BreakYourBubble
By The BYB Team
With students from Brown University of different political viewpoints, BreakYourBubble wants to show that simply talking can go a long way. Hopefully, with this podcast, you can not only learn about "the other side," but also begin to seek out conversation with those that disagree. These are the first steps to breaking your bubble and moving forward together.
Lived Experiences: Black Women at Brown (S3 E3)
In the final episode of BreakYourBubble for this past semester, we wanted to try something a little different. BreakYourBubble is all about learning from people, and we thought a great idea would about putting out podcasts that with voices from identities that have been traditionally marginalized. Instead of focusing on politics, as we have in past episodes, this series aims to highlight the lived experiences of minorities in our community. Our first episode in this series has Leadra Reeves ('24), Shailyn Castro ('24) and Kendra Ezeama ('24), three Black women here at Brown, share their personal anecdotes on microaggressions and racism they’ve encountered.
How do you define microaggressions? What are some examples of microaggressions you've experienced here at Brown? How do you think affirmative action has impacted you and how you and others view yourself? How does medical racism affect Black women? Tune in to this thought-provoking discussion on Anchor!
Vaccine Mandates: Necessity or Infringement? (S3 E2)
As the omicron variant causes record numbers of new daily coronavirus cases, we HAD to do a podcast on maybe the most pressing issue today: COVID-19 vaccines and efforts to get people to take them. In the newest episode of BreakYourBubble, David Sacks ('22) and Christina Bonaparte ('22) share their sentiments on accountability, misinformation, and censorship in regards to vaccine mandates. This episode truly sheds light on the topics of ethical obligation and civil liberties as it pertains to vaccines, but from different lenses. How can federal and state mandates prioritize public safety while acknowledging individual needs? Who has the autonomy to differentiate falsehoods from personal opinions? Tune in to this thought-provoking discussion on Anchor!
Marijuana and Drug Legalization (S3 E1)
Welcome back to another semester of BYB! For this semester, our first podcast is on everybody's favorite: drugs. Over the course of the last few decades, the debate surrounding the legalization (or at least decriminalization) of marijuana use has catapulted into the American political mainstream. In fact, Brown’s home state of Rhode Island seems poised to legalize recreational weed use by this February. Proponents of legalization tout increased government revenue, expanded freedom, and the elimination of laws which are arguably leveraged to target black and brown Americans. On the other hand, opponents to legalization cite increased drug use, addiction, and its potentially harmful physical and mental effects. On this podcast, you will hear three perspectives: one liberal, Edan Larkin, one conservative, Jack Wolfsohn, and one libertarian, Ryan Handel (previously featured on our 2020 election podcast!). These three Brown students come to the conversation with nuanced and thought-provoking viewpoints, and help give some much-needed perspective to a conversation that is rapidly becoming more relevant to Brown University students.
Donald Trump's Legacy (S2 E2)
The last four years, we can all agree, were pivotal in American history. Donald Trump, whom many labeled as an outsider, rocked Washington and the country with his unconventional style, combative rhetoric, and populist message. Indeed, he was the poster child (and for some, the cause) of an increasingly polarized political environment.
Now that we have a new President, we can start dissecting and evaluating the Trump administration in its whole. While fresh on our minds are the Capitol riots and his impeachment (if we can even call it "fresh" given that it happened more than two months ago), we wanted to take this time to talk about his Presidency as a whole.
What will we remember Donald J. Trump for? What impact has he had on America's social and political culture? How will history remember Donald Trump and what he accomplished, good or bad? Sydney Smith ('22) and Christian Diaz de Leon ('21) join us to delve into these questions and discuss the 45th.
Is It Censorship? Trump Twitter Ban and Other Events! (S2 E1)
BreakYourBubble is back this semester with another podcast! For this one, we decided to talk about Trump's social media ban. For supporters of the move, it was a diligent and responsible step from social media companies, who might have held some of the blame should Trump have incited more violence after the fact on their platforms. For detractors, not only was it an unnecessary overstep from social media giants, who cut off a democratically-elected leader from his constituents, but a scary precedent for large tech companies to be taking.
Other recent events have sparked discussion about punishment and restricting speech, and whether or not that constitutes "censorship." Gina Carano, for example, was fired from Disney for continually making insensitive remarks on Twitter, including comparing conservatives to Jewish people in Nazi Germany. A UCLA student was dismissed from the team after videos and text messages surfaced of him (quite maliciously) using racial slurs. And finally, Leila Khaled, a Palestinian freedom fighter (who participated in flight hijackings 50 years ago) was barred from being on an event hosted by Zoom due to her past and pressure from pro-Israeli groups.
