March 27, 2021
Intelligence Squared U.S.
Debate: Has the GOP Lost It's Way?
What should the Republican party look like after Donald Trump? For many prominent establishment figures, including those behind The Lincoln Project, the GOP has lost its way. The only way back, they say, is to purge the forces that brought Trump to power. But others warn that rejecting the millions of voters who supported the former president is the wrong call for the American right. Featuring Jeff Flake, Carlos Curbelo, Ben Domenech, Kimberley A. Strassel and host John Donvan.
March 20, 2021
A More Perfect Union: A Musical Tribute to Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent a lifetime championing her two passions: equal rights and classical music, often referencing the similarities between the courtroom and the concert hall. WFMT presents this new 1-hour special as family and friends, including her son Jim Ginsburg, Renée Fleming, Denyce Graves, Lawrence Brownlee, Francesca Zambello, and Nina Totenburg, honor Ginsburg’s legacy and devotion to music.
March 13, 2021
Witness: Women's History Month
A special hour-long edition of Witness History from the BBC World Service. Remarkable stories of women’s history, told by the women who were there. Selected from the BBC’s Witness History program, we hear moving, inspiring and even outrageous stories about a few of the most important women in living memory.
Segments include: Fighting for the pill in Japan, The Jane Fonda Workout, The Guerilla Girls: The women who launched an anonymous poster campaign against sexism and racism in the 1980s art world, Our Bodies, Ourselves: The story of a radical book about women's health and sexuality, Iraq's pioneering feminist
Go back in time to key events in history and hear the story of our times. Witness History features first-hand accounts, archive material and insight from historians.
March 6, 2021
Judicial Independence, Pt.2
a Humankind Special
Joe Biden has pledged to create a presidential commission to look into federal court reform. Here we explore a fascinating menu of possibilities for restructuring the judiciary to reduce political influence on our courts. Experts in Constitutional law, journalists and others weigh in on proposals to expand the size of the Supreme Court, establish term limits for federal judges and other options.
In the stormy aftermath of President Biden’s 2020 election, the campaign of Donald Trump and allied groups filed dozens of lawsuits in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. It was an unprecedented — and ultimately violent — effort to overturn a legitimate election based on disproven conspiracy theories. In the end, courts across the nation spoke with near unanimity to uphold American democracy and demonstrate judicial independence.
Inevitably, though, our courts do operate in a politicized environment. Federal judges are nominated by the president and must be confirmed by Congress. In this second hour of our series (which can air as a stand-alone documentary) we consider a fascinating menu of possibilities — including some creative new proposals — for ways to reduce the political influence on our courts. Journalists, constitutional law experts and others give perspective, including Emily Bazelon of the NY Times magazine, Aaron Tang of UC-Davis Law, Kimberly Atkins of the Boston Globe, Jonathan Adler, a Federalist Society member teaching at Case Western Univ, and others.
