florentine Political Writings from Petrarch to Machiavelli (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019).
Terry Tang is Executive Editor of the Los Angeles Times. Appointed in 2024, she is the first female editor in the paper’s 142-year history. Before joining the Los Angeles Times in 2019, she served as director of publications and editorial at the American Civil Liberties Union and held multiple editorial roles at The New York Times. She holds a BA in economics from Yale and a JD from New York University School of Law. She was also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.
In April 2026, the world was shocked by when Péter Magyar handily defeated long-time Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán. In this episode, LCHP Assistant Director Rose Campbell speaks with legal scholar Kim Lane Scheppele about this unexpected upset after sixteen years of Orbán's autocratic regime, and what it reveals about the rise and fall of modern authoritarian regimes. Drawing on decades of research in Hungary and Eastern Europe, Scheppele explains how leaders such as Orbán, Vladimir Putin, and Donald Trump, among others, have used legal and constitutional mechanisms to consolidate power, weaken democratic institutions, and entrench their rule while maintaining a façade of legality. Orbán's tactics have been widely used by aspiring autocrats around the world, and his defeat throws the political future of these regimes into uncertainty.
The conversation explores how corruption, economic stagnation, independent media, and grassroots organizing ultimately contributed to Orbán’s downfall and the rise of Péter Magyar, whose campaign successfully united opposition forces and mobilized voters across Hungary. While not a progressive himself, Magyar's policies nevertheless are more centrist than Orbán’s more hardline right-wing policies. Winning the election, however, is just the beginning. As Scheppele argues, elections can remove autocrats from office seemingly against all odds, but rebuilding democratic institutions can be a years-long challenge.
Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. She is also a faculty fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She studies the sociology of law and specializes in ethnographic and archival research on courts and public institutions. She has published over thirty articles (find them here) and her book, Legal Secrets, won Special Recognition in the Distinguished Scholarly Publication competition of the American Sociological Association as well as the Corwin Prize of the American Political Science Association.
Host David Myers welcomes historian Ellen DuBois to discuss her recently published book about the life, legacy, and contradictions of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Ellen emphasizes Stanton’s central role in launching the women’s suffrage movement alongside Susan B. Anthony and her enduring relevance to modern debates over women’s rights, religion, and democracy. Ellen explores Stanton’s partnerships with Anthony and Frederick Douglass, her disappointment during Reconstruction when women were excluded from expanded voting rights, and her increasingly controversial critiques of organized Christianity through works like The Woman's Bible. The conversation also confronts Stanton’s racist and nativist rhetoric, with Ellen examining how her elite class background and the prejudices of 19th-century America shaped some of her most troubling views. Ellen argues that Stanton’s vision of women’s equality, bodily autonomy, and expanded democracy remains deeply connected to present-day political struggles over issues such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, conservative Christian activism, and modern “household voting” proposals.
Dr. Ellen DuBois is a Distinguished Research Professor of United States History at UCLA. Ellen earned her B.A. in History from Wellesley and her PhD from Northwestern University. She taught at the University at Buffalo before joining the UCLA faculty until her retirement in 2017. She has published many works, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Revolutionary Life (Hachette 2026), Suffrage: Women's Long Battle for the Vote (Simon & Schuster 2020), Feminism and Suffrage: The Emergence of an Independent Women's Movement in America 1848–1869 (Cornell 1999), and Harriot Stanton Blatch and the Winning of Woman Suffrage (Yale 1997) which won the Joan Kelly Memorial Prize of the American Historical Association.
In this week’s episode, host David Myers leads a discussion with Amanda Shanor, Sigal Ben-Porath, and Serena Mayeri about the legal and historical implications of the Trump administration’s request for lists of Jewish students, faculty, and organizations at the University of Pennsylvania. The conversation situates the subpoena within broader federal investigations into alleged campus anti-Semitism following October 7, 2023, while arguing that the demand for names, personal contact information, and organizational affiliations raises profound constitutional concerns. The panelists contend that the request threatens First Amendment protections surrounding free association, religious identity, and academic freedom, particularly because it targets individuals based on protected forms of expression and affiliation.
Serena Mayeri is the Arlin M. Adams Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a Professor of History (by courtesy). Serena has many publications including her first book Reasoning from Race: Feminism, Law, and the Civil Rights Revolution(Harvard University Press, 2011) and her new book is Marital Privilege: Marriage, Inequality, and the Transformation of American Law (Yale University Press, 2025).
Sigal Ben-Porath is the MRMJJ Presidential Professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. She also currently serves as the faculty director of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Paideia Program. Her areas of expertise include philosophy of education and political philosophy. She has published numerous books including Cancel Wars (2022) and Making Up Our Mind: What School Choice is Really About (2019).
Amanda Shanor is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Amanda’s research explores the changing meaning of the First Amendment and the forces that affect it; democratic theory, illiberalism, and equality; and the intersection of constitutional law and economic life. Amanda has published more than ten scholarly papers including “Greenwashing and the First Amendment” (Columbia Law Review 2021) and “
In this special episode of The History-Politics Podcast, we share a recording of LCHP’s recent event, “Borders in Times of Instability: A Cross-Disciplinary Conversation with Luwei Ying and Hiroshi Motomura.” This conversation is a continuation of our previous episode where political scientist Luwei Ying drew upon her work as an LCHP grantee to discuss her co-authored paper "Historical Border Insecurity and the Rise of Populism." In this event, David Myers welcomes legal scholar Hiroshi Motomura to join Luwei and explore the complex role of borders in shaping politics, conflict, and belonging. Ying explains how historical border instability, especially in regions like Alsace and Eastern Europe, have had long-term effects on the populations of these regions, including decreased trust in the government and greater support for populism. She also examines modern border fortifications, showing that while walls may reduce nearby cross-border violence, their overall effectiveness is mixed, as militant groups often adapt their strategies. Motomura expands the discussion by reframing borders as more than physical lines, emphasizing their legal and social functions in defining inclusion and exclusion.
Hiroshi Motomura is the Susan Westerberg Prager Distinguished Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law and the Faculty Co-Director of the UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy. He is a scholar of citizenship and immigration, influencing across a range of academic disciplines as well as federal, states, and local policy making. He has written multiple award-winning books including Americans in Waiting: The Lost Story of Immigration and Citizenship in the United States (Oxford 2006) and Borders and Belonging: Toward a Fair Immigration Policy (Oxford 2025). He is also the co-host of the podcast series: Unsettled: Immigration in Turbulent Times. For his collaboration on an overview of U.S. immigration law, see The Try Guys Try Immigrating to America.
Luwei Ying is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. in political science at Washington University in St. Louis in 2022. She received the 2022 Peace Science Society Walter Isard Award for the best dissertation in Peace Science. Her work has been awarded the Best Paper in International Relations Award, the Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best paper presented at the 2019 MPSA Conference, and the Best Poster Award at the PolMeth XXXVII Summer Meeting. Her published work has appeared in American Political Science Review, Political Analysis and the Journal of Conflict Resolution.
In this episode of the History-Politics Podcast, host David Myers speaks with UCLA political scientist Luwei Ying about her research linking historical border instability to the contemporary rise of populist politics. Drawing on her work as a Luskin Center for History and Policy grantee and the report she co-authored with David B. Carter and Sadaf Vafa, Luwei explains that regions which experienced repeated shifts in sovereignty, such as areas between France and Germany or territories historically contested in Eastern Europe, often developed weaker state institutions and lower levels of public trust. By combining historical border data stretching back to the thirteenth century with modern electoral patterns, the research finds that communities with long histories of unstable authority are more likely to exhibit skepticism toward government and support populist movements.
The conversation emphasizes that border instability does not directly produce a particular ideology, such as fascism or populism, but instead fosters long-term receptivity to anti-establishment politics. According to Luwei, globalization, immigration, and economic shocks may act as contemporary triggers, yet their effects vary depending on the historical institutional foundations of a region. Where governance has historically been fragile, such pressures are more likely to intensify distrust in political elites.
Read the full report here: Historical Border Insecurity and the Rise of Populism
Luwei Ying is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. in political science at Washington University in St. Louis in 2022. Ying studies international relations, examining how militant organizations propagate ideologies to mobilize, recruit, and exercise control over individual members and how these ideological strategies fit into the groups’ broader military agendas. She received the 2022 Peace Science Society Walter Isard Award for the best dissertation in Peace Science. Her work has been awarded the Best Paper in International Relations Award, the Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best paper presented at the 2019 MPSA Conference, and the Best Poster Award at the PolMeth XXXVII Summer Meeting. Her published work has appeared in American Political Science Review, Political Analysis and the Journal of Conflict Resolution.
In this episode, host Rose Campbell speaks with UCLA social welfare scholar Dr. Tatiana Londoño about the psychological and social toll of immigration enforcement on Latine/x immigrant communities in the United States. Drawing on both her personal experience as a Colombian immigrant and her years of research, Londoño explains how immigration policies, from the 1996 Illegal Immigration Reform Act to post-9/11 security measures and more recent ICE expansions, have created a climate of chronic fear for many immigrant families. This climate of fear discourages families from accessing healthcare, schools, and other social services, creating long-term consequences for children’s well-being. In the midst of these numerous challenges, Londoño emphasizes the resilience of immigrant communities and the importance of local advocacy and mutual aid networks. She encourages listeners to support community-based immigrant organizations, believe and validate the fears expressed by affected communities, and resist the normalization of policies and practices that produce widespread trauma.
Tatiano Londoño is an Associate Professor of Social Welfare at UCLA. She is a first-generation Latina born in Colombia and raised in Miami, Florida. Throughout her career, she has received funding from various sources such as OLLI NOVA Diversity Scholarship, St. David’s Foundation, Integrated Behavioral Health Scholars Program, and QuestBridge. Her work explores how Latine/x immigrant youth and families navigate and adapt to the psychosocial consequences of migration and resettlement. Her work is published in numerous academic journals including Family Process, The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Health Psychology, Journal of Adolescent Research, American Journal of Health Behavior, and Social Work in Mental Health.
In this episode, Rose Campbell, Assistant Director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy, welcomes guests Stephen Aron and Joe Horse Capture of the Autry Museum of the American West to discuss the historical power imbalance between Native American tribes and museums. Historically, museums collected Native objects, and even human remains, through coercive or unethical means, reflecting a colonial mindset that prioritized research and display over Indigenous rights. Recent updates to Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act regulations in 2025 aim to strengthen tribal authority by incorporating Native knowledge and oral traditions when determining cultural significance.
Stephen Aron is the Calvin and Marilyn Gross Director and President and CEO of the Autry Museum after a three-decade career as a professor of history, first at Princeton University and then at UCLA. He is the author of How the West Was Lost: The Transformation of Kentucky from Daniel Boone to Henry Clay, The American West: A Very Short Introduction, and Peace and Friendship: An Alternative History of the American West.
Joe Horse Capture is the Vice President of Native Collections and Ahmanson Curator of Native History and Culture at the Autry Museum and a member of the A’aniiih tribe, from Fort Belknap Indian Reservation in north central Montana. He co-authored the collection book titled Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection with David W. Penney. A second-generation museum professional, Horse Capture was the first director of Native A
Host David Myers welcomes legal scholar Joseph Fishkin to discuss the present and future of higher education amid growing federal pressure on universities. Fishkin’s work spans constitutional law, inequality, and equal opportunity. Fishkin explains that law and politics are inseparable: while law operates as a specialized language with its own norms, it is always shaped by political context. Recent trends at the Supreme Court of the United States suggest courts may uphold controversial outcomes through strained reasoning, raising questions about whether legal norms can meaningfully constrain political power. Fishkin highlights an unprecedented recent federal strategy of using research funding as leverage, where grant cancellations and civil rights settlements are used to pressure universities to change hiring, admissions, and faculty decisions. Because universities fear retaliation, many hesitate to sue, though institutions like Harvard University and faculty-led groups have challenged these actions, with courts sometimes blocking grant cancellations, especially when First Amendment claims are involved.
Fishkin also discusses the aftermath of the 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment protests at UCLA, where a lawsuit alleged that Jewish students were excluded from campus spaces. UCLA quickly settled, likely to reduce conflict, but Fishkin argues the decision backfired by inviting further federal scrutiny and financial penalties while forfeiting the chance to build a stronger factual defense. As a Jewish faculty member who passed the encampment daily, Fishkin observed disruption but did not witness antisemitic exclusion, emphasizing a significant gap between lived reality and media-driven narratives. Viral videos and political rhetoric helped shape public perception, fueling lawsuits and federal intervention despite incomplete or misleading evidence. He concludes by reflecting on a broader crisis of truth in American politics, where false or exaggerated claims can influence public policy.
Joseph Fishkin is a Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law, where he teaches and researches a wide range of topics, including employment discrimination law, election law, constitutional law, education law, fair housing law, poverty and inequality, and distributive justice. Before joining the UCLA faculty he taught for a decade at the University of Texas School of Law, where he was the Marrs McLean Professor in Law; he was also a visiting professor at Yale Law School. Fishkin received his B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics, summa cum laude, at Yale, his J.D. at Yale Law School, and his D. Phil. In Politics at Oxford, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. Fishkin’s latest book, The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy (with Willy Forbath), was recently published by Harvard University Press. His first book, Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity, winner of the North American Society for Social Philosophy Book Award, was published by Oxford University Press. His writing has also appeared in various publications including the Columbia Law Review, the Supreme Court Review, the Yale Law Journal, and NOMOS. He also blogs at Balkinization.
As part of our series devoted to the pasts and futures of higher education in the United States, this conversation, hosted by LCHP Director David Myers, features Princeton sociologist Kim Lane Scheppele alongside legal scholars Ariela Gross from UCLA and Nomi Stolzenberg from USC to discuss an escalating war on universities by the Trump administration. Scheppele frames the assault as a distinctly modern autocratic strategy: not bullets, but budgets that target elite institutions to seek ideological conformity, weaken leadership, and force anticipatory compliance. Drawing on her experience living in Hungary under Viktor Orbán, she identifies an authoritarian playbook that pairs fiscal strangulation with autocratic legalism, the repurposing of law to anti-democratic ends, while leveraging accusations to mask or legitimize discriminatory and coercive governance.
Gross emphasizes how long-standing right-wing projects, especially attacks on DEI, are being accelerated through institutional bargaining (for example, over withheld scientific funding) while trading away racial and gender justice infrastructure. Stolzenberg adds a longue durée account of U.S. conservative opposition to the modern university, highlighting theological currents that cast universities as battlegrounds in a moral struggle over national identity.
Kim Lane Scheppele is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. She is also a faculty fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Her book, Legal Secrets,won Special Recognition in the Distinguished Scholarly Publication competition of the American Sociological Association as well as the Corwin Prize of the American Political Science Association.
Ariela Gross is a Distinguished Professor of Law and History at UCLA and teaches Contract Law, Constitutional Law, Enslavement and Racialization in U.S. Legal History, as well as other courses on race and legal history. Gross is the author of Becoming Free, Becoming Black: Race, Freedom, and Law in Cuba, Virginia, and Louisiana, with Alejandro de la Fuente (Cambridge UP 2020) and What Blood Won’t Tell: A History of Race on Trial in America (Harvard UP 2008).
Nomi M. Stolzenberg is the Nathan and Lilly Shapell Chair in Law at the USC Gould School of Law. Her research spans a range of interdisciplinary interests, including law and religion, law and liberalism, law and psychoanalysis, and law and literature. Stolzenberg’s scholarly publications include the frequently cited “The Profanity of Law”. With David N. Myers, she has published American Shtetl: The Making of Kiryas Joel, a Hasidic Village in Upstate New Yo
In this episode of The History-Politics Podcast: Putting the Past to Work, host David Myers speaks with Dalia Dassa Kaye on why U.S.–Iran relations constitute the longest-running hostility in American foreign policy. Dalia argues that while Iranian actions and the regime’s post-1979 anti-American ideology are central to the conflict, U.S. policy narratives have also played a decisive role. Repeatedly framing Iran as a permanent rogue state has narrowed the American policy imagination, raised the domestic political costs of engagement, and foreclosed opportunities to test alternative approaches. Across administrations, Republican and Democratic alike, there has often been strategic interest in easing hostility, yet entrenched discourse, fear of appearing “soft,” and political risk have consistently blocked change.
Dr. Kaye emphasizes that trauma from the 1979 hostage crisis alone cannot explain policy rigidity, noting moments such as Iran-Contra and post-9/11 cooperation that reveal recurring, if fragile, openings shaped by strategic necessity. Turning to recent developments, she traces today’s accelerated escalation to the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the regional consequences of October 7th, and the June 2025 Israel–Iran confrontation, arguing that these events fundamentally altered deterrence attempts without producing clear paths to stability.
Dr. Dalia Dassa Kaye is a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations and director of its Initiative on Regional Security Architectures. A life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dalia is an internationally recognized expert on geopolitics and Middle East policy. She has received numerous awards and held previous positions at an array of research and public policy institutions, including as a Fulbright Schuman visiting scholar at Lund University. She is the author of dozens of articles and policy reports, as well as three books, including most recently Enduring Hostility: The Making of America’s Iran Policy (Stanford University Press, 2026).
In this episode, host David Myers interviews Jim Newton, renowned political journalist and UCLA lecturer, on his recent book on musician Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead, the iconic American band. Newton reflects on his personal and professional pathway to writing about the Dead. He traces his first serious recognition of “Deadhead culture” to the 1982 US Festival, where the band’s community stood out sharply against the broader music landscape. The conversation emphasizes the Dead’s “unique alchemy”: a convergence of Bay Area time and place, the improvisational ethos, the band’s eclectic musical catalogue, and the formative social experimentation of the Acid Tests. Newton argues that the band’s unusually porous relationship with its audience, rooted in these early LSD gatherings where the Dead were not the central attraction, helped produce a distinctive form of loyalty and collective identity that endured long after the scene expanded beyond its intimate origins.
Newton frames the Dead as culturally radical but not conventionally political, aligning the band more with a bohemian ethic of lived values than an evangelical politics of persuasion. The Dead, Newton suggests, modeled community, freedom, and “collective bliss” as a refuge in both the late 1960s and the Reagan-era 1980s. Turning to Jerry Garcia, Newton offers a sober epitaph: an obsessive musical genius with vast curiosity and a deep resistance to responsibility, ultimately undone by addiction and isolation. Yet the episode closes on the enduring afterlife of the Dead through successor acts and cover bands, arguing that the phenomenon persists because it meets persistent social needs that are captured, for Newton, most powerfully in the song “Ripple.”
