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Credibility Bookcases

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Credibility Bookcases

The New York Times, 2020, 4:20… Introducing the credibility bookcase, a background that lends authority to your video interview. From a dramaturgical perspective, it can be seen as a form of sign equipment we display to others to enhance our front stage self. In other words, books and bookcases are intellectual accessories. But it’s not just books, though—Joe Biden’s carefully placed football delivers an all-American vibe, and the material of the bookcases can indicate socioeconomic status as seen with the fancy woods endemic in celebrity homes.

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Deconstructing Pandemic Charts

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Deconstructing Pandemic Charts

Vox, 2020, 4:57… It's important to know how the process of data visualization can shape our perception of the coronavirus crisis. In this video, we deconstruct one particularly popular chart of covid-19 cases around the world which uses a logarithmic scale, and explain how to avoid being misled by it.

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Sociologizing The Dark Knight

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Sociologizing The Dark Knight

The Thought Theater, 2020, 8:35… The character of Batman and the stories that revolve around him have always seemed to be substantiated on the symbiotic relationship between an individual, and the elements that encapsulate them. How do the ideas of society and the balance of good and evil mixed in with a little bit of chaos tell the story? Today we try to dissect and figure that out.

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Paid Sick Leave

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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.

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The Intersex Justice Project

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The Intersex Justice Project

Vice News, 2019, 10:21… Pidgeon Pagonis’ childhood memories include surgeries, hormone therapy, and repeated inspections of their genitals. When they turned 18 and got a copy of their medical records, they finally understood why. The first page had a handwritten note: “46 XY male pseudohermaphrodite.” The procedures that followed were also listed: a clitoral reduction, vaginoplasty, and surgery to remove undescended testes. For Pagonis, the results of some of these procedures have been both physically and psychologically damaging.

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Diversity in the Cannabis Industry

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Diversity in the Cannabis Industry

Refinery29, 2019, 8:12… On this episode of Truth Told, we dive into the world of women in the business of weed. With the marijuana industry becoming a booming one in the U.S., what does that mean for those who have been affected by the stigma surrounding it. Press play to uncover the reality of the marijuana industry in America.

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Skin Bleaching & Racial Capital

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Skin Bleaching & Racial Capital

Refinery29, 2019, 14:45… On this episode of Shady, our host, Lexy Lebsack travels to the Philippines to uncover the toxic reality of skin bleaching. This cultural trend is practicing world wide even with deadly side effects. Watch this week's Shady to understand the truth about skin bleaching.

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Young Black Farmers Defying Discrimination

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Young Black Farmers Defying Discrimination

Vice News, 2019, 10:27… Kendrick Ransome started out farming a few years ago with just a hoe, a rake, and a shovel. He could have used support getting his hog and vegetable business off the ground, but he was wary of asking institutions for help. “My big brother told me, ‘Stay away from loans,’” said Ransome. In 1925, most farmers in his rural hometown of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, were black. But now, the 26-year-old is an anomaly. “When they did take out loans and they were unable to pay them back, you lose everything you got — that’s including your farm and your land for your family.” Ransome’s fear of institutions is based in the centuries of discrimination black farmers have faced across the country. But despite that history, he and other young black Americans are reclaiming the trade. The forces pushing black farmers off their land in the 20th century were manifold, and the impact was devastating. In 1920, there were more than 925,000 black farmers; by 2017, there were fewer than 46,000, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Cultural Exchange v Appropriation

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Cultural Exchange v Appropriation

Broadly, 2019, 13:22... With a large number of Asian artists breaking into the hip hop scene, the conversation surrounding cultural appropriation has become more common. Model Salem Mitchell sits down with local LA rapper, Hollei Day to discuss Asians in Hip Hop, and the female rapper’s views on cultural appropriation. We explore the fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange.

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Do Not Be Afraid of Dead Bodies

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Do Not Be Afraid of Dead Bodies

Inside Edition, 2019, 3:47… Death is a topic few people in the West care to discuss, and mortician Caitlin Doughty would like to change that. Doughty helps people confront the nuts and bolts of death on her YouTube channel, “Ask a Mortician.” “I think that people want to hear the information we're presenting,” she told InsideEdition.com “They want to hear somebody like me talk about death as if it's not strange.” She added, “People should not be afraid of death.”

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Face Recognition and Surveillance States

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Face Recognition and Surveillance States

The New York Times, 2019, 4:28… Police databases now feature the faces of nearly half of Americans — most of whom have no idea their image is there. The invasive technology violates citizens’ constitutional rights and is subject to an alarming level of manipulation and bias. Our privacy, our right to anonymity in public and our right to free speech are in danger.

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Dolly Parton, A Marxist From 9 to 5

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Dolly Parton, A Marxist From 9 to 5

AJ+, 2019, 12:00… Dolly Parton is an American icon. But she stands, perhaps most importantly, as a timeless ode to the foundation of this country: the working class. In the inaugural episode of Pop Americana, Sana Saeed explores the radical politics of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” - the song, the film and the album. We threw in some Marxist theory too.

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Aspirational Dentistry

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Aspirational Dentistry

Bloomberg, 2018, 4:22… Cosmetic dentistry has taken over the world. Having perfect teeth shouts success, but where did all begin? Well, Hollywood of course. In this episode of Then This Happened, learn about the one dentist who was more influential than any other in creating the movie star smile.