Impolitic Jeffrey Treistman & Matthew Schmidt

Dr. Patrick Hunnicutt and Dr. Geoffrey Henderson discuss their research that air pollution reduces the level of political participation in the United States. As they explain, this could have serious negative consequences for the future of American democracy — as air pollution increases, democracy will suffer. Despite their findings, Drs. Hunnicutt and Henderson offer clear policy solutions and suggestions to reverse this negative trend.

We speak with Eve Schaub, an internationally published author and humorist. She is the author of Year of No Sugar and Year of No Clutter, and her work has been featured on the Dr. Oz Show, Fox & Friends, USA Today, and The Huffington Post among others. We discuss Eve’s latest book, Year of No Garbage, in which she describes her attempt to live an entire year without creating any trash at all! Eve explains the ubiquity of plastics which she characterizes as the 'Darth Vader’ of the environment, provides insight on why our modern recycling system is broken, and argues that it may actually be better not to recycle.

In this episode, Dr. James Kinter of George Mason University provides a basic understanding of climate change. We cover key terms and frequently asked questions including how we define “climate” and what it means for climate to change. He helps us understand other key concepts and terms, and addresses conspiracies and commonly misunderstood facts. Dr. Kinter closes by discussing potential policy solutions, and we we should be optimistic about the future.

In this episode we chat with Benjamin Decker, a technology researcher and former investigative journalist at The New York Times. He is currently the CEO of Memetica, an open-source and human intelligence digital investigative firm. Ben explains the role of memetics and the importance of studying online information and social culture. We address the implications and potential dangers of online content that threaten the United States, and discuss the role of open source intelligence in the Ukraine War. Find out why Ben says online content sharing is basically a high school popularity contest!
To learn more about Memetica, check out their website: https://memetica.co/.

We speak with Professor Jason Lyall of Dartmouth College and discuss his new book, Divided Armies: Inequality and Battlefield Performance in Modern War. Professor Lyall explains why both diversity and inclusion are important components of an effective military force. We also address the recent critique that the US military is "woke" and discuss why incorporating broad viewpoints are essential in the military academies.
Professor Lyall's book, Divided Armies, is available from Princeton University Press: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691192437/divided-armies.

In this special edition of Impolitic, we ask two scholars to help us answer the question: what is socialism? Robert Wyllie of Ashland University and Barry Eidlin of McGill University offer their respective insight and opinion on how socialism is defined, and the role it plays in both the United States and around the world.