Editorial Staff

Human Rights Advocate Kristina Arriaga on Cuba, Religious Liberty, & Cancel Culture

/in , , , /by Editorial Staff
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on
LinkedIn
+

This week on “The Learning Curve,” co-hosts Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Kristina Arriaga, president of Intrinsic, a strategic communications firm, and former vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Kristina shares her family’s experiences fleeing Castro’s communist regime in Cuba and other hardships, and how her background has shaped her commitment to religious liberty. They discuss the current political situation in Cuba, and the lessons American citizens, teachers, and students should learn about communism’s impact on human rights. She shares her work to advance religious freedom as former executive director of The Becket Fund, where she honored courageous Cuban political prisoner Armando Valladares and so many other human rights activists, and through her service on several noted international commissions. Finally, they discuss parallels Kristina highlighted in an October 2020 USA Today op-ed, between cancel culture in America and some of the features of communist Cuba, such as speech codes, political correctness, and social shaming. They delve into why cancel culture is so dangerous to the free exchange of ideas and a healthy civic life, and how parents, teachers, and professors can combat it.

Stories of the Week: The Biden administration is extending the moratorium on federal student loan payments and interest – originally scheduled to expire next month – through early 2022. But exactly who is eligible? The New York Times reports that 340,000 of the one million children who did not report for school during the pandemic were in kindergarten, with the sharpest declines in low-income neighborhoods.

Guest:

Kristina Arriaga is a passionate communicator with a storied life — from orchestrating the rescue of a Cuban woman and her two children, for which she was featured in Vanity Fair and Reader’s Digest, to visiting American Pastor Andrew Brunson in prison in Turkey, attending his judicial hearings in Izmir, and advocating for his release both in Turkey and through the pages of The Wall Street Journal. She is particularly interested in free speech, freedom of religion or belief, and international human rights for girls and women, and has written extensively on all these issues. Her recent USA Today piece on cancel culture went viral and was then censored for sensitive content by Twitter. In 2016, the U.S. Congress appointed her to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, where she was elected Vice-Chair for two consecutive terms. During her 3-year tenure, she met with high-ranking government officials to advocate for human rights in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Nigeria, Turkey, and many other countries. Before the Commission, Arriaga was a member of the U.S. delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission and the executive director of The Becket Fund, a public interest law firm that defends free expression. During her tenure at the law firm, she oversaw several landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Arriaga is the recipient of the 2017 Newseum Free Expression Award. Other recipients that year were Apple CEO Tim Cook, ABC correspondent Martha Raddatz, and civil rights champion John Lewis. Arriaga is a sought-after speaker and has appeared on BBC, MSNBC, C-Span, CNN, and NPR. Her writing includes op-eds published in USA Today and The Hill, and she has lectured at numerous academic institutions. Kristina has a master’s degree from Georgetown University and is reading for her DPhil at the Oxford Law Faculty at Oxford University.

The next episode will air on Wednesday, August 18th, 2021 at 12 pm ET with guest, Professor E.D. Hirsch, Jr., founder and chairman of the Core Knowledge Foundation, professor emeritus at the University of Virginia, and acclaimed author of the books, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and How to Educate a Citizen: The Power of Shared Knowledge to Unify a Nation.

Tweet of the Week:

News Links:

Student Loan Payment Suspension: What the Extension Means for Borrowers

https://www.wsj.com/articles/student-loan-payment-suspension-what-the-extension-means-for-borrowers-11628594394?mod=searchresults_pos1&page=1

NYT: The Kindergarten Exodus

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/07/us/covid-kindergarten-enrollment.html?smid=tw-share

 

Get new episodes of The Learning Curve in your inbox!

Recent Episodes:

UK Uni. of St Andrews’ Sir Hew Strachan on the First World War

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy speak with Sir Hew Strachan, Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, and recipient of the 2016 Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing. Prof. Sir Hew, author of numerous award-winning books, including The First World War, the basis of the definitive 10-part Channel 4/BBC documentary, discusses how World War I shaped the 20th century and beyond.