Jim Newton is a veteran journalist, author and teacher. In 25 years at the Los Angeles Times, Newton worked as a reporter, editor, bureau chief, columnist and, from 2007 through 2010, editor of the editorial pages. He is the recipient of numerous national and local awards in journalism and participated in two staff efforts, coverage of the 1992 riots and the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, that were awarded the Pulitzer Prize. Newton began working at UCLA full-time in early 2015, teaching in Communication Studies and Public Policy and founding Blueprint, a new UCLA magazine addressing the policy challenges facing California and Los Angeles in particular. He serves as the magazine’s editor-in-chief. Newton also is a respected author of important works of history including Justice for All: Earl Warren and the Nation He Made,Eisenhower: The White House Years, Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace, and his 2020 release Man of Tomorrow: The Relentless Life of Jerry Brown, and most recently: Here Beside the Rising Tide: Jerry Garcia, the Grateful Dead, and an American Awakening.
In the second part of then & now’s special presentation of the panels from the “Future of History” conference, David Myers, host of then & now, moderates a conversation on the precarious state of history, democracy, and cultural institutions in the United States. The panelists include Lonnie G. Bunch III, the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; Athena N. Jackson, UCLA’s Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian; and Robin D.G. Kelley, Distinguished Professor and holder of the Gary B. Nash Chair in American History at UCLA.
Lonnie Bunch warns that today’s political climate poses an unprecedented threat to cultural institutions, from politicians claiming historians can be replaced by AI to direct pressure on the Smithsonian. Extending these concerns to the university, Athena Jackson highlights mounting challenges to libraries and archives, including politically driven limits on collecting and anxieties over corrupted digital data. Robin Kelley situates these pressures within a long history of attacks on curriculum, public knowledge, and racial justice, insisting that scholars must continue to expose structural inequality and resist resurgent fascism.
David Myers is the host of then & now, director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy, and the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He also directs the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate. He has written extensively in the fields of modern Jewish intellectual and cultural history. He previously served as chair of the UCLA History Department and as director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies.
Athena N. Jackson became the Norman and Armena Powell University Librarian in March 2024, marking her return to UCLA after previously serving as director of UCLA Library Special Collections. She is an active member of the Association of Research Libraries and she served as chair of the Association of College and Research Libraries Rare Books and Manuscripts Section executive committee.
Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian. His most recent book, A Fool’s Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump, chronicles the making of the museum that would become one of the most popular destinations in Washington. In 2021, Bunch received France’s highest award, The Legion of Honor.
Robin D.G. Kelly is Distinguished Professor and Gary B. Nash Endowed Chair in U.S. History at UCLA. He is currently completing two books, Making a Killing: Cops, Capitalism, and the War on Black Life (Henry Holt, 2027) The Education of Ms. Grace Halsell: An Intimate History of the American Century (in progress, Henry Holt).
This episode of then & now features a panel from the “Future of History” conference moderated by UCLA Professor Brenda Stevenson, an award-winning historian of race, gender, slavery, and community. She introduces three UCLA historians whose work spans the U.S. and the globe: Professor Kelly Lytle Hernández, a MacArthur Fellow and leading scholar of race, immigration, and mass incarceration; Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam, Distinguished Professor and global historian of the early modern world; and Professor Vivien Tejada, a rising scholar of 19th-century African American and Native American history. Lytle Hernández details her public-facing work, including Million-Dollar Hoods and Mapping Deportations, and her efforts with the Zinn Education Project to support teachers nationwide. Subrahmanyam draws on experiences teaching in Europe, South America, and India to outline global anxieties about the U.S. academy. Tejada emphasizes how the abrupt reversal of post-2020 hiring initiatives threatens future scholarship in Black, Native, and Latinx history.
Together, the panelists explore the role of historians in shaping public narratives, covering topics such as “patriotic history,” big-data projects, archival access, controversy around AI, and the teaching of writing and critical literacy. They reflect on internal debates within the field: DEI backlash, community engagement, shrinking academic resources, objectivity, “woke-ism,” and the legacy of the Ginzburg–Hayden White debate.
Brenda Stevenson holds the inaugural Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women’s History at St. John’s College, Oxford University and the Nickoll Family Endowed Chair in History at UCLA. She is an internationally recognized scholar whose work bridges race, slavery, gender, family, and community in the United States and beyond. Her most recent book What is Slavery? was published by Cambridge University Press.
Professor Kelly Lytle Hernández holds The Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History at UCLA. One of the nation’s leading experts on race, immigration, and mass incarceration, she is the author of many award-winning books including Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol and Bad Mexicans: Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands. For her historical and contemporary work, Professor Lytle Hernández was named a 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow.
Sanjay Subrahmanyam is the Distinguished Professor of History and Irving & Jean Stone Chair in Social Sciences at UCLA. A specialist of the early modern period (15th-18th centuries), his work ranges between studies of India and the Indian Ocean, the early modern European empires, and reflections on global history as a field of research. In 2024, he published Across the Green Sea: Histories from the Western Indian Ocean, 1440-1640 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2024), with UK and Indian editions.
Vivien Tejada is an Assistant Professor of U.S. history at UCLA. She is a scholar of the nineteenth-century United States with a focus on the Civil War era. Her research interests lie in the intersections between Native American history and African American history. Her current project, “Unfree Soil: Empire, Labor, and Coercion in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, 1812-1861,” examines the relationship between slavery and conquest in the Upper Midwest.
In this week’s episode of then & now, David Myers moderates a panel discussion from the recent Urban History Association meeting in Los Angeles. The panel discussed two important questions: What is distinctive about Los Angeles as an urban experience and experiment? And what does L.A. tell us or teach us about urban life at this critical moment in U.S. history?
Panelists included a mix of distinguished experts and commentators: historian Becky Nicolaides, L.A. Times journalist Gustavo Arellano, architect Brenda Levin, and political scientist Raphael J. Sonenshein.
Historian Becky Nicolaides traces L.A.’s evolution beyond its classic “sunshine and noir” dichotomy, highlighting its history as a sanctuary for immigrants, a hub for labor rights, and a place where grassroots activism reshaped civic life. Journalist Gustavo Arellano examines L.A. as a city under political siege, describing how Angelenos have united against authoritarian overreach through local organizing and cultural solidarity. Arellano argues that multiculturalism is L.A.’s future and that its people “el pueblo no se raja” (do not back down). Architect Brenda Levin explores L.A.’s constructed environment as both memory and reinvention, showing how landmarks like the Griffith Observatory and Grand Central Market embody the city’s ongoing negotiation between preservation and progress. Finally, political scholar Raphael Sonenshein portrays Los Angeles as a proving ground for urban reform and “home rule,” arguing that local governance may be the last firewall for American democracy.
Dr. Becky Nicolaides is an expert on the history of the 20th century, and author of several award-winning studies of suburban life in America, including The New Suburbia: How Diversity Remade Suburban Life in Los Angeles After 1945, came out in January 2024.
Gustavo Arellano is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, covering Southern California, the West, and beyond.
Brenda Levin is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. AIA / Los Angeles selected her to receive the 2010 Gold Medal. Levin studied architecture at Harvard and founded Levin & Associates architecture and urban design firm in 1980.
Dr. Raphael J. Sonenshein is the executive director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation.
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In this week’s episode of then & now, guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic is joined by Dr. Jennifer Klein, the Bradford Durfee Professor of History at Yale University, to explore Cancer Alley, the stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana. Spanning roughly one hundred miles, Cancer Alley is densely packed with chemical plants, hazardous waste sites, and prisons, resulting in some of the highest rates of pollution in the country. Drawing together questions of environment, community health, and economic development, Jennifer considers how industrialization and environmental racism have shaped the lived experiences of residents along the Mississippi River corridor, while also illuminating broader debates about capitalism, geography, and inequality in American life.
Jennifer Klein is the Durfee Professor of History in the field of 20th-century U.S. history at Yale University. Jennifer’s research spans the fields of U.S. labor history, urban history, social movements, and political economy. Her publications include Caring for America: Home Health Workers in the Shadow of the Welfare State (Oxford University Press, 2012), co-authored with Eileen Boris, which was awarded the Sara A. Whaley book prize from the National Women’s Studies Association; and For All These Rights: Business, Labor, and the Shaping of America’s Public-Private Welfare State (Princeton University Press, 2003)
In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Director Professor David N. Myers is joined by Dr. Ben Zdencanovic to discuss their collaborative work on a new LCHP report, The Challenge to University Autonomy in an Illiberal Age: Historical and Comparative Perspectives. Compiled over the past year as higher education in the U.S. faces heightened scrutiny and mounting political pressures from the U.S. government, this report situates present debates within a longue durée of institutional vulnerability to political pressures. The report analyzes historical case studies from the U.S. in which universities were subjected to external intervention alongside contemporary international examples of academic institutions confronting encroachments by illiberal regimes. Through historical precedent, cross-national analysis, and policy recommendations, David and Ben illuminate both the recurring struggles between universities and political powers and consider the strategies by which universities and academics might preserve autonomy, defend academic freedom, and fulfill their civic responsibilities in the present.
You can read the full report on our LCHP website here.
David N. Myers is a Distinguished Professor of History at UCLA and the Director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy and the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate. A leading scholar of Jewish history, he has authored six books and edited thirteen others, including The Stakes of History: On the Use and Abuse of Jewish History for Life (Yale University Press, 2018). His research addresses Jewish intellectual and cultural history, with a focus on how historical narratives shape identity, politics, and social movements.
Ben Zdencanovic is a Postdoctoral Associate at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Ben is a historian of the United States in the world, domestic and international politics, and economic and social policy. He has a particular interest in the relationship between U.S. global power and the politics of redistribution and the welfare state. Ben is currently working on two book projects: Island of Enterprise: The United States in a World of Welfare, 1940–1955 (forthcoming, Princeton University Press), and The Cold War on Poverty: Race, Labor, and Manpower in the U.S. Warfare/Welfare State.
In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell is joined by historian Dr. Neil J. Young to examine the evolution and ongoing influence of conservative Christian family values in contemporary U.S. political discourse. Neil offers a nuanced account of how ideals such as monogamy, cisgender heterosexual marriage, and rigid gender roles within a patriarchal framework became central both to conservative grassroots activism and to the ideological messaging of the Trump presidency and its supporters.
Drawing on the intersecting histories of religious and political movements in modern America, Neil traces the crystallization of the so-called “Christian nation” narrative to the Cold War era and the emergence of the ecumenical movement, a collective effort by various denominations toward unity and social engagement. Despite the ecumenical movement’s intended progressivism, it inadvertently prompted conservative backlash, resulting in a “religious right” coalition. Looking ahead, Neil notes increased uncertainty regarding the durability of the Trump-evangelical coalition. As the Trump campaign intensifies its deployment of culture war rhetoric—framing contemporary politics as an existential struggle to preserve embattled Christian values—the question remains whether these strategies will sustain coalition cohesion, or whether shifting social and political dynamics will prompt fragmentation.
Neil J. Young is an award-winning historian, writer, podcaster, and author of Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (The University of Chicago Press, 2024). Neil holds an A.B. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. Neil formerly served as a contributing columnist for The Week and, before that, an opinion columnist for HuffPost. He writes frequently for leading publications, including the Washington Post, the Atlantic, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Vox, Politico, Slate, and the New York Times.
In this episode of then & now, guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic welcomes Professor Josh Shepperd, Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and Director of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force (RPTF). Josh, acclaimed author of Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (University of Illinois Press, 2023), discusses the complex historical development of NPR and PBS—two cornerstones of American public broadcasting. The conversation contextualizes how these public broadcasters, designed initially to provide non-commercial, equitable programming for all Americans, became politically contentious entities. The recent decision by the Trump administration to withdraw funding already allocated for public broadcasting stations like NPR and PBS is situated within a longer pattern of political challenges. By connecting past and present, Josh illuminates the enduring historical significance of public broadcasting and its precarious position within contemporary American society, offering a nuanced foundation for understanding current debates over the future of public media.
Josh Shepperd is an Associate Professor of Media Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Director of the Library of Congress Radio Preservation Task Force (RPTF). Pulling from political economic, Birmingham, and Foucauldian traditions, Josh researches institutional genealogies of 20th-century U.S. media culture. He is author of Shadow of the New Deal: The Victory of Public Broadcasting (University of Illinois Press, 2023), which received the 2024 BEA Book Award. Josh is currently co-writing the "History of Public Media for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)" and "Current."
In this week’s episode of then & now, we’re joined by Benjamin Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, to talk about his recent book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement (Princeton University Press, 2024)—which was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and the 2025 Pushkin House Book Prize.
Ben offers an in-depth analysis of the Soviet dissident movement, foregrounding both canonical figures and a diverse array of lesser-known activists who contested the legitimacy of the Soviet state through a strategy of "civil obedience"—that is, by appealing to Soviet law itself. Drawing extensively on primary sources—including personal diaries, private correspondence, and KGB interrogation transcripts—Ben elucidates the intellectual and legal tacks that dissidents employed to expose the contradictions within the Soviet system. Ben situates the Soviet dissident experience within broader historiographical debates on human rights, legal studies, and the politics of memory, offering critical insights into the transnational significance of dissent under authoritarian regimes.
Benjamin Nathans is the Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches and writes about Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, modern European Jewish history, and the history of human rights. His most recent book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement(Princeton University Press, 2024), was awarded the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction and the 2025 Pushkin House Book Prize. He has published articles on Habermas and the public sphere in eighteenth-century France, Russian-Jewish historiography, Soviet dissident memoirs, and many other topics. He is a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement.
In this episode of then & now, we are joined by Dr. Jamaal Muwwakkil, Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA and incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington, to discuss the recent rollback of affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in American universities. Jamaal examines how these changes—set in motion by the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision to end race-conscious admissions, alongside a rising political backlash against DEI, particularly from the Trump administration—signal a return to exclusionary practices after decades of hard-fought progress. Bringing a sociolinguistic perspective to the jagged history of Black student experiences in the era of affirmative action, Jamaal traces the arc from the first efforts at inclusion in the 1950s to the present moment. Focusing on the implications of these shifts, particularly for Black and Latinx students navigating the current higher education environment, Jamaal provides insight into how language, policy, and power shape experiences of belonging and exclusion on campus, offering essential context for understanding this pivotal moment in higher education.
Dr. Jamaal Muwwakkil is a University of California Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA in the Department of Education and Information Studies and an incoming Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Washington. Jamaal holds a Linguistics PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was also the 2019-20 University of California (UC) Student Regent-designate and the 2020-21 UC Student Regent. Jamaal’s research specializations include African American language and culture, sociocultural linguistics, and political discourse.
In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell is joined by Dr. Neil J. Young—historian, podcaster, and author of Coming Out Republican (The University of Chicago Press, 2024), which traces the history of conservative and libertarian gay figures in United States history and their influence on the modern Republican Party. In this episode, Neil examines the evolving relationship between these members of the LGBTQ community—predominantly white gay men–and the Republican Party in light of recent executive orders from the second Trump administration, which have sought to reinforce binary gender norms and curtail protections for LGBTQ individuals. Neil contextualizes this dynamic by tracing the history of conservative gay men as a persistent, though often marginalized, constituency within the party over the last century, and their struggle to make equality and gay rights a non-partisan issue. Despite the party’s increasingly exclusionary rhetoric and policies, gay Republicans have maintained loyalty and exerted significant influence, particularly through behind-the-scenes activism and policy shaping since the Reagan era. By interrogating the paradox of LGBTQ support for a party actively enacting anti-LGBTQ measures, Neil offers nuanced insights into the complexities of identity, political allegiance, and the construction of contemporary conservatism.
Neil J. Young is an award-winning historian, writer, podcaster, and author of Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right (The University of Chicago Press, 2024). Neil holds an A.B. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in history from Columbia University. Neil formerly served as a contributing columnist for The Week and, before that, an opinion columnist for HuffPost. He writes frequently for leading publications, including the Washington Post, the Atlantic, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Vox, Politico, Slate, and the New York Times.
In this week’s episode of then & now, guest host Professor Fernando Pérez-Montesinos is joined by Carlos Pérez Ricart, Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) in Mexico City, to discuss Mexico’s Dirty War—an internal conflict from the 1960s to the 1980s between the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI)-ruled government and left-wing student and guerrilla groups. As one of the four members of Mexico’s truth commission from 2021 to 2024, Carlos draws on the findings of this initiative to examine the country’s systematic use of violence and repression, as well as the most significant revelations from the commission’s comprehensive reports.
Carlos situates Mexico’s experience within the broader context of Latin America’s wave of repressive military regimes during the Cold War, which implemented widespread crackdowns on real and perceived political dissidents. While countries across the region began confronting these legacies in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Mexican government remained largely unresponsive to calls for a truth commission, despite persistent demands from activists and human rights organizations. In 2021, the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) finally initiated a formal process to address past abuses, creating a truth commission tasked with conducting interviews and scouring archives for evidence of past violence. This conversation considers the complexities of uncovering evidence implicating powers behind the formation of the truth commission itself and provides critical insights into the mechanisms of state violence, the politics of memory, and the challenges of transitional justice in contemporary Mexico.
Carlos Pérez Ricart is an assistant professor in International Relations at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) in Mexico City. Prior to joining CIDE, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford, where he worked at both the History Faculty and the Latin American Centre, St. Antony’s College. His research and teaching interests include the relationship between Mexico and the United States, security and organized crime, arms trafficking, drug policies. He is co-editor of the book "Gun Trafficking and Violence: From The Global Network to The Local Security Challenge" (Palgrave, St. Antony’s College 2021).
Fernando Pérez-Montesinos is an associate professor in the Department of History at UCLA. His research focuses on the history of modern Mexico with a focus on the nineteenth century and the Mexican Revolution. His book, "Landscaping Indigenous Mexico: The Liberal State and Capitalism in the Purépecha Highlands" (UT Press, 2025), focuses on the Purépecha people of Michoacán, Mexico, and examines why and how long-standing patterns of communal landholding changed in response to liberal policies, railroad expansion, and the rise of the timber industry in Mexico.
