Sea Change Radio Alex Wise

How do you think your life would be different if you had spent your first five years as an adult incarcerated? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Kevin Ortiz, a progressive political activist in San Francisco whose life was very nearly derailed by a run-in with the police when he was 19 years old. We hear Kevin’s story, learn how the nonprofit SF Pretrial helped him out, and get some first-hand insight into a legal system that is tilted against young men of color. Then, we hear an excerpt from our 2022 discussion with San Francisco Public Defender Peter Calloway.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Kevin Ortiz | 00:14 - No system's perfect, right? But if we're going to look at the overall successes of people being able to get connected, and through SF Pretrial, able to come out of it with secure jobs, housing, drug rehabilitative services, and then social emotional supports, right? And then being able to go back into being successful citizens, then that's a model that we should be actually continuing to expand funding for and not underfunding it or cutting funding to it.

Narrator | 00:40 - How do you think your life would be different if you had spent your first five years as an adult incarcerated? This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak to Kevin Ortiz, a progressive political activist in San Francisco whose life was very nearly derailed by a run-in with the police when he was 19 years old. We hear Kevin’s story, learn how the nonprofit SF Pretrial helped him out, and get some first-hand insight into a legal system that is tilted against young men of color. Then, we hear an excerpt from our 2022 discussion with San Francisco Public Defender Peter Calloway.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:30 - I'm joined on Sea Change Radio by Kevin Ortiz. Kevin is the president of the San Francisco Latino Democratic Club. Kevin, welcome to Sea. Change Radio.

Kevin Ortiz (KO) | 01:42 - Hey, thanks for having me on. 

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:44 - Why don't you start us off, Kevin, by giving us your backstory and how you encountered legal troubles as a younger man. 

Kevin Ortiz (KO) | 01:53 - Yeah, definitely. So maybe diving a little bit backwards, um, so I, I just turned 30 when I was 19 years old. I was in a much different place than I'm at now, and so I, you know, was kind of in the party scene drinking a lot more than I should have been. I think, you know, at the time I was also doing drugs, and so it was a different kind of lifestyle that I was living to where I currently am. And so I went out to a club event when I was like 19. I think I was 19 and a half when the incident happened. And so, you know, on 22nd admission for an 18 plus event at that time. And, um, you know, I stumbled out of the bar, right? And, you know, intoxicated, being underage, um, there was already a situation that was going on at that time. And so, you know, I kind of stumbled into it as I was trying to jaywalk across the street. Police stopped me, immediately arrested me because they had so seen that I was intoxicated. And from there I got slammed on the back of a police car. And, um, at that time, you know, I had a little bit of a motor mouth . And so, um, you know, I got into a verbal altercation with the police while I was basically getting handcuffed and arrested. And so I got hogtied thrown right back in the, the back of a police vehicle. Uh, you know, it got taken back to the Mission police station, which is about, it's five blocks away from, um, you know, where the incident happened, about actually a block away from where I lived at the time. And so I experienced what we would now describe as police brutality. I was, you know, basically, you know, as I was getting taken outta the car, hogtied talking a lot of smack. And so from there I basically, you know, ended up getting, you know, like I got beat up on.

 AW | 03:31 - And you were initially just arrested for jaywalking? 

Election season is still a few months away, but the scent of it is already on the wind. There is a lot at stake in the presidential election, of course, but that's not the only issue for voters in November. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Daniel Nichanian of Bolts Magazine to get a deeper understanding of the importance of the many down-ballot races on which Americans will be casting votes this fall. We examine state Supreme Court elections in Arizona and North Carolina, and discuss how abortion may affect various swing state races in places like Florida.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Daniel Nichanian (DN) | 00:15 - Trump named the federal justices that overturned Roe. And then the Governor DeSantis signed the law that is now at issue in Florida. So the dots very much connect to Republicans who are already, you know, being put on a defensive on these issues. Whether that actually translates into the presidential race being more competitive, that might be a stretch. We'll see.

Narrator | 00:39 - Election season is still a few months away, but the scent of it is already on the wind. There is a lot at stake in the presidential election, of course, but that's not the only issue for voters in November. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Daniel Nichanian of Bolts Magazine to get a deeper understanding of the importance of the many down-ballot races on which Americans will be casting votes this fall. We examine state Supreme Court elections in Arizona and North Carolina, and discuss how abortion may affect various swing state races in places like Florida.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:30 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Daniel Nichanian. He's the founder and editor of Bolts Magazine. Daniel, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

Daniel Nichanian (DN) | 01:41 - It's great to be back. Thanks for having me.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:43 - So, when we first spoke, you were just launching Bolts. Before we dive into all the, the nuts and bolts of this upcoming election, tell us what the mission of the organization is and how it's been evolving since we last spoke a couple years ago.

