Team members Kobe and Matthias embarked on a journey to Washington DC this past August of 2017.
The capitol, more so than anywhere else, houses the widest array of people in different professions, with different areas of expertise and––most importantly––who have different worldviews. We went in with hopes of generating thought-provoking, informative content that might, in some way, challenge the notion that there are black-and-white answers to the problems people in Washington are working on daily.
The conversations we have are published as part of the inaugural iteration of The Common Thread Podcast: DC Series, which we hope will familiarize the BU community with the inner workings and life of our nation’s capitol. We hope this will be the first of many Common Thread trips to DC, and that it will serve to strengthen the BU-DC connection.
Thank you to Pedro Falci and the people of the HTC, without which this series would not have happened.
Lata Nott is the Executive Director of the Newseum’s First Amendment Center. At the Newseum, a museum dedicated the history of media and free expression, her role is to educate the public about the the first amendment and related issues.
Nora Bensahel is a Distinguished Scholar in Residence at American University. In this episode we discuss the role of women in the military and the existing impediments to leadership roles. We go on to discuss veterans, the future of warfare and touch on cybersecurity.
Terri Tanielian, a Boston University alum, is a Senior Behavioral Scientist for the RAND Corporation. In this episode we discuss her work in the context of a really interesting anecdote about her evolving relationship to George W. Bush. She also takes the time to describe RAND Corp., its mission and how it operates.
Ethan Glick is a Foreign Service Officer in the State Department. Currently he is the Deputy Director of the Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism within the Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation. In this episode we discuss his career, his current work and the practice of diplomacy.
Mika’il Petin is the associate Dean of Student Success at Illinois College. We use part of his thesis work, concerning the film Five Fingers, to launch a discussion about representation and the interplay of of religious, racial and other factors in how we tell stories.
Luke Hartig, an alum of Boston University, is the former Senior Director of Counterterrorism for the National Security Council during the Obama administration. We discuss with him both Washington DC as a whole, and his specialty, counterterrorism, focusing primarily on the most controversial element of the Obama counterterrorism legacy: drone strikes.
Katie Zezima, a Boston University alum, is a national correspondent for the Washington Post. In this episode we discuss her impressive career, the opioid epidemic, and the evolution of journalism in the 21st century.
Adrian Atizado has spent the last 17 years working for Disabled American Veterans. After recounting his path to his current position––Deputy National Legislative Director––he helps us deconstruct the history and role of VSOs in Washington DC, dating back to the First World War.
Aaron Frank, a Boston University alum, works on war games at RAND Corp., intelligence and other security issues. We discuss his work in computation social science at RAND Corp, which involves various projects in creating predictions for policymakers in DC.