Further Reading:
- Fifty Years of Silence: Mexico Faces the Legacy of its Dirty War, GWU National Security Archive
- Inquiry into Mexico’s ‘dirty war’ obstructed by military and other agencies, board says, the Guardian
In this week’s episode of then & now, we present a recording of a recent panel discussion focusing on L.A. wildfires past, present, and future. This program is part of the “Why History Matters” series presented by the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History—a series dedicated to the belief that historical knowledge is an indispensable, and often missing, ingredient in public debate.
”Why History Matters: L.A. Wildfires Past, Present, and Future,” brought experts together to explore how historical and indigenous perspectives can reshape our understanding of wildfires, especially in light of the devastating Los Angeles County fires in January 2025. The discussion, anchored in the Fowler Museum at UCLA’s “Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art” exhibition, interrogates prevailing narratives that frame fire solely as a destructive force, instead foregrounding indigenous epistemologies that recognize fire as a vital ecological process and a generational resource. Professors Hitoshi Abe, Gerald Clarke, Jr., and Char Miller distinguish three primary drivers of contemporary wildfire crises: climate change, fire suppression policies, and patterns of urban expansion into fire-prone landscapes. To more effectively mitigate and adapt to the escalating risks posed by wildfires, these panelists discuss ways to integrate traditional ecological knowledge with contemporary land management and urban policy.
Moderator:
Stephen Aron is the Calvin and Marilyn Gross Director and President of the Autry Museum of the American West. A specialist in the history of frontiers, borderlands, and the American West, Dr. Aron holds degrees from Amherst College (B.A.) and the University of California, Berkeley (M.A., Ph.D.).
Panelists:
Hitoshi Abe is a Professor in the Department of Architecture and Urban Design at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Abe is currently the director of Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies and holds the Terasaki Chair for contemporary Japanese study. In 2017, he established xLAB, an international think tank initiative that examines architecture’s elastic boundaries and considers new possibilities through interdisciplinary collaboration in the study of the future built environment.
Gerald Clarke Jr. is a Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American Relations at the University of California, Riverside. He is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and lives on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation. Gerald oversees the Clarke family cattle ranch and remains heavily involved in Cahuilla culture.
Char Miller is the W.M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis and History at Pomona College. His teaching and research reflect his fascination with all things environmental. Classes on U.S. environmental history, water in the U.S. West, and public lands management, like those on urbanization and the interplay between the natural and built landscapes, have deeply informed his writing.
In this week’s episode of then & now, we are joined by John Mikhail, Carroll Professor of Jurisprudence at Georgetown University Law Center, for a deep dive into the controversial theory of the unitary executive. Rooted in the Constitution’s Vesting Clause, this theory asserts that the president holds centralized control over the executive branch. While the theory has longstanding roots in constitutional debates, the Trump administration has embraced and expanded this interpretation in unprecedented ways. John Mikhail traces the theory’s historical origins, its legal evolution, and its increasingly assertive use under Trump 2.0. He examines how this broad view of executive power threatens the traditional balance among the three branches of government and raises pressing concerns about the future of checks and balances in the American constitutional system.
John Mikhail is the Carroll Professor of Jurisprudence at Georgetown University Law Center, where he has taught since 2004. He teaches and writes on a variety of topics, including constitutional law, moral psychology, moral and legal theory, cognitive science, legal history, criminal law, torts, international law, and human rights. Professor Mikhail is the author of Elements of Moral Cognition: Rawls’ Linguistic Analogy and the Cognitive Science of Moral and Legal Judgment (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and over fifty articles, chapters, essays, and reviews in peer-edited journals, law reviews, and anthologies.
Further Reading
- The Vesting Clause
- The Unitary Executive Theory (UET), Cornell Law School
This week’s episode of then & now is part of an occasional series exploring the past, present, and future of U.S. foreign policy and the U.S.-led international order. Guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic is joined by Bruce Schulman, Professor of History at Boston University, to discuss the Trump administration’s selective use of history, especially its nods to the McKinley era’s embrace of tariffs and imperialism. President Trump’s invocation of slogans like "Make America Great Again" reflects a broader effort to revive a tried-and-true Gilded Age cultural vision, framing America as a nation betrayed by outsiders and internal dissenters. Bruce argues that Trump’s idiosyncratic historical references signal a return to an older, culturally resonant political strategy. To conclude, Bruce examines the roots and ramifications of this vision, challenging the nostalgia surrounding late 19th-century U.S. policy and its relevance today.
Bruce Schulman is the William E. Huntington Professor of History at Boston University. Bruce also directs the Institute for American Political History at Boston University. The Institute seeks to establish Boston University as a leading center for the study of America’s political past. He is also a contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, as well as websites such as Politico and Reuters. Bruce’s teaching and research concentrate on the history of the modern United States, particularly on the relationships between politics and broader cultural change. He is currently at work on a volume for the Oxford History of the United States covering the years 1896-1929.
Ben Zdencanovic is a Postdoctoral Associate at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Ben is a historian of the United States in the world, domestic and international politics, and economic and social policy. He has a particular interest in the relationship between U.S. global power and the politics of redistribution and welfare state. Ben earned his doctorate with distinction from the Department of History at Yale in 2019, where his dissertation was the winner of the Edwin W. Small Prize for outstanding work in United States history. Prior to coming to UCLA, Ben was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Jackson School for Global Affairs and an Assistant Instructional Professor at the University of Chicago.
Further Reading
- Time Magazine, "Tariffs Don’t Have to Make Economic Sense to Appeal to Trump Voters"
This week’s episode of then & now is part of a series co-sponsored by the L.A. History Collaborative, in which we explore the impact of the catastrophic wildfires that affected Los Angeles in early 2025. We are joined by Amy Green, Principal of Silverlake Conservation and one of Los Angeles’ most seasoned historical conservators. She discusses her efforts to preserve intricately crafted tiles from the early 20th century that have been salvaged from homes in Altadena impacted by the fires as well as the importance of these tiles to the historical context of Altadena and Southern California more broadly.
In the aftermath of the extensive destruction caused by the Eaton Fire, historic Batchelder tiles—recognized as one of Los Angeles' most significant contributions to the American Arts and Crafts movement—have been discovered, sometimes as the only markers of where homes once stood. To preserve these pieces of history, Amy, along with the volunteer organization Save the Tiles, endeavors to protect this essential aspect of cultural heritage. Salvaging these architectural fragments not only preserves elements of the affected homes but also serves as a connection between what has been lost and the future that lies ahead. Amy calls attention to the fact that, in the midst of profound devastation, there emerges a remarkable display of kindness.
Amy Green is a Principal of Silverlake Conservation and has a broad range of experience in the conservation of a variety of materials, including ceramics, glass, metal, stone, concrete, and modern materials. Amy came to the field of conservation as a ceramic artist with a strong working knowledge of clay and glaze chemistry, and she has gravitated towards the treatment of historic tile and architectural terra cotta. Amy has a certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Southern California, a Master’s of Art in Tile Conservation from Antioch University, and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan.
Further Reading
- Los Angeles Times, ‘The only thing still left.’ Volunteers race to save Altadena’s vintage tiles from the bulldozers
- The New York Times, After the L.A. Wildfires, a Race to Save the Tiles, and the Soul, of Altadena
- Silverlake Conservation
- The Batchelder Tile Registry
In this week’s episode of then & now, we present a recording of a recent event co-sponsored by the Wende Museum and the Luskin Center for History and Policy. This event launched the Meyer and Renee Luskin Public History Program at the Wende Museum, a series made possible through the extraordinary generosity of Meyer and Renee Luskin, with a thought-provoking conversation on the role of history in shaping how we address today’s most urgent problems.
Wende Museum Founder and Executive Director Justin Jampol was joined by David N. Myers, Distinguished Professor of History at UCLA and the Director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy, for an illuminating discussion on public history—how we collectively engage with the past to help make sense of the present. In an era defined by what some call a “polycrisis” of entangled geopolitical, economic, and ecological disruptions, historical perspective is more essential than ever. Together, Jampol and Myers explore the ways history can help us navigate complexity, challenge dominant narratives, and foster informed activism.
Justin Jampol is the Founder and Executive Director of the Wende Museum. A scholar of Cold War visual culture, Jampol has dedicated his career to uncovering and preserving artifacts that tell alternative histories of 20th-century geopolitics. His innovative approach to public history—merging art, archives, and community engagement—has made the Wende Museum a global model for rethinking how museums interact with the past.
David N. Myers is a Distinguished Professor of History at UCLA and the Director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy and the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate. A leading scholar of Jewish history, he has authored six books and edited thirteen others, including The Stakes of History: On the Use and Abuse of Jewish History for Life (Yale University Press, 2018). His research addresses Jewish intellectual and cultural history, with a focus on how historical narratives shape identity, politics, and social movements.
Further Reading
- The Wende Museum programs
This week’s episode of then & now is part of a series co-sponsored by the L.A. History Collaborative, in which we examine the effects of the devastating Los Angeles Wildfires in early 2025. Dr. Daisy Ocampo Diaz joins LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell to discuss the Fowler Museum’s exhibition Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art, one of the exhibitions associated with the Pacific Standard Time (PST) Art Initiative. The L.A. Wildfires highlighted the urgent need for effective fire management and risk mitigation strategies in the era of climate change. Rarely featured in such discussions, however, are the traditional landscape management methods, such as controlled burns, practiced by many Indigenous communities in North America before European colonization. As head curator of the Fire Kinship exhibition, Daisy underscores the vital role of fire as a regenerative force and explains how a legacy of colonial fire suppression tactics has exacerbated the effects of wildfires in the absence of sustainable landscape management practices. With more frequent and devastating natural disasters intensified by climate change, Daisy asserts that the best way forward is the integration of Indigenous knowledge into large-scale landscape management practices.
The Fire Kinship exhibition is on display at the Fowler Museum at UCLA through July 13, 2025. Read more about the exhibition here. Admission to the Fowler Museum is always free!
Dr. Daisy Ocampo (Caxcan, or Caz’ Ahmo, Indigenous Nation of Zacatecas, Mexico) earned her PhD in History from the University of California, Riverside in 2019. Her research in Native and Public History informs her work with museum exhibits, historical preservation projects, and community-based archives. She is the author of Where We Belong: Chemehuevi and Caxcan Preservation of Sacred Mountains (The University of Arizona Press, 2023) and is currently working on two major projects: “Pá’čapa: A Mt. Rubidoux Story,” a short documentary film which she co-produced, and “Fire Kinship,” an exhibit she curated at the UCLA Fowler Museum sponsored by Getty.
Further Reading
- Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA)
- PST ART
This week’s episode of then & now is part of a series examining the effects of one of the most powerful and destructive natural disasters in U.S. history: the Los Angeles Wildfires. Co-sponsored by the L.A. History Collaborative— a new consortium of cultural institutions and historians committed to using the tools of history to assist in the reconstruction of the lives and stories of those deeply affected by the L.A. Wildfires—we sit down with E. Randol Schoenberg, an LA-based lawyer and genealogist, to discuss the lives and cultural property lost during this devastating event. As the grandson of Austrian-American composers Arnold Schoenberg and Erich Zeisl, both of whom emigrated to the U.S. to escape the terror of Nazism in Europe and subsequently settled in West L.A, Randy serves as a custodian of his family’s historical legacy. Tragically, Randy's family not only lost several homes in the fires but also the entire inventory of sales and rental materials from Belmont Music Publishers, which included manuscripts, original scores, and printed works. The German-Jewish immigrant community has experienced significant cultural loss due to the wildfires, as the Pacific Palisades has historically served as a social hub for German-speaking cultural figures in the mid-twentieth century. In order to memorialize what has been lost, Randy underscores the necessity of recounting and documenting this critical history.
E. Randol Schoenberg is an American lawyer and genealogist, based in Los Angeles, California, specializing in legal cases related to the recovery of looted or stolen artworks, particularly those by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. Schoenberg is widely known as one of the central figures of the 2015 film Woman in Gold, which depicted the case of Maria Altmann against the government of Austria. He is also the subject of the 2023 genealogical documentary Fioretta.
Further Reading
- Belmont Music Publishers
- A treasure house of composer Arnold Schoenberg’s music destroyed in Palisades fire
- After Nazi Plunder, A Quest To Bring Home The 'Woman In Gold'
- Villa Aurora
This week’s episode of then & now is part of an occasional series exploring the past, present, and future of U.S. foreign policy and the U.S.-led international order with guest host Dr. Ben Zdencanovic. Joined by Dr. Stephen Wertheim, Senior Fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, we critically examine the far-reaching implications for U.S. foreign policy during the second Trump administration. Stephen characterizes Trump's foreign policy as unpredictable and a departure from traditional diplomatic norms. Specifically, he notes Trump’s avowedly “America First” action and rhetoric, using tariffs seemingly for negotiation purposes rather than as an economic measure and bringing the right-wing culture war to the federal workforce, which has resulted in a partial bureaucratic dismantling. Stephen warns that this approach and Trump’s routine bluffs raise concerns about the long-term impact on the U.S.'s global standing and our relationships with allies.
Ben Zdencanovic is a Postdoctoral Associate at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Ben is a historian of the United States in the world, domestic and international politics, and economic and social policy. He has a particular interest in the relationship between U.S. global power and the politics of redistribution and welfare state. Ben earned his doctorate with distinction from the Department of History at Yale in 2019, where his dissertation was the winner of the Edwin W. Small Prize for outstanding work in United States history. Prior to coming to UCLA, Ben was a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Jackson School for Global Affairs and an Assistant Instructional Professor at the University of Chicago.
Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. A historian of U.S. foreign policy, he analyzes contemporary problems in American strategy and diplomacy. Wertheim has published scholarly research on a range of subjects and concepts in U.S. foreign policy from the late nineteenth century to the present. He is the author of Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy (Harvard University Press, 2020), a Foreign Affairs book of the year, which reveals how the United States decided to pursue global military dominance as an effectively perpetual project. Named one of “the world’s 50 top thinkers for the Covid-19 age” by Prospect magazine, Wertheim regularly comments on current events.
Further Reading
What will Trump 2.0 mean for the global world order?
In this week’s episode of then & now, we are joined by Dr. Isaac Stanley-Becker, a reporter on intelligence and national security issues for The Washington Post, to examine the rise and partial fall of the Schengen Zone amid ongoing and polarizing debates regarding immigration policy. Through the lens of his dual expertise as a journalist and a historian, Isaac explores the origins and historical progression of the Schengen Zone in his recent publication, Europe Without Borders. Established in 1985, the Schengen Zone was created as an area facilitating free movement across Europe in the aftermath of World War II, symbolizing European unity and liberal internationalism. However, contemporary discourse frequently associates it with Europe’s migration crisis, fueling a backlash against globalization. While the Schengen Zone has significantly transformed European society, it has also consistently excluded non-Europeans, particularly migrants of color from former colonies of the Schengen member states. Isaac concludes with the assertion that the Schengen Zone is currently facing a precarious situation. Highlighting the rising prevalence of illiberal populism and anti-immigrant fury in both Europe and the United States, he posits that if Europe can develop and implement a more effective burden-sharing system for asylum seekers, the viability of the Schengen Zone could be maintained in a more coherent manner.
Isaac Stanley-Becker is a staff writer for The Washington Post, focusing on intelligence and national security. With a PhD in history from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes scholar, he has been an investigative reporter on the national staff and reported from across Europe. He recently published Europe without Borders: A History (Princeton University Press 2025), an investigation into the origins and development of the Schengen area of Europe. He was also part of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2024 for “American Icon,” a series exploring the role of the AR-15 in American life.
Further Reading
The Schengen Area
2015: The year of Europe's refugee crisis
This week’s episode of then & now is the first in a series examining one of the most powerful and destructive natural disasters in U.S. history, the Los Angeles wildfires. Joined by Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University Stephen Pyne, one of the country’s leading thinkers about fire, we discuss the history of urban fire to understand what is unfolding in Los Angeles—where lives, communities, histories, and large swaths of nature are being destroyed before our eyes. Informed by his wide-ranging perspective on fire management, Stephen situates the L.A. wildfires within a broader historical perspective. He describes the current era as the Pyrocene, the age of the Fire. He suggests that while nuisance fires have decreased, we now face dire conditions worsened by factors such as climate change, land use, and the burning of fossil fuels—all of which highlight the need for a fundamental reorganization of our lives. To conclude, he stresses the importance of avoiding the conditions that cause massive destruction, especially the burning of fossil fuels, and advocates for a thoughtful reassessment of our relationship with fire that minimizes the risk of future destructive events.
Stephen Pyne is an Emeritus Professor of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. He spent 15 seasons with the North Rim Longshots, a Grand Canyon National Park fire crew. Out of those seasons emerged a scholarly interest in the history and management of fire, with major surveys for America, Australia, Canada, Europe (including Russia), and the Earth. He has written 40 books, mostly on the history and management of wildland and rural fire, including a multi-volume fire history of the U.S. and its regions since 1960 (University of Arizona Press).
Further ReadingHuman use of fire has produced an era of uncontrolled burning: Welcome to the Pyrocene
2025 Los Angeles Fires
**Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual and domestic violence.
In this week’s episode of then & now, guest host Professor Jared McBride is joined by Dr. Joy Neumeyer to discuss her recent book, A Survivor’s Education. In the book, as well as this episode, Joy interweaves her own experiences of domestic abuse and the bureaucracy surrounding Title IX with Soviet and Russian history and examines gender and violence norms within the profession of history and academia writ large. Within the context of the #MeToo movement, Joy reflects on the enduring struggle that victims of abuse face due to the common propensity to amplify and repeat the narratives that are spread by perpetrators of violence. Informed by her extensive research on the history and application of Title IX—including the procedural tribulations of her own case—Joy intertwines the past and present and challenges the postmodernist approach to historical methodology with regard to truth narrativity and meaning. Joy concludes with the sentiment that historians can never be truly objective. Instead, they must expose their positionality and the personal, political, and social factors shaping their narrative about the past.
If you are experiencing abuse or are concerned about someone you know, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233) or visit http://www.thehotline.org.
Joy Neumeyer is a journalist and historian of Russia and Eastern Europe. She received a PhD in History from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Russia and a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. She has also worked as a reporter in Moscow and Warsaw. Her first book, A Survivor’s Education: Women, Violence, and the Stories We Don’t Tell (PublicAffairs, 2024), is an investigative memoir about abuse and the tension between narrative and evidence in understanding the past. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Nation, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, New Left Review, and The Los Angeles Review of Books.
