The Scholars’ Circle


The Scholars’ Circle seeks to connect the public to scholars and expose general audiences to greater knowledge than they might obtain otherwise. It hopes that a high level of dialogue might deepen the public’s understanding about the issues facing us and at the same time hopes to counteract polarization that occurs on other news outlets.

You can access our archive of Scholars’ Circle episodes going back to 2012 here.


January 20 –  What is behind the growing tension in the Middle East? 🔊

January 16 – Is the United Nations achieving its sustainable development goals? 🔊

January 15 – What needs to be done to prevent a climate-induced collapse? 🔊

January 13 – Was the killing of Qasem Soleimani legal under international law? 🔊


December 9 – Q+A: A Frozen Conflict: What’s really going on between Ukraine and Russia?

November 11 – Q+A: What are the best ways to mitigate climate change?

October 29 – What does the Canadian election result mean for Canada and the world? 🔊

October 24 – Q+A: Scars of the past: What is historical memory and how does it change?

October 23 – Q+A: What does a Trumpian foreign policy look like?

October 1 – Q+A: How is climate change reshaping oceans and marine life?

September 10 – Q+A: What is going on in Hong Kong?

August 27 – Q+A: What will a post-Brexit Britain look like?

August 11 – Q+A: How do we measure far-right violence?

August 1 – Q+A: Kashmir: What’s behind one of the most volatile rivalries in the world?

July 22 – Q+A: The pollution of war: what is the environmental impact of the US military?

July 10 – Q+A: Banning the bomb: are the days of nuclear weapons numbered?

July 2 – Q+A: Is the age of privacy over?

June 14 – Q+A: Believing the ‘unbelievable’: What are conspiracy theories? How do they flourish?

June 6 – Q+A: Getting the message across: What is public diplomacy?

June 5  – Q+A: Why are the numbers of insects in fast decline?

May 22 – Q+A: How is trauma passed on through generations?

April 24 – Q+A: What does Jair Bolsonaro’s victory mean for Brazil and the rest of the world?

April 17 – Q+A: What is the resistance? Political movements in Trump’s America

April 4 – Q+A: Why is the United States so polarised?

February 14 – What is love? 🔊

February 4 – Q+A: Venezuela in crisis: how did we get here?

January 31 – Q+A: How can our everyday decisions help alleviate the water crisis?

January 17 – Q+A: How influential is the presidency of the United States?

January 14 – What do changes in Congress mean for the ongoing policy battles in the US? 🔊


December 20 – Q+A: How do fear, anger, and resentment lead to conflict?

December 17 – How does culture affect mental health? 🔊

December 11 – Q+A: How does our unconscious mind alter political outcomes?

December 10 – What are the implications of the US-China trade war? 🔊

November 22 – Hell on Earth: What is going on in Yemen? 🔊

November 20 – Q+A: What are the perils of being a war correspondent?

November 14 – Q+A: How do animals use magnetic fields to navigate?

November 13 – What do the US midterm results mean for international relations? 🔊

November 5 – What is at stake in the US midterm elections? 🔊

October 24 – Q+A: How do we know the earth is warming?

October 10 – What is wrong with the US Supreme Court and how can it be fixed? 🔊

September 23 – What does it mean to be responsible? 🔊

September 23 – Can international finance help protect human rights? 🔊

September 13 – Q+A: Who lives, who dies, and why? How we can stop the trade in endangered animals

September 12 – Q+A: Remembering Chile’s 9/11: What happened, and how do we know?

September 11 – How can we make sense of the Trump Administration? 🔊

September 10 – Q+A: Can immigration lead to greater democracy?

September 7 – Q+A: Toxic waters: How bad is pollution in our oceans?

September 5 – Q+A: 100% global renewable energy: Is it possible?

September 4 – What types of criminal proceedings are possible for a US President? 🔊

August 29 – How does climate change affect conception? 🔊

August 27 – Q+A: Does democracy have a dark side?

August 23 – Q+A: What are the hidden costs of civilisation?

August 23 – Q+A: Humans: The most damaging predator on Earth?

August 22 – Is the United States anti-government movement a type of constitutional coup? 🔊

July 17 – Has a constitutional coup taken place in the United States? 🔊

July 12 – Q+A: How do we solve incivility in society?

July 9 – Q+A: A silent epidemic: Why are suicide rates on the rise?

July 5 – Q+A: How does trauma affect people and society?

July 4 – What are the solutions to food insecurity? 🔊

July 4 – Q+A: Supreme Court scuffle: Does the fight for a new justice expose the flaws of American democracy?

July 2 – Q+A: Fight the power: exploring the connections between music and politics

June 25 – Q+A: What are the politics of food insecurity?

June 25 – Q+A: Zero Tolerance: The United States’ brutal immigration policies, explained

June 14 – Q+A: The Golden State Killer case: Are our data rights slipping away?

June 14 – Q+A: Can we avoid the looming climate wars?

May 21 – Q+A: How did radical movements change in the 21st Century?

May 9 – Q+A: Why do human rights campaigns fail in China?

May 2 – What is the infinite game? 🔊

April 26 – Q+A: Why do corporations have the same rights as people?

April 23 – What are the root causes of genocide? 🔊

April 19 – Will cryptocurrency profoundly alter the monetary system? 🔊

April 19 – Q+A: How did Stephen Hawking change physics?

April 11 – Q+A: Are we living in an age of excess?

April 5 – Q+A: How do we solve the global water crisis?

April 5 – Who really was Martin Luther King Jr? 🔊

April 3 – Q+A: Let them eat cake: How has food shaped the world?

March 29 – Q+A: History as battleground: How does memory shape today’s politics?

