America Trends Podcast

America Trends
  • 4.5 (20)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

A podcast focusing on the social and political trends shaping our future.

  1. 3D AGO

    EP 936 How Important Are Scientists to Public Policy?

    If you think about it virtually all major public policy issues involve the application of science.  How do we deal with global warming?  What limits can we put on the development of nuclear capability from a rogue nation that we are able to drag to a bargaining table?  How do we get consensus on a strategy to blunt the next airborne virus which starts with human and animal contact continents away?  Yet it would seem that the lens through which scientists look at problem solving and that of politicians is worlds apart.  So how does scientific input affect the ultimate resolution of some of the world’s most vexing problems?  Nobel Laureate, Dr. Peter Agre, attempts to answer that question in his new book, “Can Scientists Succeed where Politicians Fail?”  It’s interesting when you consider how we must rely on scientists to help craft policies to ameliorate problems that resulted from their own acumen.  The limiting of the potential of nuclear weapons may be the best example, as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the nuclear bomb, realized early on.

    38 min

  2. 5D AGO

    EP 935 Did You Realize Youth Prisons are Shutting Down Across the Country?

    It’s fair to say that I had no idea that a society which likes to lock all of our troubles away, was now releasing many youthful offenders into different types of therapeutic settings, which take various forms.  This phenomenon has been going on for the last twenty years as one state after another has shuttered its youth prisons and stopped trying youth as adults, except in extreme cases.  The number of children locked in cages has dropped by 75 percent.  Nell Bernstein, author of “In Our Future We Are Free”, explains the forces that moved our society from one most concerned about “juvenile superpredators” to a time in which the youth prison is rapidly fading from view.  Interestingly, much of the dynamism behind this movement came from the young people left in horrific conditions within these facilities, as well as some prison administrators who themselves were concerned by the treatment of these young offenders.

    35 min

  3. JAN 14

    EP 934 A College President’s Reflections on the Crisis in Higher Education

    A series of threats have landed on the doorstep of leaders in higher education. These include a demographic cliff which jeopardizes the very existence of some institutions, the advent of AI and the uncertainties it presents for faculty and students prospects going forward, attacks on academic freedom from the Trump Administration, along with threats to cut off funding for research.  All of this in the wake of a ruling striking down affirmative action by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023 and the turmoil on campus over treatment of both Jewish students and those demonstrating support for the Palestinian cause.  It’s no wonder the average college president occupies a chair some would ask ‘why would anyone want this job?’  Our guest, Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D, was very successful in serving as the ninth president of Spelman College in Atlanta from 2002-2015.  In her latest book, “Peril and Promise”, she describes her innovative approach to leading a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), single sex institution for that length of time, as well as providing her insightful take on the challenges described above.

    45 min

  4. JAN 12

    EP 933 Our National Security Strategy Has Changed: No Longer the World’s Policeman on the Beat

    The post-World War II world has seen America defending and trying to export democracy and free markets through its military might and the development of international organizations having the same purpose.  Under the Trump Administration II, and its recently released National Security Strategy the new approach can best be described as an ‘America First’ national security regime.  It is in their words more ‘realistic’ given our fiscal challenges and offshore balance security concerns are to be left to allies closer to where the hotspots are.  It shows growing concern for American business interests around the world, regardless of the political dynamics of the potential customer, and less about promoting more liberal, democratic governments.  There are mixed signals toward our greatest competitor, China, though it clearly disavows the notion of past Administrations that trade and engagement with this country can lead to democratic reforms there.  Some call this policy document a gift to the Russians.  It remains to be seen.  In many cases this document, updated by every Administration is put forward in theory but not in practice. However, we have just seen in the Venezuelan Maduro capture the re-emphasis of dominance in the Western Hemisphere.  To discuss this changing international focus with us is Todd Sheets, author of the Substack newsletter ‘On Wealth and Progress’ and author of the book, “2008: What Really Happened.”