Jared McBride is an assistant professor in the UCLA Department of History and is an expert on the history of Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe in the 20th century. His research examines mass violence, the Holocaust, interethnic conflict, nationalist movements, and war crimes prosecution. McBride’s research has been supported by fellowships, including the Guggenheim, SSRC, and Fulbright-Hays.
Further ReadingDarkness at Noon: On History, Narrative, and Domestic Violence
Title IX
Bernice Sandler
MeToo Movement
**Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of sexual and domestic violence.
In this week’s episode of then & now, LCHP Assistant Director Dr. Rose Campbell is joined by Dr. Shannon Speed to discuss systemic violence against Indigenous women. According to a 2016 study, Indigenous women are 10 times more likely to be kidnapped or murdered than almost any other population group in the United States. Although murder is the third leading cause of death among Indigenous women, these cases often go unsolved and unreported and attract little attention outside of local communities. Shannon discusses the policies that render Indigenous women particularly vulnerable to violence and underscores the impact of settler capitalism—specifically white supremacy and patriarchal ideologies—not only in the U.S. but also in the colonial history of Mexico. Compounding these factors is the jurisdictional vacuum found in Indian country, where U.S. federal laws have severely limited the ability of tribal law enforcement and tribal courts to prosecute violent crimes. In order to address the deep-seated structural and ideological factors that generate and perpetuate this cycle of violence against Indigenous women, Shannon advocates for a tribal sovereignty framework informed by a concern for human rights that aims to interrupt the cycle of violence and focus on a restorative rather than a more punitive approach.
Dr. Shannon Speed is a tribal citizen of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. She is Director of the American Indian Studies Center (AISC) and Professor of Gender Studies and Anthropology at UCLA. Dr. Speed has worked for the last two decades in Mexico and in the United States on issues of indigenous autonomy, sovereignty, gender, neoliberalism, violence, migration, social justice, and activist research. Her recent work, Incarcerated Stories: Indigenous Women Migrants and Violence in the Settler Capitalist State (University of North Carolina Press 2019), won the Best Subsequent Book Award of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association in 2019 and a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title award in 2020. She has a new co-edited volume entitledHeightened States of Injustice: Activist Research on Indigenous Women and Violence (University of Arizona Press 2021). Dr. Speed was the President of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA) from 2019-2020.
Further Reading
Native Hope; National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center; Violence Against Women Act (VAWA); Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe.
In this week’s episode of then & now, UCLA undergraduates Stephanie Zager, Michaela Esposito, and Ella Kitt join us to discuss the results of their LCHP report on the evolution of the Fairfax District in Los Angeles. The three researchers chronicle the district's rise and decline against the backdrop of the inevitable ebbs and flows of urban change. Influenced by migration patterns, economic development, and demographic shifts, Fairfax’s identity and outside perception have evolved significantly throughout its history. To understand this evolution better, Stephanie, Michaela, and Ella explored the policies and political initiatives within and outside the neighborhood, conducted research in the largely unknown archive of the late ethnographer Barbara Myerhoff, and undertook their own fieldwork within the neighborhood. They conclude by arguing that culturally informed policy is necessary both to honor and acknowledge the cultural history of neighborhoods while also embracing their evolution.
Stephanie Zager is an undergraduate student at UCLA, majoring in History and minoring in Information and Media Literacy. Stephanie currently serves as the Principal Investigator for the LCHP project focused on the Fairfax district of Los Angeles. Her research delves into the transformation of the Fairfax neighborhood, exploring how it has evolved and shifted from its Jewish identity.
Michaela Esposito is an undergraduate student at UCLA majoring in History, with a particular interest in Holocaust studies and Jewish history. Michaela was awarded an undergraduate research fellowship by the UCLA Leve Center for Jewish Studies, in which she had the opportunity to edit and prepare for the publication of a Belgian Holocaust survivor’s memoir.
Ella Kitt is an undergraduate student majoring in history and Russian studies at UCLA and is a member of UCLA’s Russian Flagship Program. She is researching the history of the Jewish community in the Fairfax neighborhood of Los Angeles, delving into the policy roots of demographic change within the district.
This week’s episode of then & now is the second in a series exploring the historical backdrop to and consequences of the 2024 election. Joining us are Raphael Sonenshein, a nationally recognized expert on racial and ethnic politics in California and Los Angeles, and Zev Yaroslavsky, one of Los Angeles's best-known public officials. This episode begins by continuing the discussion of historical trendlines on the national level and then moves into an analysis of key developments at the California state, county, and city levels. To understand these developments, Raphe Sonenshein cautions against becoming victims of presentism and instead puts these developments into a global context. Citing factors including race, culture, and gender, he addresses the phenomenon of incumbent parties continuing to suffer defeats in elections worldwide. Zev continues by commenting on voter turnout, the shift in California politics, and examines what democracy will look like four years from now in the wake of efforts to suppress voter turnout. While noting the impossibility of knowing exactly what will happen over the next four years on a national level, they discuss the importance of local government solving city-level problems, much of which relies upon a fiscal partnership with the federal government.
Raphael Sonenshein is the Executive Director of the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation. Previously, he served as the Executive Director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA. His bookPolitics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles(Princeton, 1993) won the American Political Science Association’s 1994 Ralph J. Bunche Award.
Zev Yaroslavsky is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He served as LA City Council Member from 1975 to 1994, and as LA County Supervisor from 1994 to 2014. In his recently released memoir, Zev's Los Angeles: From Boyle Heights to the Halls of Power, Zev reflects on his long career in politics.
In this week’s episode of then & now, we explore the 2024 presidential election and try to understand the enduring impact of a political realignment that began with Donald Trump’s rise in 2016. Joining us is Professor Lynn Vavreck, a UCLA professor and leading expert on U.S. elections. Professor Vavreck explores how Trump’s victories in 2016 and 2024 reflect a seismic shift in American politics from debates over government size to deeply polarizing cultural and identity issues. This realignment, she argues, has reshaped the electorate, with Trump solidifying a coalition built on economic grievances and cultural anxiety. Vavreck connects the economic frustrations that drove the 2024 election to broader historical trends, tracing parallels between the Reagan-era focus on deregulation and morality and today’s identity-inflected politics. She explains that Trump’s success stemmed from his willingness to vocalize attitudes on identity and economic issues that other politicians avoided, making him appear more relatable and aligned with voters’ concerns. Meanwhile, Democrats struggled to counter this with a cohesive message, as the immediacy of economic frustrations and inflation overshadowed their achievements under the Biden-Harris administration. Looking ahead, Vavreck discusses the potential impact of Trump’s second term on government policy and structure, as well as the opportunities and challenges Democrats face in crafting a compelling vision for 2028.
Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA, renowned for her expertise in voter behavior, campaign strategy, and the intersection of economics and elections. She is the co-author of acclaimed books such as The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election and Identity Crisis: The 2016 Presidential Campaign and the Battle for the Meaning of America, which explore the critical factors shaping recent presidential races. Vavreck’s research has been pivotal in understanding how political messaging and economic conditions influence voter decision-making and electoral outcomes.
In this week’s episode of then & now, we present a recording of a recent event hosted by the UCLA History Department, "Why History Matters: Reproductive Rights and Justice." This event brought together experts to explore the far-reaching effects of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in June 2022. Hosted by Kevin Terraciano, the conversation delves into the historical misuse of legal doctrines to limit reproductive freedoms and calls for a comprehensive reproductive justice framework that extends beyond abortion to include the right to have or not have children and to raise children in safe environments. Professor Cary Franklin critiques the Supreme Court's "history and tradition" test in Dobbs, arguing it distorts historical perspectives on liberty and equality, while Dean Alexandra Minna Stern discusses the lasting impacts of eugenic sterilization on marginalized groups, emphasizing how patterns of reproductive oppression persist today. Professor Elizabeth O’Brien examines Mexico’s recent Supreme Court rulings decriminalizing abortion and highlights grassroots activism's role in shaping a broader framework for reproductive rights in Latin America. In the U.S., maternal mortality and preventable deaths have risen sharply since the Dobbs decision, underscoring the panel’s call for historical research to inform advocacy as surveillance and criminalization of reproductive health grow. Through these comparative perspectives, the discussion powerfully illustrates how understanding historical contexts can guide efforts to protect and expand reproductive rights in the U.S.
Kevin Terraciano is a Professor and the Department Chair of History at UCLA. He specializes in Latin American history, especially Mexico and the Indigenous cultures and languages of central and southern Mexico. Among many books and translations, he is the author of The Mixtecs of Colonial Oaxaca: Ñudzahui History, Sixteenth through Eighteenth Centuries, a comprehensive study of Mixtec society and their adaptation to colonial rule.
Cary Franklin is the McDonald/Wright Chair of Law at UCLA and serves as the faculty director of the Williams Institute at UCLA as well as the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including the Harvard Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, the NYU Law Review, the Supreme Court Review, the Virginia Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal.
Alexandra Minna Stern is a professor of English and history and the Dean of UCLA’s Division of Humanities. She co-directs the Sterilization and Social Justice Lab, which studies eugenic sterilization practices in the U.S. and their impact on marginalized groups. She is the author of the award-winning Eugenic Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America, and the author of Telling Genes: The Story of Genetic Counseling in America, which was named a Choice 2013 Outstanding Academic Title in Health Sciences.
Elizabeth O’Brien is an Assistant Professor in the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History, specializing in the history of reproductive health in Mexico. Professor O’Brien is also a member of the cross-field group in the History of Gender and Sexuality. Professor O’Brien's 2023 book on colonialism and reproductive healthcare in Mexico, Surgery and Salvation: The
In this week’s episode of then & now, we delve into the complex history of reproductive justice in El Paso, Texas, a key city along the U.S.-Mexico border that has shaped broader conversations around race, health, and community care. Guest interviewer Professor Elizabeth O’Brien speaks with Professor Lina-Maria Murillo, a leading scholar in reproductive justice whose research focuses on gender, race, and class in reproductive care, particularly in border regions. Murillo’s upcoming book, Fighting for Control: Power, Reproductive Care, and Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, investigates the legacy of reproductive activism along the Texas border and the significant impact of Chicana and Mexican-American women on the fight for reproductive autonomy. Drawing from her research, Murillo examines the first U.S.-Mexico border birth control clinic, opened in El Paso in 1937, which became a battleground for debates over contraception, racialized fears, and efforts to restrict immigration. She explains how Texas’ history of white nationalist ideals still influences its restrictive reproductive policies, impacting marginalized communities as part of a broader vision for a ‘white metropolis.’ Murillo also highlights how past prejudices persist in Texas today, with grassroots Chicana-led health networks offering care alternatives for poor and immigrant communities, even enabling medical migration across borders. Ultimately, Murillo advocates for proactive reproductive justice through voting and grassroots community care, noting that marginalized communities cannot rely solely on traditional power structures.
Elizabeth O’Brien is an Assistant Professor in the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History, specializing in the history of reproductive health in Mexico. Professor O’Brien is also a member of the cross-field group in the History of Gender and Sexuality. Professor O’Brien's 2023 book on colonialism and reproductive healthcare in Mexico, Surgery and Salvation, received the 2024 Best Book Award from the Nineteenth-Century Section of the Latin American Studies Association.
Lina-Maria Murillo is an Assistant Professor in Gender, Women’s & Sexuality Studies, and History at the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on borderlands, women’s health and reproductive justice, Latina/o/x studies, and social justice movements. Professor Murillo’s upcoming book, Fighting for Control (UNC Press), will be released in January 2025. Professor Roth is also working on two additional projects: Making Gilead: White Demographic Decline and the End of Democracy, and a biography of abortion rights pioneer Patricia Maginnis, who organized a cross-border abortion network before Roe v. Wade.
The topic of reproductive healthcare and access to abortion has emerged as a pivotal point in the weeks and months leading up to the 2024 presidential election in the U.S. In this week's episode of then & now, our guest interviewer Professor Elizabeth O’Brien speaks with Professor Cassia Roth, a historian of Society, Environment, and Health Equity at the University of California, Riverside. Roth’s recent book, A Miscarriage of Justice, explores the intersection of reproductive health and legal policy in early 20th-century Brazil. Drawing from her research, Roth highlights parallels between Brazil and the U.S., noting how both countries are undergoing complex shifts in reproductive rights shaped by political and religious landscapes. While some areas of Latin America have seen significant progress toward decriminalizing abortion in recent decades, other countries in the region have imposed increasingly restrictive reproductive policies, underscoring the diversity of legal landscapes across Latin America. The conversation stresses the importance of understanding historical context, such as the role of military regimes and social inequalities, in shaping current reproductive policies. Roth calls for inclusive policies that address the needs of marginalized communities while navigating the ongoing back-and-forth nature of reproductive legislation.
Elizabeth O’Brien is an Assistant Professor in the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History, specializing in the history of reproductive health in Mexico. Professor O’Brien is also a member of the cross-field group in the History of Gender and Sexuality. Professor O’Brien's 2023 book on colonialism and reproductive healthcare in Mexico, Surgery and Salvation, received the 2024 Best Book Award from the Nineteenth-Century Section of the Latin American Studies Association.
Cassia Roth is an Associate Professor in the Department of Society, Environment, and Health Equity at UC Riverside. Professor Roth is a leading expert in women’s reproductive health in Brazil and her acclaimed book, A Miscarriage of Justice, was published by Stanford University Press in 2020. Professor Roth is currently working on a project entitled Birthing Abolition: Enslaved Women’s Reproduction and the Gradual End of Slavery in 19th-century Brazil.
Welcome back to then & now! To kick off our 5th season, we are joined by Professor Amir Alexander, a historian of mathematics in UCLA’s Luskin Department of History. His latest book, Liberty’s Grid, examines how Founding Father Thomas Jefferson transformed early America into a mathematical landscape. Jefferson’s vision of an empty, gridded space was intended to create a framework for people to act freely. Alexander delves into the paradox: though this grid symbolized American ideals of freedom, it also reinforced hierarchies and constraints. Natural obstacles such as bodies of water or geological features, as well as Native Americans who had lived on the land for centuries, were perceived as obstacles in Jefferson's quest to overlay order on an unordered natural world. Over time, opponents of the Jeffersonian grid developed alternative visions of how to organize the American landscape, but we still see remnants of this system in the rigid grids of middle America and in cities such as New York City, particularly Manhatten. We reflect on how this story and the perception of ordering nature is relevant to us today.
Amir Alexander is an adjunct professor in the UCLA Meyer and Renee Luskin Department of History. Professor Alexander's work illuminates the deep interconnections between mathematics and its social, cultural, and political setting, and highlights the intertwined relationship between critical mathematical developments and broader historical trends that motivated these developments and gave them meaning and purpose. Professor Alexander has written multiple books on this topic, and his 2014 book, Infinitesimal: How a Dangerous Mathematical Theory Shaped the Modern World, was selected as a finalist for the Phi Beta Kappa Science Award in 2015.
In this week's episode of then & now we explore a landmark moment in Mexican politics: the election of Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo as the country's first female president at the beginning of June 2024. Environmental scientist Sheinbaum secured a decisive victory, succeeding the current president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Joining us is Leila Miller, a seasoned correspondent for the LA Times based in Mexico City. We delve into the legacies of López Obrador and the contrasting political trajectories of the two female candidates in the recent election, Claudia Sheinbaum and Xóchitl Gálvez. Miller provides an in-depth analysis of their distinct backgrounds and political ideologies, highlighting López Obrador's pivotal role in Sheinbaum’s success and how his influence may shape her presidency.
Finally, we examine the broader implications of Sheinbaum's victory for Mexico's relationship with the United States and its potential impact on international politics.
Leila Miller is a freelance journalist based in Mexico City who corresponds with the LA Times.
2023 marked the hottest year recorded in human history, with predictions indicating a worsening global trend. In early June 2024, southern California experienced an extreme heat dome, with temperatures rising into the triple digits. Currently, heat alerts affect over 16 million people across California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico. This escalating situation is not confined to the United States nor limited to the present; it is a manifestation of the intensifying impacts of climate change. Regions previously unacquainted with extreme heat are struggling to adapt, while areas accustomed to high temperatures are becoming increasingly uninhabitable.
Heat is not merely a climate issue; it disproportionately affects individuals based on geographic location, race, and socioeconomic status, among other factors. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Bharat Venkat, Associate Professor at the Institute for Society & Genetics, the Department of History, and the Department of Anthropology at UCLA, to delve into the concept of thermal inequality. We explore how Dr. Venkat developed an interest in this subject and examine the origins of thermal inequality. Our discussion addresses the populations most impacted by heat inequality, with a particular focus on the Los Angeles area. We also touch upon critical topics such as urban design, socioeconomic disparities, and their intersection with heat. Finally, we contemplate the future of thermal inequality and potential solutions to mitigate its effects.
Recent campus protests have focused new attention on university investment policies. The call for greater transparency and divestment from Israel has led to questions about the growth and composition of large university endowments, including that of the University of California (UC).
How did the UC system achieve its robust financial position? One answer lies in its deep-rooted connection to land. The Federal Morrill Act of 1862 provided land grants to public universities to establish campuses, a foundational act that has led some to label these state institutions, including the UC, as a "land grab" institution.
In this week’s episode of then & now, we delve into this complex history with insights from UCLA researchers and Ph.D. students Samuel Feldblum, John Schmidt, and Abbie Cohen. They discuss their newly released report, "Selling Sunset and Land at the University of California," published by the Luskin Center for History and Policy. The episode explores the UC's significant investment in Blackstone, a real estate trust that generates profits by raising rents and housing prices—outcomes that have a direct impact on many UC students and faculty.
The conversation prompts an examination of the UC system's funding history, its investment strategies, and the ethical implications of its financial decisions. Can the UC system align its investments more closely with the public interest, potentially providing affordable housing for its students? This episode encourages listeners to reflect on the balance between financial strategy and social responsibility within the realm of higher education.
In this episode of then & now, we present the recording of an event held at UCLA on May 13, 2024. This event, sponsored by the UCLA History Department, featured a conversation between UCLA Professors David Myers and James Gelvin about the history and context of the Israel-Hamas war and the situation in Gaza.
