Rocky Talk

This episode's guest Kristin Smith, the Rockefeller Center Policy Research Shop Director and Visiting Associate Professor of Sociology at Dartmouth College. Kristin Smith's research focuses on gender inequality, earnings and employment, and work and family policy. She has researched labor force issues, including gender differences in job tenure and shifting determinants of women's labor supply and...

This episode's guest is Carlos Lozada, an opinion columnist at the New York Times and co-host of the weekly Matter of Opinion podcast. He is the author of The Washington Book: How to Read Politics and Politicians (2024) and What Were We Thinking: A Brief Intellectual History of the Trump Era (2020). Previously, he was a book critic and senior editor at the Washington Post and the managing editor o...

This episode's guest is Shannon Sullivan who has been with the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) for over 11 years, and is the Chief of Compliance, overseeing the Consent Decree Implementation Unit, the Performance Standards Section, Officer Safety and Wellness, and the Equity Office. Previously she was the Director of the Consent Decree Implementation Unit (CDIU), a position she held for almost f...

This episode's guests are Democratic and Republic state party chairs, Chris Ager (R) and Raymond Buckley (D) What happens to New Hampshire and its outsize influence on U.S. presidential elections if the state loses its first-in-the-nation primary? Democratic and Republican state party chairs, Chris Ager (R) and Raymond Buckley (D) discuss the politics in New Hampshire and where they go their start...

This episode's guest is Former U.S. Senator Judd A. Gregg (R-NH). Once-rare occurrences like government shutdowns and impeachment inquiries now occur with such regularity that it seems the system may be critically dysfunctional. Former U.S. Senator Judd Gregg shares his insight on the current state of the U.S. Senate and whether such apparent dysfunction really poses risks to American democracy. I...

This episode's guest is Fahim Abed and independent journalist from Afghanistan and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Join us as Fahim Abed walks us through his journey of becoming a journalist. He was a local reporter for The New York Times in Afghanistan until the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021. He was evacuated from Kabul with a number of his colleagues and relocated to the...

This episode's guest is Matt McDonald ’00 is the President of Penta. Matt will discuss his experience in public relations in Washington, D.C. and ways to navigate the professional field in the nation’s capital. Matt will share current thinking on stakeholder engagement and models for navigating public policy issues. Matt McDonald ’00 is the President of Penta and has served as a senior counselor t...

This episode's guest is John V. Kane, Assistant Professor at New York University. We hear a lot of talk about budget deficits, but do voters really care about government spending as much as they say? Like many other kinds of political attitudes, concern about government deficits and debt may be, in part, a result of systematic partisan bias. Drawing upon his recently published article, “Deficit At...

This episode's guest is Hanover Town Manager, Alex Torpey. He speaks about the role local government can play in reshaping how we govern. Alex Torpey is municipal manager, entrepreneur, educator, consultant, and speaker who is currently the Town Manager of Hanover, New Hampshire. Previously, Alex was the Business Administrator for the City of Lambertville, NJ and the Borough Administrator for Leon...

This episode's guest is Lynn Mather, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor Emerita, University at Buffalo School of Law and here she discusses her experiences teaching at Dartmouth. Lynn Mather taught in Dartmouth’s Government Department for 30 years. During that time, she served as Acting Director of the Rockefeller Center, chaired the Government Department, and co-founded the Women’s Studies prog...

Former NH Secretary of State (1976 - 2022) Bill Gardner have a discussion about rigged elections and New Hampshire electoral processes. Gardner has many stories to share from his long tenure as the Secretary of State of New Hampshire. Interview by Dartmouth student Kyle Mullins '22. Edited by Laura Hemlock. Music: Debussy Arabesque no 1. Composer: Claude Debussy

This episode's guest is Morgan C. Williams, Jr., Assistant Professor of Economics at Barnard College, Columbia University Morgan C. Williams, Jr. discusses the first empirical estimate of the race-specific effects of larger police forces in the United States. Each additional police officer abates approximately 0.1 homicides. In per capita terms, effects are twice as large for Black versus white vi...

