A biweekly discussion bridging research, politics, and policy to address today's critical global challenges. Hosted by the Watson Institute at Brown University.

Trending Globally: Politics and Policy

Litmus podcast is a community crowdsourced podcast that explores who we are and where we land on the proverbial scale on a particular topic at Brown University. 
The Litmus Podcast is a brand new pursuit for the Multimedia Labs at Brown, and this episode is a prototype of what we think could be a really great podcast for our community.  In this episode, we hear from some staff and Alumni about how to pick the best classes, a few awesome resources to check out on campus, some contrasting views on what the word community means at Brown, and some sage advice about success. 
Because this episode is a prototype, we hope to iterate or remake it with even more content and perspectives for Fall 2021, so we are keeping participation/submissions open during the summer! If you are a member of the Brown community and would like to add something, provide a counterpoint to what you hear, or take the topic in a completely different direction, consider visiting our website at brown.edu/go/litmuspodcast to find out how to submit your own Litmus Message.

Litmus Podcast Prototype Episode: What Should First Year Students Know About Brown?

Mark Blyth, political economist at Brown's Watson Institute, and Carrie Nordlund, political scientist and associate director of Brown's Annenberg Institute, share their take on the week's news.

On this episode: the G7's shaky promises on taxing the rich, and shaky relationships with China and Russia; regional variations in the Covid-19 recovery in the US; making sense of the tight US labor market; the Supreme Court talks Snapchat and labor organizing; Justice Stephen Breyer's work/life balance; voting rights, critical race theory, and the 2022 midterm elections; can Jeff Bezos just stay in space?

You can listen to Mark on Watson's podcast Trending Globally here: [https://soundcloud.com/watsoninstitute/earth-day-special-whats-missing-from-the-climate-discussion]

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jeOI2Bi2pjZrvioInN4dvoILNNurLmN9/view?usp=sharing]

06/25/2021 - The Putative, Possible, Potential End of the Pandemic

Mark Blyth, political economist at Brown's Watson Institute, and Carrie Nordlund, political scientist and associate director of Brown's Annenberg Institute, share their take on the week's news.

On this episode: the Delta variant spreads the globe; the economy is doing great and has reverted to the mean (or it isn't and it hasn't); Carrie's Olympic fever and Mark's Olympic skepticism; Haiti, South Africa, and fragile states in peril; billionaires in space; waiting for Prince Harry's memoir's Netflix adaptation.

You can learn more about the Watson Institute's other podcasts here: [https://watson.brown.edu/news/podcasts]

[Transcript forthcoming]

07/30/2021 - There Is No Mean Reversion (Except for Bennifer)

SOUNDCLOUD LISTENERS: We've moved Trending Globally to a new podcast platform and new website, so starting this fall, episodes will no longer be available on Soundcloud. You can still listen by subscribing to Trending Globally on your favorite podcast app, or online here: [https://trending-globally.captivate.fm/]. Thanks! 

Before the pandemic, Watson economist Emily Oster was best known for her books Expecting Better and Cribsheet. They offered data-driven advice about pregnancy and raising young children, and they’ve become required reading for many young parents. 

Her knack for synthesizing data into plain-language advice made her a natural fit for her next role: as one of the unofficial guiding voices behind school reopening plans in America this past year.

The pandemic -- and Emily’s role in it -- have added special valence to her newest book, The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years. Unlike her previous two books, this one is focused less on crunching data than on teaching readers how to make complex decisions when they don’t have all the data. As such, it’s probably her most universal book to date. 

On this episode Sarah ’87 talks with Emily about The Family Firm, her experience in the spotlight during recent debates over school reopening, and how to make decisions that you can feel good about no matter the outcome. 

You can purchase The Family Firm here: [https://www.amazon.com/Family-Firm-Data-Driven-Decision-ParentData/dp/1984881752/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1628615092&sr=8-1]

Transcript forthcoming.

How to Make Tough Decisions with Economist Emily Oster

SOUNDCLOUD LISTENERS: We've moved Trending Globally to a new podcast platform and new website, so starting this fall, episodes will no longer be available on Soundcloud. You can still listen by subscribing to Trending Globally on your favorite podcast app, or online here: [https://trending-globally.captivate.fm/]. Thanks!

It’s been a summer of crisis in some of the world’s most fragile states. 

At Trending Globally, we’ve found ourselves asking the same questions over and over lately -- are the world’s rich countries simply not doing enough to help fragile states around the world? Or are they helping, but in the wrong way? 

On this episode guest host Dan Richards talks with Brian Atwood, a visiting fellow at the Watson Institute, about the unique challenges of providing aid to fragile states. Brian led the U.S. Agency for International Development - known as USAID - under President Clinton. He was also dean of the Humphrey School for Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota from 2002 until 2010. Brian explains what the international community is getting wrong when it comes to helping the world’s fragile states, and what we might change to make it right. 

You can get more information about this and every other Trending Globally episode, including transcripts, by visiting our website here: [https://trending-globally.captivate.fm/] 

You can learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts here: [https://watson.brown.edu/news/podcasts]

From Haiti to Afghanistan to Ethiopia, the Challenge of Supporting Fragile States

SOUNDCLOUD LISTENERS: We've moved Trending Globally to a new podcast platform and new website, so starting this fall, episodes will no longer be available on Soundcloud. You can still listen by subscribing to Trending Globally on your favorite podcast app, or online here: [trending-globally.captivate.fm/]. Thanks!