The brutal attack on Israeli citizens by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, shocked the world. In the 7 months since that event, the Israeli military has bombarded Gaza, killing upwards of 35,000 Palestinians and injurin some 80,000 more in what is said to be an attempt to eradicate Hamas and retrieve the hostages remaining in Hamas’s hands. In recent weeks, the war has received renewed attention in the United States due to clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli groups on college campuses, confrontations that have sometimes been exacerbated by extreme police responses.
Professor Myers and Gelvin explore questions about why Hamas perpetrated their horrific attack on Israeli citizens on October 7th, why Benjamin Netanyahu has responded with months of bombardments, and where the United States features in this equation. What led to this months-long war, and what does the future hold for Palestinians and Israelis?
Professor David Myers is a Distinguished Professor and Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at UCLA. He has published multiple books on Jewish intellectual and cultural history, and has written several op-eds calling for an end to the war in Gaza and return of the Israeli hostages. Professor James Gelvin is a Professor of Modern Middle East History here at UCLA. He has published extensively on the social and cultural history of the modern Middle East, and his book titled “Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War” has been revised and updated several times, most recently in 2021.
**As the war in Gaza rages on, discussions surrounding free speech and the right to protest have surged across the United States, particularly on college campuses. When a pro-Palestine encampment at Columbia University was raided by police, leading to dozens of arrests in late April 2024, university students around the country set up their own protests and encampments, urging for an end to the war and divestment of university funding from weapons used by the Israeli government to attack Gaza.
Join us on this week's episode of then & now podcast as we delve into the history and evolution of academic free speech with UCLA History Professor Michael Meranze. Professor Meranze explores the changing landscape of free speech on campus, the evolving role of faculty in fostering open discourse, and the profound impact of social media on freedom of expression, and considers how the events of October 7th, 2023, have reshaped higher education in the United States.**
Professor Michael Meranze specializes in United States intellectual and legal history with an emphasis on early America. He published Laboratories of Virtue, an examination of the birth of the penitentiary in the context of the contradictions of the American Revolution and early Liberalism, and is currently working on two long-term projects: one, an analysis of sensibility and violence in the Revolutionary Atlantic and the other an attempt to rethink the history and meaning of the American death penalty from the eighteenth-century to the present.
Gun violence has become deeply ingrained in the historical fabric of the United States, intertwined with the principles outlined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which grants individuals the right to keep and bear arms. This amendment is frequently invoked in debates surrounding the implementation of stricter gun control measures.
In this week's episode, then & now presents a compelling discussion hosted by the Department of History at UCLA under the Why History Matters series, focusing on the historical trajectory of America's relationship with firearms. Panelists Brian DeLay, Adam Winkler, and Jennifer Wagman provide nuanced insights into various facets of gun culture in America.
The conversation delves into the evolution of gun legislation, tracing its origins back to the founding era and drawing parallels with contemporary times. The discussion also addresses the challenges of interpreting laws formulated in a different historical context and their application in the present day, alongside the often overlooked public health implications of gun violence.
Moreover, the episode examines the repercussions of lenient gun laws in the United States on neighboring nations, as well as the country's role as a major arms exporter. Each speaker brings their unique expertise, providing a comprehensive overview of this complex and multifaceted issue.
In the wake of the events of October 7th in Israel and the swift reaction by the Israeli government against Hamas, student protests have erupted on campuses around the United States, igniting fervent discussions about free speech, the First Amendment, and safe spaces. This week on then & now, we are joined by David Cole, the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union and the George Mitchell Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Dr. Cole offers profound insights into the history of government intervention in matters concerning freedom of speech, shedding light on its implications for academia.
Dr. Cole also discusses the crucial role of freedom of speech in academic settings, where ideas should be freely exchanged and challenged. He casts a critical eye on cancel culture, a phenomenon in which dissenting views are swiftly silenced; by contrast, he emphasizes the importance of fostering a culture of tolerance and open dialogue. Finally, we discuss Title IX practices, providing clarity on what constitutes a Title IX violation and navigating the complexities of distinguishing between protected speech and harassment, particularly in the context of university campuses.
Dr. David Cole is the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union and the George Mitchell Professor at Georgetown University Law Center. In his role as National Legal Director, he manages more than 200 ACLU staff attorneys and support staff in the National office, oversees the ACLU’s U.S. Supreme Court docket, and provides leadership to 400 more legal staff who work in ACLU affiliate offices in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. Dr. Cole has received two honorary degrees and many awards for his civil liberties and human rights work, including the inaugural Norman Dorsen Presidential Prize from the ACLU, awarded to an academic for lifetime commitment to civil liberties.
As the U.S. primary elections unfold, the issue of border security, particularly along the US-Mexico border, has taken center stage. Concerns about the number of people crossing the U.S. southern border illegally have prompted extreme and sometimes fatal measures by U.S. officials to curb the flow of migrants. How effective are these measures at slowing illegal immigration, and what is the cost for those trying to enter the U.S.? In this week’s podcast, we sit down with Dr. Jason de León, professor of Anthropology and Chicano Studies at UCLA and the director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, to discuss the effects of various immigration policies.
Dr. de León sheds light on the methods that have been employed since at least the 1990s to deter border crossing, such as the Prevention through Deterrence policy, highlighting the conditions faced by those who cross the border and the potentially fatal outcomes. Challenging the perception of migration as a localized issue, Dr. de León argues that migration is a multifaceted phenomenon with global implications. He advocates for humane policies that address the root causes of migration, such as poverty and political turmoil, rather than relying on border enforcement policies that actively and often purposely cause harm and even death.
Dr. de León is the Executive Director of the Undocumented Migration Project (UMP), professor of Anthropology and Chicano Studies at UCLA, and the Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Dr de León earned his bachelor’s at UCLA, and his PhD at Penn State University. He was named a MacArthur Foundation fellow in 2017. His first book “The Land of Open Graves: Living and Dying on the Migrant Trail”, was published in 2015 by the University of California Press, and his second book, “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling”, was published by Viking Press in March 2024.
As advances in technology continue to shape our world, understanding the implications of artificial intelligence (AI), cyber security, and digital privacy has never been more important. In this episode of then & now, we delve into the crucial intersection of technology, law, and policy with John Villasenor, a distinguished professor at UCLA and co-director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law and Policy.
Villasenor's expertise provides a fascinating glimpse into the history of technology and how it has rapidly evolved over the years. From the pioneering work of Alan Turing to the current landscape of AI, Villasenor offers valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities presented by these advancements. Join us as we explore the impact of technology on society and the changing landscape of technology law and consider: can we regulate AI? Should we?
John Villasenor is Professor of Engineering, Law, and Public Policy and Management at UCLA, where he co-directs the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law and Policy. He is a leading voice in the discussion surrounding the ethical implications of technology and the importance of thoughtful regulation in the tech industry.
While the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and Russia and Ukraine are center-stage, the threat of nuclear weapons hovers ominously over our world. The recent release of the popular movie "Oppenheimer" reminds us of the extraordinary potency of nuclear weapons. Russia's aggression in Ukraine has raised concerns about its nuclear intentions, while China, under President Xi Jinping, seeks to bolster its nuclear capabilities to match those of the US. Iran's nuclear ambitions persist, and there are predictions that North Korea may be adopting a more aggressive stance which includes nuclear weapons. As these nations either expand or maintain their nuclear capabilities, global nuclear tensions rise.
In this episode of Then & Now, we engage in a conversation with Chancellor Albert Carnesale, a distinguished academic and expert in nuclear engineering and arms control, who served as chancellor of UCLA and provost of Harvard University. Chancellor Carnesale provides valuable insights into past efforts to mitigate nuclear threats. He also discusses current strategies to ensure global security from nuclear dangers, drawing from his involvement in the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks/Treaty (SALT) and his knowledge of China, North Korea, and Iran's nuclear histories.
Albert Carnesale, distinguished scholar and nuclear arms expert, is a prominent figure in academia and international security. With an extensive academic career spanning decades, Carnesale has contributed significantly to our understanding of nuclear proliferation, arms control negotiations, and nonproliferation strategies. As a professor at UCLA's Engineering and Public Affairs School, his research and teachings delve deep into the complexities of global security, shaping the discourse on nuclear policy and international relations.His expertise and insights have not only informed policymakers but also inspired generations of students to engage critically with the pressing challenges of our time.
One of the most vexing social problems in U.S. society is our country’s healthcare system, which is wracked by rising costs, inequitable access, and manifold inefficiencies. Unlike Canada or a number of European countries, the United States has never adopted a single-payer system in which the government provides health insurance to all. Instead, it has favored a range of private options alongside supplemental government programs. As a result of its size and significance, the state of California has been a laboratory for government healthcare policy, with public officials and advocates testing the virtues of various private and public healthcare programs.
In a forthcoming report for the Luskin Center, Dr. Ben Zdencanovic, along with Sara Ohannessian, Lauren Heiberg, Emiko Levings, and Emilila Fergadiotti, examine the history of healthcare policy in California, with a particular focus on Medi-Cal, the state-sponsored insurance plan introduced in 1965. In this episode of “Then & Now,” we sit down to talk to Dr. Ben Zdencanovic about the findings of this team.
Dr. Ben Zdencanovic is a Postdoctoral Associate at the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. He is an historian of the United States in the world, domestic and international politics, and economic and social policy. He has a particular interest in the relationship between U.S. global power and the politics of redistribution and welfare state. His forthcoming book from Princeton University Press is titled Island of Enterprise: The End of the New Deal and the Rise of U.S. Global Power in a World of Welfare, 1940 – 1955.
On this episode of then & now, Middle East expert Aaron David Miller offers his perspective on the current state of affairs in Israel and Gaza after October 7, 2023 — and on the broader historical context of the explosion of violence in recent months. Drawing on his decades of service in the U.S. State Department, he also traces the arc of American diplomacy on the Israel-Palestine question, noting the many failures and limited successes in this story. Miller reflects on the importance of balance and strong leadership, qualities that have often been in short supply in efforts to resolve or mitigate tensions between Palestinians and Israelis.
Aaron David Miller is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, focusing on U.S. foreign policy. He received his PhD in Middle East and U.S. diplomatic history from the University of Michigan in 1977 and has authored five books including The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace (2008). Miller is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and a frequent commentator in print and visual media.
In our final episode of 2023, we are sharing a recording of an event hosted by the UCLA History Department as part of the Why History Matters series. Labor movements have surged to the attention of the public over the past year, with the historic Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes at the beginning of the year as well as the United Auto Workers strike later in the year. Moderated by UCLA Professor of History and Labor Studies Toby Higbie, this event featured a panel discussion with Kent Wong (Director of the UCLA Labor Center), Susan Minato (Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11), and Billy Ray (Screenwriter and Director, and former co-chair of the WGA Negotiating Committee) about the history of labor movements, the power of unions and strikes in America today, and what lies ahead.
For this special episode, we are sharing a recording of a Zoom event hosted on November 21 by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Featuring two UCLA history professors, Dr. James L. Gelvin and Dr. David N. Myers, this informational session explores the historical background to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, addressing questions such as:
- What is Hamas?
- What led to Hamas' attack on Israel?
- Why was Israel so ill-prepared?
- What does the future hold for Israel and Palestine, and for the wider region?
Dr. L. Gelvin is a professor of history at UCLA. He is the author of numerous books and articles on Middle Eastern history and contemporary issues, including The Israel-Palestine Conflict: A History, recently updated and released as a fourth edition by Cambridge University Press.
Dr. David N. Myers is a professor of history at UCLA and the director of the Luskin Center for History and Policy. He is the author and editor of numerous books in the field of modern Jewish history including Between Arab and Jew: The Los Voice of Simon Rawidowicz, published by Brandeis University Press in 2009.
This episode of then & now features a conversation with the Reverend James Lawson, the legendary social justice activist who introduced the practice of non-violent action to the civil rights movement. The conversation takes up Rev. Lawson’s early years and encounters with racism in Massillon, Ohio; his exposure to the idea of non-violence through his reading of Gandhi and while on mission in India; his tireless efforts to promote non-violence in the United States; and his thoughts about how the practice of non-violence can be spread throughout a world convulsed by violence. At age ninety-five, Rev. Lawson continues to advocate for the relevance of non-violence with a rare mix of wisdom and humility.
Rev. James Lawson, Jr. has been one of the most influential and inspirational faith leaders in Los Angeles—and the United States at large—over the past seven decades. After studying, teaching, and serving as a pastor in Tennessee, he arrived in Los Angeles in 1974 to assume the position of pastor at the Holman United Methodist Church. From that platform, Rev. Lawson immersed himself in many of the major struggles for justice in the city and nation including civil rights, workers’ rights, immigrant rights, and the cause of peace the world over. He is the recipient of many honors and awards recognizing him as one of the great civil rights leaders of our time. In 2021, the UCLA Labor Center was renamed the "UCLA James M. Lawson Worker Justice Center."
On September 15, 2023, workers from the United Auto Workers union went on strike at Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Stellantis simultaneously, quickly expanding to include tens of thousands of workers at automobile factories throughout the United States. Founded by visionary and then UAW president Walter Reuther, At its founding, the union focused on better wages and conditions for all working-class Americans, not just union members. Current UAW president Shawn Fain has channeled much of founding UAW president Walter Reuther’s rhetoric in championing benefits for all workers and pushing for government support of electric car manufacturing jobs. In what has been a historic year for unions and labor movements throughout the United States, we sit down with Dr. Nelson Lichtenstein to discuss the history of the UAW and what this strike means for the American working class. What does this strike reveal about current relations between the working and elite classes, and how will the UAW strike and demands play into political and labor discourse in the coming years?
Nelson Lichtenstein is a Research Professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he also serves as the director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor, and Democracy. He is the author of numerous books, including “State of the Union: A Century of American Labor” (published in 2002 and revised in 2013). His most recent book, “A Fabulous Failure: The Clinton Presidency and the Transformation of American Capitalism” which he co-authored with the late Judith Stein, was published in 2023 by Princeton University Press.
More than half the world’s population currently lives in cities, and current estimates suggest that by 2050 nearly 7 out of every 10 people will live in urban spaces. In an increasingly crowded and urbanized world, space has become a precious commodity. As a species, we seem drawn to cities, despite their obvious disadvantages. From the ancient cities of Southeast Asia to the crowded streets of modern Los Angeles, cities offer opportunities for interactions that wouldn’t be possible in urban areas. In this episode, we sit down with Professor Monica Smith, who shares her perspective on the importance of infrastructure and shared spaces in the birth and survival of cities past and present. How do cities affect the way that we interact with the natural environment and with our fellow human beings, and how can we think creatively about shared spaces in crowded urban environments?
Dr. Monica L. Smith is a professor and Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair in Indian Studies at UCLA. She is an ancient economic historian who uses archaeological data to analyze the collective effects of routine activities through the study of food, ordinary goods, and architecture. Her current research focuses on the Indian subcontinent, a region that has produced some of the world’s earliest and most long-lived urban areas. Her most recent book was published by Viking Press in 2019, and is titled “Cities: The First 6000 Years.”
Reports have emerged in recent weeks that a grave humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Nagorno-Karabakh, a contested region in present-day Azerbaijan that contains a large majority of Armenian residents. A prominent international lawyer, Luis Moreno Ocampo, in fact, maintains that “a Genocide is being committed” by Azerbaijani forces against Armenian residents. This episode of “Then & Now” features UCLA historian Sebouh Aslanian, who offers a rich account of the history of the region and the century-long conflict between Armenians and Azerbaijanis. He situates the tension against the backdrop of the rise and fall of empire—and analyzes the two wars that have engulfed the contested region since 1988 and that have led to the current dire crisis in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Sebouh Aslanian is professor of history and holds the Richard Hovannisian Endowed Chair of Modern Armenian History at the UCLA History Department, and is the inaugural director of the Armenian Studies Center at the Promise Armenian Institute. He is an acknowledged expert in world history, Armenian history, Indian Ocean history, and early modern social and economic history. He is the author of the award-winning From the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean: The Global Trade Networks of Armenian Merchants from New Julfa, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), and has publishedwidely on early modern world and Armenian history, including his most recent book, Early Modernity and Mobility Port Cities and Printers across the Armenian Diaspora, 1512-1800 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023).
As we transition to our fourth season of "Then & Now", this episode features renowned Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard. He offers an analysis of Israel's current crisis of democracy, including the attacks on the judicial system and Supreme Court, and a wide contextual frame that extends back to 1948 and to the founding document of the state of Israel, its Declaration of Independence. The conversation then moves to Sfard's detailed argument that Israel's control of the West Bank amounts to a legal regime of apartheid. We also discuss how Sfard understands and contends with criticism of the project of human rights as an instrument of Western colonialism. Finally, the episode concludes with a discussion of Sfard's grandfather, the Polish-born sociologist Zygumt Bauman, and the ways in which he left an imprint on his grandson.
MIchael Sfard is one of Israel's leading human rights lawyers who has frequently represented Palestinian clients at the Israeli Supreme Court. He is the author of the 2018 book The Wall and the Gate: Israel, Palestine, and the Legal Battle for Human Rights. He also wrote a legal opinion addressing Israel's control of the West Bank for the NGO Yesh Din, "The Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid."
Following the recent destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country, the government of Ukraine accused Russia of the crime of “ecocide.” This term first surfaced in the 1970s in the context of the U.S. military’s use of Agent Orange in Vietnam. Since that time, the term has gained currency in international legal circles as a tool to fight against large-scale violations of the environment. A number of states have already incorporated the concept into their legal codes, and efforts are ongoing to enshrine “ecocide” in international law.
This episode of then & now features Kate Mackintosh, veteran human rights activist, international lawyer, and front-line participant in the efforts to define and promote “ecocide.” She discusses the historical roots of the concept, its place within the international legal order, and current efforts to advance this legal tool to forestall further damage to the global environment. The conversation also turns to the question of how effective such a tool of punishment can be in the world today.
Kate Mackintosh served as the inaugural executive director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights at the UCLA School of Law. She now serves as executive director of the Promise Institute for Human Rights in Europe.
On June 29, 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to end affirmative action for college admissions, stating that considering race as a factor was unconstitutional, while preserving ‘legacy’ admissions which often allow students of alumni entrance to prestigious institutions. Yet from the establishment of the first university in the United States, race has been a consistent organizing principle in American higher education. In this episode, we sit down with UCLA historian Eddie Cole to discuss how the origins of affirmative action in the 1960s aimed to rectify a legacy of systemic racism in the United States. In later decades, the discourse around affirmative action shifted from restitution and reparation to admissions and diversity more broadly. Now that the Supreme Court has struck down affirmative action, what are the repercussions for Black students? And how will the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action affect the generations to come? Should the conversation shift from the need for diversity to a renewed call for reparations?
