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PODCAST

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy

The Watson School

An award-winning show exploring today"s biggest global challenges with the world"s leading experts, from the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

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All Episodes

50:26

Shutdown politics, gerrymandering, and the role of...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/12/11

When President Trump took office in January, Congress seemed poised to play a supporting role in the story of Trump’s second term. Republicans largely fell in line to support President Trump’s cabinet nominees and much of his broader agenda; it’s been reported that Trump himself has joked that he’s both the President and Speaker of the House.Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, appeared helpless to mount a vigorous opposition to Trump’s policies, or even to energize their own base.But this fall,

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42:45

Challenging the U.S. foreign policy consensus on Taiwan

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/11/20

In October, President Trump and President Xi Jinping met for the first time in Trump’s new presidential term. The meeting ended with commitments from both countries designed to lower trade tensions —– something many observers greeted with relief.But, according to Watson Senior Fellow and Director of the Watson School’s China Initiative Lyle Goldstein, perhaps more noticeable was what was left out of this meeting; almost all of the pressing security issues that exist between the two countries,

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47:51

The future of the green transition and the climate...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/11/06

In August 2022 — just over three years ago — the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law. It represented the largest federal investment in renewable energy and climate action in U.S. history. The bill was a historic victory for the climate movement — and, as it turns out, its high-water mark in the United States for the foreseeable future.Since returning to office, President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, rolled back numerous environmental and climate regulations,

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47:42

Inequality and democracy in India, the US, and beyond

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/10/22

In 2014, Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister, marking the beginning of what many experts and international watchgroups identify as a period of democratic erosion in the country.Since then, a number of other democracies around the world have followed India on this path — including, by many measures, the United States.On this episode, Dan Richards talks with two experts on Indian politics and society about Modi’s rise in India: its causes and effects, how it compares to other instances of

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39:15

Small Barriers, Big Impact: Rethinking International...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/10/01

Bryce Steinberg is a development economist, which means she studies how lower-income countries grow into more prosperous ones.More specifically, she studies how to help people in low-income countries build their “human capital” — a phrase social scientists use to describe things like getting more formal education, more professional training, or improving your health.As she tells Dan Richards on this episode of Trending Globally, part of the answer is well-understood.“We have to build the schools, we

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39:20

‘Illicit global economics 101’ with Peter Andreas

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/09/17

Watson School political scientist Peter Andreas has spent decades studying the global economy — but not the one you read about in the business section, or are taught in Econ 101.His focus is on the illicit global economy.He’s written about everything from piracy in colonial America to the smuggling of technology during the Industrial Revolution, to clandestine migration and illegal drug trafficking today.His newest book, “The Illicit Global Economy: Everything You Need to Know,” is both a concise

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47:48

Diplomacy, security, and the “Art of Coercion”

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/08/27

In his new book “The Art of Coercion,” Watson political scientist Reid Pauly provides a seemingly straightforward definition of coercion: “The practice of convincing a target by the use of threats, to bend to your will.”However, the simplicity of the definition belies the difficulty of doing it effectively – especially in the world of international security and relations. As Pauly explains to Dan Richards on this episode of “Trending Globally”:“The history of coercive bargaining, coercive diplomacy

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35:47

The role of universities in a democratic society...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/08/06

What’s the role of a university in a democratic society? What responsibility do universities have to foster the public good, and what responsibilities does the public have to support centers of education and research?These have become some of the most fraught and pressing questions in our current moment. But of course, they’re also timeless questions — ones that are as old as the United States itself.In May, Watson political economist Mark Blyth explored these questions with literary scholar Kevin

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38:30

What does the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ mean for America?

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/07/23

On July 4th, President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law. The bill cuts trillions of dollars in taxes, and allocates hundreds of billions in new spending. To offset all of this, it calls for over a trillion dollars in cuts to a range of domestic programs.On this episode, Dan Richards spoke with two experts from the Watson School about the bill: How it will shape American society, what its passage says about the Republican Party, and the role it might play in the 2026 midterms

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33:24

USAID is gone. What's the future of international aid?

