At this point, classified documents have been uncovered in the homes of former President Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, and President Biden. But there are more practical issues with how the government treats classified documents than just whose garage they’re sitting in.
Guest: Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice
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Melissa interviews Dahlia Lithwick about her best-selling book Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America. They discuss overlooked women who shaped the legal system, complicity in judicial culture, the problem with clerkships, and what it means to actually participate in rebuilding a broken system. The conversation was originally a virtual New York University Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Network Book Talk in October 2022.
Order Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save Americahere (use STRICT10 at checkout for 10% off!)
Erin Friday’s daughter was introduced to gender identity ideology in a comprehensive sex-ed class in seventh grade.
“The seed was planted after that class,” Friday says. “And in fact, all of her friends, there were five, sat in my front yard saying what their new labels were.”
Friday says she was “alarmed by the language that they were using, including 'pansexual,' which is not a term that 11-year-olds should know.”
The mother began looking into what her daughter was learning in school and was struck by the fact that other adults were not also questioning the teaching of gender ideology to middle schoolers.
When her daughter said she was "transgender," Friday began taking decisive steps to rescue her from transgenderism. She took her daughter's phone, put her in a new school, and tried her best to surround the preteen with the truth about who she was as a female. It was not easy, but Friday says, as a parent, “you have to be strong enough, your love for your child has to be strong enough, to take their vitriol.”
After about a year and a half, Friday’s daughter stopped claiming a transgender identity. Today, through the work of the parental support group Our Duty, Friday is helping other families navigate through gender identity ideology.
Friday joins the show today to share her story, and to explain how parents can protect their children from the harms of gender identity ideology.
Part two of last week's conversation with popular Twitch streamer Vaush is here. During the first half, we have some really promising simpatico about doomerism on the left, before we get derailed in the FTV quagmire again. Is Brie right to want some accountability from left media figures who thwarted one of the few opportunities for the left to leverage real power over the last few years? Or is there a good faith reason to want to let it go?
Gas stoves are found in around 40% of homes in the United States, and they've been getting a lot of attention lately. A recent interview with Richard Trumka, the commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), quickly became fodder for outrage, viral disinformation and political fundraising after he proposed regulating the appliance. The proposal stems from a growing body of research suggesting gas stoves are unhealthy — especially for those with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and children. NPR climate and energy correspondent Jeff Brady joins us today to separate fact from fiction.
Saying sorry can be really difficult sometimes – it requires a certain amount of accountability, reflection and empathy. But that's precisely why it can go so far in a familial, romantic or professional relationship. In their new book, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Marjorie Ingall and Susan McCarthy break down six essential steps to a good apology – and explain why it's more important to think about the impact of our words than the intent behind them. They tell NPR's Mary Louise Kelly that while focusing on regret centers our own feelings, saying sorry actually puts the other person first.
How do ideas manifest outside of their place of origin, and how do they change once they do? The Emergence of Global Maoism: China’s Red Evangelism and the Cambodian Communist Movement, 1949–1979(Cornell University Press, 2022) by Matthew Galway examines how ideological systems become localized, both in the indigenization of Marxism-Leninism by Mao Zedong and, more significantly, the indigenization of Maoism by the Communist Party of Kampuchea. Galway carefully investigates how Maoism was received, adapted, utilized, and ultimately rejected in Cambodia, examining in particular the different ways Paris-educated CPK leaders Pol Pot, Hou Yuon, and Hu Nim approached and interpreted Mao's writings and ideas. This intellectual history is wonderfully rich, theoretically grounded in Edward Said’s "traveling theory" model and filled with close readings of little-known, complex texts. The Emergence of Global Maoism is a necessary read for those interested in the history of modern China, Cambodia, and global Maoism, as well as for anyone who has ever wondered what a historian might do with an economics dissertation (the answer: see chapter four).
In addition to seeking out The Emergence of Global Maoism, interested listeners should also have a look at “Peasant Worker Communist Spy: A Chinese Intelligence Agent Looks Back at His Time in Cambodia,” a portrait of a CCP intelligence agent in Cambodia, as well as Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia (ANU Press, 2022) edited by Matthew Galway and Marc H. Opper, with chapters on the adoption of Marxism in the Dutch East Indies, Maoism in the Philippines, and the Chinese Communist Party in Laos, among other fascinating case studies of experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Southeast Asia.
Sarah Bramao-Ramos is a PhD candidate in History and East Asian Languages at Harvard. She works on Manchu language books and is interested in anything with a kesike. She can be reached at sbramaoramos@g.harvard.edu