This fall marks the 20th year of American military engagement abroad following the events of 9/11. This year Trending Globally is teaming up with scholars at the Costs of War project to explore the effects of two decades of war. The Costs of War project is an interdisciplinary group of scholars who have stepped in where the government has often failed, working to measure the true financial, human, political, and environmental costs of America’s post-9/11 wars. 

On this episode Sarah Baldwin ’87 talks with Stephanie Savell, one of the project’s directors, about how the organization started and why its work is more necessary than ever. Dan Richards talks with David Vine about one of the most heartbreaking costs of these wars: the more than 38 million people who have been displaced from their homes in countries including Afghanistan and Iraq.

Transcript forthcoming. 

Learn more about the Costs of War Project: [https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/]

Learn more about and purchase David Vine’s book ​​'The United States of War: A Global History of America's Endless Conflicts, from Columbus to the Islamic State': [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520385689/the-united-states-of-war]

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts [https://watson.brown.edu/news/podcasts]

After 20 Years, Measuring the True Costs of America’s Post-9/11 Wars

SOUNDCLOUD LISTENERS: We've moved Trending Globally to a new podcast platform and new website, so starting this fall, episodes will no longer be available on Soundcloud. You can still listen by subscribing to Trending Globally on your favorite podcast app, or online here: [trending-globally.captivate.fm/]. Thanks!

The past 18 months have been a strange time for art lovers. Museums and galleries have sat empty. Artistic communities have, like all of us, learned to live in isolation. At the same time, though, there’s been a revolution in how we think of public space in our cities and towns. Streets, parks, and even alleyways have turned into our storefronts, our classrooms, and our museums. 

What do these changes mean for the art world, and for arts’ relationship to the rest of the world?

On this episode, Trending Globally partnered with ‘Providence Curates’ to explore this question. Providence Curates is a nonprofit made up of artists, writers, and curators, dedicated to expanding and diversifying artistic communities in the region and to reimagining how art can enter the public realm. 

This conversation was put together for PVDFest Ideas 2021, an Arts and Ideas festival in Providence, Rhode Island. 

Guests on this week’s show: 

Jonny Skye is a gallerist based in Providence, RI, and a board member of Providence Curates. 
Spencer Evans is an artist, a professor of drawing at RISD, and a board member of Providence Curates. 
Melaine Ferdinand King is a 4th-year doctoral candidate in Africana Studies at Brown University
Judith Tolnick Champa is an artist, curator, and founder of Providence Curates and the Providence Biennale. 
‘Providence Curates: Cultivating a Transformative Experiment,’ is an offshoot of the Providence Biennale. You can learn more on their website, and contact them directly at providencebiennial@gmail.com. 

Special thanks to Stephanie Fortunato, Director, and Dr. Micah Salkind, Special Projects Manager of the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture + Tourism (ACT) PVDFest Ideas 2021, for making this collaboration possible. You can find a list of all of this year’s PVDFest Ideas events (both live and virtual) on their website.

Expand - Ignite - Invite: What Does a More Inclusive Art World Look Like?

SOUNDCLOUD LISTENERS: We've moved Trending Globally to a new podcast platform and new website, so starting this fall, episodes will no longer be available on Soundcloud. You can still listen by subscribing to Trending Globally on your favorite podcast app, or online here: [trending-globally.captivate.fm/]. Thanks!

Remember when talking about the weather was boring? Not so anymore. Extreme weather events are becoming more common, and more extreme, with no sign of letting up. 

On this episode Sarah Baldwin ’87 talks with homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem about what these changes mean for humans: Where should we live? How should we live? How should we think about our place on this planet? 

Juliette Kayyem served under President Obama as an Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and is currently a senior lecturer at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she teaches crisis management and homeland security. Her upcoming book, The Devil Never Sleeps, reframes how to think about crisis management in an age of disasters, from the level of the individual up through the federal government. And if a conversation with an expert like this sounds too depressing, don’t worry: talking with Juliette is anything but. 

Transcript coming soon.

Extreme Weather is Getting Worse. How Do We Learn to Live With It?

SOUNDCLOUD LISTENERS: We've moved Trending Globally to a new podcast platform and new website, so starting this fall, episodes will no longer be available on Soundcloud. You can still listen by subscribing to Trending Globally on your favorite podcast app, or online here: [trending-globally.captivate.fm/]. Thanks!

In the world of international affairs, there’s perhaps no concept more fundamental than human rights. Yet despite that, these rights seem to be under greater threat in more places than we’ve seen in a long time. 

In order to understand how we might better promote human rights around the world, we at Trending Globally wanted to take a step back and explore the very concept of ‘human rights.’ Sarah Baldwin ‘87 and Dan Richards spoke with two experts -- one a political scientist, and one a neuroscientist -- about where exactly this concept comes from, and where it might be going. 

Guests on this episode:

Nina Tannenwald, Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Brown University

Tara White, Assistant Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University

Read Tara White’s paper on ‘Dignity Neuroscience’ here: [https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/nyas.14670]

Learn more about the Watson Institute's other podcasts on our website: [https://watson.brown.edu/news/podcasts]

How to Make Tough Decisions with Economist Emily Oster

Trending Globally: Politics & Policy

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