Daniel Nichanian (DN) | 01:59 -Um, yeah, so it's, it's really great to be back after a few years of having Bolts in the world. Now, Bolts… the idea behind Bolts is that for a lot of the big issues that people are interested in or care about, the federal government, just as a very small slice of what's important, of what's happening, it's very important to be aware of the ways in which counties, municipalities, state are also very, very important when it comes to matters linked to civil rights, voting rights, and, and so on. And, and what Bolts does is on the themes we cover, which are really focused on criminal justice on one hand and, and vote voting rights on the other, um, we, we really pay, pay attention to what's happening around the country at these levels, at the local level, at the municipal level, at the county level, at the state level. And we try to connect the dots for people because, you know, there's, uh, a lot of states, a lot of cities, a lot of towns in, around, around the country. And, it's easy to miss the forest for the trees. And it's been great, you know, there's been a lot of interest, um, in the past few years at what's happening with prosecutors, with judges, with sheriffs, with election officials, uh, and the laws that are changing in blue states and red states that are sort of going in in different ways. And it's been great to have this platform to cover all of these issues. 

AW | 03:19 - And when somebody watches cable news on election night, that's maybe the first time that they'll look at down-ballot races for the year or for the cycle. I think it's really important to be a part of the Democratic process 24 7, and that's what Bolts is designed to do.

DN | 03:39 - Yeah, and I think sometimes it may seem esoteric, uh, or it's,

When it comes to energy transitions, marine vessels tend to get overlooked, even though they are some of the worst polluters of our oceans and air. The heavy duty diesel fuel used by most ships presents serious problems for the planet. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Maria Gallucci, a Senior Reporter at Canary Media, who describes efforts being made to transform boats and ships into zero emission marine fleets. We look at a project to electrify tugboats in San Diego, a cutting-edge hydrogen ferry about to launch in San Francisco, and innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the international cargo shipping space.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Maria Gallucci (MG) | 00:17 - When we think about the effect that these vessels have, yes, they are certainly contributing to climate change in a very real way. They're also directly spewing pollution into these communities as well.

Narrator | 00:30 - When it comes to energy transitions, marine vessels tend to get overlooked, even though they are some of the worst polluters of our oceans and air. The heavy duty diesel fuel used by most ships presents serious problems for the planet. This week on Sea Change Radio, we speak with Maria Gallucci, a Senior Reporter at Canary Media, who describes efforts being made to transform boats and ships into zero emission marine fleets. We look at a project to electrify tugboats in San Diego, a cutting-edge hydrogen ferry about to launch in San Francisco, and innovations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the international cargo shipping space.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:30 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Maria Gallucci. Maria is a senior reporter for Canary Media. Maria, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Maria Gallucci (MG) | 01:43 - Hi. Thanks for having me.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:45 - Why don't you first tell us about Canary Media. You just recently celebrated your third anniversary, correct?

Maria Gallucci (MG) | 01:51 - Yes, we did. So, Canary Media is a nonprofit newsroom covering the clean energy transition. We are a fully independent outlet, and we focus primarily on the United States, but kind of hoping to expand globally because obviously this is an issue that affects everywhere.

AW | 02:07 - When we think about energy transitions, we're often thinking about getting an electric vehicle or making a change to our electric grid. But one of the more global issues is ocean transport. And you've written a few pieces on how maritime vessels are trying to electrify. Why don't you first kind of give us an overview of some of the industry's problems that they're facing and, and what the solutions could be on the horizon? 

MG | 02:36 - Sure. So globally, the International Shipping Sector accounts for about 3% of greenhouse gas emissions every year. That includes cargo ships, harbor crafts, and all types of vessels that serve this massive multi-trillion dollar industry. And there are kind of many ways to go about tackling the problem of, one of which is, is developing greener fuels to go in these cargo ships. Another is electrifying, uh, especially the smaller vessels like tugboats and ferries. Still complicated and expensive to do, but, uh, we're starting to see a lot of progress on harbor craft and particular that operate close to ports close to communities. And so it's not just a solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also kind of these toxic air pollutants that concentrate in communities. 

AW | 03:28 - So these harbor craft, let's focus on those a little bit more. It makes a lot of sense. These are kind of the low hanging fruit for transitioning to electrification, right? You can recharge them pretty frequently because they're not out to Sea for two or three days. 