    35 min

  5. JAN 7

    EP 932 Once, Plastics was the Future: Now Some Say It Should be a Thing of the Past

    There is a growing awareness about the increasing dangers of plastic.  We see it everywhere, yet some of the invisible plastics contamination, called microplastics or nano-plastics, may be as insidious as what can see. It can be found everywhere in our environment–even our bodies–as a persistent, accumulating toxin, with carcinogens and other hazards.  Our guest, Dr. Jason White, director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, along with colleagues from Rutgers University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, with a grant from the USDA, has been studying how plastics are getting into the food that we eat. Plastics are routinely found in agricultural soils and irrigation water.  Tiny shards can slip through water treatment plants into the public water supply and end up in fertilizers, as well.  Agricultural products not only absorb the plastic particles but also increase the accumulation of heavy metals, lead and cadmium, as well as PFAS, or ‘forever chemicals.’ Increasing health risks to humans include heart attack, stroke and colon and lunge cancer.  It’s a distressing picture. Dr. White describes what his research is finding and ways to remediate the problem.

    29 min

  6. 12/31/2025

    EP 930 Primary Care Needs to Be Foundation of Health Care Reform

    If more Americans regularly saw primary care doctors, many lives–and billions of dollars–could be saved.  The preventative care they provide is crucial as a foundation to the entire health care system.  Yet, the fee-for-service model is an inefficient one and should be replaced by a value-based approach, according to Dr. Troyen Brennan and adjunct professor of health policy and management at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the author of “Wonderful and Broken: The Complex Reality of Primary Care in the United States.”  He goes on to explain the value-based model in our podcast and forecasts a movement in that direction in the coming years.  And he pays great homage to primary care physicians in the book while recognizing that they are underpaid, overworked, and often incentivized to move into higher-paying specialties while patients face provider shortages and many live in ever-growing primary-care deserts.

    35 min

  7. 12/30/2025

    EP 929 Homelessness Remains A National Problem. Do We Have a Solutions?

    America has had a federal policy described as housing first when dealing with those persons who have no roof over the head and live on the streets.  It is multifaceted problem which requires a bundle of services to help people get their lives in a better place.  And while affordable housing is a big problem in America, the behavioral antecedents, like mental health and addiction, must be addressed as well.  President Trump recently signed an executive order called Ending Disorder on America’s Streets, which is meant to put resources into a more comprehensive approach than what we have done in the recent years. It remains to be seen if this approach will result in greater focus on the range of services that will be required to address the surge of homeless people in America.  Joining us to discuss the issues is Michele Steeb, the founder of the Free Up Foundation and visiting fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness Initiative.  She, along with David Flanagan, is the author of “Answers Behind the Red Door: Battling the Homeless Epidemic.”

    32 min

  8. 12/24/2025

    EP 928 What Innovations Can Enhance School Performance?

    Seventy years after Brown vs. Board of Education and the movement to promote educational equality, race and class remain the most reliable predictors of educational achievement in America.  In attempting to address this divide, school reformers have turned to solutions like charter schools, vouchers and other innovations designed to build more choice into the system.  Yet, school choice and conservative and liberal approaches to it have changed over the years.  The inside story of how the school choice movement emerged in the 1990’s presents a situation where Black activists joined forces with conservative lawmakers. Yet today’s school choice movement has evolved, championed by Republicans, conservatives, and faith-based organizations who have taken school choice to a very different place.  And liberals have generally shown a skepticism about many choice options which might starve the public schools of resources.  As test results continue to disappoint, new alliances and approaches may be needed.  We’re joined by Joseph Viteritti, the Thomas Hunter Professor of Public Policy at Hunter College, and author of “Radical Dreamers: Race, Choice, and the Failure of American Education,” to discuss.

    38 min

  9. 12/22/2025

    EP 927 Marine Robots Give Us New Look at Ocean Life

    There’s so much that we don’t know about the life, topography and potential of our oceans since only 25 percent of these bodies of water have been mapped in any significant way.  Given that oceans account for 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, we have a long way to go in determining the richness of the ocean and what it can mean to humans in helping to sustain our expanding food, energy and resource needs.  Our guest, James Bellingham, Ph.D., is the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy and the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of exploration robotics and he is also the author of “How Are Marine Robots Shaping Our Future?”  A contributor on the book is Claudia Geib.  In it he describes the work of these autonomous underwater vehicles and how they are fast changing how humans explore and work in the ocean.  It’s a competitive environment worldwide as these robots race to collect data vital for climate science, offshore energy, aquaculture and business and military applications.  It’s an important conversation about a little discussed advance in science and has implications for our efforts to better understand humans’ prospects in deep space.

    37 min
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A podcast focusing on the social and political trends shaping our future.

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