Talking Policy

The global landscape has changed drastically since the development of the first nuclear weapons—from the rise of new great powers, to the rapid innovation and expansion of new technologies. On this episode of Talking Policy, host Lindsay Shingler is joined by Thom Mason, the director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Together, they discuss the shifting world order, the future of nuclear deter...

On February 5, 2026, New START, the last remaining bilateral strategic nuclear arms control agreement between the United States and Russia, officially expired, ending decades of cooperation between the two countries that aimed to make the world safer. On this episode of Talking Policy, host Lindsay Shingler sits down with Mike Albertson, a former federal employee who had a seat at the table during...

Since 1945, nearly a quarter of civil wars have ended in victory for rebel groups. The stories of how these groups function and fare after their succession of power, however, are complex and varied. In this episode of Talking Policy, host Lindsay Shingler sits down with political scientist Kai Thaler of UC Santa Barbara to discuss his new book, When Rebels Win: Ideology, Statebuilding, and Power A...

In January 2025, Talking Policy convened a group of five experts to consider what Donald Trump’s return to power in the United States might mean for America and for the world. In this episode, Talking Policy host Lindsay Shingler sits down for five more conversations to make sense of America’s evolving approach under the Trump administration to the global economy, China, security, the environment,...

The United States, like few other advanced democracies, has a deeply entrenched two-party system. In recent years, as the two parties have drifted further and further apart, gridlock has intensified in Washington, with the divide punctuated by the most recent federal government shutdown. In this episode of Talking Policy, host Lindsay Shingler is joined by Georgia Kernell, an associate professor a...

Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has maintained sole superpower status by underwriting the international security order. But in recent years, the United States has begun to question whether the costs of providing international security outweigh the benefits it receives. At the same time, China has unveiled its own global security initiatives, possibly stepping in to fill in the gap...

Misinformation is impacting society at all levels, from politics to health. But what makes us believe untrue things? And why is misinformation on the rise today? In this episode of Talking Policy, host Lindsay Shingler is joined by Cailin O'Connor , a Chancellor’s Professor in the Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science at UC Irvine, and author of The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Sp...

The U.S. National Laboratory system, an extension of the federal Department of Energy, has been directly involved in some of the most important science and technology breakthroughs of the modern era. Every day, their experts are directly involved in the research needed to sustain U.S. economic growth and keep the nation’s scientific enterprise ahead of its adversaries. In this fourth and final epi...

Waves of economic growth are often fueled by the development and diffusion of new general-purpose technologies. But other factors—industrial and corporate organization, legal frameworks, and, of course, geopolitics—can determine whether countries take full advantage of growth waves. At the same time, growth waves often reshape these factors, including the relative power of countries. In the third...

Should we engage in politics even if it makes us despair? Can we fully participate in democracy if reading the news is depressing? In the latest on Talking Policy, host Lindsay Shingler sits down with political scientist Christopher Ojeda of UC Merced to discuss his new book, The Sad Citizen: How Politics Is Depressing and Why It Matters . Together, they explore why politics has such a big impact...

On April 22, a terror attack in disputed Kashmir ignited the most serious fighting between India and Pakistan in more than 50 years, raising serious concerns over the potential for escalation between the two nuclear-armed rivals. Despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire announced on May 10, the situation remains tense, as domestic political pressures and a changing regional landscape contribute to growin...

The world needs energy—and lots of it—to raise living standards and unlock economic growth. Clean technologies, which can provide power with minimal contribution to climate change, are taking hold around the world, and the United States, China, and the European Union are vying for global leadership in deploying them at scale. But economic and political changes have introduced uncertainty about the...

Tensions between the United States and China are intensifying, with a trade war being the latest sign of friction following President Trump’s imposition of tariffs, which were themselves followed by Chinese retaliatory levies and export restrictions. But Trump’s tariffs have hit America’s partners as well as its adversaries, and they come alongside an historic retreat from global leadership, as th...