March 26 – Q+A: Why is Trump shutting America’s doors to the world?

March 19 – Q+A: Is Google dangerous?

March 15 – Q+A: What’s the cost of dissing science?

March 12 – What impact can political corruption have on society? 🔊

March 8 – Q+A: Does the “Charitable Industrial Complex” help or hinder humanity?

March 7 – Q+A: Do we need to radically change our lives to stop climate change?

March 5 – Hell on Earth: Why did the situation in Syria get so bad? 🔊

March 1 – Q+A: Do free markets camouflage their real cost to our society?

February 27 – Q+A: Does the West’s oil consumption fuel dictatorships?

February 22 – Q+A: Does the sharing economy damage society?

February 21 – Has Black History Month had its intended impact? 🔊

February 20 – What do changes in the environment mean for humanity? 🔊

February 19 – What was the relationship like between Presidents’ Eisenhower and Nixon? 🔊

February 14 – How have social movements changed in the twenty-first century? 🔊

February 13 – How is trauma, addiction and depression passed down through the generations?🔊

February 12 – What are the differences between race and ethnicity? 🔊

February 12 – How has Hollywood influenced American politics? 🔊

February 7 – What needs to be done about Guantanamo Bay? 🔊

February 5 – How can we help alleviate the water crisis? 🔊

February 5 – What are the realities facing our water? 🔊

February 1 – What are the effects of war on society? 🔊

February 1 – What does it mean to have political power? 🔊

January 30 – What is the science behind sleep? 🔊

January 30 – What next for American politics? 🔊

January 24 – What are the ethics of modern medicine and healthcare? 🔊

January 23 – Is the United States facing an existential crisis? 🔊

January 23 – Can we save the planet from a sixth mass extinction? 🔊

January 18 – Will the events of 2018 change the US forever? 🔊

January 18 – How did the right-wing movement in the United States develop? 🔊

January 17 – What goes on inside intelligence agencies? 🔊

January 12 – What needs to be done to solve the fake news crisis? 🔊

January 10 – What have we learned from past genocides? 🔊


December 22 – What technological changes are needed to power the renewable revolution? 🔊

December 18 – Are Google and Facebook harming the arts and democracy? 🔊

December 11 – What does it mean to have an equitable and sustainable food system? 🔊

December 6 – How do you design peace in a post-conflict world? 🔊

November 22 – Why is it so hard to prosecute money laundering? 🔊

November 10 – What is terrorism? 🔊

November 1 – What are the politics of Muslim Americans? 🔊

October 19 – Are antibiotics to blame for some modern diseases? 🔊

October 17 – What is the dictators’ handbook? 🔊

October 11 – What is greenwashing culture? 🔊

October 9 – Q+A: What’s really going on with North Korea?

October 9 – Why do people remain in refugee camps indefinitely? 🔊

October 3 – What is the relationship between guns and the US Constitution? 🔊

September 25 – How has water shaped our past and how will It shape our future? 🔊

September 21 – What is neuroscience and how far can it take us? 🔊

September 19 – Are hacking, fake news, and paid trolls destroying democracy? 🔊

September 14 – What are the social implications of storms and disasters? 🔊

September 12 – What are tipping points and what do they mean for our ecosystems? 🔊

September 5 – What effect is the private military industry having on war? 🔊

September 2 – What are the energy consequences of the rise in climate disasters? 🔊

August 30 – How do animals communicate? 🔊

August 29 – What are the common characteristics of violent extremists? 🔊

August 22 – Does Donald Trump use Nazi-style rhetoric? 🔊

August 22 – What is the Political Ethos of Anonymous? 🔊

August 21 – What drove the Charlottesville protests? 🔊

August 16 – Understanding the crisis in Yemen: What can be done? 🔊

August 16 – How have our relationships with animals changed humans? 🔊

August 15 – Is big money influencing science? 🔊

August 14 – How is art used to counter oppression? 🔊

August 13 – Are we living in a post-truth era? 🔊

August 10 – Can the bee colony collapse be stopped? 🔊

August 8 – What is media freedom? 🔊

August 2 – Is our economy undermining the green revolution? 🔊

July 21 – How does propaganda work in democratic societies? 🔊

June 29 – What do the British and French elections mean for geopolitics? 🔊

June 28 – Q+A: What is the future of the United Nations in the Trump era?

June 26 – Q+A: Are there blood minerals in your phone?

June 22 – How might ‘Big History’ change our thinking about the role of humanity in the history of the Earth? 🔊

June 22 – Can cooperatives transform the nature of work? 🔊

June 22 – Can music effect social and political change? 🔊

June 22 – What are the politics of humour? 🔊

June 22 – What is the current state of comedy in the media? 🔊

June 20 – Q+A: What does ancient history tell us about the nature of humanity?

June 15 – Why Do Genocides Occur? Can They Be Prevented? 🔊

June 15 – Can democracy function if societies don’t understand politics? 🔊

June 12 – Q+A: Back from the dead? The science and ethics of bringing species back from extinction

June 12 – Q+A: What do atoms reveal about human behaviour? Can we end the silence on science?

June 8 – What is the celebrity industrial complex? 🔊

June 8 – How do new discoveries about X and Y chromosomes challenge what we know? 🔊

June 8 – Should corporations have a public purpose? 🔊

June 7 – What is the code economy? How does it relate to the future of work? 🔊

June 7 – How can we combat climate change at the civil society level? 🔊

June 7 – What is the scope of South Sudan in crisis? 🔊

June 7 – Why are melting glaciers a problem? 🔊

June 7 – How will the states in the USA resist Donald Trump’s agenda? 🔊