Trending Globally: Politics and Policy

In the US, we’ve grown accustomed to hearing about China’s transformation into a ‘global superpower’ in the 21st century. But according to journalist and author Michael Schuman, that’s not the only way to see China’s economic and political resurgence. On this episode, Watson’s Director Ed Steinfeld talks with Michael about his book 'Superpower Interrupted: The Chinese History of the World.' The bo...

This is the second part in a special series from Trending Globally exploring the housing crisis in the United States, and in Rhode Island in particular. The crisis has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but as we’ll show, it’s a problem that has been with us for much, much longer. In Part 2, we explore the role racism has played in this ongoing crisis, through policies and practices both u...

After reading about how supply chains were disrupted by the pandemic, and how American farmers were suddenly left with food they couldn’t sell, Will Collier ‘20 (Architecture and Economics concentrator) and Aidan Reilly ‘21 (Political Science and Government concentrator) had an idea: maybe they could raise money to buy the food, and deliver it themselves to people that needed it. So in the midst o...

A good documentary doesn’t just tell a story; it makes you question what you think you know, and helps you to understand lives that are different from your own. Rory Kennedy ‘91 is a celebrated documentary filmmaker; Randall Poster ‘83 is a film music supervisor, who has worked with filmmakers such as Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese. Last year, they helped launch the John F. Kennedy Jr. Film Init...

This is the second in our ongoing series of conversations with Brown students about life during the pandemic. On this episode: Aaron Gruen ‘22 is a double concentrator in chemistry and music, and he was preparing for the most important cello recital of his life when Brown’s campus closed in March. He flew back home to Germany, and finished his classes remotely. Between classes, he found a new extr...

On this episode, the second part of our interview with writer and Taubman Center Visiting Fellow Dan Denvir about his book ‘All American Nativism: How The Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as We Know It.’ In it, Denvir explores the long, disturbing history of nativism in the US, and the fundamental role it plays in our politics today. If you haven’t listened to Part I yet, you can fin...

On this episode guest-host Dan Richards talks with Dan Denvir, a journalist, host of the hit podcast ‘The Dig,’ and Visiting Fellow at the Watson's Institute's Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy. His recent book, ‘All-American Nativism: How the Bipartisan War on Immigrants Explains Politics as We Know It,’ explores the foundational role nativism has played in American politics, and ex...

What’s it like working for an American news outlet in China? The short answer: more complicated than you or I can imagine. On this episode Watson’s director Ed Steinfeld talks with CNBC’s Beijing Bureau Chief Eunice Yoon '95. Eunice has reported on some of the biggest stories in China’s recent past, from the Beijing Olympics in 2008 to the coronavirus today. They discuss what it’s like practicing...

This is the first part in a special series from Trending Globally exploring the housing crisis in the United States, and in Rhode Island in particular. This crisis has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but as we’ll show, it’s a problem that has been with us for much, much longer. In this series Sarah talks with tenants, landlords, housing advocates, academics, and government officials to...

In the last 5 months we have learned a lot about coronavirus and Covid-19. But sometimes it feels like we’re just as confused as we were back in February. What’s safe to do? What activities should we be avoiding? When will things go back to 'normal'? On this episode Sarah talks Watson economist Emily Oster about her newest project, which seeks to provide some much needed clarity to these questions...

The supply chain that brings medical equipment to your local hospital, health clinic, or pharmacy is one of the world’s most important -- and most complex. On this episode Watson’s Director Ed Steinfeld talks with George Barrett '77, former chairman and CEO of Cardinal Health, Inc., which is one of the world’s largest distributors and manufacturers of medical products. They discuss how supply chai...

On this episode Sarah talks with Dr. Ashish Jha, professor of global health at Harvard University and director of the Harvard Global Health Institute (and soon to be dean of the Brown School of Public Health). As the United States reels from the ongoing collision of systemic racism, coronavirus, and economic catastrophe, Sarah and Dr. Jha explore how these issues intersect. They also discuss the e...

