On this episode, Professor Butler and I discuss his research, his negative experience with police as a Black child growing up in Chicago, his martial arts and policing careers, his transition to academia, and the current state of police defensive tactics training in the United States.

Brenda Gerber Vincent is a former Deputy Finance Director for the “Mike Pence for Indiana” campaign and later served as First Lady Karen Pence’s Chief of Staff. Currently, she works to bring economic opportunity to the greater Ft. Wayne Indiana area. We talk about our shared experience at the Aspen Institute’s Socrates Program earlier this year and how she is leveraging what she learned to bring change to her community.

On this episode, Professor Ed Maguire from Arizona State University joins me to discuss the current crisis in policing. We talk about his working-class path through academia and journey to martial arts, choke holds in law enforcement, the Rayshard Brooks police homicide, and the current state of police defensive tactics in America. Professor Maguire studies policing and is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor.

On this episode, Professor Rod Graham from the Sociology and Criminology Department at Old Dominion University joins me. We talk about how academics can engage the general public during an age of rapid technological change, the unique power of the George Floyd homicide video, the uprisings and social division, class in higher education, and how to build a new collective national ethos for the 21st century.

In this episode, Professor Shadd Maruna and I discuss his work on desistance from crime. We talk about how desistance is becoming a social movement, the importance of centering the lived experiences of the incarcerated and formerly incarcerated, and what we can learn from other social movements as we move to make change in policing following the George Floyd murder subsequent uprisings.

In this episode, Professor Joe Hamm discusses the role of public trust in policing. We talk about the current national crisis, what needs to happen before the process of building trust in policing can even begin, why it is so important, and his research on the subject.

In this episode, Professor Reuben Howden explains the difference between strangulation and choking, what impact these have on the human body, and application in law enforcement. We also discuss the recent uprisings across and how to move forward.

On this episode, Dr. Margaret Webber Smith and I discuss her work on female Islamic State (ISIS) members who reside in the United States. We also talk about her career as an army officer, her new job at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and our shared love for the Pat Tillman Foundation.

On this episode, Professor Thaddeus Johnson and I discuss his path in and out of policing, his research, the George Floyd Murder, Codiv-19, police management, and the future of U.S. policing. Thaddeus Johnson is a Criminal Justice and Criminology professor at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Following his career in law enforcement, Thaddeus received a bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Criminal Justice at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, then a PhD at Georgia State University.

On this episode, I talk with Lauren Morgan about the complicated relationship between the foster care system and the juvenile criminal justice system in the U.S. Lauren is a PhD student in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Prior to becoming an academic Lauren was (and still is) a professional water skier. We also talk a little bit about the George Floyd murder in Minneapolis and how the fallout may be impacting children in foster care.