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UVA Prof. Dan Willingham on Learning Science & K-12 Schooling
This week on The Learning Curve, University of Virginia Professor Dan Willingham discusses the psychology of learning, his advocacy of using scientific knowledge in classroom teaching and education policy, and his critique of the “learning styles theory” of education.
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Silicon Valley Bust: Bank Failure’s Causes, Cures, and Culpability
Joe Selvaggi talks with financial market and monetary policy expert Dr. Norbert J. Michel about the causes for the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the what its demise portends for depositors, the banking sector, and the regulatory regime that governs it.
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UK Oxford’s Sir Jonathan Bate on Shakespeare’s ‘Julius Caesar’
This week on The Learning Curve, U.K. Oxford and ASU Shakespeare scholar Prof. Sir Jonathan Bate, discusses Shakespeare's timeless play Julius Caesar on the Ides of March. Sir Jonathan explains the Roman lessons for American constitutionalism, including warnings against the dangers of dictatorship and civil war.
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Bay State Budget Breakdown: New Administration Offers Something for Everyone
Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute's Senior Fellow in Economic Opportunity Eileen McAnneny about the contours of Governor Healey’s $55.5 billion budget and tax relief plan, and whether they serve to make Massachusetts more livable and economically competitive.
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Sunshine Week 2023: Shining Light on the Workings of Government
Pioneer Institute is proud to join with the media and others—including The Boston Herald, The Boston Globe, CommonWealth Magazine, Common Cause, and the ACLU—in marking Sunshine Week, March 12-18.
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Erick Widman, Esq.: Immigrants Can Ease Worker Shortage
The immigration system in the United States is complex, to say the least. Visa categories for nearly every letter of the alphabet, exemptions, restrictions, rule changes with every new federal administration. We need more workers, innovators and entrepreneurs in an increasingly competitive world and amid an historic worker shortage and cash-strapped social safety systems due to a greying workforce. Does the United States’ immigration system work in its favor?
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Lauren Redniss on Marie Curie, STEM, & Women’s History
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This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard mark Women's History Month with Lauren Redniss, author of Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, the first work of visual nonfiction to be named a finalist for the National Book Award.
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Supreme Debt Consideration: Will Biden’s Student Debt Cancellation Get Passing Grade?
Joe Selvaggi talks with constitutional scholar Ilya Somin about the merits and likely success of the two Supreme Court cases Nebraska v. Biden and Department of Education v. Brown, which challenge the President’s constitutional right to cancel more than $400 billion in student debt.
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“The Last Candid Man”: B.U.’s Dr. John Silber
This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Rachel Silber Devlin about her memoir, Snapshots of My Father, John Silber, which captures the wide-ranging and remarkable life of the late philosopher, teacher, and president of Boston University.
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Public Union Constitutionality: Returning Government Accountability to the People
Joe Selvaggi talks with Philip K. Howard about the legal theories in his newly released book, Not Accountable: Rethinking the Constitutionality of Public Employee Unions, which questions whether the structure of public employees unions frustrates the will of the people, and abrogates the responsibility of elected officials to an unelected and unaccountable privileged class.
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Room to Grow: Study Identifies Opportunity for New Charter Schools in State’s Gateway Cities
The Commonwealth’s 26 Gateway Cities represent a strong opportunity for the establishment of new charters and/or expansion of existing schools, according to our new study.
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OECD’s Andreas Schleicher on PISA & K-12 Global Education
This week on The Learning Curve, Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), discusses global K-12 education, skills, and competition.
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Realizing Rent Control: Targeted Tenant Relief or Broad-Based Road to Ruin
Joe Selvaggi talks with Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s President and CEO Greg Vasil about the likely effect on all residents of Boston of Mayor Wu's rent control proposal now before the City Council.
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India Unbound: Gurcharan Das on the Rise of the World’s Largest Free-Market Democracy
This week on The Learning Curve, Gurcharan Das, author, public intellectual, and former CEO of Procter & Gamble India, discusses the rise of India since independence to become a thriving, incredibly diverse nation of 1.4 billion people—the world's largest free-market democracy.
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As COVID-19 Emergencies Ease, Some Progress on Telehealth Rules
A new report from Reason Foundation, Cicero Institute and Pioneer Institute rates every state’s telehealth policy for patient access and ease of providing virtual care. The report highlights telehealth policy best practices for states.
