UCI Law professor, insanely busy blogger, and very present on all media platforms, Rick Hasen – returns our to talk about Voting Rights and 2016 electoral outcomes on state and national levels. Eyes on Wisconsin, North Carolina, and the shape of your Congressional district. Among his many relevant reads are, published by Yale University Press, are: “Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections, ” and “The Voting Wars; from Florida to the Next Election Meltdown.” Follow Rick Hasen at: https://electionlawblog.org/ or @rickhasen on twitter.

If those trends keep you up at night, our next guest Dr. Ruth Benca, Professor and Chair of UCI’s Dept. of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, (minute 28) offers important insights about sleep hygiene. Along the way, she presents some very cool aspects about the sleeping brain that you probably have not considered. Psst, all critters sleep! Details: 2/7 7:30 pm at the Barclay Theater at UCI; 949-842-5193, memory@uci.edu; presented by the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory. No tickets or reservations are necessary.

Claire Trevor School of the Arts Drama Chair and Director Gary Busby, and UCI Social Ecology social psychologist Peter Ditto, discuss the drama staged during the Trump transition; considering the optics and audio with educated eyes and ears. It’s the last show before the nation enters into unchartered territory.

UCI criminologist Charis Kubrin and PhD candidate Adam Dunbar present their definitive findings about rap music on trial. They take us to the intersection of art, race, and the law.

In the second segment (minute 34), UCI political science professor Davin Phoenix returns to look at where identity politics has taken us at the moment, in this place on campus and beyond.

We start the new year with an agenda item for your consideration, devoting the whole program to a pair of attorneys with a special niche in estate law. Laura Meier and Marci Miller take up the importance of parents’ planning their wills and trusts with their young offspring in mind, including children with special needs. We include in the discussion, Laura Meier’s book, “Good parents worry, Great parents plan; The Guide to Protecting Your Child with a Will and Trust.” Parties interested in booking them for a special presentation about their field may reach them at: www.meierevents.com, lmeier@meierfirm.com, 949-718-8420; www.milleradvocacy.com; marci@milleradvocacy.com (949) 402-8266. Also, available financial resources include: U.S. Depart of Education Website – Students w/ Disabilities Preparing for Postsecondary Education; LD Online – The Educators Guide to Learning Disabilities and ADHD; The K & W Guide to College Programs and Services for Students with Learning Disabilities.