It's not every day that a fiction writer joins the Watson Institute as a Senior Fellow. But ZZ Packer isn’t your typical novelist. In addition to her 2003 debut short story collection 'Drinking Coffee Elsewhere,' she also contributed to The 1619 Project, a groundbreaking set of writings and podcast series from The New York Times, which reframed slavery as the central institution on which the Unite...

Sumbul Siddiqui is the mayor of Cambridge, MA. Her family moved to Cambridge from Karachi, Pakistan when she was two years old. She studied public policy at Brown and law at Northwestern, before moving back to Massachusetts. She joined the Cambridge City Council, and was elected Mayor this past January -- just as the biggest crisis to ever hit American cities was making its way to the East Coast o...

Coronavirus has been called an ‘equal opportunity' virus. But of course... it's not. Communities of color are being disproportionately affected; instead of equalizing anything, this pandemic has thrown into relief the stark inequalities along lines of race and class that are built into American society. And unfortunately, one of the clearest examples of this can be found quite close to Watson's ca...

The spread of the coronavirus has highlighted how international development affects the well-being of us all. On this episode Sarah talks with someone who has been a leader for decades in rethinking how we do international development: Watson Senior Fellow Brian Atwood. Brian’s worked with multiple US Presidents, including as the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) during...

What does it actually mean for a state’s revenue to ‘dry up’? Who’s paying for coronavirus testing sites? How are states working together -- and how are they competing? There’s never been a more important time to understand state and local government, as states have become the political, logistical, and moral center of the US's pandemic response. On this episode Sarah talks with Rhode Island Gener...

This will be the first in an ongoing series of conversations with Brown students about life during the coronavirus pandemic. On this episode Dan and Sarah talk with Alina Kulman, a junior, and Babette Thomas, a senior; two friends who are experiencing this crisis in very different ways. They discuss what it’s like quarantining with classmates, studying abroad while the government wants to ban trav...

On this episode, something you might not be getting a lot of these days: a story to raise your spirits. The second in a special series co-produced with Watson’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), guest host Dr. Pablo Rodriguez talks with Mohamed Malim, founder of Epimonia. Epimonia is a Minnesota-based apparel company that’s fighting to help refugees around the world: 50% of...

On this episode, Watson's Director Ed Steinfeld talks with film music supervisor Randall Poster '83. Randall has worked with many of Hollywood’s most distinguished filmmakers on a wide variety of projects, including on the hit Netflix series Tiger King. On this live-streamed podcast taping, Ed and Randall talked about the craft of documentary filmmaking, and the role of music in telling stories on...

What role do photo ops play in diplomatic negotiations? How much do changing US Presidential administrations affect US-China relations? What’s it like to have dinner with Yao Ming? On this episode, Watson’s Director Ed Steinfeld talks about all this and more with James Green, former official at the US Embassy in China and senior research fellow with the Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Glo...

Adam Levine is the director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at Watson and associate professor of emergency medicine at Brown. Much of his work has grown out of an essential fact about epidemics that many of us are just now learning: as Adam explains on this episode, “our global public health system for detecting outbreaks is only as good as the remote nurse working in a rur...

Peter Maurer is the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. In early March he came to Watson, and Sarah talked with him about the challenges of humanitarian aid in the 21st century. Shortly after they spoke, Coronavirus travelled the globe, and everything seemed to change. But surprisingly, for all that's different now, so much of what Peter had to say still resonates -- maybe n...

Mark Lurie is an epidemiologist and expert in infectious disease at Brown University's School of Public Health. On this episode he talks with Sarah about the underlying issues of the coronavirus pandemic: how the virus spreads, what can be done to slow it down, and the different ways it's being treated by countries around the world. They also discuss lessons we can learn from previous public healt...

The spread of the coronavirus, and global effort to contain it, have quickly upended every aspect of our lives. We at Trending Globally are going to bring your more conversations and insights about this pandemic in the coming weeks from our community of experts at Watson and Brown. On this episode: how the coronavirus is affecting US politics, and how US politics are affecting the development of t...