The Rhodes Center Podcast with Mark Blyth

On this episode, Mark talks with Brendan Greeley, a journalist and former U.S. economics editor at the Financial Times, about his new book “The Almighty Dollar, 500 Years of the World's Most Powerful Money.” In it, Greeley makes the case that the American dollar is not (and never has been) quite as…American … as one might assume; from its very beginning, it’s had deep global ties, and no single go...

On this episode Mark Blyth talks with Cornelia Woll, a professor of international political economy at the Hertie School Berlin and author of the recent book “Corporate Crime and Punishment: The Politics of Negotiated Justice in Global Markets.” They discuss how economic law enforcement and geopolitics have become increasingly intertwined, and how this has complicated efforts to make sure corporat...

On this episode, Mark Blyth talks with Erik Peinert, an assistant professor of political science at Boston University, about his new book “Monopoly Politics: Competition and Learning and the Evolution of Policy Regimes.” In the book, Erik draws extensively on archives in the US and France to explain why, when, and how those two countries have chosen to fight monopoly power over the course of the 2...

Not so long ago, it appeared to many observers that economic globalization, political liberalization and geopolitical stability were an unstoppable trio. They supported each other and created an economic and political environment that countries around the world couldn’t help but want to be a part of. Some called it “the great moderation,” some, “the end of history.” Whatever name you want to give...

The global rise of authoritarianism today is a puzzle: democracies were supposed to be immune to such impulses, but the current political landscape of countries as diverse as India, Hungary, and the United States show that they’re not. Why are we seeing a resurgence of authoritarianism? And why did it take so many experts by surprise? In this episode, Mark Blyth looks for answers to these question...

In December, the Rhodes Center hosted Sven Beckert, the Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University, to discuss his new book “Capitalism: A Global History.” The title may sound dry, but in the hands of Sven, it is anything but. In it, he takes readers on a globe-trotting, centuries-spanning tour of the economic system we call “capitalism.” In doing so, he challenges many long-held assump...

For as long as this thing we call “capitalism” has existed, it has had its fair share of critics. (You’ve heard more than a few of them on this very podcast.) On this episode, Mark talks with someone whose new book makes clear that when it comes to understanding this globe-spanning economic system - where it came from, how it’s shaped our world, and where it’s going – those critics might be some o...

Lithium is an essential ingredient of most modern electronics. It helps to power our phones, our laptops, and increasingly EVs and other key parts of the green transition. As Thea Riofrancos, a political scientist, environmentalist, and author of the new book “Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism,” explains to Mark on this episode, the story of lithium — how it's mined, how it’s refined,...

This is the second part of a two-part series featuring Leah Downey, a political economist at King’s College London and author of the new book “Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.” Mark Blyth and Leah discuss what has happened at the Federal Reserve since they first talked about Leah’s book in May, what Leah’s book has to say about it, and what it all means for the future of central...

This is the first in a two-part series featuring Leah Downey, political theorist at King’s College London and author of the new book “Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.” On this part (recorded in May) Mark Blyth and Leah discuss her book, and take a look at the historical evolution of the relationship between independent central banks and democratic politics. In the second part (w...

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 it...

On this episode, Mark talks with two guests to try and understand why, despite growing right populist movements emerging and winning elections in countries around the world, the left seems to be stalling. It’s a simple question with an incredibly complex answer. Hopefully, though, these two guests will help you to see both the question and its possible answers in a new light.  Guests on this...

On this episode, Mark Blyth talks with Małgorzata Mazurek, a historian, associate professor of Polish Studies at Columbia University, and author of the forthcoming book “The Economics of Hereness: The Polish Origins of Global Developmentalism 1918-1968.” Mazurek explores how, between World Wars I and II, a group of thinkers led by economists Michał Kalecki and Ludwik Landau began to re-envision Po...

In this episode, Mark Blyth talks with two inequality experts to try and understand something that’s been bugging him for years. It goes like this: inequality has profound effects on our economy, society, and lives. It has also been growing, and today is at historically high levels. Given all that, why does inequality never seem to be a topic around which we organize our politics?  Too compli...

To state the obvious, there are many hurdles to addressing the climate crisis in a meaningful way. However, there’s been one relatively bright spot on this front in the last decade: the price of renewable energy — particularly solar and wind power — has dropped dramatically. By many measures, they’re now cheaper to produce than fossil fuels.  So does that mean when it comes to a “green transi...

This is a new experiment we’re trying at the Rhodes Center Podcast.  From time to time, going forward, instead of focusing on one expert and their latest research, Mark will take a deeper dive into one issue (or one question) that’s been bothering him.  Future episodes will examine the politics of immigration and the persistence of inequality. But the first episode in this new series wil...

Remember the supply chain problems of 2020 and 2021? The story we were told was that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global economy's ability to make and transport goods of every type imaginable: Surgical masks. Car parts. Infant formula.  But as New York Times' global economic correspondent Peter Goodman explains in his new book, “How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Su...

When it comes to governing our economy, estimates rule the day. We want to know what effect a policy might have on the government’s budget, on economic growth, on employment…in the next 1 year, 5 years, 10 years…you get the idea. If you want to make (or critique) public policy, you better have numbers to back it up.  To get those types of estimates, economists and politicians often rely on in...

When you think of high-end luxury commodities, you might imagine yachts, private jets, or even whole islands. But in the last few years, another commodity has started to receive a lot of attention from the world’s wealthiest people: citizenship.  With enough money, people can buy their way into becoming a citizen of a growing list of countries around the world. While this trend has garnered l...

Listeners of the Rhodes Center Podcast have probably heard of companies like Black Rock, State Street and Vanguard. You’ve also probably heard how, through ETFs and other investment products, these types of investment firms own a staggering share of the world’s biggest companies (20-25% of the S&P 500 by some estimates).  But in this episode, you’ll hear about a whole other side of asset...

On this podcast, you’ve heard from a range of experts about the policies and politics of decarbonization. But what does the fight against climate change look like from the business side? Sophie Purdom is the Founder and Managing Partner of Planeteer Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage climate technology companies. She also writes Climate Tech VC , an industry newsletter tha...

In 2015, economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton published a paper that revealed something startling: an increase in mortality rates in the United States among white middle-aged men and women between the years of 1999 and 2013 .  They published a book in 2020 that aimed to explain the trend, which they attributed to — among other factors — economic stagnation , social isolation, and the opioid...

This is part three in our companion series to the book “Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation” (co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro and Jonas Pontusson).  On this episode, Mark talks with four contributors for the book: Alex Reisenbichler, Aidan Regan, Oddný Helgadóttir, and Jonas Nahm. They look at case studies in a handful of countries, as well as some of the cro...

This is part two in our companion series to the book “Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation” (co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro and Jonas Pontusson).  In part one (which, if you haven’t listened to, we’d recommend you go back and do), Mark and his guests discussed how growth models are almost like the business model for a country. But of course, countries don’t e...

This is the first in a three-part series on Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation, a book co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro, and Jonas Pontusson.  Using examples from around the world, the book offers a new understanding of what happens to our politics when growth slows down. In this episode, Mark grills his co-authors about how the book came to be, and the big q...