Dr. Eddie R. Cole is Associate Professor of Education and History at UCLA. Dr. Cole’s research explores leadership, race, and social movements through the prism of higher education, addressing power and systems of power as well as education’s impact on society. His award-winning book, The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom was published by Princeton University Press in 2020.
In this episode, historian Peter Baldwin makes the case for open access. He surveys the history of knowledge production and transmission from the Gutenberg Bible, which opened up access in unprecedented ways. Open access today, he argues, is not a novelty but continuous with earlier developments in which artists and thinkers were "workers for hire," who were compensated for their creative and scholarly labor. In the same vein, university professors are paid to produce scholarship which, Baldwin argues, should incline them to accept open access. The conversation takes up the fate of copyright, ownership of ideas, and the core notion of authorship, all the more important to consider in the age of AI.
Peter Baldwin is an Emeritus Professor of History at UCLA. His previous books have focused on comparative histories of Europe and America as well as the history of copyright law. Dr. Baldwin’s most recent book, Athena Unbound: Why and How Scholarly Knowledge Should be Free for All, was published by MIT Press in March 2023 as an open-access volume.
Women's reproductive rights have been a contentious issue over the past few years in the United States. Both federal and state measures have been introduced that restrict women’s ability to make decisions about their bodies and reproduction, culminating last year with the Supreme Court’s reversal of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Though the US has been a public battleground for women’s reproductive rights in recent years, the debate about women’s right to bodily autonomy is neither unique nor new. In this context, what might comparative histories of reproductive politics beyond the US tell us about the state of reproductive rights today? And what is the role of religion in laws and policies related to reproductive rights?
In this episode of Then & Now, medical historian Dr. Elizabeth O’Brien offers a deep history of how colonial and religious powers shaped women's reproductive choices in Mexico from the 18th to 20th centuries, and explores how historical attitudes towards women’s bodies and gender roles are relevant to understanding reproductive rights in the 21st century United States.
Elizabeth O’Brien is currently the Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine at the Department of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She will be joining UCLA’s Department of History in Fall 2023. Her book Surgery and Salvation: Religion, Racial Medicine, and Reproductive Politics in Mexico, 1745-1940 will be released by UNC Press in late 2023.
In part two of our conversation with Zev Yaroslavsky, one of Los Angeles's best-known public officials, we continue our conversation on his recently released memoir and his reflections from his long career in politics. In this episode, Zev talks about the history of race relations in LA, the growing crisis of its unhoused population, and the importance of taking political risks. Zev also recalls his involvement in the struggle on behalf of low-wage workers and his passion for civil rights and the First Amendment.
In the first of a two-part conversation, "Then & Now" sits down with Zev Yaroslavsky, one of LA's best-known public officials, to talk about his fascinating life and forty-year career in politics. Yaroslavsky has just released a memoir entitled Zev's Los Angeles that traces his rise from a Jewish immigrant family in Boyle Heights and Fairfax to his stunning election to City Council at age 26 in 1975. In this conversation, Zev recounts his quick path to political power in LA, his move after twenty years from City Council to the County Board of Supervisors, and some of the key policy issues he advanced in his time in office. With characteristic candor and humor, Yaroslavsky also discusses the challenges of governance in Los Angeles.
As the director of the FBI for nearly half a century, John Edgar Hoover was the chief architect of the American security apparatus during a large chunk of the 20th century. A recognizable figure in popular memory, Hoover is also remembered for his fierce campaigns against Communism and his antipathy to civil liberties, which led to egregious abuses of power. In many ways, his career symbolized the dramatic rise of the security state in post-New Deal America.
What does J. Edgar Hoover’s life reveal to us about the evolution of federal power? How does his story revise our view of conservatism in 20th-century America? And what might his tenure tell us about our own times as the FBI increasingly comes in the crosshairs of partisan politics? In this episode, our host Ben Zdencanovic sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Beverly Gage to discuss these questions.
Beverly Gage is the John Lewis Gaddis Professor of History at Yale University. Her book G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, a biography of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, received the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Biography, the Bancroft Prize in American History, and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography, among other prizes. Professor Gage has also authored The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in its First Age of Terror. She writes for numerous journals and magazines, including The New Yorker, New York Times, and Washington Post.
The United States and Israel have both been roiled by major democratic crises in recent years. Many observers attribute these crises to the Trump presidency and the recent plan by the Netanyahu government to undertake a major overhaul of the judiciary. But their roots may well extend back further. Can we learn from the histories of these two countries in understanding the present? Does the story of slavery and anti-Black racism in the U.S., on one hand, and the displacement and occupation of Palestinians, on the other, help explain where we are today?
Tel Aviv-based historian of the United States, Dr. Yael Sternhell, provides compelling responses to these challenging questions. While obvious differences exist between the two societies, she notes that there are also important similarities between them, including the prevalence of supremacist ideologies in both. Drawing on her long-standing interest in human movement, Sternhell reflects on the American and Israeli past, as well as the current crises of democracy in both places. History, she concludes, offers in its own way a measure of hope for the future.
Dr. Yael Sternhell is Associate Professor of History and American Studies at Tel Aviv University, and is a scholar of the American Civil War and the social history of archives. Her first book, Routes of War: The World of Movement in the Confederate South, is an interpretation of the Civil War in the South as an experience of physical mobility and the many different ways through which mobility figured in the social, cultural, and political processes that shaped the war.
In the decade since the global financial crisis of 2007-8, a number of countries have faced and succumbed to sovereign-debt crises and declared bankruptcy. After Greece, Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Zambia, and Lebanon, Sri Lanka has recently joined the ranks of countries felled by economic downturn, whose harsh impact will be felt by its people for a long time to come. In this context, the question arises: what role have international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank played in these economic crises? Have they helped or hurt the economic prospects of the Global South?
To discuss this question, we are joined by Ahilan Kadirgamar, a political economist from the University of Jaffna in Sri Lanka, and Jamie Martin, a historian at Harvard University and the author of The Meddlers: Sovereignty, Empire, and the Birth of Global Economic Governance.
In the wake of the pandemic and persistent underfunding, cultural and educational institutions in the United States today are increasingly confronted with an uncertain fate. How can they sustain growth, enfranchise new audiences, and increase diversity at a time when “the death of the humanities” looms on the horizon?
In this episode of Then & Now, Katherine E. Fleming, the president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, brings her rich experiences as historian, academic administrator, and now chief executive of a major philanthropic foundation to make sense of the problems faced by higher education and cultural institutions in the United States. Dr. Fleming talks about her academic trajectory, the paradoxical finances of American universities, and what her plans are for the Getty.
Hip-hop culture and rap music are often assumed to be quintessentially American art forms. But by the late 1970s, hip-hop had transcended its roots in the US coasts. In France, artists from the African diaspora experimented with hip-hop, using it as an art form to articulate Blackness at a time when their community had little visibility in public life. Hip-hop became a critical tool for crafting Black visions of representation and resistance.
This intersection of music, culture and politics—ranging from Paris to Los Angeles—is the focus of this episode, which features Dr. Samuel Lamontagne, a scholar of hip-hop and electronic music. Dr. Lamontagne combines his extensive research and personal experience to explain the rich landscape of global hip-hop, and how music became a crossroads for the meeting of transnational Black politics and aesthetics.
Samuel Lamontagne is a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow with the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies and the Department of History at UCLA. His research focuses on hip-hop and electronic dance music in Los Angeles, and in the African diaspora more generally. A former co-editor-in-chief of Ethnomusicology Review, he has also authored a book on electronic music.
The legitimacy of a US-led global order has been taken for granted by many in political, diplomatic and intellectual circles in the United States and even beyond. Yet this narrative of a postwar liberal order sits uncomfortably with a long history of imperial expansion and settler-colonial practices that the US has pursued over the centuries. Host Ben Zdencanovic sits down with Aziz Rana, a scholar of US constitutionalism, race, and empire at Cornell Law School, to discuss the politics of racial and cultural hierarchy that have been integral to American engagement with the world. From the days of frontier expansion and Wilsonian internationalism to the postwar push for modernization and a ‘rules-based-order’, arguments for American primacy have been deeply informed by ideas and practices of supremacy.
How has America’s imperial stance abroad impacted its domestic politics? Is there any prospect of forging an inclusive and progressive American foreign policy? And why must a politics of anti-imperialism require an equally strong commitment to anti-authoritarianism as well? These are the questions that guide this conversation between two scholars of the US in the world.
Recent years have witnessed a stark rise across the globe in populist leaders whose policies are implicitly, or even explicitly, authoritarian. The policies of these leaders are sometimes at odds with their populist rhetoric in that they reward the elite few at the expense of the masses. Yet this trend is not new. As far back as ancient Egypt, we see authoritarian leaders collecting and retaining wealth and power in the hands of the elite. What are the parallels between the authoritarian governments of the past and the present? How can we use the past to cast a critical eye on our own social patterns and willingness to hand over power to the few? This episode of Then & Now explores how and why authoritarian, populist leaders, from ancient Egypt, to the present, gain and maintain power, and seeks to understand why the many so often choose to give up power to the few.
China-US relations have again drawn global attention after a Chinese high-altitude balloon, suspected of carrying surveillance equipment, was shot down off the Carolina coast by the United States military. Beyond concerns about espionage and national security, this incident captured the US government’s larger anxieties about China’s growing influence in international affairs, and its threat to long-standing American hegemony in transnational governance. On the economic front, as the US-led economic system faces ongoing criticism, particularly since the 2008 financial crisis, the ‘Chinese model’ has emerged as a serious competitor. Another important development is China’s effort to redefine sovereign states — rather than international institutions — as the best guarantor of human rights.
In the first episode of this new occasional series looking at the past, present, and future of the US-led international order, our host Ben Zdencanovic is joined by the scholar of international relations Rosemary Foot. The two discuss the recent history of China-US relations, why China sees the Indo-Pacific bloc as the new NATO, and how the country seeks to reshape the norms dictating diplomacy and development.
Rosemary Foot is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations and a Research Associate at the Oxford China Centre. Her research interests and publications cover China-US relations, human-rights diplomacy, and Asian regional institutions. An Emeritus Fellow at St Antony’s College, she is the author of, most recently, China, the UN, and Human Protection: Beliefs, Power, Image (Oxford University Press, 2020).
The narrow victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, in Brazil's presidential election in November 2022 was seen by many as a win for democracy in the country. Yet as the storming of its legislature on January 8 showed, former president Jair Bolsonaro's tumultuous, populist tenure has left Brazil deeply divided. How did Lula and then Bolsonaro and then Lula again emerge as such potent figures? What impact did the two-decade military junta (1964-85) have on the country's politics? And how has Brazil's turbulent institutional history made Brazilian politics more flexible and participatory than those in the United States?
These are some of the questions we address in this episode of Then & Now. Our guest is Dr. Bryan Pitts, a historian of 20th-century Brazil, and the author of the recently published Until the Storm Passes Politicians, Democracy, and the Demise of Brazil’s Military Dictatorship. Dr. Pitts is the Assistant Director of Latin American Institute at UCLA.
Late in 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in Israel, despite being ousted from office in July 2021. Now starting his sixth term as Prime Minister, Netanyahu has aligned himself with a number of far-right parties, commencing what some observers have described as a “fascist” era. Professor Omar Bartov discusses the conditions that have given rise to fascist governments and applies his deep historical knowledge to the political situation in Israel today. How continuous is the present regime with the longer history of Zionism? Is the new Israeli government, with far-right figures such as Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, and Maoz, fascist?
Professor Omer Bartov is the Samuel Pisar Chair of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University.
In September, 22-year old Mahsa Amini died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code. Protests quickly erupted, and over the past two months they have grown into calls for regime change. How did Iran, a country that once sat at the forefront of Muslim women’s advancement, end up with such conservative gender laws? After decades of repression, why did Amini's death lead to such a broad movement for reform? And how does the issue of Iranian women’s human rights constitute a policy issue for the United States? Join us in conversation with Kelly J. Shannon as we discuss Iranian women's human rights then and now.
Kelly J. Shannon, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of History and the Executive Director of the Center for Peace, Justice, and Human Rights at Florida Atlantic University. She specializes in the 20th century history of U.S. foreign relations, with a particular focus on the Islamic world, Iran, and women’s human rights. She is the author of the book U.S. Foreign Policy and Muslim Women’s Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2018).
In the wake of a recent surge of antisemitism, we talk to historian David Nirenberg about what connects the hatred of Jews in the past and present. Anti-Judaism is more than simply a form of prejudice against a particular ethnicity. Rather, it is a foundational and essential idea in Western civilization which provides cultures with a way of thinking about the dangers of the world. As we connect the dots between past and present, how does thinking in the longue durée help us to move forward? And can an understanding of history lead us towards a better future?
David Nirenberg, a distinguished historian of medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, is Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University.
At first glance, historic preservation seems to be a key part of good urban planning. But whom does historic preservation actually serve? In this week’s episode, our guests discuss their recent LCHP report that analyzes the power dynamics behind historic preservation. They look at the way in which historic preservation norms have been applied as an instrument of cultural control in three Southern California communities with large Asian-American populations. At the end of the day, they pose the question of whether historic preservation should be seen as an instrument of good planning or a form of cultural imperialism?
Anastasia Loukaiou-Sideris is a Distinguished Professor of planning and urban design at UCLA. Hao Ding is a doctoral student in urban planning at UCLA. Both scholars were recipients of Luksin Center for History and Policy research grants.
Several weeks ago, a leaked tape revealed three LA city council members and a local labor leader engaged in racist conversation. Since then, the city has been enveloped in a political crisis. The language used by the council members has been covered extensively and widely condemned. But beneath these conversations lie deep and pressing questions about Latino representation, inter-ethnic relations, and the distribution of political power in Los Angeles. In the wake of this crisis, are we asking the right questions? Who benefits from African American and Latino polarization, and how can we ensure equal representation in the future?
Miguel Santana, President and CEO of the Weingart Foundation, and Gary Segura, Dean of the UCLA Luskin Center of Public Affairs, join Then & Now to discuss the past and future of Latino politics in Los Angeles. From changing demographics to the long history and Black and Brown coalition building, this episode provides insight into what successful politics might look like in the future.
On Sunday, September 25th, Italy held a snap election following the resignation of prime minister Mario Draghi and the dissolution of the Italian Parliament. The election resulted in a parliamentary majority a right-wing coalition led by Fratelli d’Italia (or Brothers of Italy), a far-right party with roots in postwar Italian neofascist movements. The party and its leader, new Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, espouse social conservatism, nationalism, populism, opposition to immigration, and Euroscepticism. Meloni’s election holds significant policy implications not only for domestic Italian society, but also for Italy’s relationship with the European Union and the wider world.
Noelle Turtur, the Eugen and Jacqueline Weber Postdoctoral Scholar in European History at UCLA, joins Ben Zdencanovic on Then & Now to discuss the historical roots Italian fascism, the legacies of fascism in Italian politics, and what Meloni’s election might mean for Italy and the international system.
This past June, the Supreme Court reached a decision in West Virginia vs. Environmental Protection Agency that curtailed the EPA’s ability to regulate carbon emissions from coal plants. Behind this ruling was the principle of “non-delegation” — the idea that Congress cannot delegate its legislative powers, or rule-making authority, to other entities such as regulatory agencies.
While non-delegation might seem like an esoteric legal concept to some, it poses a vital question for United States governance: does the executive branch and its various administrative agencies have the right to exercise control over complex issues such as climate change, public health, and occupational safety?
Julian Davis Mortenson, James D. Phillips Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, joins Then & Now to discuss this question and his recent article Delegation at the Founding. He shares how the Founders approached the principle of non-delegation, as well as how the Supreme Court has taken a bold stand on it that has profound implications for today and the future.
This episode features a conversation with UCLA graduate and undergraduate students who authored a new LCHP report exploring the history UCLA's response to crises of major scale. Jazz Kiang, Jannelle Dang, and Nayiri Artounians join Then & Now to discuss UCLA administrators' approaches to the student movement for ethnic studies in the late 1960s, and the on-campus killings of students Bunchy Carter and and John Huggins. They also discuss the firing of Angela Davis, and the implications for present-day university administrators. This episode is moderated by Prof. Eddie Cole, an advisor for the project.
Read the report here.
In the wake of more horrific mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, the United States finds itself yet again engaged in a morbid ritual of horror and grief, thoughts and prayers, and renewed calls for gun control. Last week, the National Rifle Association held its annual convention, during which it steadfastly opposed calls to limit access to guns.
But it has not always been that way. The NRA, in earlier decades, supported restrictions on access to guns. What happened? How has the Second Amendment been re-interpreted? What has prompted states to enshrine new protections on guns and access to them? Adam Winkler, renowned national author of Gunfight and the Connell Professor of Law at UCLA, joins Then & Now to address these questions.
The student debt crisis in the United States has reached record highs, totaling about $1.75 trillion from 45 million borrowers. As millions of Americans await President Biden’s decision about whether to forgive at least part of this debt, Then & Now asks: how did we get to this staggering figure? How did past policy decisions pave the way for this crisis, and how and why have these decisions had a disproportionate impact on Black and Latinx students? Where do we go from here?
Dalié Jimenez, law professor at UC Irvine and Jonathan Glater, law professor at UC Berkeley, both co-founders of the Student Loan Law Initiative at UCI, discuss findings from their 2020 article “Student Debt is a Civil Rights Issue: The Case for Debt Relief and Higher Education Reform” to shed important new light on this major national problem.
The international community has widely condemned Russia’s war on Ukraine and has placed increasing pressure on Russia to withdraw. But what more can it do? What legal mechanisms and levers of pressure are available to the international community, and how effective are they? How did the current international legal order (including the definitions of genocide and crimes against humanity) come into being, and how did it evolve over time? Anna Spain Bradley, UCLA Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, and law professor at UCLA joins Then & Now to illuminate these important and pressing questions.
In this special episode, Cary Franklin returns Then & Now for a follow-up conversation about abortion rights in the U.S., in light of the leaked Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe vs. Wade (listen to part 1 here). Listen to Professor Franklin, Faculty Director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy and of the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, discuss the far-reaching implications of the leaked opinion.
