Public Policy

Public Policy

episodes

Interviews with scholars of public policy about their new books.

Foster Care, Family, and Social Class: A Conversation with Rob Henderson

March 14, 2024

Foster Care, Family, and Social Class

Rob Henderson
Hosted by Annika Nordquist

Robert Kim Henderson, a recently-minted psychology PhD from Cambridge and prominent essayist, had a troubled childhood. A victim of child abuse, he wa…

Ali Bhagat, "Governing the Displaced: Race and Ambivalence in Global Capitalism" (Cornell UP, 2024)

March 14, 2024

Governing the Displaced

Ali Bhagat
Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty

Governing the Displaced: Race and Ambivalence in Global Capitalism (Cornell UP, 2024) answers a straightforward question: how are refugees governed un…

Travis Rieder, "Catastrophe Ethics: How to Choose Well in a World of Tough Choices" (Dutton, 2024)

March 13, 2024

Catastrophe Ethics

Travis Rieder
Hosted by Claire Clark

In a world of often confusing and terrifying global problems, how should we make choices in our everyday lives? Does anything on the individual level …

David E. Gilbert, "Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land: A Social Movement Ethnography" (U California Press, 2024)

March 12, 2024

Countering Dispossession, Reclaiming Land

David E. Gilbert
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Two decades ago, a group of Indonesian agricultural workers began occupying the agribusiness plantation near their homes. In the years since, members …

Samantha Majic, "Lights, Camera, Feminism?: Celebrities and Anti-Trafficking Politics" (U California Press, 2023)

March 10, 2024

Lights, Camera, Feminism?

Samantha Majic
Hosted by Nick Cheesman

Recent years have brought an upsurge in celebrity activism. Not a day goes by without an actor or musician taking to a stage, a podium or the internet…

Jacqueline Kennelly, "Burnt by Democracy: Youth, Inequality, and the Erosion of Civic Life" (U Toronto Press, 2023)

March 9, 2024

Burnt by Democracy

Jacqueline Kennelly
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Burnt by Democracy: Youth, Inequality, and the Erosion of Civic Life (University of Toronto Press, 2023) by Dr. Jacqueline Kennelly traces the politic…

Benjamin J. Pauli, "Flint Fights Back: Environmental Justice and Democracy in the Flint Water Crisis" (MIT Press, 2019)

March 9, 2024

Flint Fights Back

Benjamin J. Pauli
Hosted by Patricia Houser

Originally published in 2019, Benjamin Pauli’s book, Flint Fights Back offers lasting insights into one of the most important drinking water-caused pu…

Adam Dean, "Opening Up by Cracking Down: Labor Repression and Trade Liberalization in Democratic Developing Countries" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

March 4, 2024

Opening Up by Cracking Down

Adam Dean

How did democratic developing countries open their economies during the late-twentieth century? Since labor unions opposed free trade, democratic gove…

Noah L. Nathan, "The Scarce State: Inequality and Political Power in the Hinterland" (Cambridge UP, 2023)

March 3, 2024

The Scarce State

Noah L. Nathan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

States are often minimally present in the rural periphery. Yet a limited presence does not mean a limited impact. Isolated state actions in regions wh…

Terry Williams, "Life Underground: Encounters with People Below the Streets of New York" (Columbia UP, 2024)

March 1, 2024

Life Underground

Terry Williams
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Aboveground, Manhattan’s Riverside Park provides open space for the densely populated Upper West Side. Beneath its surface run railroad tunnels, disus…

Verity Harding, "AI Needs You: How We Can Change AI's Future and Save Our Own" (Princeton UP, 2024)

March 1, 2024

AI Needs You

Verity Harding
Hosted by Mark Klobas

Artificial intelligence may be the most transformative technology of our time. As AI's power grows, so does the need to figure out what--and who--this…

Carly Goodman, "Dreamland: America's Immigration Lottery in an Age of Restriction" (UNC Press, 2023)

February 29, 2024

Dreamland

Carly Goodman

In a world of border walls and obstacles to migration, a lottery where winners can gain permanent residency in the United States sounds too good to be…

Alissa Quart and David Wallis, "Going for Broke: Living on the Edge in the World's Richest Country" (Haymarket, 2023)

February 28, 2024

Going for Broke

Alissa Quart and David Wallis
Hosted by Thomas Discenna

Going for Broke: Living on the Edge in the World's Richest Country (Haymarket, 2023), edited by Alissa Quart, Executive Director of the Economic Hards…

Calla Hummel, "Why Informal Workers Organize: Contentious Politics, Enforcement, and the State" (Oxford UP, 2022)

February 25, 2024

Why Informal Workers Organize

Calla Hummel
Hosted by Dhouha Djerbi

Informal workers make up over two billion workers or about 50 percent of the global workforce, and yet scholarly understandings of informal workers’ p…

What Does It Mean to Govern a Multilingual Society Well?

February 22, 2024

What Does It Mean to Govern a Multilingual Society Well?

Alexandra Grey

Hanna Torsh speaks with Alexandra Grey about good governance in linguistically diverse cities. Linguistic diversity is often seen through a deficit …

Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There

February 22, 2024

Look Again

Cass R. Sunstein

Today’s book is: Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2024), by Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein, a b…

Daniel Skinner et al., "The City and the Hospital: The Paradox of Medically Overserved Communities" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

February 21, 2024

The City and the Hospital

Daniel Skinner, Jonathan R. Wynn and Berkeley Franz
Hosted by Michael Johnston

An enduring paradox of urban public health is that many communities around hospitals are economically distressed and, counterintuitively, medically un…

Laurence Ralph, "Sito: An American Teenager and the City That Failed Him" (Grand Central Publishing, 2023)

February 21, 2024

Sito

Laurence Ralph
Hosted by Reighan Gillam

In September of 2019, Luis Alberto Quiñonez—known as Sito— was shot to death as he sat in his car in the Mission District of San Francisco. He was nin…

Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, "American Gun: The True Story of the AR-15" (FSG, 2023)

February 20, 2024

American Gun

Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson
Hosted by Chris Holmes

In the 1950s, an obsessive firearms designer named Eugene Stoner invented the AR-15 rifle in a California garage. High-minded and patriotic, Stoner so…

Laurence Cox et al., "Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Social Movements" (Edward Elgar, 2024)

February 17, 2024

Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Social Movements

Laurence Cox, Anna Szolucha, Alberto Arribas Lozano, and Sutapa Chattopadhyay
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Addressing practice-oriented questions, this handbook engages with both theoretical and political dimensions, unpacking the multidimensional nature of…