Walter H. Capps Center (audio)

Is free speech threatened on college campuses? One of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars explores the the notion of “hateful” or “hurtful” speech and their relation to the First Amendment. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Education] [Show ID: 31310]

Bringing his expertise, experience and wisdom longtime journalist Bill Moyers looks at the November election and asks if we are in for armageddon, apocalypse, or rapture? Moyers has received 37 Emmy Awards, nine Peabody Awards, the National Academy of Television's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from the American Film Institute, among others. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 30876]

Islam is a great religious tradition, the second largest and fastest growing of the World’s Religions, embracing some 57 Muslim countries and is the second or third largest religion in Europe and America. Despite the global achievements of Islam as a faith and civilization, since the Iranian Revolution, Islam has been viewed through the lens violence and the actions of militant terrorists. John Esposito, Professor of Religion and International Affairs and of Islamic Studies at Georgetown, addresses the questions: Who are Muslims and what do they believe? What do Islam, Judaism and Christianity share in common? Why does it matter? Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 30579]

Powerful new “gene editing” techniques have put the prospect of genetically modified human beings on the foreseeable horizon. Should we use these tools to improve the human species? Are they needed to prevent the transmission of genetic diseases? Would manipulating the genes of future children and generations open the door to new kinds of discrimination, inequality, and eugenics? Marcy Darnovsky unpacks the controversies that have erupted in recent months about how we should — and should not — use gene editing tools, and explores the technical, social, and ethical stakes of these imminent decisions Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Health and Medicine] [Science] [Show ID: 30703]

Scientists describe the climate-havoc wrought on our natural world as the end of ‘stationarity’—a shift of the ecosystem so profound that it is no longer possible to extrapolate into the future from past patterns. Award-winning environmental journalist, Mark Schapiro, takes us on a journey to the tension points where these shifts are vividly underway. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30274]

Rinaldo S. Brutoco is a successful entrepreneur, executive, author and futurist and the Founding President of the World Business Academy. He looks at the role and responsibility of business in relation to the critical moral, environmental and social concerns of the day especially moving away from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Science] [Show ID: 30475]

Legendary civil rights advocate Morris Dees addresses how our commitment to justice for all will determine our nation’s success in the next century as America becomes more diverse and economic disparity widens. Drawing upon past and current cases, he also examines the issue of hate crimes and the need to teach tolerance, love and respect for one another. Dees co-founded the Southern Poverty Law Center in 1971 to handle lawsuits involving civil rights violations, domestic terrorism, and hate-motivated crimes. Since then the Center has successfully battled and dismantled a series of hate groups, including the Aryan Nation, Ku Klux Klan, and has secured huge criminal, civil, and financial judgments against them. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 30272]

Unlike the justice system, California’s institutions of higher learning cannot hold perpetrators of sexual violence criminally liable, but they do have the ability to discipline students through their established student code of conduct and under Title IX provisions. But despite federal and state laws that require specific prevention education, reporting, and response activities, there are critical questions about whether campuses are doing enough to protect students. Over the past year, both Senator Jackson and Assemblyman Williams have introduced legislation that specifically focuses on college’s enforcement mechanisms when handling cases of sexual assault. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Education] [Show ID: 29619]

The United States military currently views cyberspace as the “fifth domain” of warfare (alongside land, air, sea, and space), and the Department of Defense, the National Security Agency, and the CIA all field teams of hackers who can, and do, launch computer virus strikes against enemy targets. Shane Harris delves into the frontlines of America’s new cyber war, investigating the recent revelations that have shown how government agencies are joining with tech giants like Google and Facebook to collect vast amounts of information. The military has also formed a new alliance with tech and finance companies to patrol cyberspace, and Harris offers a deeper glimpse into this partnership than we have ever seen before. Finally, Harris explains what the new cybersecurity regime means for all of us who are bound to the Internet. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 29498]

Anna Lappé discusses how the food system impacts so many different aspects of our lives and how recent and diverse social movements motivated by a profound ethic of food are transforming how we feed ourselves. The choices that we make as individuals — and as a society — about food have ripples that affect every aspect of our lives, from the environment to the climate, from social justice to public health. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Agriculture] [Show ID: 29328]

