Trending Globally: Politics and Policy

This is the first episode in a special series that Trending Globally will be producing this semester with Watson’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (also known as CLACS). Each episode will focus on a different aspect of society in Latin America and the Caribbean. To start: the politics of natural disasters and emergency management. Storms like Maria and Dorian have done more than cr...

Historians have explored warfare through just about every lens imaginable. But leave it to political scientist and Watson Faculty Peter Andreas to use the lens you haven’t considered: drugs. On this episode Sarah talks with Peter about his newest book ‘Killer High: A History of War in Six Drugs.’ In it, he writes how these drugs - from coffee to opium -- have affected how, and why, we fight. You c...

On January 31, the UK formally left the European Union. But ‘Brexit’ is far from over. On this episode guest host Dan Richards talks with political economist and Watson Professor Mark Blyth about the next steps in this process, and what they’ll mean for Europe and the UK. Mark’s never been Brexit’s biggest fan, but on this episode he explains to Dan why he has some reasons for hope, and what it mi...

This past January marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. On this episode, Sarah talks with Watson Faculty Fellow and historian Omer Bartov about the intimate tragedies that occurred within the massive, industrialized murder of the Holocaust. In his book 'Anatomy of a Genocide: The Life and Death of a Town Called Buczacz,' he vividly illustrates how the residents of one small t...

Tensions between China and the US are at a level not seen in decades. But as Chas Freeman, former Assistant US Secretary of Defense and Watson Senior Fellow believes, the tension between these countries is larger than a tit-for-tat trade dispute. Everything about this relationship is being called to question, and it has implications around the world. On this episode Edward Steinfeld, Director of t...

On this episode: why protests have erupted across India in the last few months, and why these protests have been, in many ways, a long time coming. Guest host and producer Dan Richards talks with Sara Shneiderman, associate professor in anthropology and the School of Public Policy & Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia, and Sahana Ghosh, postdoctoral fellow at the Watson Instit...

Observers in the West too often have a one-dimensional view of women in Muslim-majority countries; as subjugated, and in need of help in their liberation. On this episode, Sarah sits down with three leading experts on gender politics in the Middle East and South Asia to break down that myth. Anthropologist and Professor at Watson's Center for Middle East Studies Nadje Al-Ali, along with her collea...

This episode is a co-production between Watson's China Initiative and the Center for Middle East Studies at Brown University. This fall, the Center brought to Watson Adeeb Khalid, Director of Middle East Studies at Carleton College, to discuss the history and future of the Uyghurs in Northwest China. Adeeb and Sarah discuss how this minority group ended up as part of China in the first place, and...

On this episode, public health scientist and Brown Associate Dean Caroline Kuo talks with Watson Fellow Matthew Gutmann about his newest book ‘Are Men Animals? How Modern Masculinity Sells Men Short.’ They explore how what we think of as ‘male behavior’ -- from displays of aggression to mansplaining -- can only be explained by understanding the complex relationship between our culture and our biol...

On Trending Globally's 100th episode, Sarah talks with author and Watson Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer about secret agents, the Cold War, and mind-altering drugs. Stephen's newest book, 'Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control', pulls back the curtain on MK-Ultra, a top-secret CIA project that tried to learn how to control the human mind. Gottlieb ran sinister experim...

In 1979 a group of young rebels, calling themselves the Sandinista National Liberation Front, overthrew a brutal dictatorship in Nicaragua. 40 years later, Nicaraguans are again living under an oppressive authoritarian regime. The current leader? Sandinista Daniel Ortega. In the Spring of 2019, the Watson Institute held an unprecedented conference exploring the history and legacy of this unfinishe...

November 11 was Veterans Day, a time to honor and turn our attention to the veterans and service members in our community at Watson. On this special episode, guest host Carrie Nordlund talks with three of them: Aileen Teague is a former Marine Officer and currently a postdoctoral fellow at Watson; Bryan Brown is an active duty Special Forces Officer in the U.S. Army, and currently getting his MPA...

In 1979 a group of young rebels, calling themselves the Sandinista National Liberation Front, overthrew a brutal dictatorship in Nicaragua. 40 years later, Nicaraguans are again living under an oppressive authoritarian regime. The current leader? Sandinista Daniel Ortega. In the Spring of 2019, the Watson Institute held an unprecedented conference exploring the history and legacy of this unfinishe...

