Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ph.D.
Presidential Historian and Author of Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic (Oxford University Press | Forthcoming 2024), The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Harvard University Press | 2020)
Topics Lindsay Chervinsky can discuss:
- Impeachment in history, as well as current methods, norms, and protocols
- John Adams’s role in protecting the nation from foreign attacks and promoting fair elections
- The importance of a smooth presidential transition
- The purpose of impeachment and its use in this current political moment
- The history of government institutions and how they come to bear on the present
- The purpose of the Presidential Cabinet and why it is still vital today
Lindsay M. Chervinsky, Ph.D.
Presidential Historian and Author of Making the Presidency: John Adams and the Precedents That Forged the Republic (Oxford University Press | Forthcoming 2024), The Cabinet: George Washington and the Creation of an American Institution (Harvard University Press | 2020)
Topics Dr. Chervinsky can discuss:
- Impeachment in history, as well as current methods, norms, and protocols
- John Adams’s role in protecting the nation from foreign attacks and promoting fair elections
- The importance of a smooth presidential transition
- The purpose of impeachment and its use in this current political moment
- The history of government institutions and how they come to bear on the present
- The purpose of the Presidential Cabinet and why it is still vital today
Gretchen Sisson, Ph.D.
Author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood (St. Martin’s Press | 2024)
Topics Gretchen Sisson can discuss:
- Why adoption is not a valid alternative to abortion, and how adoption may change during the post-Roe era
- The role religion, race, and class play in pregnancy decision-making and adoption
- The history of adoption and family separation in the United States
- Debunking the feel-good narrative surrounding adoption, and the coercive messaging pregnant women receive
- The representation of abortion and adoption in American film and television
- Examples include The Handmaid’s Tale, This is Us, and Grey’s Anatomy
- The debate around transnational adoption
Gretchen Sisson, Ph.D.
Author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood (St. Martin’s Press | 2024)
Topics Gretchen Sisson can discuss:
- Why adoption is not a valid alternative to abortion, and how adoption may change during the post-Roe era
- The role religion, race, and class play in pregnancy decision-making and adoption
- The history of adoption and family separation in the United States
- Debunking the feel-good narrative surrounding adoption, and the coercive messaging pregnant women receive
- The representation of abortion and adoption in American film and television
- Examples include The Handmaid’s Tale, This is Us, and Grey’s Anatomy
- The debate around transnational adoption
Oliver L. Haimson
Assistant Professor at University Michigan School of Information and Author of Trans Technologies (MIT Press | February 25, 2025)
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Topics Oliver L. Haimson can discuss:
- The complex challenges trans people face online and in the physical world, and how trans technologies try to address these societal failures.
- Marginalization and technology; how prejudice plays out in familiar and unique ways in digital spaces.
- Why it is important to center community in trans tech design, especially the experiences of people with multiple marginalized identities.
- What is trans capitalism, and how different financial orientations (community & mutual aid vs. venture capital funding) impacts trans technologies’ potential.
- Trans technology and time: how transness is inherently future-oriented and why trans technologies are so critical in the current socio-political moment.
- Gaps and areas of growth in trans technological design—where can we go next?
Michael Albertus, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor at University of Chicago and Author of Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies (Basic Books | Pub date: January 14, 2025)
Topics Michael Albertus can discuss:
- Democracy resilience and democratic erosion
- Includes the US election and challenges to election integrity
- Includes global lessons on how democracy can thrive, when it’s vulnerable, and ways in which democratic erosion occurs
- The current spread of authoritarianism around the world
- Includes transnational trends and implications for democratic countries and an open world order
- How land ownership shapes political power, inequality, and the environment
- Includes social problems like racism, gender inequality, zoning and housing affordability, urbanization and gentrification, environmental damage, and poverty, lack of opportunity
- How social conflict and violence emerges and its ties to property and land issues
- Includes domestic conflict and civil war, social movements and violence, international conflict such as Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and criminal violence such as turf wars between drug cartels and criminal organizations
Topher McDougal, Ph.D.
Professor of Economic Development & Peacebuilding at University of San Diego and Author of Gaia Wakes: Earth’s Emergent Consciousness in an Age of Environmental Devastation (Agenda | Pub Date: May 22, 2025)
Topics Topher McDougal can discuss:
- Democracy resilience and democratic erosion
- How AI, data networks, and global communication may contribute to a “planetary/Earth brain,” also known as the “Gaiacephalos”
- Environmental fatalism versus techno-optimism (“overshooters” versus “cornucopians”)
- Slavery as a function of energy economics. Lecture here.
