Ken Scott Baron Podcast

Smartphones make it incredibly easy to connect across distances, but their physical presence and design can simultaneously hijack our attention and disrupt the depth of in-person interactions. Navigating this requires a deliberate balance between leveraging digital convenience and preserving meaningful, face-to-face empathy Now, in an article “Why We Delude Ourselves About the Birthrate,” publishe...

From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, Democratic centrists complained that Jesse Jackson and his progressive allies were pushing the party too far left. Using the leverage of his Rainbow Coalition, Jackson pushed the party conventions to adopt more liberal stances than the nominees wanted. Now, some 40 years later, the racial and ideological split in the Democratic Party has been flipped on its h...

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Those who have tried to inspire the next generation of graduates have used their speeches as opportunities to extol the limitless possibilities that artificial intelligence will bring. But they’re speaking to graduates who are entering a shaky job market and are already burdened by tens of thousands of dollars of student debt. However, companies of all stripes are using A.I. as an excuse to slow e...

A new national poll from the Harvard Kennedy School finds young Americans under intense economic pressure and increasingly losing faith in the political system. The 52nd Harvard Youth Poll shows that for many 18- to 29-year-olds, the cost of living — especially inflation and housing — defines what they see as a true crisis. Also. trust in government, elections, and national leadership remains stri...

The moment we are living through is looking ever more like the 1970s — in the depth of the crises we face, and in its potential to create a genuine rupture with what came before. I remember Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Britain. Iran has reoccupied center stage and fears of stagflation looms again. In the late 1970s, Americans sensed that their country was growing wea...

With more than 5.5 billion people online – and nearly as many on social media – digital spaces have become central to how we learn and connect. But alongside its benefits, the internet is also being used to spread hate, abuse and misogyny. The “manosphere:” a loose network of communities that claim to address men’s struggles – dating, fitness or fatherhood, for example – but often promote harmful...

61 years ago when President Lyndon B. Johnson called on Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, which empowered millions of people of color to vote. Yet, when a war is raging in the Middle East and an affordability crisis is brewing at home, the Senate is poised to begin what could be a marathon debate on the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, a bill that would block millions of eligible Am...

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nabwmt.substack.com

What’s happening in the Middle East can seem very far away — at least until you stop for gas. Prices at the pump have jumped since Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz at the start of the conflict, creating a gap in the energy supply chain that spans the world. It’s a reminder that war has profound effects on all those who are connected to it. And we are all connected to it, somehow. The l...

So much of being a gay man in this country has entailed resistance to neglect, to exploitation, to death. As gay men we have settled for stories about men wanting men that use tragedy in stories. If we didn’t suffer, we didn’t exist. But, have we turned a corner? The show “Heated Rivalry” is a beautiful, life-giving, hot take. Who wouldn’t wont to watch this? It’s a six-episode show that’s great a...

Of the 1.2 million people living with H.I.V. in the United States, more than 60 percent are Black or Latino. Transgender women, gay and bisexual men and teenagers and young adults of color face the greatest overall risk of contracting the virus in any given year. There is disconnect between science and politics in the long war against H.I.V. Forty years ago, the infection was a mystery and a death...

A year ago, even the most optimistic Democrats could not imagine winning back the Senate in 2026. President Trump had just stormed back to power. The Democratic brand was damaged. And Republicans were up to 53 Senate seats — with Democrats facing an unusually daunting midterm map. But now, after a series of candidate recruitment in red states, Leader Schumer said that Democrats were poised to capi...

Listen better to get more love. On Valentine’s Day we all are talking about LOVE. In order to feel more loved by others, you must begin by making them feel loved by you. And becoming a better listener is one of the most powerful ways to do that. Many of us think we’re pretty good listeners, but really, we’re mostly just waiting for our turn to speak. So learned people recommend adopting a “listeni...

The 2026 Mid terms SENATE Republicans are entering the 2026 midterms with a 53-47 majority in the Senate (including the two independents who caucus with the Democrats). This cycle, 35 Senate seats are up for election, including special elections to permanently fill the Ohio seat JD Vance vacated to become vice president and the Florida seat Marco Rubio left to be secretary of state. Nine senators...

Phones and Whistles Recent events in Minneapolis led to protests and community responses. Much of what’s been reported involves how residents have used phones and whistles as tools during confrontations with federal immigration enforcement. The right to assemble, protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, guarantees the right of the people to peaceably gather, protest, and associat...

Ever since cameras became embedded in cellphones, people have been using their devices to bear witness to violence. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees five essential freedoms: religion, speech, press, assembly, and petition. Adopted in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights, it prevents the government from restricting expression, establishing a state religion, or interfering with...

Genetic researchers were seeking children for an ambitious, federally funded project to track brain development — a study that they told families could yield invaluable discoveries about DNA’s impact on behavior and disease. They also promised that the children’s sensitive data would be closely guarded in the decade-long study, which got underway in 2015. The scientists did not keep it safe. A gro...

The acceptance of gay people in the United States has peaked around 2020 and has sharply reversed since then. Americans’ bias against gay people did indeed decline faster than any other bias ever tracked in social surveys. Until 2020. Research led by Professor Charlesworth published in 2022 detailed a decline. Drawing on 7.1 million responses from Americans collected from 2007 to 2020, the researc...

As I read Cross’s book, “All White People live in Racism.” This seemed uncomfortable to me as a white person, but I grew up in the UK where the perception is that the Brits are liberal. However, the country has emerged from a colonial past but racism is evident there. In Johnson’s book, he attended a Catholic school initially and history was taught from a revisionist perspective, and Johnson even...

Coming Out Coming out” is the personal process of a person accepting and openly sharing their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity (LGBTQ+) with others, a journey unique to everyone, involving self-discovery and gradual disclosure. This can be liberating but also challenging, with no single right way to do it, and it’s a continuous process, not a one-time event, requiring s...

Homophobia and racism is typically not evident in kids, unless they learn these actions for parents. Chris Crass’s book “White Fragility” understands that this in some white people is a product of the “Great Replacement Theory” in which the majority suppresses the minority because they fear being overtaken. In “All Boys Aren’t Blue” George Johnson is subjected to bullying as a child. His mannerism...

Happy Holidays While vacationing in Maui, I realized that the area is extremely multiethnic and multicultural so I looked up the history of the state. It was an example of a colonial power grab. Also I reread “White Fragility” by Criss Crass. “All Boys Aren’t Blue” by George Mathew Johnson. has been frequently challenged and banned in many U.S. schools and libraries, primarily for its LGBTQ+ theme...

I am doing my podcast here in Maui, Hawaii and enjoying my vacation and trying to relax. But I am drifting in my cis gender white privilege and decided to look at the history of this state. For many Americans, Hawaii lies in a hazy ether between statehood, colony, and exotic getaway. Despite their vacations to here, continental Americans know little about the cultures or histories of its Native pe...

The United States now has a Department of War (again). The U.S. military killed 11 people last week in a strike against a boat in the Caribbean the Trump administration said was carrying drugs and terrorists. The U.S. Navy has long intercepted and boarded ships suspected of smuggling drugs in international waters, typically with a Coast Guard officer temporarily in charge to invoke law enforcement...