American technological advances have fueled economic growth and created life-saving technologies—and the U.S. government has been a key catalyst of these giant success stories. But its role is under-appreciated and changing, with potential implications for the future of American leadership in science, technology, and innovation. In the first episode of Talking Policy’s new miniseries on  Tech...

Wars are horrible and costly. They devastate economies and communities, upending lives and leaving trauma and destruction in their wake. So why do we fight them? On this episode of Talking Policy, UC San Diego distinguished professor and IGCC senior fellow David Lake shares a new theory about war that views them as less about “winning” and more as evidence of failure—an event in which everyone los...

On February 24, 2022, the Russian army invaded Ukraine in what would become the largest attack on a European country since World War II. Last year, IGCC assembled a roundtable of experts led by guest host Jesse Driscoll, an associate professor of political science at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy, for a conversation to mark the second anniversary of the invasion. One year o...

The inauguration of Donald Trump caps off an extraordinary political comeback. Trump’s brand of anti-establishment populism, once thought an anomaly, is now at the apex of U.S.—and indeed global—politics. As the “Make America Great Again” movement seeks to rewrite the political rulebook, Talking Policy host Lindsay Shingler speaks with five University of California experts to unpack what this poli...

Over a span of thirty years, climate and the environment went from a nuisance to become a top-tier priority for U.S. military leaders. Sherri Goodman , a senior fellow at the Wilson Center, details the keys to this military environmental awakening in her new book, Threat Multiplier: Climate, Military Leadership and the Fight for Global Security . In this episode, Sherri sits down with Talking Poli...

With several major wars threatening to spill over into wider regional conflicts, and a U.S. presidential election looming, the question of what power an American president has to wage war has become more pressing. In a new episode of Talking Policy, host Lindsay Shingler sits down with Patrick Hulme, an IGCC affiliate and Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at Stanford University, to take a deeper loo...

A new, dangerous nuclear era is upon us. China is rapidly expanding its arsenal; Russia is threatening to use its nukes in Ukraine; and North Korea is undertaking provocative tests of its delivery systems. Is a nuclear arms race at hand? In this special episode of Talking Policy, host Lindsay Shingler is joined by three experts who have devoted much of their careers to nuclear weapons security. Al...

Widespread disinformation, the outsized influence of wealth, anti-immigrant biases stoked by those vying for power, and the allure of so-called “strong” leaders have coalesced in an era of U.S. politics where the core of our democracy feels under threat. Does history agree that democracy is at risk now more than ever? And if so, how can we move forward with hope in our institutions and a belief th...

Why are voters in democracies around the world being wooed by aspiring autocrats? What do these types of leaders promise, and do they actually deliver? In the fourth episode of our podcast miniseries, Democracy and Its Discontents, host Lindsay Shingler is joined by Stephan Haggard to analyze the track record of “strong states” that have elected populist leaders. Stephan is a research professor at...

Anti-immigrant rhetoric has proved to be an effective tool for some political voices to translate cultural and economic anxieties into votes in their bid for power. As a result, partisan division is at an all-time high, and political leaders continue to stoke the flames of prejudice. In the third episode of our podcast miniseries Democracy and Its Discontents , host Lindsay Shingler is joined by Z...

Democracy is supposed to be by and for the people, but limitless, unregulated money flowing into politics weakens the voice of the majority and gives outsized influence to elites who can distort the democratic process in their favor. What is the point of the rule of law, when it’s essentially for sale? In the second episode of our democracy miniseries, host Lindsay Shingler is joined by UCLA profe...

Democracy is built on trust—and accountability. Citizens need information to hold those in power to account. But disinformation is eroding our trust in institutions, in experts, and even in our fellow citizens. In the first episode of Talking Policy’s new miniseries, Democracy and Its Discontents , host Lindsay Shingler talks with Simone Chambers, a professor of political science at UC Irvine, abo...