Public Policy

Public Policy

episodes

Interviews with scholars of public policy about their new books.

Heart-Centered Connections: Seven Essential Skills for Helping Neurodiverse and Marginalized Children Thrive

July 16, 2026

Heart-Centered Connections

Niki Elliott

Heart-Centered Connections: Seven Essential Skills for Helping Neurodiverse and Marginalized Children Thrive is a transformative guide for working wi…

Doubled Up: Shared Households and the Precarious Lives of Families

July 9, 2026

Doubled Up

Hope Harvey

More than eleven million children in the US live in doubled-up households, sharing space with extended family or friends. These households are even mo…

Nicholas Freudenberg, "Fighting for New York: Activism for Health and Social Justice Since The 1960s" (Columbia UP, 2026)

July 7, 2026

Fighting for New York

Nicholas Freudenberg
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Today I'm speaking with Nicholas Freudenberg, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Public Health at the CUNY School of Public Health. We are discussing…

Martina Baradel, "21st Century Yakuza: Death of Japanese Organised Crime" (Oxford UP, 2026)

July 5, 2026

21st Century Yakuza

Martina Baradel
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Once dominant and institutionalised, the Yakuza, one of Japan's best known criminal organisations, is now shrinking under the combined pressure of…

Street Level: HUD at 60

June 23, 2026

Street Level

Bench Ansfield, Kent Watkins, John Finch, and Kristin Sylvian
Hosted by Soundscapes NYC

In 2025, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) marked its 60th anniversary. Created amid the optimism and urgency of the civil ri…

Why Democracy’s Troubles Should Come as No Surprise

June 23, 2026

Why Democracy’s Troubles Should Come as No Surprise

Sheri Berman
Hosted by Nic Cheeseman

Why have so many democracies become more polarized, unstable, and vulnerable to authoritarianism? And why did so many political observers fail to see …

Jonathon W. Penney, "Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

June 23, 2026

Chilling Effects

Jonathon W. Penney
Hosted by Jake Chanenson

In Chilling Effects: Repression, Conformity, and Power in the Digital Age (Cambridge UP, 2025), Jonathon W. Penney explores the increasing weaponizati…

Jeremy J. Holland, "The Political Worldviews of American Social Movements: Partisan Politics and the Future of Democracy" (Routledge, 2026)

June 21, 2026

The Political Worldviews of American Social Movements

Jeremy J. Holland
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

The Political Worldviews of American Social Movements: Partisan Politics and the Future of Democracy (Routledge, 2026) explores the political worldvie…

Inside the Mississippi Marathon: How Mississippi Dramatically Improved Its Education System with Rachel Canter

June 19, 2026

Inside the Mississippi Marathon

Rachel Canter
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

In 2008, Rachel Canter founded Mississippi First, an education non-profit with the mission of improving educational outcomes for students across the s…

AI, Algocracy, and Democracy's Challenging Road Ahead with Andrew Sorota

June 12, 2026

AI, Algocracy, and Democracy's Challenging Road Ahead

Andrew Sorota
Hosted by Caleb Zakarin

Like many people, I've been following the developments of AI, testing out new models and following the deluge of news stories about the fight for supr…

Ladan Rahbari and Olga Burlyuk eds., "From the Margins: Migrant Academics’ Narratives of Precarity" (Open Book Publishers, 2026)

June 8, 2026

From the Margins

Ladan Rahbari and Olga Burlyuk eds.
Hosted by Amisah Bakuri

In this episode of the New Books Network, I spoke with Dr Olga Burlyuk and Dr Ladan Rahbari about their new edited volume, From the Margins: Migrant A…

Michael Brownstein et al., "Somebody Should Do Something: How Anyone Can Help Create Social Change" (MIT Press, 2025)

June 6, 2026

Somebody Should Do Something

Michael Brownstein, Alex Madva, and Daniel Kelly
Hosted by Thomas Discenna

A novel and scientific approach to creating transformative social change—and the surprising ways that each of us can help make a real difference. Chan…

Max Krahé and Sara Schulte, "Housing Policy At An Expensive Dead End" (Dezernat Zukunft, 2026)

June 3, 2026

Housing Policy At An Expensive Dead End

Max Krahé and Sara Schulte

If governments provide financial support for affordable housing, should they provide support for inhabitants directly, or rather for the construction …

Erica Bornstein, "A Revolution of Rules: The Regulatory Reform of India's Nonprofit Sector" (Stanford UP, 2025)

May 21, 2026

A Revolution of Rules

Erica Bornstein
Hosted by Lilly Goren

Erica Bornstein, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon (and Divisional Associate Dean), has a new book that delves into the regulatory…

Chiara Libiseller, "Reconceptualizing War: The Rise and Fall of Fashionable Concepts in Strategic Studies" (Oxford UP, 2026)

May 12, 2026

Reconceptualizing War

Chiara Libiseller
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The field of Strategic Studies, which studies the use and threat of force for political purposes, has seen the repeated rise of concepts to dominate d…

Benjamin Robert Siegel, "Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers" (Oxford UP, 2026)

May 12, 2026

Markets of Pain

Benjamin Robert Siegel
Hosted by Tom Sojka

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows ho…

Photis Lysandrou, "Dollar Dominance: Why It Rules the Global Economy and How to Challenge It" (Policy Press, 2025)

May 12, 2026

Dollar Dominance

Photis Lysandrou

In a world shaken by crises, why does the dollar continue to dominate? In Dollar Dominance: Why It Rules the Global Economy and How to Challenge It (P…

Rachel Grace Newman, "The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite" (U California Press, 2026)

May 10, 2026

The Future in Their Hands

Rachel Grace Newman
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

The Future in Their Hands: Making Mexico's Foreign-Educated Elite (U California Press, 2026), by Dr. Rachel Grace Newman is a deep history of the poli…

Olivier Sylvain, "Reclaiming the Internet: How Big Tech Took Control-And How We Can Take It Back" (Columbia Global Reports, 2026)

May 9, 2026

Reclaiming the Internet

Olivier Sylvain
Hosted by Jake Chanenson

Reclaiming the Internet: How Big Tech Took Control-And How We Can Take It Back (Columbia Global Reports, 2026) is an indictment of how Big Tech cloaks…

170 What Waltham Does When the Water Rises: Rachel McKane and Danielle Jacques (JP)

May 7, 2026

What Waltham Does When the Water Rises

Permafrost melts, desert cities boil, inland lakes dry up; but Waltham too in its own way has become one of the dark places of the earth. Adverse manm…