As advances in technology continue to shape our world, understanding the implications of artificial intelligence (AI), cyber security, and digital privacy has never been more important. In this episode of then & now , we delve into the crucial intersection of technology, law, and policy with John Villasenor, a distinguished professor at UCLA and co-director of the UCLA Institute for Technology, Law and Policy. Villasenor's expertise provides a fascinating glimpse into the history of technolo...
Mar 06, 2024•32 min•Season 4Ep. 11
While the conflicts between Israel and Palestine and Russia and Ukraine are center-stage, the threat of nuclear weapons hovers ominously over our world. The recent release of the popular movie "Oppenheimer" reminds us of the extraordinary potency of nuclear weapons. Russia's aggression in Ukraine has raised concerns about its nuclear intentions, while China, under President Xi Jinping, seeks to bolster its nuclear capabilities to match those of the US. Iran's nuclear ambitions persist, and there...
Feb 21, 2024•53 min•Season 4Ep. 10
One of the most vexing social problems in U.S. society is our country’s healthcare system, which is wracked by rising costs, inequitable access, and manifold inefficiencies. Unlike Canada or a number of European countries, the United States has never adopted a single-payer system in which the government provides health insurance to all. Instead, it has favored a range of private options alongside supplemental government programs. As a result of its size and significance, the state of California ...
Jan 24, 2024•50 min•Season 4Ep. 9
On this episode of then & now , Middle East expert Aaron David Miller offers his perspective on the current state of affairs in Israel and Gaza after October 7, 2023 — and on the broader historical context of the explosion of violence in recent months. Drawing on his decades of service in the U.S. State Department, he also traces the arc of American diplomacy on the Israel-Palestine question, noting the many failures and limited successes in this story. Miller reflects on the importance of b...
Jan 10, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 4Ep. 8
In our final episode of 2023, we are sharing a recording of an event hosted by the UCLA History Department as part of the Why History Matters series. Labor movements have surged to the attention of the public over the past year, with the historic Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes at the beginning of the year as well as the United Auto Workers strike later in the year. Moderated by UCLA Professor of History and Labor Studies Toby Higbie, this event featured a panel discussion with Kent Wong (Di...
Dec 06, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 7
For this special episode, we are sharing a recording of a Zoom event hosted on November 21 by the UCLA Luskin Center for History and Policy. Featuring two UCLA history professors, Dr. James L. Gelvin and Dr. David N. Myers, this informational session explores the historical background to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, addressing questions such as: What is Hamas? What led to Hamas' attack on Israel? Why was Israel so ill-prepared? What does the future hold for Israel and Palestine, and for the wid...
Nov 22, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 6
This episode of then & now features a conversation with the Reverend James Lawson, the legendary social justice activist who introduced the practice of non-violent action to the civil rights movement. The conversation takes up Rev. Lawson’s early years and encounters with racism in Massillon, Ohio; his exposure to the idea of non-violence through his reading of Gandhi and while on mission in India; his tireless efforts to promote non-violence in the United States; and his thoughts about how ...
Nov 08, 2023•53 min•Season 4Ep. 5
On September 15, 2023, workers from the United Auto Workers union went on strike at Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Stellantis simultaneously, quickly expanding to include tens of thousands of workers at automobile factories throughout the United States. Founded by visionary and then UAW president Walter Reuther, At its founding, the union focused on better wages and conditions for all working-class Americans, not just union members. Current UAW president Shawn Fain has channeled much of...
Oct 25, 2023•46 min•Season 4Ep. 4
More than half the world’s population currently lives in cities, and current estimates suggest that by 2050 nearly 7 out of every 10 people will live in urban spaces. In an increasingly crowded and urbanized world, space has become a precious commodity. As a species, we seem drawn to cities, despite their obvious disadvantages. From the ancient cities of Southeast Asia to the crowded streets of modern Los Angeles, cities offer opportunities for interactions that wouldn’t be possible in urban are...
Oct 11, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Reports have emerged in recent weeks that a grave humanitarian crisis is unfolding in Nagorno-Karabakh, a contested region in present-day Azerbaijan that contains a large majority of Armenian residents. A prominent international lawyer, Luis Moreno Ocampo, in fact, maintains that “a Genocide is being committed” by Azerbaijani forces against Armenian residents. This episode of “Then & Now” features UCLA historian Sebouh Aslanian, who offers a rich account of the history of the region and the ...
