In Icarus (2017, we learn how the deception of Olympic officials was accomplished, how the Russian government directly sponsored the illegal doping program, and how far the government was willing to go in their attempts to cover up the mess—denials, lies, and assassinations. Revelations made in this film implicate all levels of the Russian state bureaucracy, nearly every Russian athlete, and the International Olympic Committee which turned a blind eye for years. The film makes us question the fairness of modern athletics and whether steroid-free sports are still possible.
Carbon Footprints and Greenwashing
Exclusionary Zoning and the Housing Problem
Vox, 2021, 9:41… Zoning laws are the local rules and regulations that decide what types of homes can be built where. These rules can sometimes have good intentions. But they also have a dark history in the United States as a tool to keep certain races, religions, and nationalities out of white neighborhoods. And while zoning laws in the US are no longer explicitly racist, their effect remains basically the same: to keep affordable housing, and the people who need it, away from the wealthiest Americans.
Cults and Online Conspiracy Groups
WIRED, 2021, 9:39… Dr. Janja Lalich, a sociologist who was formerly a part of a left-wing cult, talks about the cult-like nature of many online conspiracy theory groups. Dr. Lalich explains how people get caught up in groups like this, and what can be done to help those who have fallen further and further down the rabbit hole.
Voter Suppression: A Case Study
Sociologizing Jojo Rabbit
Implicitly Pretentious, 2020, 10:05… This video essay examines how the film Jojo Rabbit (2019) displays sociological concepts related to the construction of nations, communities, myth-making, and the self. Other sociological concepts include national mythscapes, cultural appropriation, and discursive space.
Paid Sick Leave
Vox, 2020, 6:33… In most developed countries, workers have the right to a certain number of paid sick days. It’s a policy that isn’t rooted in just generosity — during pandemics like the novel coronavirus, it can literally save lives. When workers have to choose between earning a living and staying home sick, it incentivizes them to come to work when they're ill, and potentially infect their colleagues and anyone else they come into contact with. That’s why public health officials are concerned that millions of American workers don’t have access to paid sick days. And a disproportionate share of those workers are concentrated in occupations like food service and hospitality, where there’s potential to infect the hundreds of customers many of them interact with every day.
Stock Buybacks & Inequality
Foodies, Culture, and Gastrodiplomacy
Quartz, 2019, 7:53… Thai restaurants are abundant and popular in many parts of the world. This has a lot to do with the Thai government actively promoting Thai food overseas for more than a decade. The strategy has been so successful that it inspired a new trend in foreign policy: gastrodiplomacy. And food isn’t just a diplomatic tool for governments. There’s a new kind of gastrodiplomacy on the rise, one that’s led by people who have left their governments behind. Quartz News went to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the refugee capital of America, to visit a 25-year-old gastrodiplomat who fled war in Somalia, rebuilt his life, and connects neighbors through his mouthwatering Somali samosas.
Moral Panics & Music
Vox, 2019, 20:50… While the PMRC’s involvement was allegedly sparked by some raunchy lyrics from Prince’s 1984 album Purple Rain, the debate over rock lyrics had been infiltrating American culture and politics for a decade. The driving force behind that debate was the rise of heavy metal, a genre that saw explosive popularity with the launch of MTV in 1981, and the growing influence of the religious right, who saw rock music as a powerful threat to Christianity.
Fox News & The False Consciousness
Vox, 2019, 8:37… Carlson’s show is meant to distract Fox News viewers from Republican economics, channeling their frustration and anger at groups that don’t deserve it. That kind of misdirection produces what Marxist theorists call “false consciousness”: when workers are tricked into accepting their own exploitation.
Beneficent Polluters
PBS Newshour, 2019, 9:51… UC Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild traveled to Louisiana, the second-poorest state, to explore why its neediest populations simultaneously rely on federal aid and reject the concept of “big government.” As Paul Solman reports, the author and professor discovered many residents feel betrayed by their state's government for failing to protect them from toxic pollution that risks their health.
Anti-Gentrification Activists Defeat Amazon
The Verge, 2019, 4:48… Amazon announced plans in November for a $2 billion headquarters in New York’s Long Island City, also known as HQ2. Almost from the beginning, New Yorkers were skeptical. In the days after the deal was announced, there were a ton of protests. But three months later, the company is abruptly pulling out, chased out by local activists and politicians. How did it go so wrong so fast?
Political Protest at the Oscars
The Verge, 2017, 3:45… The Academy Awards is an opportunity for Hollywood’s best to speak out about the political causes that concerned them the most, on the biggest stage possible. But in a time when voters are divided and everyone’s a pundit, it’s easy to forget that the Oscars weren’t always a home to politics. From Marlon Brando to the creators of Moonlight, we take a look at the history of the Oscars as a moving, and sometimes miscalculated, home to political protest.
The Rich Guy Who Wants To Pay More Taxes
NowThis, 2019, 14:00… Prince believes that raising the minimum wage will increase consumption and we're better off putting money into the hands of people who will spend it in the economy than those at the top who already have plenty of money. Prince also says that the wealthy people in charge do not care if the economy improves just if they're making more money.
Political Self-Segregation
Vice News, 2019, 6:06… You can’t pick your family, but you can pick your friends. And if they start to vote differently than you, some families are willing to pick up, leave and find new friends. Sick of states that permit legal marijuana? Same-sex marriages? Laws that permit transgender people to use the bathroom of their choice? What if there were a better way? Last year, VICE News went to McKinney, Texas to check out "Conservative "Move" - a real estate company that says it has the solution to living a life free of liberals. They’ll try to find you a place to live, a job with a decent wage, and the best schools for your children, in Texas or any other Republican stronghold.
Pay Toilets, Feminism, and Accessibility
The Real Fake News
The Identity of Hong Kong
Vox, 2018, 14:24… When Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Chinese leaders agreed that Hong Kong would be able to keep its economic and political systems, including some of the civil freedoms denied to China’s citizens on the mainland, for the next 50 years. Although Hong Kong still has nearly 30 years of semi-autonomy left, China has started tightening its grip, and many believe it is chipping away at Hong Kong’s freedoms.