Conversations

Fair Game: A Conversation With Billy Bean ’86

In July 2014, a year after prohibiting baseball players from harassing and discriminating against other players on the basis of sexual orientation, Major League Baseball named Billy Bean ’86 its ambassador for inclusion. Bean’s role is to fight prejudice with talk, meeting with players, coaches, general managers and owners to share his story of playing big league baseball while protecting a secret. We spoke with Bean about his work with MLB and his career. Bean was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch.

Kathleen Kim on Trafficking

People are being trafficked to the cities, towns, businesses and farms every day. Kathleen Kim, professor of law at Loyola Law School and an expert on immigration and human trafficking, discusses human trafficking in the United States. She was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch.

A Fish Tale

If Hollywood, freeways, the aerospace industry and water rights are lenses through which L.A. history can be viewed, then tuna is another. L.A.’s tuna story dates back more than 100 years and weaves together entrepreneurial vision, a global canning business, the relocation of East San Pedro’s Japanese American fishing community to internment camps, and today’s popularity of sushi. Andrew F. Smith was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch about his book “American Tuna: The Rise and Fall of an Improbable Food,” a history of the tuna industry.

A Conversation with Jason Baehr

Jason Baehr, associate professor of philosophy, received a grant of more than $1 million from the John Templeton Foundation to, first, study the importance of intellectual virtues and how they can be fostered in an education setting, and, second, implement an intellectual virtues curriculum that will be introduced in fall 2013 at a charter school in Long Beach, Calif. Baehr’s specialty is epistemology. He was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch

A Conversation with Gabriel Petek ’95

Gabriel Petek ’95 is a senior director in the State and Local Government Group of Standard & Poor’s Credit Market Services in San Francisco. He is S&P’s lead analyst on the state of California. Petek was a political science major at LMU, and he earned a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 1998. He was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch.

A Conversation With Myla Bui

Myla Bui, assistant professor of marketing, studies factors that influence consumers when making purchases. Her research in consumer decision-making is focused on consumer health and welfare issues. These issues include how factors such as health labels, product design, packaging and social environments influence consumer choices. She was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch.

Second to None: An Interview With Brian Helgeland M.F.A. ’87

Jackie Robinson, a native of Pasadena, Calif., transformed major League Baseball when he took his place in the infield of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He also changed U.S. society, by becoming the living symbol of desegregation and, in time, a tireless advocate for civil rights for African Americans. Robinson’s life was the subject of a major Hollywood film this spring — “42” — that was written and directed by Brian Helgeland. Just before the film was released, Helgeland was interviewed by Editor Joseph Wakelee-Lynch.