Talk Policy To Me Goldman School of Public Policy and Berkeley Institute for Young Americans

Professor Robert B. Reich was voted by the graduating students of UC Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy to be their faculty speaker. Always a beloved teacher, this occasion was especially meaningful because it marked Professor Reich's retirement from teaching. 
Robert Reich was introduced by Master of Public Policy student speaker Abraham Eli Bedoy.
See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/professor-robert-reich-speaks-at-goldman-school-commencement

Tennessee Representative Justin Jones addressed the graduates at the Goldman School of Public Policy's commencement on May 14, 2023.
Representative Jones came into the national spotlight when he was expelled from the Tennessee legislature for taking to the assembly floor to protest gun violence and the refusal of the legislature to take up this issue.  
See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/bonus-episode-tennessee-representative-justin-jones-speaks-at-gspp-commencement

 


This year, researchers found that the last 22 years were the driest consecutive years in the North American southwest in over a millennium. The pace and scale of climate change is forcing states and counties to adapt rapidly. In California, one of the industries at the forefront of the adaptation predicament is agriculture. In today’s episode, reporter Elena Neale-Sacks speaks with resilience researcher Amélie Gaudin, Sacramento Valley farmer Scott Park, and water policy research fellow Caity Peterson to understand how farmers and growers are, and aren’t, building resilience to drought.
See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-512-talking-agriculture-drought-and-resilience
 

 


The annual number of anti-LGBTQ bills filed has skyrocketed over the past several years, from 41 in 2018 to 240 and counting in the first three months of this year. Half of these bills are targeting transgender people specifically. At the same time, surveys of the general public show over 70% say they support same-sex marriage and laws preventing discrimination across the LGBTQ community. And Gen Z are proudly and loudly identifying with both gender and sexual fluidity. How do we square these two realities? In this episode, Talk Policy to Me reporter Amy Benziger dives into how the rise in representation of people from across the gender and sexual spectrum in media, business, and government has caused a policy backlash by the old guard to solidify their conservative base. 
Our guests include Fran Dunway, Founder of TomboyX; Corey Rose, a student at UC Berkeley Journalism School and former reporter for South Florida Gay News; and Pau Crego, Executive Director of the SF Office of Transgender Initiatives.
See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-511-talking-the-rise-of-anti-lgbtq-legislation
 

 


Show Notes In 2016, California voters legalized recreational cannabis through Prop 64. Now, five years after legalization, city’s are grappling with the difficulty of prioritizing social equity in the cannabis licensing process for Black, brown, and formerly incarcerated small business owners who were negatively impacted by the war on drugs. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me Reporter Noah Cole talks with Amber Senter, a cannabis advocate and Executive Director of Supernova Women and Chaney Turner, Chair of the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission.
This episode was supported by research from Nabil Aziz and Victor Vasquez of the Cal in Sac Diversity and Entrepreneurship Summer 2021 fellowship program.
References https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/business/cannabis-dispensaries-oakland.html?smid=url-share
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-01-27/california-pot-industry-social-equity-broken-promises
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/01/in-billion-dollar-cannabis-market-racial-inequity-persists-despite-legalization.html
https://escholarship.org/content/qt7pb360bg/qt7pb360bg.pdf
https://escholarship.org/content/qt1wx6w6w2/qt1wx6w6w2.pdf?t=qzvyay
https://amberesenter.com/
https://www.beyondequity.online/
See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-510-talking-social-equity-cannabis
 

 


The Republican Party and the Democratic Party take different approaches to talking about race and racism. While politicians in the Republican Party have used coded language or “dog whistles” to stoke racial division, politicians in the Democratic Party either avoid talking about race in favor of talking about class issues or talk about race as a matter of white over nonwhite conflict. Each of these approaches have had difficulty resonating with a broad multiracial coalition of voters needed for electoral success. Berkeley Law Professor Ian Haney López has an alternative approach to messaging around race that could resonate with most Americans: Race-class fusion politics. In this episode, Talk Policy to Me Reporter Noah Cole speaks with Ian Haney López (Author of 2019’s  “Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America”) about the race-class fusion approach to building a multiracial coalition for elections. Noah and Professor Lopez discuss the historical precedent for the approach, the focus groups that demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach, and criticisms of the approach. References
Can Democracy (and the Democratic Party) Survive Racism as a Strategy?- - Ian Haney Lopez Medium Article
Merge Left- Ian Haney López
Dog Whistle Politics - Ian Haney López
https://projectjuntos.us/ - Fusion politics messaging focus group findings
https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ - Poor people's campaign
https://peoplesaction.org/ People’s action
https://race-class-academy.com/  Race-Class Academy resources for learning about race-class fusion politics
Audio credits AOC Demolishes Lauren Boebert's Welfare Hypocrisy- The Young Turks (Youtube)
Ron DeSantis slams critical race theory as 'poison'- Fox News (YouTube)
The First Presidential Debate: Hillary Clinton And Donald Trump (Full Debate) | NBC News NBC News (Youtube)
Poor People's Campaign asks America to face the injustices keeping millions in poverty PBS Newshour (Youtube)
George Goehl: If Dems Don't Embrace Populism They Will Be Destroyed People’s Action (Youtube)
See show notes and full transcript here: https://gspp.berkeley.edu/research-and-impact/news/podcast/episode-509-talking-race-class-fusion