Sep 27, 2023•45 min•Season 4Ep. 2
As we transition to our fourth season of "Then & Now", this episode features renowned Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard. He offers an analysis of Israel's current crisis of democracy, including the attacks on the judicial system and Supreme Court, and a wide contextual frame that extends back to 1948 and to the founding document of the state of Israel, its Declaration of Independence. The conversation then moves to Sfard's detailed argument that Israel's control of the West Bank amo...
Sep 13, 2023•51 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Following the recent destruction of the Kakhovka dam in the south of the country, the government of Ukraine accused Russia of the crime of “ecocide.” This term first surfaced in the 1970s in the context of the U.S. military’s use of Agent Orange in Vietnam. Since that time, the term has gained currency in international legal circles as a tool to fight against large-scale violations of the environment. A number of states have already incorporated the concept into their legal codes, and efforts ar...
Aug 30, 2023•43 min•Season 3Ep. 22
On June 29, 2023, the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to end affirmative action for college admissions, stating that considering race as a factor was unconstitutional, while preserving ‘legacy’ admissions which often allow students of alumni entrance to prestigious institutions. Yet from the establishment of the first university in the United States, race has been a consistent organizing principle in American higher education. In this episode, we sit down with UCLA historian Eddie Cole to discuss how...
Aug 16, 2023•37 min•Season 3Ep. 21
In this episode, historian Peter Baldwin makes the case for open access. He surveys the history of knowledge production and transmission from the Gutenberg Bible, which opened up access in unprecedented ways. Open access today, he argues, is not a novelty but continuous with earlier developments in which artists and thinkers were "workers for hire," who were compensated for their creative and scholarly labor. In the same vein, university professors are paid to produce scholarship which, Baldwin ...
Aug 02, 2023•42 min•Season 3Ep. 20
Women's reproductive rights have been a contentious issue over the past few years in the United States. Both federal and state measures have been introduced that restrict women’s ability to make decisions about their bodies and reproduction, culminating last year with the Supreme Court’s reversal of the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. Though the US has been a public battleground for women’s reproductive rights in recent years, the debate about women’s right to bodily autonomy is neither unique no...
Jun 28, 2023•56 min•Season 3Ep. 19
In part two of our conversation with Zev Yaroslavsky, one of Los Angeles's best-known public officials, we continue our conversation on his recently released memoir and his reflections from his long career in politics. In this episode, Zev talks about the history of race relations in LA, the growing crisis of its unhoused population, and the importance of taking political risks. Zev also recalls his involvement in the struggle on behalf of low-wage workers and his passion for civil rights and th...
Jun 14, 2023•45 min•Season 3Ep. 18
In the first of a two-part conversation, "Then & Now" sits down with Zev Yaroslavsky, one of LA's best-known public officials, to talk about his fascinating life and forty-year career in politics. Yaroslavsky has just released a memoir entitled Zev's Los Angeles that traces his rise from a Jewish immigrant family in Boyle Heights and Fairfax to his stunning election to City Council at age 26 in 1975. In this conversation, Zev recounts his quick path to political power in LA, his move after t...
Jun 07, 2023•45 min•Season 3Ep. 17
As the director of the FBI for nearly half a century, John Edgar Hoover was the chief architect of the American security apparatus during a large chunk of the 20th century. A recognizable figure in popular memory, Hoover is also remembered for his fierce campaigns against Communism and his antipathy to civil liberties, which led to egregious abuses of power. In many ways, his career symbolized the dramatic rise of the security state in post-New Deal America. What does J. Edgar Hoover’s life reve...
May 31, 2023•31 min•Season 3Ep. 16
The United States and Israel have both been roiled by major democratic crises in recent years. Many observers attribute these crises to the Trump presidency and the recent plan by the Netanyahu government to undertake a major overhaul of the judiciary. But their roots may well extend back further. Can we learn from the histories of these two countries in understanding the present? Does the story of slavery and anti-Black racism in the U.S., on one hand, and the displacement and occupation of Pal...
May 17, 2023•29 min•Season 3Ep. 15
In the decade since the global financial crisis of 2007-8, a number of countries have faced and succumbed to sovereign-debt crises and declared bankruptcy. After Greece, Ecuador, Venezuela, Argentina, Zambia, and Lebanon, Sri Lanka has recently joined the ranks of countries felled by economic downturn, whose harsh impact will be felt by its people for a long time to come. In this context, the question arises: what role have international financial institutions such as the International Monetary ...
