The Baldy Center Podcast 2021 - 2022

The Baldy Center Podcast highlights UB faculty research and perspectives on current issues and events. We focus on UB's interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy.

Spring 2022: Season 4

Episode 29: Anya Bernstein discusses judicial populism and the cultures of bureaucracy
5/5/22
Episode 29 of The Baldy Center Podcast features Anya Bernstein discussing judicial populism, the bureaucratic role of law clerks, and the dangers of exclusionary worldviews in law and society.
Episode 28: Matthew Dimick discusses wealth redistribution, income tax, Pareto optimality, and Marxism
4/6/22
In Episode 28, Matthew Dimick explains Pareto optimality and the differences between income taxation and legal rules for wealth redistribution. He discusses capitalism, Marxism, and how economists measure the effects various methods of redistribution may have on the economy.
Episode 27: Seth Parker Woods discusses the positioning of the cello in art performance installations
3/15/22
Episode 27 features Seth Parker Woods speaking about the cello and its use in classical music and performance pieces, including the ice cello. At the University at Buffalo, Dr. Woods is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar (2021-22) hosted by the Center for Diversity Innovation. In this podcast he discusses the Fluxus movement, Black composers, and using music and performance to create pieces that reflect events and social issues such as police brutality and the emotions they cause. This episode concludes with a performance by Dr. Woods of two pieces: Bach’s Allemande; and Pierre Alexandre Tremblay’s asinglewordisnotenough.
Episode 26: Rachael Hinkle discusses how briefs and lawyer experience can influence Supreme Court decisions
3/2/22
Episode 26 features Rachael K. Hinkle, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Hinkle speaks about her forthcoming book, co-authored by Morgan Hazelton, Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision Making. Hinkle discusses the process of analyzing tens of thousands of briefs, who’s allowed to submit these briefs, and how these documents and who wrote them can influence Supreme Court decisions.
Episode 25: Victoria Wolcott discusses the Long Civil Rights Movement and utopianism
2/15/22
Episode 25 features Victoria Wolcott, a professor in the UB Department of History at the University at Buffalo, speaks about her upcoming book, Living in the Future: Utopianism and the Long Civil Rights Movement. Wolcott discusses activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Father Divine, and Howard Thurman, and how their shared belief in radical pacifism holds utopian yearnings.

Fall 2021: Season 3

Episode 24: Daniel Brantes Ferreira discusses sports betting arbitration in Brazil and beyond
2/1/22
In Episode 24 Daniel Brantes Ferreira, Baldy Center Research Fellow ('20-'22) discusses online sports betting and arbitration in Brazil. He describes how sports betting websites are hosted internationally, not in Brazil, and therefore those business operations are not regulated by Brazilian law. He identifies issues involving 'terms of services' on those websites. His research on mediation and other types of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) requires empirical data, as yet unavailable. He offers an insider's perspective on Brazil's arbitration process, as an 'ADR-friendly' country. Brantes Ferreira, a professor at Universidade Cândido Mendes, is an arbitrator and vice president for academic affairs at the Brazilian Center of Arbitration and Mediation.
Episode 23: Devonya Havis discusses the nature of truth and community practices for resistance
11/30/21
Episode 23 features Devonya Havis, PhD, a 2021-2022 UB Center for Diversity Innovation Distinguished Scholar, and, associate professor in Philosophy at Canisius College.
Episode 22: Jordan Fox Besek on climate change and life finding a way
11/15/21
Episode 22 of The Baldy Center Podcast features Department of Sociology Assistant Professor Jordan Fox Besek. Besek discusses his new project with Brooklyn College professor Daniel Shtob, humanity’s relationship with nature, and climate change. He explores the ways in which humans effect the environment, sometimes producing poor outcomes despite green intentions, and the ripple effect those actions have.
Episode 21: John Henry Schlegel and David A. Westbrook discuss “the adventure of thinking”
11/5/21
From the heights of his long tenure at the University at Buffalo School of Law, in Episode 21 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Distinguished Professor John Schlegel discusses US economic history, American Legal Realism, and his lived experience with legal education over the last half century, in particular, Critical Legal Studies.
Episode 20: David Herzberg discusses repeated waves of addiction to pharmaceutical opioids and other medicines
10/22/21
Episode 20 features David Herzberg, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of History, University at Buffalo. Herzberg discusses repeated waves of addiction to pharmaceutical opioids and other medicines in the 20th and 21st century U.S.
Episode 19: Helen Drew and Marissa Egloff discuss diversity, equity, and inclusion in major sports leagues
9/24/21
Episode 19 features Helen Drew, Professor of Law, and Marissa Egloff, a third year JD candidate, in the University at Buffalo School of Law, discussing their research examining the number of women and minorities in executive or coaching positions in professional sports.
Episode 18: Samantha Barbas discusses her new book The Rise and Fall of Morris Ernst: Free Speech Renegade
9/7/21
Episode 18 features Samantha Barbas, Professor of Law and Director of The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy in the University at Buffalo School of Law. Professor Barbas discusses her new book from University of Chicago Press (2021) The Rise and Fall of Morris Ernst: Free Speech Renegade. In the 1930s and ’40s,

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Edgar Girtain, Podcast Fall 2021 Host/Producer

Podcast Host/Producer

Edgar Girtain is host/producer of the 2021-22 Edition of The Baldy Center Podcast. He is a PhD student in the music department at SUNY Buffalo, where he studies with David Felder. Girtain is a director of the Casa de Las Artes at the University of Southern Chile (UACh), and president of the Southern Chilean Composers Forum (FoCo Sur). Girtain is an eminent composer, pianist, and writer of his own biographies. His diverse areas of work are often collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and international in ambition if not in practice.

Executive Producers

Samantha Barbas
Professor, UB School of Law; Director, The Baldy Center

Caroline Funk
Associate Director, The Baldy Center

Pre-Season Trailers

The Fall 2021 Season of The Baldy Center Podcast presents episodes about climate change, the opiod crisis, major league sports, the 'adventure of thinking', and more. The Spring 2022 Season features episodes about online sports betting and arbitration, the Civil Rights Movement, music and the Great Migration, Marxism, and the Supreme Court, among other topics.

Welcome to Season 4 of The Baldy Center Podcast, produced at the University at Buffalo. This spring, we return with new episodes about Marxism and the Civil Rights Movement, music and the Great Migration, the Supreme Court, sports betting and arbitration, and more.

Season 4 Trailer

Trailer transcript: Have you ever wondered how Marxism intersected with the Civil Rights Movement? Or how a cello can tell the story of the Great Migration? Or how legal briefs make it to the Supreme Court? Or how sports betting arbitration works in Brazil?

All of this, and more, is brought to you by scholars from across the University at Buffalo and beyond in season four of the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy Podcast. I’m your host, Edgar Girtain. Stay tuned for more.

We welcome your comments.

The Baldy Center Podcast 2021 - 2022

Spring 2022: Season 4

Fall 2021: Season 3

Podcast Host/Producer

Executive Producers

Related Link

Pre-Season Trailers

Trailer transcript

The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy

School of Law