At a moment when it feels like there’s an endless stream of breaking news, it’s worth stepping back sometimes, and thinking about things on a longer time scale. On this episode, Sarah spoke with artist and writer Pam Petro '82 about her other-worldly photography exhibit, 'The Blink of Our Lifetimes: The Ecology of Dusk,' which is currently on view at the Watson Institute. They talk art, ecology, m...

In 1979 a group of young rebels, calling themselves the Sandinista National Liberation Front, overthrew a brutal dictatorship in Nicaragua. 40 years later, Nicaraguans are again living under an oppressive authoritarian regime. The current leader? Sandinista Daniel Ortega. In the Spring of 2019, the Watson Institute held an unprecedented conference exploring the history and legacy of this unfinishe...

In 1979 a group of young rebels, calling themselves the Sandinista National Liberation Front, overthrew a brutal dictatorship in Nicaragua. 40 years later, Nicaraguans are again living under an oppressive authoritarian regime. The current leader? Sandinista Daniel Ortega. In the Spring of 2019, the Watson Institute held an unprecedented conference exploring the history and legacy of this unfinishe...

On this episode Sarah talks with Watson Senior fellow Deborah Gordon. Deborah’s newest paper looks at one of the ‘stealthiest’ and most destructive greenhouse gasses: methane. Specifically, the paper uncovers how methane is leaked throughout our infrastructure, from oil rigs to your kitchen stove. It’s a gas leak on a global scale, and it’s warming our planet more than anyone knew. On the bright s...

On this episode, guest host Rich Snyder talks with Maria Cabrera Arus, a visiting professor at the Center for Latin American and Carribean Studies at Watson. Maria studies the sociology, politics, and history of something we all interact with every day: clothes. Specifically, at how clothes communicate power, and project values in a culture. She and Rich explore a place and time that exemplifies t...

From the industrial revolution to the rise of globalization, human society has changed profoundly since our early days as hunter-gathers. But our brains? Not so much. On this episode, Sarah talks with Watson professor Rose McDermott about this evolutionary mismatch, and the vexing problems it creates in our politics and culture. Perhaps nowhere is this more urgently felt than in the rise of anti-i...

NOTE FOR LISTENERS: Mark and Carrie will be moving to their own podcast channel after this episode. To hear new episodes of Mark and Carrie from now on, subscribe to their new feed, 'Mark and Carrie,' wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks! Mark Blyth, political economist at Brown's Watson Institute, and Carrie Nordlund, political scientist and associate director of Brown's Master of Public Affair...

Cristian Farias is a journalist who's written about law and the Supreme Court for New York Magazine, HuffPost, and The New York Times (among many others). For much of the last two years he’s closely followed the Trump administration’s efforts to put a citizenship question on the 2020 census. On this episode of Trending Globally, he and Sarah talk about the politics and policy of the 2020 US census...

On this episode of Trending Globally, Sarah talks with Watson sociologist Jayanti Owens about her research on racial discrimination in one of America’s most important institutions: our schools. They look at how racial discrimination affects students as young as 5 years old, how these effects ripple out into the rest of society, and how thoughtful public policy can help make an education system tha...

Even by our current standards for presidential news, President Trump’s inquiries into purchasing Greenland this summer were surprising. And while few people took it seriously, Watson political scientist Jeff Colgan still wants to make clear: the US’s relationship with Greenland is no joke. On this episode of Trending Globally, Sarah and Jeff talk about Greenland's role in the Cold War, the politic...

NOTE FOR LISTENERS: Mark and Carrie will be moving to their own podcast channel in the coming weeks. To subscribe to their new feed, search for 'Mark and Carrie' wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks! Mark Blyth, political economist at Brown's Watson Institute, and Carrie Nordlund, political scientist and associate director of Brown's Master of Public Affairs program, share their take on the news...

Immigration is an inherently interdisciplinary subject. On this episode, Sarah talks with three postdoctoral fellows at Watson doing work on immigration: Aileen Teague, Rawan Arar, and Almita Miranda. A historian, a sociologist, and an anthropologist, they’re the perfect guests to help connect the dots on such a pressing, multifaceted topic. You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https:/...