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Given the legacy of slavery and discrimination in the United States, race-conscious admissions have shaped US higher education since the civil rights movement of the 1960s. However, in one of the final rulings of its current term, the conservative majority on the US Supreme Court struck down the use of race as a factor in college admissions, overturning decades of precedent. On this encore edition of Encounter Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, Elise Boddie, and Legal fellow and manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program at the Conservative Heritage Foundation, Zack Smith, spar over the pros and cons of this landmark decision and discuss with host Carol Castiel, its ramifications for opportunity and diversity on college campuses and in the workplace across the United States.

In this Encore Presentation of Encounter, host Carol Castiel talks with Dave Workman, spokesperson for the Second Amendment Foundation, and Nick Wilson, senior director for Gun Violence Prevention at the Center for American Progress, about the factors contributing to gun violence, the political impediments to more effective safety legislation and areas of common ground.

Michelle Gavin, former US Ambassador to Botswana and senior fellow in Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and Susan Stigant, Director of Africa Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace discuss the military coup in Niger, the Russia-Africa Summit, the conflict in Sudan, and US-Africa relations with host Carol Castiel.

Host Carol Castiel talks with Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way and John Fortier, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute about a potential second federal indictment of former President Donald Trump, the politicization of the National Defense Authorization Act by House Republicans and the ramifications of a possible third-party candidate by a group called No Labels on the 2024 presidential contest.

Catherine Sendak, director for Transatlantic Security and Defense at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), and Will Pomeranz, Director, Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, discuss the results and ramifications of the much-anticipated NATO Summit in Vilnius with host Carol Castiel.

Given the legacy of slavery and discrimination in the United States, race-conscious admissions have shaped US higher education since the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. However, in one of the final rulings of its current term, the conservative majority on the US Supreme Court struck down the use of race as a factor in college admissions, overturning decades of precedent. On this edition of Encounter Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, Elise Boddie, and Legal fellow and manager of the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Program at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Zack Smith, spar over the pros and cons of this landmark decision and discuss with host Carol Castiel, its ramifications for opportunity and diversity on college campuses and in the workplace across the United States.

Host Carol Castiel talks with Mark Katz, professor of Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Mason University and Maria Snegovaya, senior fellow in Russian Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), about the significance and implications of the attempted mutiny spearheaded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the mercenary Wagner Group, in Russia. They analyze the impact of the aborted revolt on Vladimir Putin’s grip on power, Moscow’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine and much more.

On the heels of Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China, experts Bonnie Glaser, Director Asia program at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Yun Sun, Director of the China Program at the Stimson Center, tell host Carol Castiel that the renewed dialogue between Beijing and Washington constitutes a crucial first step in easing tensions on several contentious issues from Taiwan, climate change and fentanyl flows to military-to-military communications and more.

The 37-count indictment of former President Donald Trump on federal charges of willfully retaining documents containing national defense information and then refusing to return them is especially grave because 31 counts relate to violation of the Espionage Act. Tess Bridgeman, former deputy legal advisor to National Security Council and co-editor-in-chief of Just Security, and Bill Galston, senior fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, analyze the damage done to US national security and the political ramifications of former President Trump’s alleged actions.

Host Carol Castiel talks with Jim Kessler, vice president for policy at Third Way and John Fortier, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute about the historic indictment of former President Donald Trump, the expanding field of Republican presidential candidates, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s woes as chaos ensues among conservative members upset over of his compromise on raising the debt ceiling.

Incumbent Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defeated opposition leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, in the May 28 presidential runoff, clinching another five-year term in office. Erdogan’s 52-48 margin of victory illustrates a deeply divided electorate and left hopeful followers of the opposition alliance in a state of despondency. Turkish analysts, Merve Tahiroglu, Turkey Program director at the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) and Mustafa Akyol, senior fellow at the CATO Institute, discuss the myriad domestic and international political implications of Erdogan’s victory with host Carol Castiel.

Edward "Ted" Alden from the Council on Foreign Relations and Tom Jawitz from the Center for American Progress joins guest host Rick Pantaleo on this edition of Encounter to talk about the end of Title 42, the health order that tightly controlled migrant entry into the U.S. during the pandemic. They'll also discuss the ensuing changes in U.S. immigration rules due to its termination.