Taboo Trades

My guest today is Aziza Ahmed, a Professor of Law and N. Neal Pike Scholar at the Boston University School of Law. She is also a Co-Director of BU Law’s Program on Reproductive Justice. She joins me and UVA Law 3L, Nia Saunders, to discuss her new book Risk and Resistance: How Feminists Transformed the Law and Science of AIDS, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2025. 

Prior to teaching, Pr...

My guest today is the always interesting and funny Steve Clowney, a professor of law at the University of Arkansas. He has also worked as a legal consultant in Hawaii, a college admissions officer, and a gravedigger. His main areas of research include zoning regulations, monuments, the history of cities, handwritten wills, and the presence of violence in informal property systems. He joins us today to discuss a paper that I’ve long...

I’m thrilled today to welcome new friend, Albertina Antognini and old (by which I mean long-time) friend, Susan Appleton. Albertina Antognini is the James E. Rogers Professor of Law at the University of Arizona where she teaches Family Law, Property, Trusts & Estates, and a seminar surveying different legal regimes that shape the contemporary American family. Professor Antognini’s work examines the ways that legal rules activel...

My guest today is Courtney Cahill, a Chancellor's Professor of Law at UC Irvine School of Law. Professor Cahill is a scholar of constitutional law, anti-discrimination law, sex equality, and LGBTQ equality. Her work examines the role of disgust in lawmaking and the synergies between sex equality and LGBTQ equality. She joins us today to discuss her latest project, Busted: Policing Women on Top, forthcoming in 2026 from Oxford ...

My guest today is Jill Lens, who serves as the Dorothy M. Willie Professor in Excellence at the University of Iowa school of law. Professor Lens is a leading legal expert in reproductive justice and rights, with a particular focus on the legal treatment of stillbirth and pregnancy more generally. Her research is inspired by her son Caleb’s stillbirth in 2017, when she was 37 weeks pregnant. 

She joins us today to discuss her recent ...

I’m thrilled today to welcome the brilliant and creative Hajin Kim, an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. Hajin uses principles from social psychology and economics to study how moral and social influence can shape environmental regulation and firm behavior. She joins us today to discuss her new working paper, Does Paying to Pollute Make Pollution Seem Less Bad? UVA Law 3L, Cyrus Tafti, joins me as co-host on ...

My guest today is Brian Bix, the Frederick W. Thomas Professor of Law And Philosophy at the University of Minnesota School of Law. He teaches and writes in the areas of family law, contract law, and jurisprudence. He joins us today to discuss his 2023 book, Families by Agreement: Navigating Choice, Tradition, and Law, published by Cambridge University Press.

I really enjoyed this episode – it was both educational and entertaining. ...

I’m super excited to welcome today’s guest, Marc Edelman – a passionate and influential voice in debates over the rights of college athletes. Marc is a Professor of Law at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, City University of New York, where he writes and teaches on sports law, antitrust law, intellectual property law, and gaming / fantasy sports law. He also serves as the Faculty Athletics Representative for Baruch Co...

It’s the saddest time of year again, when I have to say goodbye to yet another fabulous group of UVA Law students who have put their trust in me (and in you, the audience) for a semester of the Taboo Trades podcast. I know I say this every year, but I mean it every year – it’s been a pleasure and an honor to work with this group. Thanks to all of you and to all of our guests this season. Never fear listeners, although Season 4 is o...

On today’s episode, Dorothy Roberts joins me and UVA Law 3Ls Darius Adel and Julia D'Rozario to discuss her work on race-based medicine and the child welfare system. Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology and the Raymond Pace and Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander Professor of Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law. Professor Roberts’ work focuses on urgent social jus...

On today’s episode, Bridget Crawford and Emily Waldman of Pace University School of Law join me and UVA Law 3Ls Kate Granruth and Jenna Smith. Bridget Crawford’s scholarship focuses on taxation and gender and the law. She teaches courses on Federal Income Taxation; Estate and Gift Taxation; and Wills, Trusts and Estates. Emily Waldman teaches courses on Constitutional Law, Law & Education, Employment Law, and Civil Procedure. T...

On today’s episode, the amazing James Stacey Taylor, a Professor of Philosophy at The College of New Jersey, joins me and UVA Law 3L Liam Bourque. Taylor has written over 100 academic articles and five books. He’s with us today to discuss excerpts from two of those books: Bloody Bioethics: Why Prohibiting Donor Compensation Harms Patients and Wrongs Donors, and Stakes & Kidneys: Why Markets in Human Body Parts Are Morally Imper...

In this episode, my great friend and colleague, Danielle Citron, joins me and UVA Law students Gabriele Josephs and Aamina Mariam to discuss her latest book, The Fight for Privacy: Protecting Dignity, Identity, and Love in the Digital Age (W.W. Norton, Penguin Vintage UK, 2022). Danielle Citron is the Jefferson Scholars Foundation Schenck Distinguished Professor in Law and Caddell and Chapman Professor of Law at UVA, where she writ...

In this episode, UVA Law students Mary Beth Bloomer and Anu Goel join me to talk to Kara W. Swanson, a Professor of Law and Affiliate Professor of History at Northeastern University and a visiting scholar at Princeton University’s Institute For Advanced Studies. Professor Swanson is an accomplished scholar, legal practitioner and scientist whose chief interests are in intellectual property law, gender and sexuality, the history of ...

On this episode, George Mason Law's Ilya Somin joins me and UVA Law students Joseph Camano ('24) and Dennis Ting ('24) to discuss the full implications of "My Body, My Choice." Somin argues that the principle has implications that go far beyond abortion (including paying kidney donors, and abolishing the draft and mandatory jury service) and that both liberals and conservatives are inconsistent in their app...

My guests this week are my UVA Law colleagues, Naomi Cahn and Julia Mahoney. We’re discussing their recent article in The Conversation, “Who Keeps The Wedding Ring After A Breakup?” We also discuss work by Margaret Brinig, Rebecca Tushnet, and Viviana Zelizer. Finally, we demonstrate that I utterly fail to understand engagement ring pricing. 

Naomi Cahn is the Justice Anthony M. Kennedy Distinguished Professor of Law at the Univers...

My guests today are Mark Fenster of the University of Florida Levin College of Law and Dave Hoffman of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School. We’re discussing Mark’s recent article, How Reputational Nondisclosure Agreements Fail (Or, In Praise of Breach), forthcoming in The Marquette Law Review.

 Mark Fenster is the Marshall M. Criser Eminent Scholar Chair in Electronic Communications and Administrative Law at the Levin Co...