Hello everyone and welcome to our podcast on Public Policy! In this first episode, we will get an introduction to this course and in particular to the course Canvas site. Some of the most critical tools you will need to navigate this class are the Weekly Roadmap pages which are discussed early on. We will spend about 15 minutes on that (and getting a brief introduction to the instructor) and then will delve into the first chapter materials from our text. Our focus is on general concepts like public policy, the "levels" of policy, policy "instruments", and the larger policy environment in the U.S. I'm very happy to have you joining this course and look forward to 'speaking' with you for the next several weeks!