Human Centered

Urban settings are the grounds upon which immigration stress-tests the strength of democratic values, institutions, and practices. In this audio version of a live event hosted by CASBS on May 6, 2026, CASBS board member and Stanford sociologist Tomás Jiménez, Oxford economist and 2025-26 CASBS fellow Ian Goldin, and Welcoming America executive director Rachel Perić discuss what we can learn from the experience of immigrant cities, especially those that intentionally decide to enable newcomers and long-time residents to flourish together. Hosted in partnership with Stanford's Institute for Advancing Just Societies.

Watch the event video and read an article about the event: https://casbs.stanford.edu/news/immigrant-cities-and-democracys-future

View a photo gallery from the event: https://casbs.stanford.edu/photo-gallery-what-can-immigrant-cities-teach-us-about-democracy

View the promotional flyer for this event: https://mailchi.mp/df7b0f4c4589/casbs-event-immigrant-cities-democracy?e=c2d0812d02

Learn more about:

event moderator Tomás Jiménez: https://sociology.stanford.edu/people/tomas-r-jimenez

panelist Ian Goldin: https://iangoldin.org/

panelist Rachel Perić: https://welcomingamerica.org/bio/rachel-peric/

The Institute for Advancing Just Societies: https://justsocieties.stanford.edu/

the Robert A. Scott Lecture: https://casbs.stanford.edu/news/new-lectureship-fund-honors-bob-scott

Bob Scott was featured on the Human Centered podcast in December 2022 (ep. 57), "Bob Scott is Trending": https://human-centered.simplecast.com/episodes/robertscott

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |

Matthew O. Jackson is perhaps the world’s most renowned scholar of the economics of networks; as a 2005-06 CASBS fellow, he wrote most of his still-influential book Social and Economic Networks. In this wide-ranging conversation with 2025-26 CASBS fellow Rajiv Sethi, Jackson discusses his foundational work on strategic modeling of networks, empirical applications on the role of economic connectedness in influencing people’s life trajectories in the U.S., related multi-disciplinary and cross-national work he is undertaking at the Santa Fe Institute, and recent cutting-edge work using large language models to gain insights into human motivations and behaviors.

Matthew O. Jackson: Stanford faculty page | Personal website | CASBS page | Wikipedia page | Google Scholar page | National Academy of Sciences bio | Stanford profile | SFI page | NBER working papers | Jackson CV |

Rajiv Sethi: Barnard faculty page | Columbia page | CASBS page | Google Scholar page | SFI page | Rajiv's Substack newsletter, Imperfect Information | 

Matt Jackson works referenced in this episode:

Matthew Jackson and Asher Wolinsky, "A Strategic Model of Social and Economic Networks," Journal of Economic Theory (1996)

Matthew Jackson and Alison Watts, "The Evolution of Social and Economic Networks," Journal of Economic Theory (2002)

Raj Chetty, Matthew Jackson, et al., "Social Capital I: Measurement and Associations with Economic Mobiliity," Nature (2022)

Raj Chetty, Matthew Jackson, et al., "Social Capital II: Determinants of Economic Connectedness," Nature (2022)

Chetty, Jackson, et al., Opportunity Insights Social Capital Atlas (website)

Dynamics of Wealth Inequality project (Santa Fe Institute)

Matthew Jackson, Social and Economic Networks, Princeton University Press (2008)

Matthew Jackson, The Human Network, Penguin Random House (2020)

Mei, Yuan, and Jackson, "A Turing Test of Whether AI Chatbots are Behaviorally Similar to Humans," PNAS (2024)

Xie, Mei, Yuan, and Jackson, "Using Large Language Models to Categorize Strategic Situations and Decipher Motivations Behind Human Behaviors," PNAS (2025)

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Rajiv Sethi's latest op-ed is "Polymarket Anonymity Must End," Financial Times (May 7, 2026)

Subscribe to Rajiv's Substack newsletter, Imperfect Information

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |

Human interactions occur in a variety of contexts. When interactions are marked by conflict, misunderstanding, bias, or aggression, 2024-25 CASBS fellow Katy DeCelles illuminates the micro-sociological and social-psychological dynamics that contribute to the sub-optimal interaction outcomes, enabling the formulation of corrective solutions and better organizational design. DeCelles discusses a sampling of her innovative work in conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist John Markoff (CASBS fellow, 2017-18).

