Harvard University

Oren Ganor, MD of Boston Children’s Hospital discusses the important challenges and considerations in providing safe and ethical resources to transgender individuals.

Our guest in this episode is Brian Hastings, Director of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. We discuss his NPLI Executive Education Program team project on combating opioid addiction which has become an enduring initiative as well as his transition from the military to leading a civilian agency. A graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Hastings served on active duty for 27 years, f...

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps 40 million low-income Americans afford food each month. But the program's future is uncertain as Congress debates the Farm Bill, a multi-year spending bill that will expire on September 30. The Trump administration has proposed significant changes—including cuts in funding—that could shape SNAP in the years ahead. In this week's episode we...

PhD graduate in Sociology Monica Bell’s interviews with poor youth of color in Baltimore led her to formulate the idea of “legal estrangement.” While the press focuses on a “trust gap” between black youth and the police, Monica believes that the issue is far deeper. Her interviews revealed a generation of young Americans who feel both stateless and powerless. Full Transcript: https://gsas.harvard....

In this episode, we take a look at the new joint degree program between the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Harvard Business School. Hear from Professor Thomas Eisenmann of the Harvard Business School and Professor Robert Howe and Dr. Beth Altringer of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences as they discuss how this new MS/M...

Every company has an impact on health—both positive and negative—whether they realize it or not. And in this episode we’re taking an in-depth look at the links between businesses and health. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health recently partnered with Harvard Business School to launch a new initiative called Culture of Health (COH): A Business Leadership Imperative. The goals: encourage busin...

Dr. Anne Thorndike of Massachusetts General Hospital, explains how choice architecture and improved food labeling can change our eating choices.

During World War II, many Greek people had to flee their homes and seek safety in the Middle East. Today, Syrian refugees flee violence in the Middle East, and wind up on the shores of Greece. Argyro Nicolaou, a PhD student in Comparative Literature, wants us to take a second look at the literature and art that displaced people produce, particularly in the Mediterranean. Can we find common ground...

Almost no outsiders have visited the internally displaced persons camps in Burma where over 140,000 Rohingya Muslims are forced to live. Cresa Pugh, a PhD student in sociology, was able to visit last year. She saw a community in turmoil – but many Burmese people deny that the Rohingya are being persecuted. Cresa asks why marginalized people like the Rohingya are often blamed for their own sufferin...

Halla Logadóttir, former director of the Iceland School of Energy at Reykjavík University and co-founder of the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative, speaks with Aroop Mukharji (@aroopmukharji) about the future of the Arctic region, sustainability in Iceland, and how Icelanders get their names. Subscribe to the Belfer Center’s YouTube channel for a new episode of Office Hours each month! Subscribe to...

In the drama of Chinese history, the environment - and the Yellow River (Huang He) in particular - plays a major role. The river's breaching of its northern banks in the year 1048, for example, precipitated an environmental catastrophe that caused political and economic turmoil in the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127 BCE). Ling Zhang examines this catastrophe to reveal new information about China's...

In this episode we're marking a major public health milestone. As of Monday, June 18, U.S. food manufacturers are banned from creating products with artificial trans fats—found in partially hydrogenated oils. This ban is the culmination of decades of research and work, and we'll explore how these fats became such a mainstay in American foods, the work to expose their risks, and the public health i...

The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra faced real challenges, as all U.S. orchestras did: an aging subscriber base, disinterest from younger audiences, and development of a pipeline of donors for the future. Professor Rohit Deshpande discusses how protagonist Deborah Borda positioned the orchestra for continued success, building on healthy financials, a celebrity music director (Gustavo Dudamel),...

Author Charles Duhigg on how we make meaning

In the early 21st century there was hope that the success of the mumps vaccine in the United States would pave the way for the eventual elimination of the highly contagious disease. But since 2006 there's actually been a resurgence of mumps. In this week's podcast Yonatan Grad, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, explains how the waning effectiveness of the vaccine may be co...

The Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card was one of the hottest product launches in 2016 enthusiastically received by millennial consumers, a group that had previously eluded JPMorgan Chase and its competitors. Shelle Santana discusses how protagonists Pam Codispoti and Eileen Serra shifted their focus to retaining customers attracted by the one-time signup bonus of 100,000 reward points and on acqu...

Professor of African and African American Studies discusses the life of Jane Clark, a slave who freed herself and documented the story about the Underground Railroad, with Dean of Arts And Humanities Robin Kelsey

Alumni share stories, strategies, and lessons learned from their first experience with the world of work

On Friday, June 8, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard’s Institute of Politics, and the AARP hosted a panel discussion on voting trends and efforts to increase turnout for voters of all ages in this critical election year. The event, titled, “Engaging Voters of All Ages” featured Miles Rapoport, Ash Center Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy, Nancy LeaMond, Ch...

Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic, President and CEO of Cleveland Clinic, discusses what it’s like to lead an $8 billion medical system, the challenging roles that he’s taken on in his career, and his top leadership strategies on the Voices in Leadership program on Wednesday, June 6, 2018.

On Monday, April 30, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government, and the Institute of Politics hosted a conversation with former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. David Margalit, Executive Program Director for the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative, moderated.

On Monday, April 30, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation co-sponsored a JFK Jr. Forum event titled, “Full Participation: Making Every Voice Count.” Eric Holder, former United States Attorney General and current parter at Covington and Burning, spoke. Archon Fung, HKS Academic Dean and Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, moderated.

On Wednesday, April 18, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation hosted a book talk with Professor Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government at Harvard Kennedy School, for a discussion of his latest book, "A New City O/S: The Power of Open, Collaborative, and Distributed Governance." Emily Rueb, a reporter for the New York Times and a 2018 Nieman Fellow,...

On Friday, May 11, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation hosted a Community Speaker Series event titled, “From Online Patient Communities to OpenNotes: How Can Transparency and Technology Improve our Health?” Elena Fagotto, Transparency Policy Project Director of Research, Ash Center; Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School Academic Dean, Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citize...

On Wednesday, April 18, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation hosted a book talk with Professor Stephen Goldsmith, Daniel Paul Professor of the Practice of Government at Harvard Kennedy School, for a discussion of his latest book, "A New City O/S: The Power of Open, Collaborative, and Distributed Governance." Emily Rueb, a reporter for the New York Times and a 2018 Nieman Fellow,...