Over the weekend, Russian mercenary group the Wagner Group turned their attention from Ukraine to the Russian government in a brief armed uprising against Vladimir Putin. To discuss, we FEATURE Kimberly Marten. Marten is a professor of political science at Barnard College, and a faculty member of Columbia's Harriman Institute for Russian and East-Central European Studies, and Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies. She specializes in international relations and international security, with a keen interest in Russia. Marten is also interested in a broad range of Russian security and foreign policy issues. She has analyzed Russia's Wagner Group "private" military company and its uses by the Russian state in Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Libya. Her books include Engaging the Enemy: Organization Theory and Soviet Military Innovation; Weapons, Culture, and Self-Interest: Soviet Defense Managers in the New Russia; and Enforcing the Peace: Learning from the Imperial Past. Media includes: The New York Times, The Monkey Cage, MSNBC, CNN, FOX, WNYC Radio.

President Joe Biden announced a $42 billion plan to expand high-speed internet access nationwide. To discuss, we FEATURE DeAnne Cuellar. Cuellar is a digital equity advocate and currently the associate director of outreach and community broadband outreach team lead for the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR). DeAnne is a sought-after advocate focused on fostering equitable Internet access for all, and specializes in using her media and advocacy experience to implement effective digital communications to improve the quality and quantity of media coverage representing Texans. She worked with groups to spearhead media monitoring research, local-to-local media literacy initiatives, and advocated at the local, state, and national level to sustain community environments that strive to provide accurate media representation of local communities, technology-inspired skills programs and affordable internet access in Texas. With 10+ years of project management and political consulting experience, she interacts with great care and respect when working with elected officials and their staff, media organizations, as well as with different companies, consultants and collective impact initiatives. Media includes: Huffington Post, Bustle, San Antonio Current, Tthe Express-News, Teen Vogue, Vice, HBO, CNN.

The anniversary of Title IX was June 23. It requires educational institutions to protect against sex discrimination such as sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking, and domestic violence. To discuss, we FEATURE Nancy Chi Cantalupo. Cantalupo is associate dean for diversity, equity & belonging and associate professor of lawa at the Wayne State University Law School. She is a nationally-recognized scholar and expert on Title IX, sexual harassment, and gender-based violence in education. Her scholarship draws from her over 25 years of anti-campus sexual harassment and gender-based violence work as a researcher, campus administrator, victims’ advocate, attorney, and policymaker and focuses on the use of law to combat discriminatory violence. In 2016, she co-authored “Title IX & the Preponderance of the Evidence: A White Paper,” signed by over 115 law professors from across the country and from 2017-19 was asked by the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence to draft and edit (based on feedback from peer reviewers) its "Recommendations for Improving Campus Student Conduct Processes for Gender-Based Violence." Media includes: The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA Today, Time.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the Navajo Nation over a claim that a 1868 treaty requires the U.S. secure water access for the tribe. To discuss, we FEATURE Emma Robbins. Robbins is the executive director of the Navajo Water Project, which provides infrastructure for families to access clean running water in their homes on the Navajo Nation. The project is a part of the human rights nonprofit DigDeep. She was a 2020 Aspen Institute healthy communities fellow and is a Diné artist, using her work to raise awareness about the need for clean water across all Native Nations. Robbins grew up on the reservation, in one of the areas with the largest concentrations of water poverty, and always knew the importance of water. She then went on to lead the Navajo Water Project. To date, the Navajo Water Project has installed running water in approximately 300 homes, and is continuing their work to ensure families on the Navajo Nation have access to safe water to drink and stay clean by delivering bottled and trucked water to homes during the COVID pandemic. Media includes: Marie Claire, Nylon, PBS Democracy Now, NBC, NPR.

WMC SheSource has a list of experts on the Supreme Court decision on Navajo water rights.

Covid childcare subsidies will soon run out, which will make it particularly difficult for parents who work outside the home. To discuss, we FEATURE Katie Bodendorfer Garner, executive director of IAMAS (International Association of Maternal Action and Scholarship). Garner focuses on culture of motherhood in US, childcare crisis, mother/nanny relationship, intersectional feminism, and labor equality. In addition to teaching English and GWS courses at Chicago-area universities, Katie runs consciousness-raising workshops for mothers. Her book, The Illusion of Choice, covers interviews with nearly 100 U.S. women and addresses inequalities of work, childcare, and motherhood. Her academic publications include Palgrave, MaMSIE, Demeter Press and JMI. Media includes: Chicago Tribune, Authority Magazine, Fast Company, CBS, WGN Radio.

On Sunday, a train carrying hazardous materials derailed and drove into the Yellowstone River. While officials have said that tests have shown no signs of danger in water and air quality, train derailments in the past have created dangerous environments for humans and wildlife. To discuss, we FEATURE Luz Claudio. Claudio is a scientist and tenured professor of environmental medicine and public health at a top medical center in New York City, the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She works in the environmental health field, which looks at the environment as a medical issue and how exposure to pollution, socioeconomic factors, diet, and the built environment, all contribute significantly to human health. Claudio works to improve environmental health outcomes, especially among disadvantaged communities in the U.S. and abroad. Her research involves assessing the interaction between people’s exposure to environmental pollutants and other factors such as diet and socioeconomic status. Media includes: The New York Times, Reuters, Time, Today.

Severe tornadoes and storms have been moving across the American Midwest and East Coast. To discuss, we FEATURE Jessica Blunden. Blunden is a climate scientist, working in the Center for Weather and Climate at NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information in Asheville, North Carolina. She holds masters and doctorate degrees in atmospheric science from North Carolina State University and has co-authored more than a dozen peer reviewed publications. Blunden authors NOAA’s monthly Global Analysis reports, which analyze global temperature and precipitation, and the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor on a rotational basis, and conducts related interviews with media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and Associated Press, on a regular basis to discuss the state of the global climate system and climate change.

Independence Day is Tuesday, July 4. To discuss what democracy means today, we FEATURE Brenda Choresi Carter. Carter directs The Reflective Democracy Campaign, which analyzes and disrupts the demographics of power in the United States. An initiative of the Women Donors Network, the Campaign conducts groundbreaking research that shines a light on the exclusion of women and people of color from political leadership, and catalyzes activism and scholarship aimed at achieving a democracy where everyone has a seat at the table. Trained as both an academic and an organizer, Brenda brings a wealth of specialized knowledge and research to her work as an advocate for equality and justice. She served as an organizer and strategist in the labor movement for over a decade, starting her organizing work as a rank-and-file leader of an organizing drive among her fellow teaching and research assistants at Yale University. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, The Atlantic, The Guardian, NPR.

June is LGBTQ Pride Month, which is even more important to remember and celebrate this year as LGBTQ rights and protections have been targetted. To discuss, we FEATURE Zahara Green. Green is the founder and executive director of TRANScending Barriers, a trans-led group whose mission is to empower the transgender and gender non- conforming community in Georgia through community organizing with leadership building, advocacy, and direct services. Green spends most of her time working towards the liberation of her people. She was a formerly incarcerated trans women of color who spent 5 years incarcerated with most of her time in solitary confinement. Green’s experience inspired her as an advocate, as executive director of TRANScending Barriers, Green specializes in reducing the harms of the criminal punishment on transgender people. Media includes: Buzzfeed, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic Journal-Constitution, Into.