May 03, 2023•38 min•Season 3Ep. 14
In the wake of the pandemic and persistent underfunding, cultural and educational institutions in the United States today are increasingly confronted with an uncertain fate. How can they sustain growth, enfranchise new audiences, and increase diversity at a time when “the death of the humanities” looms on the horizon? In this episode of Then & Now, Katherine E. Fleming, the president and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust, brings her rich experiences as historian, academic administrator, and now...
Apr 19, 2023•45 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Hip-hop culture and rap music are often assumed to be quintessentially American art forms. But by the late 1970s, hip-hop had transcended its roots in the US coasts. In France, artists from the African diaspora experimented with hip-hop, using it as an art form to articulate Blackness at a time when their community had little visibility in public life. Hip-hop became a critical tool for crafting Black visions of representation and resistance. This intersection of music, culture and politics—rang...
Apr 05, 2023•39 min•Season 3Ep. 12
The legitimacy of a US-led global order has been taken for granted by many in political, diplomatic and intellectual circles in the United States and even beyond. Yet this narrative of a postwar liberal order sits uncomfortably with a long history of imperial expansion and settler-colonial practices that the US has pursued over the centuries. Host Ben Zdencanovic sits down with Aziz Rana, a scholar of US constitutionalism, race, and empire at Cornell Law School, to discuss the politics of racial...
Mar 22, 2023•41 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Recent years have witnessed a stark rise across the globe in populist leaders whose policies are implicitly, or even explicitly, authoritarian. The policies of these leaders are sometimes at odds with their populist rhetoric in that they reward the elite few at the expense of the masses. Yet this trend is not new. As far back as ancient Egypt, we see authoritarian leaders collecting and retaining wealth and power in the hands of the elite. What are the parallels between the authoritarian governm...
Mar 08, 2023•47 min•Season 3Ep. 10
China-US relations have again drawn global attention after a Chinese high-altitude balloon, suspected of carrying surveillance equipment, was shot down off the Carolina coast by the United States military. Beyond concerns about espionage and national security, this incident captured the US government’s larger anxieties about China’s growing influence in international affairs, and its threat to long-standing American hegemony in transnational governance. On the economic front, as the US-led econo...
Feb 23, 2023•31 min•Season 3Ep. 9
The narrow victory of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, better known as Lula, in Brazil's presidential election in November 2022 was seen by many as a win for democracy in the country. Yet as the storming of its legislature on January 8 showed, former president Jair Bolsonaro's tumultuous, populist tenure has left Brazil deeply divided. How did Lula and then Bolsonaro and then Lula again emerge as such potent figures? What impact did the two-decade military junta (1964-85) have on the country's politic...
Feb 08, 2023•33 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Late in 2022, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in Israel, despite being ousted from office in July 2021. Now starting his sixth term as Prime Minister, Netanyahu has aligned himself with a number of far-right parties, commencing what some observers have described as a “fascist” era. Professor Omar Bartov discusses the conditions that have given rise to fascist governments and applies his deep historical knowledge to the political situation in Israel today. How continuous is the present regim...
Jan 26, 2023•45 min•Season 3Ep. 7
In September, 22-year old Mahsa Amini died after being detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s dress code. Protests quickly erupted, and over the past two months they have grown into calls for regime change. How did Iran, a country that once sat at the forefront of Muslim women’s advancement, end up with such conservative gender laws? After decades of repression, why did Amini's death lead to such a broad movement for reform? And how does the issue of Ir...
Dec 05, 2022•27 min•Season 3Ep. 6
In the wake of a recent surge of antisemitism, we talk to historian David Nirenberg about what connects the hatred of Jews in the past and present. Anti-Judaism is more than simply a form of prejudice against a particular ethnicity. Rather, it is a foundational and essential idea in Western civilization which provides cultures with a way of thinking about the dangers of the world. As we connect the dots between past and present, how does thinking in the longue durée help us to move forward? And ...
Nov 21, 2022•34 min•Season 3Ep. 5
At first glance, historic preservation seems to be a key part of good urban planning. But whom does historic preservation actually serve? In this week’s episode, our guests discuss their recent LCHP report that analyzes the power dynamics behind historic preservation. They look at the way in which historic preservation norms have been applied as an instrument of cultural control in three Southern California communities with large Asian-American populations. At the end of the day, they pose the q...
Nov 07, 2022•28 min•Season 3Ep. 4
