June 21, 2017
President Trump got the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord(s) earlier this month. This week, in the first of two episodes dedicated to analyze this event, Luciano explains what is the Paris Climate Accord, why it is important, and the limits of this international agreement. Juhem discusses the public opinion on climate change and introduces the concept of "Trumpslating": the art of translating the President's statements into something that makes sense.
Related links:
PRRI/AAR Religion, Values and Climate Change Survey
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
President Trump's speech on Paris Climate Agreement (annotated by NPR)
Cover image source: NASA
June 14, 2017
This week Juhem and Luciano discuss two articles exploring the same piece of research: Are atheists undercounted in the United States? Juhem focuses on the different ways surveys measure non-belief while Luciano questions whether people who do not use the word atheist should be identified as such. The discussion, naturally, later revolves about politics and whether an openly atheist politician can have a long and successful career.
Links:
Is one American in Four an Atheist? (Tom Jacobs, Pacific Standard)
Way More Americans May Be Atheists Than We Thought (Daniel Cox, Fivethirtyeight.com)
Other links:
'American Nones' ISSSC Report (2009)
'Nones on the Rise' Pew Report (2012)
'Exodus' PRRI Report (2016)
Secular Nation podcast on the Freethought Equality PAC
Image source: Religion News Service
June 7, 2017
Recently, the Republican-controlled legislature in North Carolina removed
funding for schools in districts represented by Democratic Party legislators.
Luciano discusses the politics behind this move and the consequences of
these actions while Juhem places these events in the larger national contexts of partisan polarization and the role of public education in society.
Links
Luciano on "North Carolina’s Highly Problematic General Assembly Republicans."
News Observer article
Image source: North Carolina GOP