Katherine (Katy) DeCelles: Univ. of Toronto faculty page | Google Scholar page | Poets & Quants profile | 

DeCelles work discussed & relevant resources:

"Scale Dichotomization Reduces Customer Racial Discrimination and Income Inequality," Nature 639, 19 February 2025

"Racial Bias Eliminated When Ratings Switch from Five Stars to Thumbs Up or Down," Nature, 19 February 2025

"How Gig Platforms Can Mitigate Racial Bias in Ratings," Harvard Business Review, 14 March 2025

"Different or Impartial? Actor-Observer Asymmetries in Expressing and Evaluating Sociopolitical Neutrality," Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 154(11), 2025

"Understanding the Dynamics of Workplace Violence Can Improve Employee Health and Safety," Rotman School of Management, Univ. of Toronto, 2022

John Markoff: website |

John's latest book is Whole Earth: The Many Lives of Stewart Brand (Penguin Random House, 2022). His next book (forthcoming, 2027), will be published by MIT Press.

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |

In his first visit since to CASBS since his 1996-97 fellowship, UC Berkeley economist David Card lifts the veil behind the innovative empirical work on the labor market effects of immigration, minimum wages, and education that earned him the Nobel Prize in 2021. In conversation with 2024-25 CASBS fellow Dylan Connor, Card also explores issues and questions involving the relationships among geography, social and labor mobility, and wealth inequalities.

DAVID CARD: UC Berkeley page | Berkeley economics page | Wikipedia page | Nobel Prize page | Google Scholar page | Berkeley Nobel Prize article | 

DYLAN CONNOR: ASU page | Google Scholar page | 

Work emerging from David Card's CASBS year

"Immigrant Inflows, Native Outflows, and the Local Labor Market Impacts of Higher Immigration," Journal of Labor Economics (2001)
"Would Financial Incentives for Leaving Welfare Lead Some People to Stay on Welfare Longer?" NBER Working Paper (1997)
"Adapting to Circumstances: The Evolution of Work, School, and Living Arrangements among North American Youth," in Youth Employment and Joblessness in Advanced Countries (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000)
"School Finance Reform, the Distribution of School Spending, and the Distribution of Student Test Scores," Journal of Public Economics (2002)
"The More Things Change: Immigrants and the Children of Immigrants in the 1940s, the 1970s, and the 1990s," in Issues in the Economics of Immigration (Univ. of Chicago Press, 2000)

Other CASBS fellows mentioned in this episode

Orley Ashenfelter (1989-90)

Alan B. Krueger (1999-2000)

Roberto M. Fernandez (1996-97)

Robert D. Putnam (1974-75, 1988-89)

Min Zhou (2005-06)

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |

Philosophers Michael Brownstein (CASBS fellow 2019-20) and Dan Kelly (2018-19), two of the coauthors of "Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Create Social Change," discuss their book's framing and key concepts with Damon Centola (2014-15), an expert in social network dynamics. The book offers a pragmatic guide for connecting individuals to their role as change agents, illuminating the social feedback processes through which structures, individuals, and social movements interact, unlocking the potential for systemic change.
The book is Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change (MIT Press, 2025)

Explore the book's website, containing related research, media, more about the authors, and an appendix that provides "A Deeper Dive into Individuals, Structures, and Other Key Concepts"
Michael Brownstein: CUNY Graduate Center webpage | personal webpage | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |
Dan Kelly: Purdue Univ. webpage | personal webpage | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |
Damon Centola: Penn webpage | Network Dynamics Group webpage | Wikipedia page | Google Scholar page | CASBS page |

Other works referenced in this episode:

Alex Madva, Daniel Kelly, Michael Brownstein, "Change the People or Change the Policy? On the Moral Education of Antiracists," Ethical Theory and Moral Practice (2023)
Michael Brownstein, Daniel Kelly, Alex Madva, "Individualism, Structuralism, and Climate Change," Environmental Communication (2021)
C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite (1956) (Wikipedia)

James S. Coleman, Equality of Educational Opportunity (1966), known as The Coleman Report (Wikipedia)

Pierre Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (1979 [1984]) (Wikipedia)

Other 2018-19 CASBS fellows who Dan Kelly mentions in this episode: Christopher Bryan, Jennifer Freyd, Ying-hi Hong, Elizabeth Lonsdorf, Ruth Milkman

 

Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University
Explore CASBS: website | Bluesky | X | YouTube |LinkedIn | podcast |latest newsletter | signup | outreach​
Human Centered
Producer: Mike Gaetani | Audio engineer & co-producer: Joe Monzel |