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Robert Pape on Politics and Reality Radio

Robert Pape, a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and founder of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism, offers some insight into what motivates terrorist groups like ISIS.

November 21, 2015 Show

This week, Joshua Holland shares a few thoughts about the politics of fear.


Then Rebecca Hamlin, an assistant professor of legal studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of Let Me Be a Refugee: Administrative Justice and the Politics of Asylum in the United States, Canada and Australia, tells us why we really need to get a grip about desperate refugees fleeing the bloody chaos in Syria.


Then we'll speak to Robert Pape, a professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and founder of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism. Pape has studied every recorded suicide attack in the world over the past 35 years, and he offers some insight into what motivates terrorist groups like ISIS.


Finally, we'll be joined by Heather "Digby" Parton to discuss a truly awful week marked by a remarkable outburst of bigotry and xenophobia.


PLAYLIST:
Cold War Kids: "Hang Me Up to Dry"
Arctic Monkeys: "Mardy Bum"
Cake: "The Distance"
Beck: "Que' Onda Guero"

November 14, 2015 Show

First, Joshua Holland shares some thoughts about Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris.

Then we go back to the archives to speak with Thomas Hegghammer, director of the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, about why thousands of Europeans have joined ISIS.

Finally, we'll reprise a recent interview with Francesco Femia, director of the Center for Climate and Security, about the role a historic drought, likely aggravated by climate change, played in launching the Syrian civil war.

Playlist:
Barry McGuire: "Eve of Destruction"
Buffalo Springfield: "For What It's Worth"
Vintage Postmodern Jukebox: "Creep"

November 7, 2015 Show

This week, we have a theme show of sorts! We're looking at three different stories about policing and the criminal justice system.

First up is Chuck Wexler, director of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), a DC-based think-tank that issued a report detailing the need for a complete overhaul in how we train cops.

Then we'll be joined by Maurice Chammah from The Marshall Project. Maurice wrote this week about a Supreme Court case that could bring some much-needed clarity to the murky issue of defense lawyers alleging that prosecutors have dismissed potential jurors because of race.

Finally, we'll speak with Nathalie Baptiste, a writing fellow at The American Prospect, about the widespread use of private campus police agencies, and how they avoid public scrutiny for their actions.

PLAYLIST:

Junior Brown: "Highway Patrol"

KRS-One: "Sound of Da Police"

Tom Paxton: "One Million Lawyers"

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros: "The Harder They Come"

October 31, 2015 Show

This week, we turn to anthropologist Greg Laden to put that study finding meat to be a carcinogen in perspective. Short version: don't panic.

Then Lori Wallach, the director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, tells us about the prospects of derailing the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the US Congress.

Finally, we're joined by Cliff Schecter to talk about a pivotal referendum to legalize marijuana in Ohio next Tuesday. Have you ever been to Cincinnati ON WEED?

Playlist: 

The Beatles: "If I Fell"

Jacob Miller: "Tenement Yard"

Curtis Mayfield: "Pusherman"

Carole King: "Home Again"