Access to Excellence podcast

In the most recent episode of the Access to Excellence podcast, President Gregory Washington joined Wendi Manuel-Scott, a history professor in the School of Integrative Studies, and Shernita Parker, an assistant vice president for Human Resources at Mason, via Zoom to discuss the work being done by the university’s Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force.

How are anti-racism efforts building on college campuses? How will Mason affirm its core values and mission of inclusion? President Gregory Washington speaks with Wendi Manuel-Scott and Shernita Parker, co-directors of Mason's Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence Task Force about the university's commitment to be a national leader in this dialogue.

In this fascinating conversation, President Gregory Washington speaks with Kevin Clark, director of original animation for preschool programming at Netflix, and retiring professor in the Learning Technologies Division in George Mason University’s College of Education and Human Development, about how technology and economics are helping fuel the rich entertainment content highlighting people of color, and how that programming can be a conduit for anti-racism efforts.

“It’s a dream job because I get to create content,” Clark said. “I get to be involved in what young people and their families see, especially at the preschool level. This is some of the first media they are exposed to besides books and stories that their parents and caregivers communicate to them, so we have to get it right.”

Fighting climate change is a global imperative, and the consequences of inaction could be dire. But Mason's Andrew Light, who helped negotiate the Paris Agreement on climate, tells Mason President Gregory Washington that for the go-getters, opportunity awaits.

What's it like to interview a mass murderer? Professor Mary Ellen O'Toole, a former FBI profiler, fills us in on that and Mason's new Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory, which will be one of only eight in the U.S. to use donor remains for forensic research.

Schar School Dean Mark J. Rozell provides an unbiased analysis of the stakes heading into the presidential debates -- with some debate history thrown in as well.

Mason's Justin Gest, an expert on immigration and the politics of demographic change, explains why the U.S., from the outside looking in, appears to be a "closed angry giant."