Bonus Episode: "Less than Zero"

For our final episode of the year, we talk about "Endemic COVID." It's not here yet, so why do so many people want to convince us that it is? What will the push for endemic COVID mean for higher education? What will it mean for the future of our show? Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_yMHtACiS8N4e6IIZK1dyvuu365AoeFjiF1Zeyf7VnA/edit?usp=sharing

This week, Aimi Hamraie joins us to discuss the Critical Design Lab. The lab has developed strategies for accessible teaching during the pandemic, hosted a series of remote-access nightlife parties, and is currently working on the Remote Access Archive, which seeks to track and document "the ways disabled people have used remote access before and during the COVID-19 pandemic." https://www.mapping-access.com/ Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j16jsJAG5TkG5cUuk2MWh6y3P36TOmX-SfbRKN8Ue2Y/edit?usp=sharing

We're extending the Halloween season into mid-November to talk about that most scary of all experiences: the email from upper admin. We share some truly spine-tingling examples of the genre and discuss the features that make them simultaneously scary and formulaic. Transcript:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1glS732ztWrmq_bhKSukfW456wvW05IT0WQoa3juaSog/edit?usp=sharing

This week, we are going through some headlines related to higher education and the coronavirus. We talk academic freedom in Hawaii and Florida and about bad dorms at Howard and UC Santa Barbara. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U2VVsvvn5OPxKnPCtXJ8cYmCuwE1ojg_a8uuI_sXnts/edit?usp=sharing

After the University System of Georgia voted unanimously to put new limits on the protections of tenure, the entire system may face censure from the AAUP. What does that mean? We take a look at the list of schools currently facing AAUP censure to find out. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12xkAZEScNuyVpsjfag9eMLMdCyEjZN_dHgGg9bJj0ls/edit?usp=sharing

This week, we are joined by Travis Chi Wing Lau, an assistant professor of English at Kenyon College. Travis is currently working on a book titled "Insecure Immunity: Inoculation and the Anti-Vaccination, 1722-1898," which explores the British cultural history of immunity and vaccination in the 18th and 19th centuries. We talked to him about researching, writing, and teaching during the pandemic and about how he understands the impulse towards the "COVID hot take." Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16s1j2RQ6uStdmrybzHk8ASeuvECONZVAJP7fbmIsU-M/edit?usp=sharing

Why do so many people seem to think that "Zero Covid" is a bad goal? The discourse around this idea is so toxic--and wide spread--that we spend 35 minutes unpacking this concept and how it gets (mis)used to denigrate efforts to stop and mitigate the spread of COVID-19. We also squeeze in some "Bad Art Friend" talk. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ASKTSu2DMBnv-LKPrvhggx-8H04r-hNWrikFJ8CCyao/edit?usp=sharing

This week, Matthew Boedy tells us about his efforts to keep an accurate count of COVID-19 cases on college campuses in Georgia. He explains how different counting and testing practices at each school makes it harder to understand the state of the pandemic, and discusses why he thinks that the Board of Regents in Georgia will, under no circumstances, change their current approach to the pandemic. See his updated count here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tCijdezYBswB6fjFZcLPxalbRBolAR9DDOLjBjc-oaM/edit?usp=sharing Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KM04WxbHSXj2rR1W9sY1Y3fEl5wlksalBqKD3E0RYx4/edit?usp=sharing

Brown University Economist Emily Oster returned to the news last week when her team launched their new "COVID-19 School Datahub." The Datahub seems to suggest that the most pressing consequence of the pandemic has been...shifts to remote learning.  We explain why Oster's data--and the claims she derives from it--is so troubling (and so lucrative). Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1taL0yOkdAv1GaLCVWW4lZ-Qb3BVewHYgU8FCrt0dPck/edit?usp=sharing 

This week, we bring you a conversation we recorded last month about how we got to a place where colleges in Georgia would be teaching in person with few COVID mitigation policies in place. We've now spent nearly a month teaching under those conditions, and while a lot of things have happened, the big picture remains the same: the Board of Regents and school administrators are intent on going forward with unsafe teaching, learning, and working conditions. We discuss where those policies came from and spend a not insignificant time discussing a uniquely Atlanta institution: the Taco Mac. Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1taL0yOkdAv1GaLCVWW4lZ-Qb3BVewHYgU8FCrt0dPck/edit?usp=sharing