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Unchecked Agency Power: Consumer Safety Bans Fair Process
Joe Selvaggi talks with Pacific Legal Foundation senior attorney Oliver Dunford about his work on Leachco v. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a case challenging the constitutionality of an executive agency structure (CPSC), in which leadership is beyond presidential removal, which uses its product safety mandate to ban products with no independent recourse for producers.
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Dr. Deborah Plant on Zora Neale Hurston’s Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”
This week on The Learning Curve, Dr. Deborah Plant, editor of the 2018 book Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo" discusses Zora Neale Hurston's work as an anthropologist telling the story of one of the last survivors of the infamous Middle Passage.
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Cooking Without Gas: Stove Ban a Plan or Conspiracy Theory
Joe Selvaggi talks with reporter and author of six climate policy books Robert Bryce about his investigation into the statements made by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner about the safety of gas cooking and the origins of the movement that assert that such appliances could be and should be banned.
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George Weigel Discusses Pope St. John Paul II for National Catholic Schools Week
This week on The Learning Curve, George Weigel, the biographer of Pope St. John Paul II explores how Karol Wojtyla's education, deep faith, and experiences during World War II shaped his life as a spiritual leader and helped lead to the fall of Communism.
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Innovation Reduction Act: Price Controls’ Prescription for New Therapies
Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute’s senior fellow Dr. Bill Smith about the changes to drug pricing laws included in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act provisions and discuss who wins and loses as drug companies announce their response to new law.
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Award-Winning UK Author & Filmmaker Laurence Rees on the Holocaust, Auschwitz, and Remembrance
To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Laurence Rees, a former head of BBC TV History Programmes and author of The Holocaust: A New History, sheds light on Germany in the 1920s and 1930s and the cultural and political conditions that led to the Holocaust.
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D.C.’s Kevin Chavous on National School Choice Week
This week on The Learning Curve, Cara and Gerard talk with Kevin Chavous, president of Stride K12, Inc. and a former member of the Council of the District of Columbia, on the growing movement toward school choice in education. Chavous discusses recent Supreme Court rulings and the expansion of school choice programs, education savings accounts, and vouchers.
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Introducing the Newest Members of Pioneer Institute’s Board of Directors
New Members:
Michael Brown
Since joining Battery Ventures…
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Residents Rescuing Refugees: Welcoming Ukrainians Yearning To Breathe Free
Host Joe Selvaggi talks with George Mason Law Professor, author, and immigration expert Ilya Somin about the newly announced Welcome Corps program which empowers Americans to sponsor and help relocate refugees from Ukraine and other places of war and persecution.
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Pioneer Institute Mourns the Passing of Tom Birmingham
We at Pioneer Institute mourn the loss of Tom Birmingham even as we are thankful for having had the opportunity to get to know this kind and brilliant man when in office and later, when he spent several years as Pioneer’s distinguished senior fellow in education.
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Pulitzer Winner Prof. David Garrow on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement
https://chrt.fm/track/4655F8/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/53284998/tlc_davidgarrow.mp3
This…
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Sinking U.S. Shipping: Ineffective Law Creates Waves for American Economy
Host Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute research fellow Colin Grabow about the failure of the Jones Act, a law that sought to protect the U.S. shipbuilding and merchant marine capacity. They examine its downstream effects on inflation, supply chain fragility, and energy access that directly affect every American.
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First-of-Its-Kind Interactive Mapping Tool Reveals Extent of For-Profit Entities Benefitting from the 340B Drug Pricing Program
Today, Pioneer Institute released a first-of-its-kind, 50-state mapping tool and database highlighting the troubling way in which hospitals and covered entities leverage unlimited pharmacy contracts under the 340B Drug Pricing Program.
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Independent Institute’s Dr. Richard Vedder on Higher Education, Skyrocketing Tuitions, & the Student Debt Crisis
This week on “The Learning Curve," co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Richard Vedder, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Economics at Ohio University. He shares analysis on the macro impact of COVID on the U.S. labor market, and the long-term economic prospects of American college students. He reviews insights from his recent book, "Restoring the Promise: Higher Education in America."
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Shopping Hospital Value: Price Transparency Mandate Brings Market Forces to Medicine
Hubwonk host Joe Selvaggi talks with Pioneer Institute's senior healthcare fellow Barbara Anthony about her recently released paper, Massachusetts Hospitals: Uneven Compliance with New Federal Price Transparency Law, and how price transparency can empower consumers to shop for better value and encourage hospitals to offer more competitive costs.