News

Greg talks with Mike Allison, who is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Scranton (and who will forever be known as the first repeat guest on the podcast). He also blogs at Central American Politics. The general topic is Central America and Trump, so we cover the upcoming international conference, immigration, and the outlook for Central America policy.

Greg talks about the new Foreign Relations of the United States volume and how it raises questions about Central American migration and comparisons to Venezuela today.

Greg talks with Jan-Albert Hootsen, who is Mexico Correspondent for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Trouw and America Magazine. As you might guess, he’s been focusing a lot on how dangerous it is to be a journalist in Mexico, and that’s the topic of conversation. Apologies for a few Skype issues in the middle.

Greg talks with Patrick Iber, who is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Texas at El Paso (and soon to be at the University of Wisconsin). He studies the history of U.S.-Latin American relations, and is the author of Neither Peace Nor Freedom: The Cultural Cold War in Latin America. They discuss that book but also his experiences both on and off the tenure track.

Greg talks with Lulu Garcia-Navarro, who is the host of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday and has won numerous awards for her reporting. She has reported from all over the world, including Afghanistan and Iraq when those wars were starting, as well as the Arab Spring uprising. In terms of Latin American politics, she was Mexico City bureau chief from 2004-2008, then started NPR’s Brazil bureau in 2013, where she stayed until 2016. We discuss the political stories that made the biggest impressions on her, especially Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina. And, happily, she affirms that academics have an impact.

Greg talks with Leiv Marsteintredet, who is Associate Professor of Latin American Area Studies at the University of Oslo. His main areas of study are presidentialism and constitutionalism in Latin America. I ask him about whether presidentialism is in crisis (or whether it’s just always in crisis) and how this plays out across the region.

Greg talks with Iñaki Sagarzazu, who is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas Tech University. He studies political communication, voting, and Venezuelan politics. The topic is Venezuela. Is it an autogolpe? What’s going on? Fittingly, we end on a depressing note.

Greg talks with Silvia Borzutzky, who is Teaching Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Carnegie Mellon University. She has written extensively on social security and health policies in Chile, as well as Chilean politics (including with me!). She has a forthcoming book with Palgrave entitled Human Rights Policies in Chile: The Unfinished Struggle for Truth and Justice: 1990-2014, that will be coming out this year. That’s our topic, especially the distinction between truth and justice.

Greg talks with Robert Funk, who is assistant professor of political science at the Instituto de Asuntos Públicos of the Universidad de Chile. He’s in the Chilean media a lot and elsewhere as well, and in the past year or so explaining to Latin American audiences what Donald Trump is all about. That’s the precisely the topic of this episode.