Episode 5

Expertise and Public Trust ft. Ben Pauli

March 10, 2020

TRANSCRIPT

Jack and Shobita compare the US and UK responses to the coronavirus outbreak, and consider the legacy of the US approach to research funding policy 75 years after publication of the famous report by Vannevar Bush, Science: The Endless Frontier. And we speak with Ben Pauli (@benjaminjpauli), professor at Kettering University, about his recent book on the politics of the Flint Water Crisis.

• Benjamin Pauli (2019). Flint Fights Back: Environmental Justice and Democracy in the Flint Water Crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

• BBC Radio 4 (2019)."Water: Laurie Taylor explores the cultural life of a natural substance." Thinking Allowed.

• Ben Pauli (2019). "Flint Fights Back: In Conversation With Benjamin Pauli." MIT Press Blog.

• Interview with Ben Pauli: “Flint Fights Back' Looks at State of Democracy, Environmental Justice After Water Crisis.” Detroit Today. August 15, 2019.

• Ben Pauli (2017). "In Gov. Snyder’s Flint oversight board’s decision on a tax lien moratorium, more than just finances are at stake." Eclecta Blog.

Study Questions:

1. What did Bush mean by “the endless frontier” and how has his idea shaped science funding around the world?

2. What kinds of expertise are valued in policymaking?

3. How did the citizens of Flint seek to legitimize their personal knowledge and what was the cost of going through that process?

4. Why did Flint set up the community review board for research and what does it do?

5. How should scientists enter communities for research?

Links On coronavirus:

• Joanne Kenen (2020). "How testing failures allowed coronavirus to sweep the U.S." Politico. March 6.

• Matthew Perone and Mike Stobbe (2020). “US labs await virus-testing kits promised by administration." AP News. March 6.

• Jon Cohen (2020). "The United States badly bungled coronavirus testing—but things may soon improve." Science. February 28.

• On Science: The Endless FrontierVannevar Bush (1945). 

• Science: The Endless Frontier."Science, the Endless Frontier at 75." Issues in Science and Technology. Winter 2020.The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (2020).

• "A Symposium on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of Vannevar Bush’s Science – The Endless Frontier." 

• G. Pascal Zachary (2018). "Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century." New York: Free Press.