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/07/09

On July 1st, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officially closed its operations. It was the culmination of a months-long effort by the Trump administration to dismantle the agency, which had been in charge of administering U.S. foreign aid for over half a century.Why did President Trump make the dissolution of USAID a priority? And what will it mean for the people and places around the world that have relied on foreign aid from the U.S.?To answer these questions, Dan

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26:14

Inflation’s winners and losers, with Mark Blyth

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/06/25

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Mark Blyth about his new book, co-written with Nicoló Fraccaroli, called “Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers.”Mark and Dan discuss the competing theories for what causes inflation, the merits of each, and how they explain (or fail to explain) the inflation we saw post-pandemic. They also explore why inflation harms some parts of society more than others, and how to make sure that, the next time inflation rears its head, we fight it in a way that’s more

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35:09

How American firearms fuel violence in Mexico...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/06/11

Mexico, like the United States, has a gun violence problem. It has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and most of those murders come from firearms. In 2019, for example, almost 70% of the country's 35,000 murders involved firearms.But unlike the U.S., Mexico doesn’t have tens of thousands of licensed firearms dealers.It has two.So how do so many guns make their way into Mexico? And how do these guns shape Mexican society?These are two of the questions Ieva Jusionyte explores in her new

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38:12

Press freedom and democracy in Africa and around the...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/05/21

The World Press Freedom Index, which is issued by Reporters without Borders, measures the health of press freedom around the world. They do so along a number of axes, including the economic health of independent media, legal protections for the press and the physical security of journalists. In 2025, the global score on the index was the lowest it’s ever been.On this episode, Dan Richards talks with three journalists and media thinkers who work in a part of the world where press freedom is, at

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34:50

Trump’s (second) “first 100 days”

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/04/30

Tuesday, April 29, marked the first 100 days of Trump’s second term.To help make sense of all that’s happened (and a lot has happened), Dan Richards spoke with political scientist and Interim Director of the Watson Institute, Wendy Schiller.They discussed how Trump’s approach to governing has changed since his first term, and how the country, so far, has reacted to those changes. They also explore what’s been missing from mainstream coverage of this moment in U.S. politics, and the evolving

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32:05

Why America can’t build things like it used to

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/04/16

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Marc Dunkelman, Watson Institute fellow in International and Public Affairs and author of the new book “Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back.” In the book, Dunkelman explores how American progressives transformed from a movement dedicated to ambitious, effective, centralized government projects (think the New Deal or Medicaid) into a movement dedicated to limiting government power.As Marc explains, this wasn’t an intentional project

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27:33

AI and the future of human rights

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/04/02

In 2022, OpenAI, Inc. launched a free version of its software ChatGPT, ushering in a new phase in the widespread use of artificial intelligence. Since then, a constant stream of breakthroughs in AI tech by a handful of companies has made clear that artificial intelligence will reshape our planet more profoundly and more quickly than many of us imagined.Some of these promised changes are thrilling. Just as many, it seems, are terrifying.So, how should we think about the impact AI will have on us all,

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36:54

Is America’s “housing crisis” really a “mobility...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/03/19

In the 19th century, about one in three Americans moved every year. In the 1960s, that figure had shrunk to one in fiveIn 2023, it was one in 13.In other words, a smaller percentage of Americans are moving today than they have at any time in our history. As Yoni Appelbaum, historian and deputy executive editor at The Atlantic makes clear in his book, “Stuck: How the Privileged and the Propertied Broke the Engine of American Opportunity,” this change has played a devastating role in many of the most

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32:14

What Germany’s election means for Germany, the US,...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/03/05

On February 23, Germans went to the polls. While the establishment center-right CDU/CSU alliance won the largest share of votes, the results revealed a country experiencing profound political and social change. The far-right AfD party received an unprecedented 20% of the vote, while the incumbent center-left party, the SPD, suffered its worst loss in over 100 years.So, what does this election tell us about Europe’s largest economy? And as the Trump administration continues to upend U.S.-European

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32:00

The future of US-China relations under a new Trump...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/02/19

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Tyler Jost, a political scientist and assistant professor at the Watson Institute.Tyler is an expert on international security and Chinese foreign policy, and his new book “Bureaucracies at War: The Institutional Origins of Miscalculation,” explores how leaders (in China and beyond) make decisions about when and how to engage in military conflict. Are there open channels of communication between a country’s leaders and security advisors? Are there forums for

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33:26

Education, democracy and the remarkable life and work...

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy ·

2025/02/05

The Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol is a stately room just off the Great Rotunda, whose walls are lined with — you guessed it — statues. The statues celebrate notable figures from all 50 states.For most of its existence, there wasn’t a single statue of a Black American in this hall. But that changed in 2022 when a statue of Mary McCleod Bethune was delivered to the Hall from Florida.Bethune, who was born in 1875 and died in 1955, might not be the first name you would have guessed to break this

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