u/VitalSignsPodcast

In 2024, students at Columbia University set up an encampment to protest the war in Gaza and demand their university divest from companies tied to the Israeli military. University President Minouche Shafik authorized the NYPD to clear it. Over 100 students were arrested. Faculty who supported the students' right to protest were brought up on charges, including humanities professor Bruce Robbins whose tenure was over twenty years. 

This episode of Vital Signs begins with Robbins recounting what led to his arrest and the legal consequences: he was found guilty of violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act for taking his atrocity studies class to witness the encampment on the day it was set up. He walks Ahmed through the timeline of his arrest through the punishment handed down by the Department of Education.

In this conversation, Robbins traces how the Trump administration's interpretation of Title VI is used to silence dissent in teaching settings. He doesn't mince words about Columbia's Task Force on Anti-Semitism, which he says was designed to generate political cover rather than protect Jewish students. He talks about how Gaza has affected domestic politics, arguing the Democratic Party's support for Israel was a factor in Kamala Harris's loss and in Zohran Mamdani's win. 

About Vital Signs: A podcast by the Center for Progressive Research. Each Ahmed Ragab sits down with the authors, scholars, and experts whose work follows the signpost topics shaping progressive policy and theory.

Substack for readable transcript.

32,104 people died in police custody in the United States between 2000 and 2020. In 2025 alone, 1,202 people were killed by police in the U.S., and Black Americans, who make up 12% of the population, accounted for 24% of those deaths. In this episode of Vital Signs, Ahmed Ragab sits down with Professor Terence Keel, author of The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence (2025) to explain how state death records make victims agents of their own deaths in police custody.

A few of the topics covered:

• The history of the coroner’s office from colonial America to the present
• George Floyd’s autopsy and what the language of medical examiners does and doesn’t say
• Preexisting conditions as a political tool
• Who is dying in police custody and why
• White nationalism as nihilism
• The $10 billion LAPD budget

Host Ahmed Ragab interviews authors and experts on relevant progressive issues, tracking the "vital signs" of where these issues are taking us in our culture and politics.

The very first guest is Walter Benn Michaels, professor and author of "No Politics But Class Politics". Walter and Ahmed touch on Zohran Mamdani's historic election and first 100 days, universalism, the definition of class reductionism, the appeal of class politics, and knowing your "real class enemy".

Host Ahmed Ragab interviews authors and experts on relevant progressive issues, tracking the "vital signs" of where these issues are taking us in our culture and politics.

The very first guest is Walter Benn Michaels, professor and author of "No Politics But Class Politics". Walter and Ahmed touch on Zohran Mamdani's historic election and first 100 days, universalism, the definition of class reductionism, the appeal of class politics, and knowing your "real class enemy".