Policy 360

GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy have revolutionized the management of diabetes and obesity. Millions of Americans are experimenting with them. Celebrities like Oprah are sharing their experiences. Duke Sanford School of Public Policy faculty member Jonathan Zhang is an economist who works on health policy, health economics and public finance. His research shows that GLP-1 drugs live up to thei...

Duke Sanford School of Public Policy Professor Anirudh Krishna has been studying a seemingly simple question:  why do people in certain countries just seem better at some things than others? Think of the large number of world-class runners from Jamaica like Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, or the long list of top female golfers from South Korea. Why are people in tiny Estonia keep hatching...

As 21st Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General CQ Brown, Jr . advised the President, the Secretary of Defense, and the National Security Council. He now serves as an executive in residence at Duke with appointments in the Sanford School of Public Policy and the Pratt School of Engineering. Over his career, General Brown has held many different roles. As a pilot with the U.S. Air Force, he h...

Every year, 250 million Americans face issues that land them in the civil justice system; think eviction, debt collection and poor housing. And here's a shocking number: more than 90% of people with low incomes either get no legal help or inadequate legal assistance. Today's guest, Mallory SoRelle, is a public policy faculty member at Duke. She's co-written a book called Uncivil Democracy: How Acc...

Danny Werfel recently served as the 50th Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service. He led the U.S. tax system twice, and in his most recent stint he was in charge of a dramatic transformation, launching more digital solutions in a two-year period than in the previous two decades combined.   Werfel joins us to talk about leadership, organizational change, and how a broader understanding of what...

What if a single clause in your job contract could quietly shape how much you are able to get paid -- after you leave that job? And what if that same contract clause ends up limiting the places you can move for a job? Today, the hidden power of the non-compete clause. New research from Matt Johnson, professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University and co-authors gives insight in...

Michael Regan recently served as the 16th Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Previously he was Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality where he secured the largest coal ash cleanup settlement in U.S. history. And he led negotiations on the cleanup of the Cape Fear River from PFAS contamination.  Now he has taken a role at POLIS: Ce...

Every technology in music history leaves artists behind. What if one left them  all  behind? AI-generated music is severely undermining artists' ability to make a viable living. Is it a canary in the coal mine for music and for how AI will affect the future of work more broadly? Grammy-nominated musician Tift Merritt and Professor David Hoffman of the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy discuss t...

Data centers hold computers and equipment that are the backbone of the digital age. They make possible the computational power and data storage needed to train AI models, store content, and operate the cloud-based services that many of us rely on. Some say that data centers and the innovations that come from them are key to solving huge issues facing the world right now, while others note major en...

In this episode: from living under a bridge to building bridges between policy and practice, CJ Appleton's story is one of resilience, purpose, and possibility. Appleton is a new faculty member at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. After a rocky start to his academic career, including dropping out of college and becoming homeless, today he's eager to bridge the gap between cri...

In this episode we'll explore AI – from deepfakes to the growing importance of social media verification. Our guest Robyn Caplan is an Assistant Professor at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy and is currently teaching a class on the transformation of media. Her latest research considers the blue-check verification process that is used on many social platforms.  Our host for this episode is An...

States have increasingly come under pressure from President Trump to redraw district voting lines now even though they are traditionally redrawn every 10 years in response to the census. In response, Democratic strongholds like California are also taking steps to redraw maps out of cycle. Our guests today are both keeping a close eye on such "gerrymandering" efforts. Duke professor Jonathan Mattin...

Today's guest, John Hillen, says that only a third of native-born Americans can pass the citizenship test that American immigrants are required to pass. He is part of a new bipartisan commission trying to change that. The goal is to revitalize the teaching of American civics and history. Hillen served as US Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs in the Bush administration amon...

Recently, the U.S. has experienced several financial crises - all of them hard on American families.  In 2008, over eight million Americans lost their jobs in the Great Recession. In 2020, unemployment was at 13 percent thanks to the COVID pandemic. By early 2025, the economy had recovered and unemployment had dropped back to the 4 percent range. Then sweeping new tariffs sent the stock market ree...

The U.S. is a nation of immigrants, but we have a complex history on the topic. At times, the government has tried deporting large numbers of immigrants, with the goal of protecting the jobs and wages of native-born Americans. The current administration has announced plans to deport all undocumented immigrants, even some legal immigrants, as well as new travel bans. Hannah Postel researches the re...

The price of housing has skyrocketed in recent years. Scholars estimate we are short between two and five million homes nationwide. Warren Lowell spent the last several years immersed in American housing policy as part of his PhD studies at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. For one study, he interviewed real estate developers and investors. He joins Sanford interim Dean Manoj...

In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, Congress established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB. It protects Americans from predatory practices by consumer finance companies. The CFPB enforces federal laws and investigates fraud and abuse. It has sent over 6.8 million complaints to companies for resolution so far. The bureau has been targeted for massive cuts by the new admini...

What does it mean for the country that President Trump has signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education? Leslie Babinski, a researcher who focuses on education and former director of the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy talks about this extraordinary change with guest host Anna Gassman-Pines, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Sanford School of Pu...

What does it mean for democracy when a president owns a social platform, and is supported by others with major platforms of their own? Philip Napoli directs the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University and he joins Manoj Mohanan, interim public policy dean at Duke to discuss historical parallels to the connection between policy and media ownership, and regulation options. H...

The new administration's interest in cold, snowy regions of the world might have come out of the blue to many Americans, but not to Tim Nichols. He leads the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Master of National Security Policy program – and he teaches about the growing strategic importance of Greenland and the broader Arctic. He joins Manoj Mohanan, interim public policy dean at Duke...

President Trump returns to the White House with his "America First" approach - a strategy critics say often comes at the expense of international alliances and multilateral commitments. Duke professor Susan Colbourn, a historian specializing in NATO, joins Manoj Mohanan, interim Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke to discuss the topic. She's the author of Euromissiles: The Nuclear...

It's no secret that Americans' ability to engage in meaningful conversations across political, cultural, and ideological divides feels more strained than ever. In this episode, we discuss how to bring people together. Two words: civil discourse. Duke professor Abdullah Antepli is a nationally recognized expert in civil discourse. Recently he's been teaching a course on the topic and is creating pu...

Could political polarization be addressed by something very simple – getting to know each other better? David Brooks argues that polarization stems from an urgent need for connection. "There are connections between seeing others and strengthening our communities and in turn, democracy," he says. Brooks is an opinion columnist for the New York Times. He appears regularly on the PBS NewsHour, NPR's...

In this episode of Policy 360, Duke Professor  Bill Adair  joins us to discuss lying in politics. Adair founded the Pulitzer Prize-winning fact-checking organization  PolitiFact . His new book,  Beyond the Big Lie , explores how and why politicians lie, which party does it more, and what can be done about it. This episode is part of our ongoing series of policy-focused conversations related to the...

Historically Black colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have played an important role in America's past, present, and future – and it's becoming clear that they are playing a big role in democracy itself. Duke Sanford School of Public Policy professor Deondra Rose joins us to discuss the topic. Her new book is  The Power of Black Excellence: HBCUs and the Fight for American Democracy.   This episode...