
StocktonAfterClass
Ron Stockton was a professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn for 48 years. His specialty was non-western politics and political change. He taught classes on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Religion and Politics, the Politics of Revolution, Non-Western politics, and American politics. He also taught in the Honors Program, focusing upon foundational readings from the 18th and 19th centuries. He has an interest in religion and politics and in the role of religio-ethnic groups in the political system. The listener can anticipate talks on Arab-Americans, Jews, African-Americans, the Scots-Irish, and Evangelicals. He has lectured and written on American politics, public opinion, and voting behavior and on the role of religious organizations and ideologies in the political system. There will be occasional discussions of books and films that address serious issues. And he has lectured and published and even taught a class on gravestones, especially those of different ethnic and religious groups such as Muslims, African-Americans, Jews, and Native Americans. The goal of the podcast series is to provide analysis and commentary by a political scientist to explain and make accessible political, historical, and cultural developments in the United States and around the world, and to give the listener analytical tools to understand those developments. It is also to entertain the listener.
Episodes
212 episodes
Visit to Palestine During a Time of War and Genocide, One Year Anniversary. Reposting.
In June of 2024 I spent eight days in occupied Palestine, i.e., the West Bank. It is now a year later and I thought this report might deserve a reposting. I went with a group of people who had religious connections.&nbs...
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36:50

Famous People I Met Along the Way
This is the last lecture I delivered in my academic career. I discovered that I had miscalculated the end of the semester and that I had an extra class. I did have a regular academic topic but my wife said, "You are a senior profess...
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1:16:00

The Logic of a Moral Assassin. Why I Killed Gandhi. Relevant to the Killing of Two Israeli Embassy employees.
Why I Killed Gandhi by Nathuram Godse Two employees of the Israeli Embassy in D. C. were shot to death this week (May, 2025) . The Manifesto of the shooter shows him to be very distressed by the mass death in Gaza...
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25:44

The Election of Pope Leo XIV, An American Pope.
I was amazed at how much information is available on the internet about this election. Of course, biographical information is public, but the cardinals swear an oath of secrecy before they go into the conclave. And yet somehow infor...
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22:06

Everything You Wanted To Know About the Catholic Church (But Were Afraid to Ask). Reposting
This was an orientation lecture in my course on Religion and Politics in 2020. It does have a few of those classroom comments ("don't forget to turn in your papers" sort of things), but otherwise it has quite a bit of information about sometime...
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1:00:39

Pope Leo XIII. Rerum Novarum (an inspiration for Pope Leo XIV). A Reposting
Are you interested in why the new pope took the name of an old pope? Is he sending us a message? Leo XIII was a modernizing pope whose most famous encyclical (1891) was called Rerum Novarum (New Things). This is a class...
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1:11:17

I Am Running for Pope. (Seriously. Don't Laugh)
Back in 2013, when Pope Benedict stepped down, I was concerned for the future of the Church and threw my hat into the ring. I am not sure how many votes I got but the vigorous insistence of the Vatican that they had never heard of me conv...
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9:53

Interview with Adel Bsesio regarding his family archive of property held in southern Palestine, confiscated by the Israelis in 1948.
This is interview three on this remarkable project. The frist interview was with Amine Zreikh who made me familiar with this historical cache of documents -- deeds, maps, contracts, etc. Adel Bsesio is the posessor of his family arc...
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52:18

Glitch: This is a duplicate of the interview with Adel Bsesio. Sorry for that. Please listen to the other Bsesio interview. It focuses upon the archive.
This is a duplicate n interview with Adel Bsesio regarding the Bsesio family deeds and documents, now an archive. This family had extensive holdings in southern Palestine that were confiscated by the Israelis in 1948. They ar...
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52:18

A Unique Story of Palestinian Land in 1948. Original interview with Amine Zreikh
My former student, Amine Zreikh, contacted me about an archive of deeds from pre-1948 Palestine, and the effort to create a site where those could be stored. I conducted three interviews on this project. One with Zreikh and two are ...
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24:47

Pope urges American Bishops to pursue Christian policies towards immigrants, not Trump policies.
Just after being released from the hospital, where he nearly died, the Pope issues a pastoral letter to the American Bishops. He urged them to focus upon Christian principles, and to support immigrants as they face the actions of the Trum...
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16:50

Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing, 1983
There is a new book on the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983. 241 people were killed as they slept. It was the greatest single-day death toll for the Marines since Iwo Jima. The decision to put these Marines in ...
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13:32

"Defeated and Overrun" The Israeli Military (IDF) Report on the Hamas Attack of October 7
This is an IDF assessment of what happened on October 7, 2023, what went wrong, and why. It is a military report, not a political assessment, but it is very interesting.
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21:25

Ukraine War (Reflections at the Start) A Reposting
My colleagues and I held a Faculty Forum when the Ukraine War started. It was done soon after Russia grabbed some provinces and the Crimean peninsula in 2014. This is my contribution. I listened to it when the current wa...
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25:11

Should America Annex Gaza? President Trump's serious proposal
President Trump has proposed annexing Gaza, clearing it of Palestinians, and turning it into a resort area. He seems to be deadly serious. This is a discussion of what would be involved in such a development.
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24:19

Darn it, Kamala. I told you there was an iceberg just ahead. I even told you how to avoid it. Why the heck did you not listen to me?
After struggling for three months to try to figure out why Kamala lost to Trump, I finally figured it out. Is this explanation too simple, or is it exactly on target? If you are willing to devote 20 some minutes of you life, you can...
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22:16

Classified Documents Taken By Trump. Case dropped by Trump Administration. Reposting.
The Mara-Lago Classified Documents Case seemed to me to be the strongest of all the cases against Trump. Those were highly sensitive documents. Some were so sensitive that even their classifications were classified. As a priva...
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43:14

Anti-Semite? Bigot? Enemy of Israel? Reactions to Jimmy Carter's book, Palestine: Peace or Apartheid.
When Jimmy Carter published this book in 2006 he was subjected to a barrage of vilification. As we look back on this book today, we might well ask ourselves, "What was the problem?" In fact, as we looked at the book when it was publ...
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26:27

RIP Jimmy Carter. Citizen, Patriot, Peacemaker, Visionary, Christian.
Jane and I were on our way from Mobile (where her family had originated) to Andersonville, the terrible Confederate prison camp where both of us had lost relatives. She realized that we would be very close to Plains. Not only ...
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24:41

Thoughts on Syria (December 27, 2024)
I have visited Syria several times, running or participating in academic programs. These are my reflections. I noticed a couple of glitches along the way, but nothing that will not be obvious to you. (If the Israelis w...
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44:28

Adam and Eve (And the Snake). A Creative Re-Telling (just for fun).
Back in 2009 Jonathan Goldstein wrote an entertaining book entitled "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Bible!" For those looking for orthodox teaching, it might veer a bit off base. But for those looking for 15 minutes of entertainment, may...
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17:03

Temporary Protected Status. How to Stay in America (at Least for a while) When Your Home Country Falls Apart.
This is a different type of podcast. It is not me explaining someting to you. It is my former student, now an immigration attorney, explaining something to me. Shahad Atiya has practiced law for several years. She...
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47:26

Shall We Zoom? An Invitation for Sunday December 8 at 2:00 Eastern Standard Time
Well, I'm feeling good about StocktonAfterClass. We just passed 60,000 downloads. That is not many compared with media Superstars but to me it is an impressive number. And you are from over 130 different countries. <...
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5:26

Arrest Netanyahu? For Real? Here is a Summary of the Charges Submitted to the International Criminal Court, complete with Evidence and Points of Law. Reposting in Case You Missed It First Time Around.
In late November, 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his Defense minister Gallant. Also for one of the remaining Hamas leaders the Israelis had not assassinated. This is diff...
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29:12

Lincoln was Far More Discouraged Than You have Ever Been. He Thought God had Turned on America and had Brought its Affliction as Punishment. Stop blaming someone else, God said. Look in the Mirror, God Said. The Second Inaugural Address.
I can hardly read this address without getting emotional. Lincoln believed God was stretching out America's affliction because we as a nation had allowed grievous injustice in our land. Our punishment was a protracted Civil War that took ...
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1:02:00
