Great Talks at American Philosophical Society

American Philosophical Society•www.amphilsoc.org

Great Talks at the American Philosophical Society explores some of the most interesting lectures given at Society meetings throughout the years. Each episode dives deep into a diverse array of themes to reveal the relevance of these talks to the pressing issues of today.

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Episodes

Science “knows not party politics”: The Life of Dr. Hosack

Politics in the early republic, like today, was bitterly partisan, but in 1811, one of the nation’s most renowned doctors David Hosack took the position that science “knows not party politics.” Hosack lived according to this motto. On hand at the infamous duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr in 1804, he was the beloved Hamilton family doctor and a close friend of Burr. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with Dr. Victoria Johnson on her Pulitzer Prize finalist book American Eden: ...

Nov 02, 2020•48 min•Ep. 9

Good Numbers Make a Good Democracy: Kenneth Prewitt on the Census

It’s census season in the United States and some may be asking what exactly the census is, how it’s done, why. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with former Director of the United States Census Bureau Dr. Kenneth Prewitt about the history of the census, the various methods that census-takers use to count the population, and the challenges the census faces in this time of increasing political polarization. Dr. Kenneth Prewitt is the Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs at the School of Int...

Apr 01, 2020•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 8

Helen Quinn on Doing and Teaching Science

How do we understand the things we cannot see – the tiniest building blocks that make up our physical world? And then how do we teach about them? On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with leading particle physicist Dr. Helen Quinn. They discuss the theory and research behind particle physics and how such complex science can and should be taught in K-12 curricula. Dr. Helen Quinn is Professor Emerita and Former Chair of the Department of Particle Physics and Astrophysics at the Stanford Linea...

Mar 09, 2020•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 7

Franklin, Jefferson, & America’s First Institutions

The final episode of season one of Great Talks at the APS departs slightly from the format of featuring an APS Meeting talk, instead featuring a paper appearing in a recent issue of Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society . We thought it appropriate to close out the season by having a conversation about two figures who loom large in the history of the APS and in the national imagination—Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero and Dr. John Van Horne di...

Aug 05, 2019•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 6

A Long History of Climate Science

As we face the consequences of climate change, it may surprise some to learn just how long scientists—and denialists—have been talking about this problem. On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero talks with two leading scientists and APS Members, Dr. Walter Munk and Dr. Charles Kennel, about the oceans and climate change. They explore how their interest in climate science grew out of work in oceanography (in Dr. Munk’s case going back to World War Two), reflect on the state of the oceans, climate, and...

Apr 15, 2019•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 5

The Paradox of the Mexico-U.S. Border

Why is it that at a time when Mexican migration across the Southern U.S. border is historically low, public dialogue surrounding the Mexico-U.S. borderland continues to be divisive and heated? On this episode, Dr. Patrick Spero and Dr. Douglas Massey explore the history and paradoxes of the Mexico-U.S. borderland. They delve into the decades of research that Dr. Massey and colleagues have done for the Mexican Migration Project . Ultimately, they consider what, if any, policy decisions could and ...

Jan 22, 2019•49 min•Ep. 4

The Life and Times of J. Robert Oppenheimer

Dr. Patrick Spero discusses the life and legacy of J. Robert Oppenheimer with Dr. Martin Sherwin, co-author with Kai Bird of the Pulitzer-prize winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer . He is professor emeritus at Tufts University and a University Professor at George Mason University. Full recording of J. Robert Oppenheimer’s talk at the November 1945 APS Meeting: Symposium on Atomic Energy and Its Implications Article entitled “Atomic Weapons” by ...

Dec 10, 2018•55 min•Ep. 3

Life of a Journalist

What does truth have to do with journalism? How has the profession evolved over the last half-century? On this episode, host Dr. Patrick Spero talks to Linda Greenhouse about these very questions. Greenhouse is an APS Member and current President of the Society. But she is also a Pulitzer-prizing winning journalist who covered the Supreme Court for The New York Times and the Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law, Senior Research Scholar in Law, and Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence at Yale...

Nov 02, 2018•51 min•Ep. 2

The Demise of “Fact” in Political Discourse

On the first episode of the APS podcast, host Dr. Patrick Spero interviews Dr. Kathleen Hall Jamieson about the attack on facts in political dialogue and what that means for governance. Dr. Jamieson is the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication, the Walter and Leonore Director of the university’s Annenberg Public Policy Center, author of numerous books on political communication, and an APS Member. She gave a talk ...

Sep 26, 2018•46 min•Ep. 1

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