This episode's guests are Simon Perkins, President of Orvis and Bill McLaughlin D'78, T’81, Former President of Orvis. They discuss the past, present, and the future of a purpose-led brand and how to make the bottom line while making the world a better place. Interview by Dartmouth student Ben Vagle '22. Edited by Laura Hemlock. Music: Debussy Arabesque no 1. Composer: Claude Debussy

This episode's guest is Bill Barrow, a national politics reporter for The Associated Press. Democracy is not a game with a scoreboard or a red carpet to critique celebrity fashion. Yet in this red vs. blue era of American politics, journalism too often advances shallow, oversimplified narratives – sometimes to the point of error. At best, this is lazy and reductive. At worst, this “SportsCenter” b...

This episode's guest is Beth Robinson ’86, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. If Americans lose faith in our independent Judiciary, the foundation of our liberty will weaken. One threat to public confidence in the courts is a misunderstanding of how judges do our jobs. Using actual cases, the presentation will explore the practice and challenge of interpreting the...

This episode's guest is Sonali Chakravarti, Professor of Government at Wesleyan University. For three weeks in March and April of 2021, the process of jury selection for the trial of Derek Chauvin was live-streamed on CourtTV. We heard hesitations, nervousness, and expressions of feeling in response to questions about the viral video depicting George Floyd’s death under the knee of Derek Chauvin....

This episode's guest is John T. Broderick, Jr. the Senior Director of External Affairs, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health (D-HH) and former Chief Justice, New Hampshire Supreme Court (2003 - 2010). For years, John Broderick’s eldest son struggled with alcohol problems, which had masked a severe underlying mental health issue. One evening, that struggle resulted in an assault that sent John to the hospita...

This episode's guest is Alex Azar ’88, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (2018-2021). Secretary Azar led the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from 2018 to 2021 during the Trump Administration and was the architect of Operation Warp Speed; he combined his experience in the pharmaceutical industry with his understanding of government programs—having previously served as g...

This episode's guest is Jamila Michener, Associate Professor at Cornell University. She studies poverty, racism, and public policy, with a particular focus on health and housing. She is author of the award-winning book, Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism, and Unequal Politics. She is Associate Dean for Public Engagement at the Brooks School of Public Policy, co-director of the Cornell Cent...

This episode's guest is James Wright, President Emeritus and Eleazar Wheelock Professor of History, Emeritus at Dartmouth College. The nature and scale of America’s wars have changed dramatically in the last 60 years. The American public has not always had a good understanding of the experience of those fighting in those recent wars. This discussion will describe some of these changes and their co...

This episode's guest is Noah Joshua Phillips ’00, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. Antitrust law is at a crossroads. Commissioner Noah Joshua Phillips of the Federal Trade Commission will reflect upon the goals of antitrust, the populist voices calling for reform, and whether the antitrust laws are equipped to solve every societal ill the reformists want competition law to address. In...

This episode's guest is Sven Steinmo a Professor of Political Science at University of Colorado. He will speak on Tax and Tax Evasion. Interview by Dartmouth student Ben Vagle '22. Edited by Laura Hemlock. Music: Debussy Arabesque no 1. Composer: Claude Debussy

Penelope Spurr '24 reflects on her First-Year Fellowship at The American Leader.

This episode's guest is Ambassador Lewis M. Eisenberg ’64. The Ambassador discusses the paths he took to become the Ambassador to Italy and San Marino (2017-2021), touching on the impact of Dartmouth, Wall Street, politics, and government service and asks: Are democracy and freedom at significant risk in America and the world? Interview by Dartmouth student Ben Vagle '22. Edited by Laura Hemlock....

This episode's guest Sonu Bedi, Joel Parker 1811 Professor in Law and Political Science, Professor of Government at Dartmouth College The current division between red and blue states is not a problem but arises as a feature of the science of the U.S. Constitution. All of us, regardless of political affiliation, can appreciate this science and the way the Constitution has endured since 1789. Interv...