MA Teacher Kelley Brown on Founding Documents, U.S. History, & Civics

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Center for Strong Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy and American Federation for Children’s Walter Blanks interview Kelley Brown, an award-winning civics and government teacher at Easthampton High School and former Massachusetts Teacher of the Year. Ms. Brown discusses her background as an educator, her work with the “We the People": The Citizen and the Constitution program, and how it helps students engage with America’s Founding Documents, U.S. history, and enduring civic ideals.

Harvard’s Leo Damrosch on Robert Louis Stevenson & Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Great Hearts Academies’ Dr. Helen Baxendale interview Leo Damrosch, Ernest Bernbaum Professor of Literature Emeritus at Harvard University, and acclaimed biographer of some of the world's greatest literary figures. Prof. Damrosch discusses his newest book Storyteller: The Life of Robert Louis Stevenson. He reflects on Stevenson's childhood in Scotland and the close relationship he maintained with his nanny, Alison Cunningham. He shares how Stevenson lived an adventurous life, with his travel inspiring classics like Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and A Child’s Garden of Verses.

Stanford’s Anna Lembke, MD, on Dopamine Nation & Addiction

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Center for Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy interview Dr. Anna Lembke, MD, professor of psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine, chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and author of the NYT bestselling book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence. Dr. Lembke explains how dopamine functions in the human brain and contributes to addictive behaviors. She explores how modern American life fuels a culture of addiction, drawing parallels between past waves of opioid and alcohol abuse and today’s dependence on the internet and smart phones.

AZ Trinity Arch Prep’s Jack Johnson Pannell on Educating Boys

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Center for Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy interview Jack Johnson Pannell, founder and head of Trinity Arch Preparatory School for Boys in Phoenix. Mr. Pannell discusses his career as an educational leader, including founding a nationally recognized charter school in Baltimore, and shares how his background in the liberal arts and law has informed his approach to schooling.

U-Ark’s Robert Maranto & BASIS Ed Texas’ Sean Woytek on Academically Intensive Charter Schools

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Walter Blanks of the American Federation for Children interview Prof. Robert Maranto and Sean Woytek co-authors of the Education Next piece, “Why Academically Intensive Charter Schools Deserve Our Attention.” They explore how rigorous charter school networks like BASIS Ed have achieved exceptional outcomes and what their success can teach policymakers and educators nationwide about improving academic performance nationwide.

U-Ark’s Randall Woods on John Quincy Adams: Statesman of the Early Republic

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Center for Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy interview Randall Woods, John A. Cooper Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Arkansas, and author of John Quincy Adams: A Man for the Whole People. Prof. Woods shares the life and career of American statesman John Quincy Adams, the “first son of the Republic,” whose upbringing in the household of John and Abigail Adams shaped his lifelong devotion to public service.

FEE’s Kerry McDonald on Joyful Learning, Microschools, & Homeschooling

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and the Center for Public Schools’ Alisha Searcy interview Kerry McDonald, Senior Education Fellow at the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), host of the LiberatED podcast, and author of Joyful Learning: How to Find Freedom, Happiness, and Success Beyond Conventional Schooling (2025). As a leading advocate for alternative schooling, McDonald shares how her educational background shaped her philosophy of learner-driven schooling and traces the history of homeschooling in America, highlighting the hurdles families have overcome in recent years.

Dr. Gil Troy on Theodor Herzl – Father of Zionism & Combating Antisemitism

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Eos Foundation’s Andrea Silbert interview Dr. Gil Troy, senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University, and editor of Theodor Herzl: The Collected Zionist Writings and Addresses of Israel's Founder. He offers an overview of Herzl’s upbringing in 19th-century Vienna, the antisemitic events that shaped his worldview, and how the infamous Dreyfus Affair spurred his determination to establish a Jewish State.

UK’s Dr. Kathryn Hughes on George Eliot, Middlemarch, & Victorian Novels

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Great Hearts Academies’ Dr. Helen Baxendale interview Dr. Kathryn Hughes, academic historian and award-winning author of George Eliot: The Last Victorian. Dr. Hughes discusses the significance of 19th-century novelist Mary Ann Evans, better known by her pen name George Eliot, in shaping British literature and capturing the societal tensions of the Victorian era.