MG | 03:43 - Exactly. Uh, ferries especially, and even tugboats, they kind of have a home base. They'll go out, they'll do the run, they'll come back,

California is famous for its picturesque sunsets, year-round mild weather, excellent surf, and largely progressive politics, including forward-thinking greenhouse emission policies. This week on Sea Change Radio, however, we learn about a less pleasant claim to fame for the golden state. Today we're speaking with two scientists from Johns Hopkins University who are working to uncover the mysteries behind a dangerous greenhouse gas: sulfuryl fluoride. One such mystery is why so much of this harmful atmospheric compound originates from Southern California. Dylan Gaeta and Scot Miller walk us through changes in termite-eradication practices, how termites are not all alike, and what needs to happen in the nation's most populous state and elsewhere to solve the problem.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Dylan Gaeta | 00:20 - These sort of policies mandate emissions reductions of greenhouse gases across the board, but in all of these cases, sulfuryl fluoride isn't included in that list of greenhouse gases that require emissions reductions. So in, in that sense, it's sort of slipping through the cracks or under the radar, and are greenhouse gas emissions accounting.

Narrator | 00:40 - California is famous for its picturesque sunsets, year-round mild weather, excellent surf, and largely progressive politics, including forward-thinking greenhouse emission policies. This week on Sea Change Radio, however, we learn about a less pleasant claim to fame for the golden state. Today we're speaking with two scientists from Johns Hopkins University who are working to uncover the mysteries behind a dangerous greenhouse gas: sulfuryl fluoride. One such mystery is why so much of this harmful atmospheric compound originates from Southern California. Dylan Gaeta and Scot Miller walk us through changes in termite-eradication practices, how termites are not all alike, and what needs to happen in the nation's most populous state and elsewhere to solve the problem.

Alex Wise | 01:35 - I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Dylan Gaeta and Scot Miller Dylan is a PhD candidate at Johns Hopkins School of Environmental Engineering, and Scot is an assistant professor there. Scot, Dylan - welcome to Sea Change Radio.

Dylan Gaeta | 01:57 - Yeah, thank you for having us. Yeah, thanks. It's great to be here.

Alex Wise | 02:01 - So, Dylan, you are the lead on this study that is just getting published entitled, California Dominates US Emissions of the Pesticide and Potent Greenhouse Gas, sulfuryl fluoride. Explain the genesis of your research and why people should be aware of this.

Dylan Gaeta | 02:23 - I hadn't heard of sulfuryl fluoride until I, until I came to Hopkins and started my PhD here. And this was around 2020 and I started working with Scot. And so Scot had been in contact with a colleague from the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratories, who was sort of at the end of his career and had started looking at this gas around 2015. NOAA started, no, no, global Monitoring Laboratory started making these measurements and sort of pass it on to Scot as to say like, well, I'm out of time to, to look at this myself, but maybe this would be a good, um, topic to look into further. And so, so I, um, we started digging into where the SC is emitted in the world and like what, what, what it's used for, um, how it's been accumulating in the global atmosphere. Um, and when we started looking at those measurements, we sort of found, um, a sort of striking lack of information about the global distribution of this gas and where it's being used and what it's being used for and where, how much is being emitted in different parts of the world. And so what we did in our research study is that we, we used atmospheric measurements that were collected by our colleagues over at the, the NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory. And we started and we used those atmospheric measurements to,

Legacy students, applicants whose families attended the school, comprised 36 percent of Harvard's class of 2022. Notably, 77% of students admitted to Harvard via legacy preference are white. These days, however, the practice of giving legacy applicants a competitive edge over their peers in college admission decisions has come under fire. Last week on Sea Change Radio, we spoke with Law Professor John Brittain, from the University of the District of Columbia, who made the case for ending legacy preference in college admissions, asserting that it preserves wealth, power, and privilege. This week, we speak to Rod Graham, a sociology professor at Old Dominion University, who offers a contrasting perspective. Graham explains why he believes that legacy preference admissions should just be considered another factor that admissions officers should be free to consider, similar to how they may weigh an applicant's geography, race, athletic prowess, and other factors.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

Rod Graham (RG) | 00:19 - So we have what looks like a meritocracy because those kids earned their way there by doing the things to get there. But the people who went to the Ivy League schools in the seventies and eighties are sending their kids to Ivy League schools now, who will then send their kids to Ivy League schools later.

Narrator | 00:38 - Legacy students, applicants whose families attended the school, comprised 36 percent of Harvard's class of 2022. Notably, 77% of students admitted to Harvard via legacy preference are white. These days, however, the practice of giving legacy applicants a competitive edge over their peers in college admission decisions has come under fire. Last week on Sea Change Radio, we spoke with Law Professor John Brittain, from the University of the District of Columbia, who made the case for ending legacy preference in college admissions, asserting that it preserves wealth, power, and privilege. This week, we speak to Rod Graham, a sociology professor at Old Dominion University, who offers a contrasting perspective. Graham explains why he believes that legacy preference admissions should just be considered another factor that admissions officers should be free to consider, similar to how they may weigh an applicant's geography, race, athletic prowess, and other factors.