On April 29, 1992, three LAPD officers were acquitted after brutally beating Rodney King, and a fourth was let off with no verdict. Widespread protests erupted in response, a result of deep-seated anger with police violence and racial inequality in Los Angeles, heightened by the murder of teenager Latasha Harlins a year prior. Five days later, the city of Los Angeles stood in a shocked, smoldering state with more than sixty people dead, thousands injured, and massive property damage.
Now, thirty years later, we mark this anniversary in the wake of another uprising against police violence and the murders of unarmed Black men and women. How does the 1992 Uprising look after three decades? Has Los Angeles made any meaningful progress since then? What is the state of race relations, policing, and the pervasive inequities exacerbated by COVID-19?
Brenda Stevenson, the inaugural Hillary Rodham Clinton Chair in Women’s History at St. John’s College, Oxford University and the Nickoll Family Endowed Chair in History at UCLA, and Kent Wong, the director of the UCLA Labor Center, join Then & Now to discuss these questions.
On March 6th, 2022, the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy, in partnership with the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life and the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies, hosted the final installment of a three-part series focused on “Breaking the Deadlock” in Israel-Palestine.
The aim of this series is to bring together leading scholars, thinkers, and policy-makers—each with different affiliations and visions for the future—to put forward contemporary resolutions against an otherwise stagnate Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conversation included Yossi Beilin, former Israeli cabinet minister and architect of the Oslo Accords, and Hiba Husseini, Palestinian lawyer and peace negotiator. It was moderated by Prof. Dov Waxman.
Beilin and Husseini recently released a detailed plan for confederacy in Israel-Palestine, which they have presented to the United Nations, United States leadership, and numerous Israeli and Palestinian leaders. They discuss their vision for the plan’s implementation in the context of historical peace efforts.
This episode features a conversation with the UCLA graduate and undergraduate students who authored a new LCHP report exploring the history of both racism and the quest for racial justice at UCLA. The report and conversation examine the experience of students of color throughout the university's history, as well as examples of the individuals and movements that led the fight for racial justice at UCLA. This conversation features graduate student co-author Debanjan Roychoudhury, alumna Skylar Weatherford, and undergraduate student Kateri Son. It is moderated by Prof. Aomar Boum, advisor for the project.
Read the report here.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked and perplexed the world. UCLA Historian Jared McBride joins Then & Now for the third conversation in a mini-series examining this invasion through a historical lens. Professor McBride discusses the history of far-right nationalism in Ukraine from World War II until now, situating both Ukraine’s election of a Jewish president and Putin’s claims of “denazification,” within a historical frame. He also discusses the unique forces shaping and re-shaping Ukraine’s national identity throughout history.
Listen to the first two conversations in this miniseries, "Ghosts of the Past in the Russian Invasion of Ukraine," here.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked and perplexed the world. This special two-part episode of Then & Now features two outstanding historical observers: Benjamin Nathans, Alan Charles Kors Endowed Term Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, and J. Arch Getty, Distinguished Research Professor of History at UCLA, offer much needed background and perspective on Russia's actions. Professors Nathans and Getty discuss the historical relationship between Russia and Ukraine, the roots of Ukrainian national identity, and Vladimir Putin’s historical pretext for the invasion.
This week's episode features the recording of Part 2 of the three part webinar series organized by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy in partnership with the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life and the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. This innovative series brings together scholars, thinkers, and policy-makers of different visions to reflect on the current impasse in Israel-Palestine and share proposals for the future.
This program features:
Dr. Julie Cooper, Political Theorist, Tel Aviv University
Dr. Micah Goodman, Israeli Intellectual and Author, Catch-67
Dr. Hussein Ibish, Senior Resident Scholar, The Arab Gulf States Institute
Dr. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The third and final installment of this series will take place on Sunday, March 6th at 11am PT. RSVP here: www.tinyurl.com/deadlockpart3
LCHP Student Research Fellows and Geography Ph.D. students Sammy Feldblum and John Schmidt join Then & Now to discuss their new LCHP research report, The Transformation of Academic Labor: Past as Prologue at the University of California. Their research details the various factors leading to the UC’s increased reliance on contingent, non-tenured faculty lecturers over the past decades. They discuss the increased privatization of the university over the past fifty years, the implications of this privatization on student learning, and their recommendations for how to foster better working and learning conditions on campus.
This conversation is moderated by Dr. Caroline Luce, researcher and lecturer at UCLA Institute for Research on Labor and Employment and communications chair for UCAFT, the union representing lecturers and librarians across the UC.
Read their new report here.
In honor of Black History Month and in the midst of the Winter Olympics, we revisit this episode on the "Black Athlete" that originally aired on July 6, 2020.
From Jack Johnson to Muhammed Ali, from Tommie Smith to Colin Kaepernick, Black athletes have played a huge role in the social and cultural history of the 20th and 21st centuries. Ben Carrington, sociologist at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, joins Then & Now to discuss the "racial project" of the Black Athlete. He observes how Black athletes have been fetishized, commodified, controlled, and celebrated, sometimes all at once. He compares the long history of this project to the present moment, when Black athletes, both at the professional and collegiate levels, are gaining greater agency over their lives and careers.
On October 21, 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed by a live round of ammunition fired by actor Alec Baldwin on the set of the movie Rust. Her death has prompted numerous discussions about what constitutes “safety” while working on a film set. Dr. Kate Fortmueller, Assistant Professor of Entertainment and Media Studies at the University of Georgia, examines the evolution of these discussions - and the evolution of general labor struggles in the film industry - throughout history. She discusses union bargaining power, COVID-19, the use of live rounds, and other policy regulations that collectively shape safety for actors and staff on film sets. UCLA History graduate student Avery Weinman is the guest host for this episode.
This wide-ranging conversation features Professor Mishuana Goeman, Professor of Gender Studies and American Indian Studies, and the inaugural Special Advisor to the Chancellor on Native American and Indigenous Affairs at UCLA. Professor Goeman discusses her personal journey into interdisciplinary scholarship, the relationship and tensions between academia and community-centered work, and the many tangible steps universities and other institutions can make toward reparative justice for Native Americans.
You can find out more about her project “Mapping Indigenous LA” here.
Professor Manisha Shah, Franklin D. Gilliam Chair in Social Justice and director of the Global Lab for Research in Action at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, joins Then & Now producer Maia Ferdman in conversation about the long history of policy approaches to sex work. They discuss the motivations behind the prohibition and regulation of sex work as well as their public health and economic implications. They also discuss the “end demand” policy approach to sex work, which criminalizes those who purchase, rather than sell, sex. They then discuss the empirical evidence that supports the decriminalization of sex work.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which addresses the constitutionality of a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks. This case is the latest in a decades-long legal battle over the legality of abortion access, which may culminate in the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 case affirming a woman's right to an abortion. Professor Cary Franklin, McDonald/Wright Chair of Law and Faculty Director of the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, joins Then & Now to discuss the recent oral arguments in their historical context.
This conversation is co-sponsored by the Williams Institute and the Promise Institute for Human Rights at the UCLA School of Law.
This week's episode features the recording of the three part webinar series organized by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy in partnership with the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life and the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. This innovative series brings together scholars, thinkers, and policy-makers of different visions to reflect on the current impasse in Israel-Palestine and share proposals for the future.
This program features:
Omar Rahman, Visiting Fellow, Brookings Doha Center
Dr. Dahlia Sheindlin, Leading Israeli political analyst
Prof. Yuli Tamir, President, Beit Berl College
Prof. Shibley Telhami, Sadat Professor of Peace, Maryland
Part 2 of this series will take place on Sunday, December 5th at 11am PT. RSVP here: www.tinyurl.com/deadlockpart2
This revisited episode originally aired on October 12th, 2020, marking Indigenous Peoples Day. Professor Kyle T. Mays, historian and scholar of Afro-Indigenous studies, urban history, and Indigenous popular culture at UCLA, joins Then & Now to discuss the history and significance of the day, as well as his scholarship tracking the parallel and often intersecting histories of Indigenous and African American communities in the United States. He discusses moments of historical conflict and collaboration between the two communities, and how the shared experience of oppression can support a common agenda for justice today.
November is Native American Heritage Month. Read more about this month here.
In recent months, there has been a raging debate over whether the state--or private actors--can require vaccine mandates. Some resisters claim that such a mandate stands in opposition to their religious liberty; others maintain that the state should not have this authority. Where did vaccine mandates--and the fierce resistance to them--come from? Dorit Reiss, Professor of Law and James Edgar Hervey ’50 Chair of Litigation at UC Hastings, and one of the country's leading authorities on vaccine mandates, joins then & now to discuss vaccine hesitancy and resistance throughout history, the role of religious exemptions, and the politicization of the pandemic.
This episode of Then & Now features a conversation with Frank B. Wilderson III, Chancellor's Professor of African American Studies at UC Irvine and author of the book Afropessimism. The conversation tracks his extraordinary life journey from youthful radical activism in Minnesota to a career as a stockbroker to participation in subversive activity for the African National Congress in South Africa. It also focuses on Wilderson's stark and unsparing philosophical stance of Afropessimism, which rests on the belief in a racism so deep that it divides the world between Humans and Blacks.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti joins this special episode in conversation with former LA County Supervisor and LCHP Board Member Zev Yaroslavsky. Mayor Garcetti reflects on his tenure as mayor, discussing his impact on issues ranging from homelessness to the 2028 Olympic Games, and sharing the surprises, lessons, and challenges of leadership.
Dr. Sharon Balter, the Director of the Acute Communicable Disease Control Program at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, has had a busy 18 months. She joins then & now to discuss how knowledge about COVID-19 has shaped – and re-shaped – public health approaches throughout the course of the pandemic.
Gray Davis, the 37th Governor of the State of California, is uniquely positioned to comment on the current effort to recall Governor Gavin Newsom. He kicks off Season 2 of then & now by discussing his path into public service, his numerous legislative successes as governor, and his experience being recalled and replaced by Arnold Schwarzenegger. He also delves into the political and legal backdrop to the current recall effort and offers some important advice for dealing with adversity in life.
His most important message for California listeners? Vote in the recall election on September 14.
Whether discussing COVID-19 vaccinations with different people, reading two different news sites, or merely glancing at any given Twitter feed, one might think that Americans across the country live in alternate universes. It is clear that political polarization has reached a boiling point. Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer, a nationally renowned expert in deliberative democracy and Executive Director Emerita of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, joins Then & Now producer Maia Ferdman to discuss this phenomenon. She describes the historical development of hyper-partisanship in the U.S., describes the opportunities that innovative political engagement offers, and suggests ways of healing the seemingly intractable divides in our country in order to chart a collective path forward. Watch her latest project, documentary Divided We Fall, at this link.
Then & Now is taking a summer break in July and August, and will return with a new season in September. Please enjoy a look back at some of our favorite episodes over the last year!
UCLA researchers and graduate students Marques Vestal, Fernanda Jahn Verri, and Andrew Klein join Then & Now to discuss the Luskin Center for History and Policy's research report detailing the history of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles County. They discuss how the last century of housing policy, racial dynamics, and policing practices all contributed to the crisis we find ourselves in today. This is the first episode in a series covering the report findings. Read the report, "The Making of a Crisis: A History of Homelessness," here.
Then & Now is taking a summer break in July and August, and will return with a new season in September. Please enjoy a look back at some of our favorite episodes over the last year!
Months after the national election and despite numerous judicial decisions to the contrary, many Americans still believe the election was stolen from Donald Trump. In recent weeks various state legislatures have used the claim of voter fraud to propose new bills to change voting procedures, launching a new chapter in the long battle over the franchise in the United States. In this episode of "Then & Now," we discuss the history of voter suppression and the current state of play with election law expert, Professor Franita Tolson, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the USC Gould School of Law and author of the forthcoming book In Congress We Trust: Enforcing Voting Rights From the Founding Fathers to the Jim Crow Era.
Then & Now is taking a summer break in July and August, and will return with a new season in September. Please enjoy a look back at some of our favorite episodes over the last year!
Political philosopher Hannah Arendt famously argued - in the case of SS officer Adolf Eichmann - that ordinary people can easily become complicit in evil acts as part of a larger system of injustice and inequality. In this special episode, we discuss the concept of "the banality of evil" with Robin Kelley, prominent scholar and professor of U.S. and African American History. As protests spread across the country over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more, Professor Kelley shares with us his perspectives on our shared responsibilities, revolutionary pessimism, and the historian’s role in the pursuit of justice.
Then & Now is taking a summer break in July and August, and will return with a new season in September. Please enjoy a look back at some of our favorite episodes over the last year!
This week’s episode features Stephen Aron, outgoing UCLA historian and incoming CEO of the Autry Museum of the American West. Dr. Aron discussed the origins and persistence of the idea of the Western “frontier” in the American imagination, his approach to cultural “convergence” in the West, and his vision for the Autry Museum’s role in Los Angeles and the West today.
As California lifts longtime public health restrictions and life in parts of the United States begin returning to a semblance of pre-pandemic normalcy, it is important to recall the unfolding crises of the past 15 months. In this episode, UCLA Historian Peter Baldwin, author of the recent book Fighting the First Wave: Why the Coronavirus was Tackled So Differently Across the Globe, looks back on the past year and offers intriguing historical insight into why some countries were more effective at initially containing the coronavirus than others. He discusses the simultaneously global and local reach of the pandemic and analyzes the differences in political and cultural approaches to the pandemic across different countries around the world.
This special three-part episode of Then & Now features three experts in Middle East history and politics who examine multiple dimensions of the recent outbreak of violence in Israel and Palestine. Their incisive analysis provides listeners with a thorough overview of the historical context, political consequences, and potential impact on future peace in Israel-Palestine.
The first segment features Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, who examines the roots and consequences of the renewed hostilities between Israel and Hamas. The second segment features UCLA historian and Middle East expert James Gelvin, and focuses on a distinguishing feature of this round: violence between Israeli Jews and Arabs within the Green Line. The third segment features Lara Friedman, President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, who analyzes the political ramifications of this violence both in the region and in the United States.
UCLA undergraduate students Firyal Bawab and Mariam Aref Mahmoud and graduate student Phil Hoffman join Then & Now to discuss their forthcoming report on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. They track the historical effects of American “soft” or "non-military" foreign policy in the Middle East on regional governments and economies over time, including the consequences of neoliberalism in Egypt and Jordan. They also share their experiences conducting research with the Luskin Center for History and Policy.
On January 6, 2021, hundreds of far-right protestors, many of them wearing white nationalist clothing and insignia, stormed the U.S. Capitol building. On February 16, UCLA student Christian Secor was arrested for his participation in the riot. In response to these developments, the Luskin Center for History and Policy released a report on white nationalism at UCLA titled “From Student Politics Capitol Insurrection: The Intensification of Extremism at UCLA and Beyond,” as a follow-up to prior research on the history of white nationalism in Southern California. This week’s episode features two of the report's authors, UCLA undergraduates Brandon Broukhim and Talla Khelghati. Brandon and Talla discuss the political dynamics among students on campus, the difficulties of stemming hate speech while maintaining free speech, and their suggestions for universities grappling with frayed campus climates.
Henry Kissinger is arguably one of the most important and controversial contemporary figures in U.S. foreign policy. As a former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor during the Nixon and Ford Administrations, a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, and an accused war criminal, Kissinger is both revered and reviled. This week on Then & Now UCLA History Professor Kevin Kim interviews Vanderbilt University Professor Thomas Alan Schwartz on his recent book, Henry Kissinger and American Power: A Political Biography. They discuss Kissinger's contradictions, the lessons his diplomacy offers the Biden Administration, and the state of international relations today.
From his childhood in Essaouira, Morocco, to his adolescence involved in Marxist politics, to his time as a successful banker in Paris, to his advocacy for peace and cross cultural understanding as senior advisor to two Moroccan kings, André Azoulay has lived an extraordinary life. He joins Then & Now in conversation with LCHP Director David Myers and Professor Aomar Boum (UCLA Department of Anthropology), to discuss his personal path, the importance of cultural connection and identity, his perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and his hopes for the future of Morocco and the world.
Anti-Asian sentiment and violence has spiked dramatically over the last year. Most recently on March 16, a mass shooting in Atlanta, Georgia took the lives of eight people, six of whom were Asian women. UCLA Professors David Yoo and Karen Umemoto join this special episode of Then & Now to discuss this disturbing trend and situate it in the context of race and racism in American society. They discuss policies that have stigmatized and excluded Asian Americans, the development of the “AAPI” category, different forms of resistance against exclusion, and today's increasing mobilization and solidarity against anti-Asian hatred.
To learn more about how to combat Asian American hatred, please visit UCLA’s Translate COVID site here.
Months after the national election and despite numerous judicial decisions to the contrary, many Americans still believe the election was stolen from Donald Trump. In recent weeks various state legislatures have used the claim of voter fraud to propose new bills to change voting procedures, launching a new chapter in the long battle over the franchise in the United States. In this episode of "Then & Now," we discuss the history of voter suppression and the current state of play with election law expert, Professor Franita Tolson, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs at the USC Gould School of Law and author of the forthcoming book In Congress We Trust: Enforcing Voting Rights From the Founding Fathers to the Jim Crow Era.
Higher education institutions in the United States can be seen as both bastions of liberalism and conservatism, as the realm of both radicals and establishmentarians. Eddie Cole, associate professor of higher education and organizational change at UCLA and author of The Campus Color Line: College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Freedom addresses this seeming contradiction. He discusses the dual nature of the university, as well as the role played by college presidents in moving their institutions forward and backward on issues such as race and free speech. The conversation concludes with a reflection on the recently concluded Black History Month and the importance of history.
In 2019, Anthea M. Hartig made headlines when she became the first woman director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History in Washington, DC. Since then, she has been a fierce advocate for public history in the nation’s capital. Join us for this President's Day episode as we learn about how Hartig, a UCLA alumna, fell in love with history, developed a rich and challenging approach to the past, and sees history as a key to navigating the present.
A recent LATimes investigation found that about 67% of the homeless population in Los Angeles County has either a mental illness or a substance abuse disorder. Yet, Dr. Jonathan Sherin wrote in a December op-ed, mental health policies are failing those who most need services. Dr. Sherin, the director of the LA County Department of Mental Health, joins Then & Now this week to discuss this challenge. He sits down with Dr. Kirsten Moore-Sheeley and Jessica Richards, two authors of LCHP’s forthcoming report on the history of homelessness, to discuss the lack of adequate services for people experiencing homelessness, his suggestions for engaging with those reluctant to receive mental health care, and his department's approach to th multifaceted stressors of our time, from the COVID-19 pandemic to racial inequity.
