Mason’s Access to Excellence podcast, launched in February 2020, has featured a host of CHSS faculty members, whose contributions showcase the breadth of CHSS research.
Episode 1 - The enslaved people of George Mason
February 7, 2020
Host John Hollis speaks to Mason’s Wendi Manuel-Scott, professor of integrative studies and history, and George Oberle, faculty member, Department of History and Art History and history librarian, about the lives and culture of the slaves at Gunston Hall and the Enslaved People of George Mason memorial then under construction on Mason’s Fairfax Campus.
Episode 6 - Let's talk about how we talk about vaccinations
June 3, 2020
How does rhetoric play into debates about vaccination? Associate Professor Heidi Lawrence, Department of English, talks about her research into the role that professional communication from physicians, health officials, and researchers plays in shaping public debate and parental beliefs about vaccines.
Episode 8 - The ups and downs of policing since Ferguson
July 17, 2020
Laurie Robinson, Clarence J. Robinson Professor Emerita of Criminology, Law and Society, who during the Obama administration was co-chair of the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing, explains a complicated legacy.
Episode 9 - Investigating the Olympic spirit
July 27, 2020
Chris Elzey, director of the minor in sport and American culture and faculty member, Department of History and Art History, discuses the Olympic Games as an athletic, cultural, and political event.
Episode 10 - Is the U.S. experiencing a third Reconstruction?
October 15, 2020
Charles Chavis, assistant professor, African and African American Studies Program, assistant professor of conflict resolution and history and founding director of the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, looks at contemporary protests for racial justice in a historical context.
Episode 14 - 60 seconds to nuclear war
January 29, 2021
History professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Martin J. Sherwin discusses his book about the Cuban Missile Crisis and tells a terrifying, and not well-known, story of how close we came to nuclear war with the Soviet Union.
Episode 17 - The climate change imperative
January 29, 2021
Fighting climate change is a global imperative, and the consequences of inaction could be dire. But University Professor of Philosophy, Public Policy, and Atmospheric Sciences Andrew Light, who helped negotiate the Paris Agreement on climate and who is currently serving as the assistant secretary for international affairs at the U.S. Department of Energy, tells Mason President Gregory Washington that for the go-getters, opportunity awaits.
Episode 20 - Doing the work: Anti-racism, inclusion, and disrupting inequality
February 22, 2021
How are anti-racism efforts building on college campuses? How will Mason affirm its core values and mission of inclusion? President Gregory Washington speaks with Wendi Manuel-Scott and Shernita Parker, co-directors of Mason's Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force about the university's commitment to be a national leader in this dialogue.
Episode 23 - Climate change and the misinformation war
April 21, 2021
President Gregory Washington speaks with University Professor Edward Maibach, director of Mason's Center for Climate Change Communication, about overcoming misinformation about climate change dangers.
Episode 24 - With Emergent Ventures, Tyler Cowen puts money where his mind is
May 4, 2021
Emergent Ventures, which looks for big and unique ideas, had, at the time of this episode, raised $60 million and funded 200 projects. Mason economist and co-founder Tyler Cowen says the program grants are “something you can win that’s not about connections.” Push ideas, he says. “Make the world tell you no.”
Episode 26 - Covid-19 mental health crisis is the second pandemic
June 8, 2021
Robyn Mehlenbeck, director of Mason's Center for Psychological Services, discusses how colleges can help students, faculty, and staff cope with the well-being stresses that resulted from the pandemic, and how her center is extending services to the broader community.
Episode 28 - Spencer Crew: At the intersection of museums and social justice
July 14, 2021
Spencer Crew, Robinson Professor of U.S. history and the first African American to lead a major Smithsonian museum, talks about the evolving role museums play in society, and how the Black community in the United States - and those who work with it - are trying to be the conscience of the nation.
Episode 29 - Cynthia Lum: At the nexus of policing and society
July 28, 2021
University Professor of Criminology, Law and Society Cynthia Lum, a former Baltimore City cop, talks about how evidence-based policing is part of an overall strategy to fight crime that also includes police being respectful to the communities with which they work.
Episode 30 - Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera talks immigration, DREAMers, the border wall, and margaritas
August 26, 2021
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, associate professor, Schar School, and affiliated professor with the Institute for Immigration Research, is a nationally recognized expert on the U.S.-Mexico border. She talks about the wonders and the dangers of the region, her research into border security, social movements and human trafficking.
Episode 33 - The real story of the Pilgrims and Thanksgiving
November 19, 2021
John G. Turner, chair and professor, Department of Religious Studies, explains the real history of Thanksgiving. Were the Pilgrims religious refugees who established democracy and the holiday in New England, or invaders who betrayed their native allies and even enslaved them? A fascinating story with lots to digest.
Episode 34 - Reimagining Santa Claus
December 8, 2021
Thalia Goldstein, associate professor of applied developmental psychology, explains how children benefit socially and emotionally from learning the truth about Santa Claus. A conversation with real holiday spirit.
Episode 35 - Foods you can lose to climate change
January 12, 2022
Ted Dumas, associate professor of psychology, reveals foods we are losing to climate change, how a pooping bear in Japan can help keep cherries from extinction, and that if we do nothing about the climate, most of the U.S. could be uninhabitable by 2100.
Episode 36 - Charles Chavis: The truth will set you free
February 18, 2022
Charles Chavis, assistant professor, African and African American Studies Program, assistant professor of conflict resolution and history and founding director of the John Mitchell, Jr. Program for History, Justice, and Race at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, talks about his book that explores the lynching of a young Black man in Salisbury, Md, and how understanding his story and the Black experience can help find the right ways to fight anti-Black violence today.
Episode 45 - Describing history through the eyes of ordinary people
December 13, 2022
Helon Habila, professor of creative writing and an acclaimed international author, has never shied away from important issues. The author of four novels and a factual account of the 2014 kidnapping in Nigeria of 276 young girls by the terrorist group Boko Haram, Habila says he strives to describe history through the eyes of ordinary people.
January 08, 2023