Alex Wise (AW) | 01:55 I am joined now on Sea Change Radio by Rod Graham. He is a sociology professor at Old Dominion University. Rod, welcome back to Sea Change Radio.

Rod Graham (RG) | 02:12 - Hey, Alex. It's nice to be back.

Alex Wise (AW) | 02:14 - I've missed you, my friend. And I wanted to discuss a piece that you wrote on your medium site. It was entitled, why I Support Legacy Admissions in Universities Instead of Me summarizing it. Why don't I first let you have the podium and explain the thinking behind this piece?

Rod Graham (RG) | 02:34 - Yeah, sure. Well, I, I think that institutions, uh, particularly educational institutions should have some leeway in building the student body that they think fits their mission. Um, it's not absolute, but some leeway, right? So if it, if it is the case that, an institution says, look, you know, there are reasons why we need to have legacy admissions. I'm for that. It's the same reason actually why I'm for affirmative action, or I think in the piece, uh, that you mentioned, the example I gave was my university, which doesn't have to worry about legacy admissions really, uh, or affirmative action or any of those things. But we do have a large military, uh, presence in the community, and it's in our best interest to, in effect, have preferences for, uh, military affiliate affiliated people, veterans or active or even their, their family members. And so I think it's a good idea within reason for an institution to have military preferences, affirmative action, and then also legacy, uh, preferences.

Longtime listeners know that Sea Change Radio is not a debate format - we do not generally provide a platform for climate change deniers or other purveyors of disinformation. But when it comes to certain topics, we do believe there is room for spirited discourse. Next week's guest will argue in favor of preserving legacy preferences in college admissions. In preparation for that conversation, and to provide context and a counterpoint, this week we are dipping into the Sea Change Radio archives to revisit our 2017 discussion with Prof. John Brittain.

The official subject matter of Sea Change Radio is environmental sustainability. This week, however, we are deviating from that to talk about a topic that we believe is inextricably linked to sustainability: stratification in education. We are talking with law professor, civil rights advocate, and educational diversity expert, Prof. John C. Brittain, about educational practices that perpetuate social, racial, and socioeconomic exclusiveness. Elite private schools were once restricted to wealthy white young men. Since the 1960s we have seen some progress at these schools – they all admit women, most have scholarship programs to make room for the non-wealthy, and they generally boast of need-blind admissions practices. But there is one hidden practice, often overlooked, which runs counter to all of that progress: the practice of legacy admissions. That is, giving preference to applicants who have a family connection to the school. The majority of elite educational institutions in this country do this. For example, in 2017, a full 41% of Harvard’s incoming freshman were legacies. Logic tells us that generation after generation, this sort of admission preference can’t be doing much for these schools’ demographic diversity. Professor Brittain and host Alex Wise discuss how legacy admission practices serve as affirmative action for the privileged, the irony that the practice thrives in the United States which holds itself up as a model meritocracy and how schools’ justifications for the ongoing use of legacy preferences don’t hold up to a reasoned analysis.

Narrator | 00:02 - This is Sea Change Radio covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise. 

John Brittain (JB) | 00:17 - At many elite post-secondary educational institutions, applicants with an alumni parent are accepted at two to three times the rate of those without leading one commentator to label legacy preference as the biggest affirmative action program and American higher education.

Narrator (2024)| 00:41 Longtime listeners know that Sea Change Radio is not a debate format. We don't generally provide a platform for climate change deniers or other purveyors of disinformation, but when it comes to certain topics, we do believe there's room for spirited discourse. Next week's guest will argue in favor of preserving legacy preferences in college admissions in preparation for that conversation and to provide context and a counterpoint, this week we're dipping into the Sea Change Radio archives to revisit our discussion with Professor John Brittain.

Narrator (2017) | 01:18 - The official subject matter of Sea Change Radio is environmental sustainability. This week, however, we're deviating from that to talk about a topic that we believe is inextricably linked to sustainability stratification in education. We're talking with law professor, civil rights advocate, and educational diversity expert John Brittain about educational practices that perpetuate social, racial and socioeconomic exclusiveness. Elite private schools were once restricted to wealthy white young men. Since the 1960s, we've seen some progress at these schools. They all admit women most have scholarship programs to make room for the non wealthy, and they generally boast of need blind admissions practices. But there is one hidden practice often overlooked, which runs counter to all of that progress, the practice of legacy admissi