This episode is the second in a multi-part series examining the history and present state of homelessness in LA County. Find the first episode here.
Between a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol and the catastrophic surge of COVID-19 across the country, the beginning of 2021 has been even more turbulent than 2020. This special episode of Then & Now, recorded on Martin Luther King Day and released on Inauguration Day, features Robin D. Kelley, prominent UCLA scholar on U.S. and African American history. He looks at the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as fascism and white nationalism throughout U.S. history, in framing our current moment. His advice as we head into the next chapter of American history? “Always come from a place of love.”
This week’s episode features UCLA PhD candidates Phil Hoffman (History), Lily Hindy (History), and Monica Widmann (Political Science), who have been spearheading a long-term research project with LCHP examining American soft power in the Middle East. They discuss their new report “Skewed Recovery: Minority Assistance Programs to Iraq in Historical Perspective,” which details the ways in which Western powers have historically distributed foreign aid unevenly and according to their political interests. They discuss how this historical trend has sowed division in the region, and how it has been both perpetuated and exacerbated by the Trump Administration. The report will be available online in the coming weeks at luskincenter.history.ucla.edu.
As we come to the end of an historic year, Then & Now examines one unfortunate statistic: the rise in hate crimes and hate incidences in Los Angeles County and across the country. Robin Toma, the Executive Director of the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission, joins us to discuss the development of "hate crime" as a legal category, the ways government agencies have historically responded to hatred, and current efforts at curbing hate in Los Angeles. He also discusses the Commission’s recent 2019 Hate Crime Report findings.
Read the Commission’s report here and learn about their LA vs. Hate initiative here.
Despite losing the national election, Donald Trump continues to exercise total control over the Republican party. Tens of millions of voters supported him, and most prominent Republican leaders still refuse to acknowledge the results of the election. How did we get here? How did Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, and the election of Barack Obama lay the groundwork for Trumpism? As we head into a new presidential administration, what is the future of the Republican party?
Mike Murphy, a Republican political consultant who has advised prominent Republicans including John McCain, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, joins Then & Now to address these questions. He is a commentator on NBC News, hosts a podcast called “Hacks on Tap” with David Axelrod, and is a vocal critic of President Trump.
UCLA researchers and graduate students Marques Vestal, Fernanda Jahn Verri, and Andrew Klein join Then & Now to discuss the Luskin Center for History and Policy's forthcoming report detailing the history of the homelessness crisis in Los Angeles County. They discuss how the last century of housing policy, racial dynamics, and policing practices all contributed to the crisis we find ourselves in today. This is the first episode in a series covering the report findings. To be the first to read the forthcoming report, sign up for our emails here.
As a follow-up to our last pre-election episode, Professor Lynn Vavreck and Zev Yaroslavsky return to "Then & Now," joined by Professor Lorrie Frasure, to analyze the 2020 election results. They discuss a range of key topics: President Trump’s refusal to concede, the persistence of divided electorates in U.S. history, the political behavior of white men, the performance and reliability of polling, and the question of whether American democracy is dying.
- Lorrie Frasure is an Associate Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at UCLA, and Acting Director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.
- Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA, a contributing columnist to The Upshot at The New York Times, and the author or co-author of five books on electoral politics.
- Zev Yaroslavsky is the Executive Director of the LA Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He served as LA City Council Member from 1975 to 1994, and as LA County Supervisor from 1994 to 2014.
Two of the country's -- and UCLA’s -- keenest observers of electoral politics, Lynn Vavreck and Zev Yaroslavsky, join Then & Now to discuss their take on the 2020 election in light of the previous two elections. Lynn Vavreck is the Marvin Hoffenberg Professor of American Politics and Public Policy at UCLA, a contributing columnist to The Upshot at The New York Times, and the author or co-author of five books on electoral politics. Zev Yaroslavsky is the Executive Director of the LA Initiative at the Luskin School of Public Affairs. He served as LA City Council Member from 1975 to 1994, and as LA County Supervisor from 1994 to 2014. They discuss predictive models in presidential elections, racial dynamics, Trumpism, and their sense of where the 2020 election is heading.
From Frances Harper to Michelle Obama, Black women have faced countless forms of violent aggression at the intersection of racism and sexism. Professor Koritha Mitchell, Literary Historian and Professor of English at Ohio State University, discusses the way these women define and redefine success in the face of this violence, challenging us to see their lives not just through the lens of protest, but through the lens of perseverance and achievement as well. Her book, From Slave Cabins to the White House: Homemade Citizenship in African American Culture, uses this lens to read the experience of Black women throughout U.S. history. This episode is hosted by UCLA Historian and Professor Katherine Marino.
This special episode on October 12th marks Indigenous Peoples Day. Professor Kyle T. Mays, historian and scholar of Afro-Indigenous studies, urban history, and Indigenous popular culture at UCLA, joins Then & Now to discuss the history and significance of the day, as well as his scholarship tracking the parallel and often intersecting histories of Indigenous and African American communities in the United States. He discusses moments of historical conflict and collaboration between the two communities, and how the shared experience of oppression can support a common agenda for justice today.
Los Angeles is infamous for its ubiquitous, sprawling, and congested roads and freeways. Whether driving south on the 405 freeway in the morning, east on Olympic Boulevard in the afternoon, or north on Vermont Avenue in the evening, bumper to bumper traffic defines our streets. But has traffic in Los Angeles always looked this way? What policy efforts have city leaders pursued over the years to alleviate traffic? And what can we learn from history to make it better?
Noted traffic expert Martin Wachs, Professor Emeritus of Civil & Environmental Engineering, former Chairman of the UCLA Department of Urban Planning, UCLA history PhD candidate Peter Chesney, and UCLA Master of Urban and Regional Planning Candidate Yu Hong Hwang join Then & Now to discuss these questions. Professor Wachs, Peter, and Yu Hong were LCHP Research Fellows from 2019-2020 and recently completed a research report highlighting these questions.
Find the report here.
Whether watching the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, reading two different news sites, or merely glancing at any given Twitter feed, one might think that Americans across the country live in alternate universes. As the 2020 election approaches, political polarization has reached a boiling point. Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer, a nationally renowned expert in deliberative democracy and Executive Director Emerita of the National Institute for Civil Discourse, joins Then & Now producer Maia Ferdman to discuss this phenomenon. She describes the historical development of hyper-partisanship in the U.S., describes the opportunities that innovative political engagement offers, and suggests ways of healing the seemingly intractable divides in our country in order to chart a collective path forward. Watch her latest project, documentary Divided We Fall, at this link.
As the United States continues to experience a national reckoning with its long history of racial inequality, so too a debate has taken hold in the Jewish community about where and whether Jews of Color fit into the communal mainstream. This episode features Devin Naar, Isaac Alhadeff Professor of Sephardic Studies at the University of Washington, who sheds light on this question through the lens of Sephardic Jewish history. He challenges the imposed racial categorization of Jews in the United States, discusses the erasure and exclusion of Sephardic and Mizrahi identity in mainstream Jewish institutions, and proposes a historical reclamation of Sephardic identity and a radical reimagining of community spaces.
As we near the start of the 2020-21 academic year at UCLA, Then & Now will be moving to a biweekly schedule. Be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and to sign up for our emails, to hear about all the great work coming out of the Luskin Center for History and Policy.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which granted and protects women’s right to vote. As we mark this centennial during an election year, UCLA Historian Ellen Dubois, one of the preeminent scholars of the movement for women’s suffrage and author of “Suffrage: Women’s Long Battle for the Vote" (2020), joins us to reflect on the Amendment's legacy. She discusses the tactics suffragists used to advocate for the vote, the political opposition they faced, and the role of race and Black women in the movement. Prof. Dubois also shares her thoughts on the present moment, the possibility of the first female Vice President, and the fundamental importance of the right to vote in a democracy.
The Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution prevents the government from inflicting "cruel and unusual punishment” on those accused or convicted of a crime. Yet California’s prisons have been overcrowded, rife with violence, and lacking basic healthcare provisions for decades. In the era of COVID-19, this context translates to an infection and death rate well above that of the general population. Governor Gavin Newsom recently announced the early release of thousands of prisoners from custody to mitigate this pandemic, and yet this decision is rife with hurdles of its own.
How did we get here? Professor Sharon Dolovich, Director of the UCLA Law COVID-19 Behind Bars Data Project and the UCLA Law Prison Law & Policy Program, joins Maia Ferdman in conversation about the history of California’s carceral system, its human and economic toll, and the role of the law in its development over time.
In the wake of the unprecedented election of President Donald Trump, and now punctuated by the COVID-19 pandemic and summer of protests, many scholars and public figures have argued that the U.S. is descending into autocracy. Following the recent violent intervention of federal law enforcement officers in Portland, concerns about the state of America’s democracy have grown.
Samuel Moyn, historian and Henry R. Luce Professor of Jurisprudence at Yale University, and Vera Eidelman, staff attorney with the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, join Then & Now to explore the utility of historical analogies, President Trump’s role in the trajectory of American history, and the state of American democracy today.
What are the roots of mass deportation and incarceration, and what do the two have to do with each other? How can studying these histories allow us to confront and dismantle the racist structures at the center of today’s national conversation? Professor Kelly Lytle Hernández — UCLA historian, activist, author, and recent recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Prize — shares her insights on these vital questions on this week’s episode of Then & Now. She discusses the foundational role of white supremacy and settler colonialism in the establishment of policing and immigration enforcement in the United States. She then discusses the historical arc of activism against these systems, outlining the need for divestment from policing, investment in Black life, and redress for historical injustice.
On June 15, the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects Gay and Transgender individuals from workplace discrimination. ACLU National Legal Director David Cole, who spearheaded the victorious lawsuit, joins Then & Now to discuss this surprise ruling, how the ACLU and its allies framed the argument, what the decision's legal implications are for today, and how the Supreme Court’s approach to discrimination has evolved over time.
The seemingly intractable Israel-Palestine conflict may well be moving into a new phase, one in which the long-dominant two-state solution is no longer viable or desirable to the parties involved. How did this occur? And what would replace it?
Peter Beinart, noted journalist and editor-at-large of Jewish Currents magazine, recently published two pieces in the Jewish Currents and The New York Times about abandoning his own faith in the long-sought two-state solution. Beinart now proposes a vision of equality for all in a single state. He joins Then & Now in conversation with LCHP Director and UCLA professor of Jewish history David Myers to discuss his shift in perspective and the role of history in his present-day analysis
The conversation revisits the definition and historical foundations of Zionism, the role of the Holocaust in Jewish approaches to Israel, and the related dynamics of other geopolitical conflicts. Ultimately, Beinart complicates the lines between utopianism and realism, challenging listeners to approach a longstanding conflict with new perspective.
What is work? Who is a worker? How have women been perceived and treated as workers? Who is deemed “deserving” of benefits, welfare, and pensions, and who gets excluded? Answers to these questions have enormous implications on the the structure of society and policy and how we live our lives.
Professor Eileen Boris, Hull Professor and Distinguished Professor of Feminist Studies and Professor of History, Black Studies, and Global Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, joins Katherine Marino on Then & Now to discuss the development of the woman worker throughout history, the role of the International Labor Organization in this development, and the division of household labor during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From Jack Johnson to Muhammed Ali, from Tommie Smith to Colin Kaepernick, Black athletes have played a huge role in the social and cultural history of the 20th and 21st centuries. Ben Carrington, sociologist at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, joins Then & Now to discuss the "racial project" of the Black Athlete. He observes how Black athletes have been fetishized, commodified, controlled, and celebrated, sometimes all at once. He compares the long history of this project to the present moment, when Black athletes, both at the professional and collegiate levels, are gaining greater agency over their lives and careers.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride Parade and Festival in West Hollywood. Activist, speaker, and founder of the TransLatin@ Coalition Bamby Salcedo joins Then & Now in conversation with LCHP’s Maia Ferdman to discuss Pride's origins as a protest movement spurred by transgender women of color. She discusses the historic exclusion of the transgender community from the gay liberation movement, some of the persistent challenges facing the transgender community today as a result, and a vision for an inclusive and equitable approach to progress.
Learn more about Bamby's work with the TransLatin@ Coalition here.
“Battling Bella” Abzug was a Congresswoman, lawyer, and ardent feminist leader — during the 1970s she was one of the most recognizable women in U.S. politics. Abzug biographer and historian Leandra Zarnow joins Then & Now for a conversation with UCLA History Professor Katherine Marino about Abzug’s legacy that touches on an array of pivotal women’s rights policies, the founding of the National Women’s Political Caucus, and an intersectional approach to progressivism. Now, in the era of #MeToo, new political leaders such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and an approaching election with an historic number of female candidates, Zarnow reflects on the significance of and need to build upon Abzug’s trailblazing legacy today.
Find Professor Zarnow’s book, Battling Bella: The Protest Politics of Bella Abzug” here.
The coronavirus is like rain — it falls on everyone, but some communities are better able to protect themselves.
In this week’s episode, Dr. David Hayes-Bautista talks with the LCHP's Maia Ferdman about the historical origins of these health inequities and their consequences today. A Distinguished Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture (CESLAC) at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Dr. Hayes-Bautista shares his data-driven journey into the study of Latino health, the historical and present-day nuances involved in the study of Latino health, and his current research on COVID-19 case rates.
Find Dr. Hayes-Bautista’s research on COVID-19 here.
"We cannot be the nation we want to be if we wrap ourselves in a flag of mythology, and refuse to look at what lies underneath that flag."
As part of our special coverage on the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing debate over policing and structural racism, we welcome scholar Brenda Stevenson to the program. A leading historian on slavery and the legacy of America's race problems, Dr. Stevenson ranges widely, from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement of the 60s, from the murder of Latasha Harlins in 1991 to the recent murder of George Floyd, drawing out major lessons for activists and change-makers today. One major lesson she pulls from the past? Resist, resist, resist.
Find Dr. Stevenson’s writing and other media coverage on these issues at her website.
Historians have the responsibility not only to unearth facts, but to uncover and lift up stories that have been traditionally ignored or excluded. This calling is all the more important in the midst of global pandemic -- and after the murder of George Floyd exposed anew the burdens of oppression against the Black community in the United States.
Tyree Boyd-Pates, associate curator at the Autry Museum of the American West, sees his role as a public historian as "combatting the historical amnesia and malaise surrounding the Black experience.” In this week’s episode, Tyree discusses his work in collecting and documenting people's experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic (as reported recently in The New York Times). He also speaks of his prior work as curator at the California African American Museum, including his work on the show titled “No Justice, No Peace” marking the 25th anniversary of the 1992 LA Uprising.
For information about Tyree's and The Autry's response to the current moment in the Black Lives Matter movement, please click here.
Political philosopher Hannah Arendt famously argued - in the case of SS officer Adolf Eichmann - that ordinary people can easily become complicit in evil acts as part of a larger system of injustice and inequality. In this special episode, we discuss the concept of "the banality of evil" with Robin Kelley, prominent scholar and professor of U.S. and African American History. As protests spread across the country over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many more, Professor Kelley shares with us his perspectives on our shared responsibilities, revolutionary pessimism, and the historian’s role in the pursuit of justice.
This week the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy releases its report on White Nationalism in Southern California, titled "All is Not Well in the Golden State."
We are joined by the authors, Grace Johnston-Glick, James Nee, and Gavin Quan, a team of dedicated UCLA undergraduates who delve into the history, ideology, and present-day implications of white nationalism.
As streets across the country are filled with protests over the killing of George Floyd and so many others, we must continue to look to history to fully understand the insidiousness and structural nature of racism in our country so that we may begin to confront it.
Please join for an inspiring conversation on Then & Now with Tendayi Achiume, UCLA Law Professor, the Faculty Director of the UCLA Law Promise Institute for Human Rights, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Racism. Prof. Achiume shares her personal history, the historical development of the global human rights movement, the state of racism during the COVID-19 era, and the importance of maintaining hope about making meaningful change in the world.
Dr. Linda Rosenstock, Professor and Dean Emeritus of the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, joins Then & Now to share her rich experience in the public health field and helps us make sense of the current response to the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis. She describes the development of local, national, and global public health infrastructures, and describes what has worked in the past and what isn't working today.
This week we are joined by Professor Michael Meranze, UCLA History Professor and Chair of UCLA’s Academic Senate. The Academic Senate is a body of faculty members who share in the governance of the UCLA. Professor Meranze discusses the history of shared governance, the university’s past and current responses to crises, and the lessons that can be learned from the Great Depression and New Deal.
To conclude Then & Now’s three-part mini-series on the relationship between the LA County Supervisors and Sheriff’s Department, we sat down with Connie Rice, Esq. and Dr. Raphael Sonenshein, two prominent civic leaders with deep knowledge of Los Angeles political history. They skillfully frame the divergent narratives we heard in our last two episodes on the topic, offering much needed historical context and a keen analysis of the present-day conflict.
Essential listening for all those interested in the history and future of LA County.
In this special episode of Then & Now, we sit down with LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva as he responds to our inaugural episode and gives his take on the current tensions between his office and the Board of Supervisors, and on how the past informs his perspectives and decisions.
Join a team of researchers from the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy as they discuss their timely new report examining California's responses to pandemics over the last 100 years. They discuss the division of power among local, state, and federal government in responding to these outbreaks, the tendency to stigmatize groups and places by naming a disease, and the divergent economic effects of pandemics “then” and “now.”
Los Angeles County, one of the largest municipal governments in the world, is overseen by a board of five elected supervisors and three countywide elected officials, including the sheriff.
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Supervisors voted to remove LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva from his post as head of the County's Emergency Operations Center, and tensions have only risen since. How can we make sense of the ongoing conflict between the L.A. County leaders in this moment of public health crisis? Is this unprecedented? What does history tell us about the division of power at this level of government?
The UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy is pleased to launch its new podcast "Then & Now," featuring an informative discussion on this question with former Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, an LCHP Senior Fellow.
Subscribe today to be the first to hear The UCLA Luskin Center for History & Policy's brand new podcast, Then & Now. This podcast is dedicated to uncovering the wisdom and guidance that history has to offer us today.