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’s Dr. Juliet Barker on the Brontë Sisters & Classic Novels

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy and Helen Baxendale of Great Hearts Academies interview award-winning English historian and biographer, Dr. Juliet Barker. She offers a rich portrait of the Brontë family, whose timeless contributions have widely impacted English literature and fiction writing. 

Blackstone Valley’s Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick on MA’s Nation-Leading Voc-Techs

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Walter Blanks interview Dr. Michael Fitzpatrick, who has served as superintendent-director of the Blackstone Valley Vocational Regional School District since 1994. A leader in vocational-technical education, Dr. Fitzpatrick reflects on his own educational journey and offers insights into leadership that puts students first. He discusses how Massachusetts’ voc-tech schools used the 1993 Education Reform Act’s accountability tools like MCAS, standards, and school choice, to drive achievement, particularly for students with diverse learning needs.

Stanford’s Pulitzer Winner Jack Rakove on American Independence

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy and Massachusetts civics teacher Kelley Brown interview Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Jack Rakove, Coe Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. Prof. Rakove explores the origins of the American Revolution and U.S. Constitution through the lives of the nation’s Founding Era figures. Reflecting on young John Adams’ vivid depiction of his schoolhouse in colonial Massachusetts, Rakove offers context for the political and social landscape of the 18th-century America.

Ian Rowe & Steven Wilson on The Lost Decade

In this special episode of The Learning Curve, guest co-host Ian Rowe interviews Steven Wilson, a senior fellow at Pioneer Institute and founder of the Ascend Charter Network. Their discussion centers on Wilson's new book, The Lost Decade, which concerns education's shift away from liberal arts and toward social justice ideology and anti-intellectualism.

Brandeis Uni.’s John Burt on Robert Penn Warren & All the King’s Men

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts Alisha Searcy and U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng interview John Burt, the Paul Prosswimmer Professor of American Literature at Brandeis University. Prof. Burt offers rich insight into the life and work of one of the 20th century’s greatest American writers, Robert Penn Warren. Raised in rural southwestern Kentucky, Warren was deeply shaped by the legacy of the Civil War, which he explored in his influential 1961 work, The Legacy of the Civil War, and throughout his poetry and fiction.

Shaka Mitchell on the American Federation for Children & School Choice Options

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-host Alisha Searcy and guest co-host Walter Blanks interview Shaka Mitchell, senior fellow at the American Federation for Children. Mr. Mitchell shares about his compelling personal and professional journey in education reform. Shaka discusses how his formative experiences shaped his passion for expanding charter public schools, school choice, and empowering families.

Amanda McMullen on the New Bedford Whaling Museum

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Alisha Searcy interview Amanda McMullen, President & CEO of the New Bedford Whaling Museum (NBWM). Ms. McMullen explores NBWM’s remarkable mission, collections, and economic impact on the Southcoast of Massachusetts. She discusses NBWM’s historical roots in the 19th-century Yankee whaling industry that made New Bedford the wealthiest city in the world per capita.

Ben Moynihan & Bill Crombie on Algebra Project, Bob Moses, & Civil Rights

In this week’s episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Alisha Searcy interview Benjamin Moynihan, Executive Director, and, William Crombie, Director of Professional Development, for the Algebra Project, Inc. Mr. Moynihan and Mr. Crombie reflect on the life and legacy of Civil Rights era icon, and math educator, Bob Moses. They trace Moses’s journey from a Harlem upbringing and elite liberal arts education to his transformative grassroots activism in 1960s Mississippi, organizing Black voter registration and co-directing the Freedom Summer Project 1964. They discuss his collaboration with Mississippi sharecropper and Civil Rights era legend Fannie Lou Hamer, and his principled departure from the U.S. to raise a family and teach math in Tanzania, where his educational vision deepened.

NYT Bestseller Jane Leavy on Babe Ruth, Baseball, & 1920s Celebrity

In this special episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Charlie Chieppo interview New York Times bestselling American sportswriter, biographer, and author Jane Leavy.  Ms. Leavy offers a vivid exploration of Babe Ruth’s life and towering legacy. Leavy sheds new light on Ruth’s difficult Baltimore childhood, his formative years at St. Mary’s Industrial School, and his remarkable early success as a star pitcher with the Boston Red Sox.

AUS U-Adelaide’s Wilfrid Prest on Sir William Blackstone & Anglo-American Common Law

In this episode of The Learning Curve, co-hosts U-Arkansas Prof. Albert Cheng and Ret. MN Justice Barry Anderson speak with Wilfrid Prest, Emeritus Professor and Visiting Research Fellow in History and Law at the University of Adelaide in Australia, and biographer of Sir William Blackstone, among the most influential figures in the history of English common law. Prof. Prest discusses Blackstone’s formative years in mid-18th-century London and at Pembroke College, Oxford, where a classical education, Enlightenment thought, and legal scholarship shaped his intellectual path.