Access to Excellence Podcast

Into the eyes of a murderer

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.

Election projection

How did the election play into our national identity? How did Donald Trump mold the Republican Party in his image? How can we reform the Electoral College? Mason President Gregory Washington speaks with Schar School Dean Mark J. Rozell on where our politics goes from here.

60 seconds to nuclear war

Professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Martin J. Sherwin discusses his new book about the Cuban Missile Crisis, and tells a terrifying, and not well-known, story of how close we came to nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

We all have skin in the game

Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, assistant professor in the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution, explains how using our democratic freedoms will help overcome racism in America.

Would a Trump election loss benefit the Republican Party?

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.

The U.S.'s approach to immigration is like 'policy formaldehyde'

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."

Is the U.S. experiencing a third Reconstruction?

Mason's Charles Chavis, a historian of the early civil right movement, puts the current protests for racial justice in historical context.

Investigating the Olympic Spirit

Did you know the torch relay began at the 1936 Berlin Games? With this summer’s Tokyo Olympics on hold, Mason Olympic scholar Chris Elzey examines the Games as an athletic, cultural and political event.

The ups and downs of policing since Ferguson

Mason professor Laurie Robinson, who during the Obama administration was co-chair of the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing, explains a complicated legacy.

The economics of COVID-19 in the Washington, D.C. region

Jeannette Chapman, director of Mason's Stephen S. Fuller Institute, says the region's primarily knowledge-based economy provides a strong foundation for recovery, but some sectors could take two years to rebound.