Trump's Twitter ban and these events give rise to the questions: is it "censorship" to punish people for incendiary rhetoric? What does censorship even look like; does it have to be government enforced? How can we make sure we are not banning a free flow of ideas, while at the same time not promoting hate or violence?
To help us parse through some of these questions, we've invited guests Samy Amkieh ('21.5), Mira Goodman ('24) and Seth Sabar ('24). We hope you enjoy!
2020 Election Democrat and Republican Reactions! (S1E3)
The 2020 Election was...interesting. Joe Biden, after days of uncertainty and counting slowed by the COVID-19, ultimately emerged with a presidency-winning total of 306 electoral votes to President Trump's 232. With these votes, the former Vice President (who, at the time of this writing, retained a 7 million person lead in the popular vote) became the president-presumptive, scheduled to be inaugurated in January 2021. President Trump almost immediately began to cast doubt on the validity of the election, refusing to concede and maintaining that the election was fraudulent. Despite fraud claims being unsubstantiated by concrete evidence, the President still enjoys strong support and enthusiasm from his supporters and allies in his fight to overturn the election. So far, efforts to accomplish this have been unsuccessful, with federal courts at all levels almost universally rejecting any election challenges.
Of course, this state of American politics is unprecedented. Never before has a candidate refused to concede defeat and, more significantly, sowed mistrust in the electoral institutions amongst their supporters. Indeed, Republican trust in American elections has plummeted, despite Republicans having more trust than Democrats and Independents less than two months before the election. What implications for our democracy does this have, when citizens do not view the processes in which government is chosen as legitimate? What basis do these claims and mistrust have? Are we naive for thinking our elections cannot be fraudulent? Is there irreparable harm done, or is this just a passing blip that will rectify itself after the Trump presidency?
We invited two members of the Brown University Democratic Club (Ellis and Morgan) and the Brown University Republican Club (Ryan G. and Ryan H.) each to help us unpack some of these questions. We also discuss personal thoughts of the election and its aftermath, including the down-ballot races and the wider sociopolitical changes that they may indicate. We hope you all enjoy!
(We originally recorded this on November 17th. We apologize for getting it out so late...finals season really took its toll!)
Intro Episode (S1 E1)
Welcome to BreakYourBubble! We are an organization/podcast dedicated to fostering meaningful discussion between those of different opinions, backgrounds and beliefs. Formulated in the wake of George Floyd's murder, we believe the best way to move forward as a country and enact social change is through understanding, which can only come about through insightful and deep conversation of opposing views - deliberation is the bedrock of democracy, after all.
In pursuance of this, we aim for this podcast to invite Brown undergraduate students from differing opinions to talk about important issues affecting not only the country, but Brown University as well. We think it important that as podcast and an organization, we first build a community, and we want that community to be centered around the University at which the idea was conceptualized.
In this short podcast, we introduce ourselves: hosts and founders Elias Kaul, Nick Wee and Solu Obiorah, as well as our two first members and honorary guests Jack Sloane and Isabel Kronenberg. We talk about what BYB is and what we want the podcast to look like. While you will hear this in the podcast, we thought it pressing enough to include this in the intro description: BYB is inherently respectful and cognizant of diversity, and thus will do everything in its power to pursue as well as protect it. We will NOT, under any circumstance, be a platform that contains racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or any other way of tarnishing one's identity. Our utmost property is ensuring a safe space not only for our guests of various political ideologies, but also our listeners.
We hope you all enjoy and continue to come back to listen!
Brown University's COVID Reopening (S1 E2)
In the face of COVID-19, Brown made the decision to reopen its campus and accept students for the fall semester. Christina Paxson, the President of the university, was seen by many as a leading voice in the push to reopen schools, writing an op-ed in the New York Times over the summer. Ultimately, Brown formulated a comprehensive plan, including evaluative " levels of safety," mandatory testing for all those on campus, robust social distancing guidelines, and housing protocols that reduced contact between students as much as possible. Brown has witnessed the fruits of such a plan - as of November 14th, Brown has reported 84 positive cases among more than 100,000 tests of close to 8,000 people.
Despite these shimmering numbers, there have been concerns (as there were always going to be). Questions have included about a diluted college experience; decreased avenues for social interaction; a less interactive, responsive, and engaging classroom; and, last but not least, the ability of 18-22 year-olds to be the diligent mask-wearing, social distancing and pandemic-beating students any reopening plan required.
In this podcast, Elias and Nick delve into this topic with three guests: Sterling Stiger, James Mullen, and Alexander Pralea. As our first guest podcast, we would without a doubt welcome any feedback to improve ourselves! Let us know by reaching out to us through Anchor, or by emailing elias@breakyourbubble.com!