UCLA psychologist Paul Abramson argues that if we want a better world, we need to eliminate sexual harm - not just violent rape, but also sexual coercion, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of children. However, we need to address these issues in a way that preserves the sexual liberties of adults, adolescents and yes, kids, too. Abramson offers his ideas on how to meet both of these goals. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 28603]

Peter Barnes, entrepreneur and former Newsweek correspondent, discusses his new book “With Liberty and Dividends For All: How to Save Our Middle Class When Jobs Don’t Pay Enough.” He argues that because of globalization, automation, and winner-take-all capitalism, there won’t be enough high-paying jobs to sustain America’s middle class in the future. Therefore, he proposes a supplementary source of nonlabor income; that we give every American a share of the wealth we own together, starting with our air and financial infrastructure. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Business] [Show ID: 29248]

What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? What led to their creative leaps? Why did some succeed and others fail? Walter Isaacson's talk is centered around his latest book, The Innovators, and how the creators of Microsoft, Apple, and others came to be the leaders of the current Digital Revolution. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Business] [Show ID: 28925]

More than 2 million people die every year in the United States, almost always in the presence of life-sustaining medical technology. Sometimes the choices posed by medical technology make death the least worst alternative. Yet, choosing death, or letting go, is often a painful and contentious business. Bioethicist Dr. Stuart Youngner, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, explores some of the ways our society and others are coping with this unavoidable dilemma. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Health and Medicine] [Show ID: 28474]

Law professor at Georgetown University’s Law Center, Peter Edelman speaks about the prevalence of poverty in America, focusing on income-level disparities. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Humanities] [Show ID: 28276]

In “Spying on Democracy,” National Lawyers Guild Executive Director Heidi Boghosian documents the disturbing increase in surveillance of ordinary citizens and the danger it poses to our privacy, our civil liberties, and to the future of democracy itself. Boghosian reveals how technology is being used to categorize and monitor people based on their associations, their movements, their purchases, and their perceived political beliefs. She shows how corporations and government intelligence agencies mine data from sources as diverse as surveillance cameras and unmanned drones to iris scans and medical records, while combing websites, email, phone records and social media for resale to third parties, including U.S. intelligence agencies. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 28275]

Are all religions simply different ways up the same mountain? Or is the key to religious tolerance found in better understanding differences? In “God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World,” New York Times best-selling author and religion scholar Stephen Prothero argues that persistent attempts to portray all religions as different paths to the same God overlook the distinct problem that each tradition seeks to solve. Delving into the different problems and solutions that Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism, Confucianism, Yoruba Religion, Daoism and Atheism strive to combat, provides a guide to the questions human beings have asked for millennia—and to the disparate paths we are taking to answer them today. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 28045]

The International Labour Organization estimates that 20.9 million people around the world are currently held in forced labor and servitude. Human trafficking is constantly in the headlines in the United States, but it can be hard to separate fact form fiction. Martina Vandenberg debunks the myths and examine concrete case studies compiled in her two decades combating trafficking in the US and abroad. Martina Vandenberg, founder and president of The Human Trafficking Pro Bono Legal Center in Washington, DC, and former researcher for Human Rights Watch, has spent nearly two decades fighting human trafficking, forced labor, rape as a war crime, and violence against women. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 26006]

With problems such as the energy crunch, climate change, and dependence on foreign oil, the question reemerges as to whether we need nuclear power — either from new plants, or from relicensing our aging reactors. Rinaldo Brutoco, Founding President of the World Business Academy, discusses the hazards and finances of the nuclear industry from the perspective of a lawyer, business leader, and concerned citizen. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 27697]

Performance of the exorcism rite has been on the rise in recent years. Thomas Csordas endeavors to to understand this development on the level of therapeutic process in terms of how it may genuinely relieve affliction, and on the level of culture as a conservative discourse on evil at large in the contemporary world. Series: "Ethics, Religion and Public Life: Walter H. Capps Center Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 25301]