- Impact Illicit Trades on Global Stability
- Global arms trafficking patterns (with a focus on small arms, and US-sold weapons)
- Small arms as a keystone of illicit markets
- Researching clandestine activities
- US-Mexico arms trafficking
- Economics of humanitarianism and peace
- Humanitarian expenditures and climate change
- Humanitarian interventions (in, e.g. Gaza, Haiti, sub-Saharan Africa [esp. West Africa])
- Climate change and violent conflict
Corinna Barrett Lain
Death Penalty Expert, Law Professor, Former Prosecutor and Author at University of Richmond and Author of Secrets of the Killing State (NYU Press | Pub Date: April 22, 2025)
Topics Corinna Barrett Lain can discuss:
- What the second term of Donald Trump’s presidency could mean for the death penalty in the U.S., particularly as he plans to ramp up federal executions.
- How lethal injection is all about secrets at the hands of the state—secrets to get drugs, secrets to hide executioners, and secrets to cover gross incompetence.
- Whether state secrecy statutes are constitutional.
- How the lethal injection drug shortage has states turning to illegal, clandestine drug purchases.
- How lethal injection was designed to look humane but is the exact opposite: lethal injection is not regulated, carefully conducted, or performed by well-qualified medical professionals.
- That botched executions aren’t random glitches, but rather the spillover effects of a system that is deeply broken, and happen more than states like to admit.
- Why the medical profession is at war with lethal injection and how the law has accounted for medical ethics (or not).
- The maladministration of the corrections department and how this impacts lethal injection.
Michael Albertus, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor at University Michigan School of Information and Author of Land Power: Who Has It, Who Doesn’t, and How That Determines the Fate of Societies (Basic Books | Pub date: January 14, 2025)
Topics Michael Albertus can discuss:
- Democracy resilience and democratic erosion
- Includes the US election and challenges to election integrity
- Includes global lessons on how democracy can thrive, when it’s vulnerable, and ways in which democratic erosion occurs
- The current spread of authoritarianism around the world
- Includes transnational trends and implications for democratic countries and an open world order
- How land ownership shapes political power, inequality, and the environment
- Includes social problems like racism, gender inequality, zoning and housing affordability, urbanization and gentrification, environmental damage, and poverty, lack of opportunity
- How social conflict and violence emerges and its ties to property and land issues
- Includes domestic conflict and civil war, social movements and violence, international conflict such as Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and criminal violence such as turf wars between drug cartels and criminal organizations
Expert Materials | Author Photo | Book Jacket
Oliver L. Haimson
Assistant Professor at University Michigan School of Information and Author of Trans Technologies (MIT Press | February 25, 2025)
Pronouns: He/Him/His
Topics Oliver L. Haimson can discuss:
- The complex challenges trans people face online and in the physical world, and how trans technologies try to address these societal failures.
- Marginalization and technology; how prejudice plays out in familiar and unique ways in digital spaces.
- Why it is important to center community in trans tech design, especially the experiences of people with multiple marginalized identities.
- What is trans capitalism, and how different financial orientations (community & mutual aid vs. venture capital funding) impacts trans technologies’ potential.
- Trans technology and time: how transness is inherently future-oriented and why trans technologies are so critical in the current socio-political moment.
- Gaps and areas of growth in trans technological design—where can we go next?
Thomas G. Moukawsher
Former Connecticut Superior Court Judge and Author of The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It (Brandeis University Press | 2023)
Topics Thomas Moukawsher can discuss:
- Why lawsuits last longer but almost never go to trial
- A better way to resolve legal disputes promptly and candidly
- Why courts can’t be replaced by artificial intelligence
- How cartoons and movies such as A Few Good Men and Dead Poets Society can help us fix the legal system
- Why the U.S. Supreme Court approval rating is at a historical low
- Why it shouldn’t be so hard to get a case heard and to understand what a court means
- How to reinvent the American lawsuit and focus on solving the problems of ordinary citizens and businesses
- Why courts should place humanism above scholasticism and formalism in decision making
- How the pretense of objectivity is hurting the courts—their denial of their humanity and their fallibility
- Why judges should guard against a herd mentality
Thomas G. Moukawsher
Former Connecticut Superior Court Judge and Author of The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It (Brandeis University Press | 2023)
Topics Thomas Moukawsher can discuss:
- Why lawsuits last longer but almost never go to trial
- A better way to resolve legal disputes promptly and candidly
- Why courts can’t be replaced by artificial intelligence
- How cartoons and movies such as A Few Good Men and Dead Poets Society can help us fix the legal system
- Why the U.S. Supreme Court approval rating is at a historical low
- Why it shouldn’t be so hard to get a case heard and to understand what a court means
- How to reinvent the American lawsuit and focus on solving the problems of ordinary citizens and businesses
- Why courts should place humanism above scholasticism and formalism in decision making
- How the pretense of objectivity is hurting the courts—their denial of their humanity and their fallibility
- Why judges should guard against a herd mentality