First hour: Noam Chomsky
Second hour: The mathematics of voting
We open the hour with a conversation with Noam Chomsky, the scientist, linguist, philosopher, and social critic. Chomsky will have events later this week at the University of Rochester and the Little Theatre.
Then we'll talk to University staff and students about the Chomsky visit. In studio:
- Ted Brown, professor of history, medical humanities, and public health and policy at the University of Rochester
- Jeff Runner, professor and chair of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Rochester
- Jesse Bernstein, class of 2018
Then, on this primary day, we sit down with a mathematician who studies voting. Donald Saari looks at voting theory in particular. Saari can explain how a state like Wyoming can have power over a state like California or New York, thanks to the Electoral College. The issue is, he says, how often can a group make the crucial difference? In the U.S. Senate, 49 Democrats have nothing close to equal power to 51 Republicans, because of the power distribution for the majority. Perhaps not even Nate Silver has studied the math of voting as intently as our guest:
- Donald Saari, distinguished professor of mathematics and economics at the University of California Irvine
