Inside Yale Law School Podcast

Home
About Yale Law School
Office of The Dean
Inside Yale Law School Podcast

About the Podcast

Hosted by Dean Heather K. Gerken, Inside Yale Law School offers a window into the rich academic life of Yale Law School. Each episode features a conversation with a different Yale Law School faculty member, highlighting the deep and varied perspectives, experience, and expertise housed within these walls. The podcast seeks to shed new light on the core problems facing the world today and on the extraordinary scholars and teachers working to understand and tackle them.

Transcripts from each episode are available for download as PDFs.

Listen and Subscribe

Available at:

Season 2

Episode 1: Mike Wishnie

Professor Michael Wishnie discusses the Veterans Legal Services Clinic’s litigation challenging long-standing racial disparities in the VA’s administration of veterans’ benefits. He also describes the clinic’s suit seeking disclosure of records documenting toxic conditions at the K2 Air Base in Uzbekistan.

Mike Wishnie

Episode 2: Monica Bell

Professor Monica Bell discusses her work at the intersection of law and sociology including her work on legal estrangement, which seeks to understand why people and groups feel excluded in relationships to governmental institutions, including the police.

Monica Bell

Episode 3: James Forman Jr.

Professor James Forman Jr. discusses his criminal justice work, including his Pulitzer-Prize winning book Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America. He also describes the Law School Access Program, an innovative pipeline program for people from the New Haven area who are underrepresented in the law.

James Forman Jr.

Closeup of Amy Kapczynski in her office with a bookshelf in the background

Episode 4: Amy Kapczynski

Professor Amy Kapczynski discusses her work on global health and justice issues and explains how intellectual property law can improve access to lifesaving AIDS drugs. She also shares lessons learned from the Covid pandemic and her love of teaching.

Amy Kapczynski

Guido Calabresi smiles with a soft focus office background

Episode 5: Guido Calabresi

For Yale Law School’s bicentennial in 2024, Sterling Professor of Law Guido Calabresi reflects on his tenure as Dean from 1985 to 1994. He discusses his work to restore the law school building to its former glory and start the law school’s first loan forgiveness program.

Guido Calabresi

Episode 6: Robert Post

For Yale Law School’s bicentennial in 2024, Sterling Professor of Law Robert Post reflects on his tenure as Dean from 2009 to 2017. He also discusses his 35-year quest to write the definitive history of the Supreme Court under Chief Justice William Howard Taft.

Robert Post

Harold Koh stands smiling in front of a blackboard with his shirtsleeves rolled up

Episode 7: Harold Hongju Koh

Sterling Professor of International Law Harold Hongju Koh’s family history is deeply intertwined with Yale Law School. For our bicentennial in 2024, Koh shares his family’s story and reflects on his tenure as Dean from 2004 to 2009, including his work to make Yale a global law school.

Harold Hongju Koh

Transcripts

Transcripts from each episode of Inside Yale Law School are available for download.

Download

Season 1

Trailer

Dean Heather K. Gerken hosts the new Inside Yale Law School podcast, an in-depth look at the vibrant work of Yale Law School and its trailblazing faculty.

Episode 1: Tracey L. Meares

Professor Tracey Meares on police reform, why she chose law, and putting theory into practice at Yale Law School’s Justice Collaboratory, President Obama’s Policing Task Force, and more.

Episode 2: Bill Eskridge

Professor Bill Eskridge on his role in the fight for marriage equality and how that battle shaped the country, the field of statutory interpretation, and his own life.

Episode 3: Miriam Gohara

Clinical Professor of Law Miriam Gohara discusses the Challenging Mass Incarceration Clinic’s innovative approach to sentencing advocacy, and how one clinic can change a whole system.

Episode 4: Daniel Markovits

Professor Daniel Markovits reflects on his work on meritocracy in higher education and previews his next book project.

Episode 5: Anne Alstott

Professor Anne Alstott discusses her groundbreaking interdisciplinary work with the Yale School of Medicine and Yale Child Study Center and makes the case for why anyone who cares about fighting inequality should care about tax law.

Episode 6: Justin Driver

Professor Justin Driver on his path to education law, how teaching influences his scholarship, and what’s at stake in studying constitutional law across different domains.

Episode 7: John Fabian Witt

Professor John Witt on reanimating the modern Torts curriculum, collaborating with students, and writing legal history from the baseball field.

Episode 8: Doug NeJaime

Professor Doug NeJaime discusses the landscape of parentage laws across the country, his work with YLS students to pass the Connecticut Parentage Act, and what it takes to pass laws that better reflect what makes a family.

Episode 9: Oona Hathaway

Professor Oona Hathaway discusses her work on Ukraine, what’s at stake in efforts to make international law more transparent, and the joy of co-authoring articles with students.

Episode Transcripts

Transcripts from each episode of Inside Yale Law School are available for download.