UVA Speaks UVA Lifetime Learning

This UVA Speaks podcast features John M. Owen, IV, Ambassador Henry J. and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor, Professor of Politics in the Department of Politics and a Senior Fellow at the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Owen explores NATO's 75-year history, from its Cold War origins to its pivotal role in global security and stability. He discusses how NATO’s mission has adapted, how Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing impact global affairs, and how the war in Ukraine has reshaped the alliance.

Transcripts of the audio broadcast can be found here.

John Owen is the Ambassador Henry J. and Mrs. Marion R. Taylor, Professor of Politics in the Department of Politics at the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. From January to June 2024, Owen served as an Academic Visitor at Nuffield College at the University of Oxford in England. His latest book is The Ecology of Nations: American Democracy in a Fragile World Order (Yale University Press, 2023).

This UVA Speaks podcast features Craig Konnoth, the Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law at the University of Virginia’s School of Law. Konnoth explains that over the past decade, the LGBTQ movement has shifted its focus from marriage equality and employment discrimination to other critical issues. These include exemption claims like those upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 303 Creative case that allows individuals to deny services to LGBTQ individuals based on their speech or religious rights. Konnoth emphasizes the need to form alliances with other minority groups to safeguard their hard-won progress.

Transcripts of the audio broadcast can be found here.

Craig Konnoth is the Martha Lubin Karsh and Bruce A. Karsh Bicentennial Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law. Professor Konnoth writes about health, civil rights, and health data regulation. He is also active in LGBTQ rights litigation and has filed briefs on LGBTQ rights issues in the U.S. Supreme Court and the Tenth Circuit. His publications have appeared or will appear in the Yale Law Journal, the Stanford Law Review, the Hastings Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Iowa Law Review, the online companions to the Penn Law Review, and the Washington & Lee Law Review, and as chapters in edited volumes.

On this UVA Speaks podcast, Leora Friedberg, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, shares with us the history of Social Security and concerns for the solvency of the Social Security Trust Fund. Friedberg explains that the U.S. government has known about the future shortfalls for decades and describes proposed reforms. Her research details inequalities inherent in the system that could inform policy revisions.

Transcripts of the audio broadcast can be found here.

Leora Friedberg, Associate Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Economics in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and Associate Professor of Economics and Public Policy in the Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. Her research interests include public and labor economics and domestic policy. Friedberg is the Co-Director of the Retirement Research Institute and a Faculty Affiliate at the Virginia Center for Tax Law.

On this UVA Speaks podcast, Shawn Pelletier, MD, Professor and Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery at the University of Virginia Health System, shares with us. He explains the different aspects of organ donation from living donors who donate their kidneys or part of their liver and those who arrange to donate their organs after death. Dr. Pelletier shares medical advances that have enabled surgeons and transplant teams to provide life-saving care to more patients. The need for transplanted organs outpaces the available supply. In 2023, there were 46,000 transplants performed; however, over 103,000 patients are currently on the transplant waiting list.

Transcripts of the audio broadcast can be found here.

Shawn Pelletier, MD, is a Professor, Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery, Director of the Transplant Service Line, and Surgical Director of the Liver Transplant Program at UVA Health Systems. He has been on the faculty at UVA for 12 years, is a leader in several professional organizations, and has contributed to more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

On this UVA Speaks podcast, Bonnie Hagerman, Associate Professor in Women, Gender, & Sexuality and Director of Undergraduate Programs at the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, describes the history of participation of American women in the Olympics and sports. She discusses athletes like Margaret Abbott, the first American woman to win an Olympic medal, and Althea Gibson, who broke the color barrier in women’s tennis and golf. Hagerman also highlights the importance of athletes like Venus Williams, who advocated for pay equity for women in her sport, and gymnast Simone Biles, whose withdrawal from the 2020 Olympics led her to become a mental health advocate.

Transcripts of the audio broadcast can be found here.

Bonnie Hagerman is an Associate Professor in the Department of Women, Gender, & Sexuality and Director of Undergraduate Programs at the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on women, gender, sport, and 20th Century American social history. She is the author of the book “Skimpy Coverage: Sports Illustrated and the Shaping of the Female Athlete.” This Spring, Professor Hagerman is teaching a course entitled “Gender & the Olympic Games.”

On this UVA Speaks podcast, Denise Walsh, Associate Professor of Politics and Women, Gender, & Sexuality in the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia, describes identity politics. She discusses the tendency of people to organize in collective solidarity and their actions to change social values or public policies, like in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. Institutions can, Walsh says, produce and deliberately craft identities to ensure that one group has more opportunities and power than others. She explains that as long as discrimination exists based on characteristics shared by a group of people, there will be identity politics.

Transcripts of the audio broadcast can be found here.

Denise Walsh is an Associate Professor of Politics and Women, Gender, & Sexuality at the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia. Her research investigates how democracies can be made more inclusive and just.
Walsh's current book project, Culture and Women's Rights Don't Clash, focuses on the so-called "burka ban" in France, the legalization of polygyny in South Africa, and the marrying out rule for Indigenous women in Canada.