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"…A lot of the conversation around college education is that tuition is increasing very rapidly, debt is increasing very rapidly and what does that mean for everyone? If we take a bigger step back we want to reframe the discussion around higher education as the potential investment available to people in our economy to help them be more productive in the labor market and to help them have better financial lives themselves. So when we think about higher education, rather than focusing all on the costs like we have been doing with the focus on the narrative about tuition and debt, I think it is important that we kind of refocus and talk about what students are getting from their college degrees. Basically encouraging people to think about this as cost-benefit analysis as they would with any other financial activity in their life. -- Beth Akers

"People who have higher levels of education are far more likely to start or own a business, create jobs in that way; they are far more likely to file a patent, and do other things that are immeasurable contributions to intellectual thought and scientific thought and advancing living standards in important ways. Now quantifying those would be impossible. One that is easy to quantify, that I did in a piece a few of months ago for Brookings, is looking at not just what college graduates pay in taxes but their actual consumption as a direct benefit to local communities and the entire country." -- Jonathan Rothwell

In this episode of "Intersections," Beth Akers, fellow at the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings, and Jonathan Rothwell, former fellow at the Metropolitan Policy Program and senior economist at Gallup, examine the current state of higher education by looking at student debt and its correlation to the value added for individuals with a college education.

Show Notes

Using earnings data to rank colleges: A value-added approach updated with College Scorecard data

What colleges do for local economies: A direct measure based on consumption?

Making college less risky to boost social mobility

More data can make college less risky

The game of loans: rhetoric and reality of student debt

With thanks to audio engineer and producer Zack Kulzer, Mark Hoelscher, Carisa Nietsche, Sara Abdel-Rahim, Eric Abalahin, Fred Dews and Richard Fawal.

Subscribe to the Intersections on iTunes, and send feedback email to [email protected].

"When I go to meetings today, I see more women, and I see many more younger women coming into the field. But what's really struck me, as I've been thinking about this issue of women in foreign policy in the last couple years, is the difference between presence and voice. There are many more women working in foreign policy today, but you don't see the same proportion of women prominent in foreign policy speaking in the media, in senior positions, or even when you're all in the room together sitting at the table and speaking as the lead speaker at a conference. It's that distinction between presence and voice and what accounts for that gap. That's what I find both fascinating and frustrating."—Tamara Wittes

"I think it is getting better. I think women are starting to see examples of other women who are at the table, who are speaking up, who are volunteering, who are being more confident and starting to learn that just because you might not think you are the greatest expert on something, doesn't mean you don't have the right to give your opinion and start speaking up."—Sarah Yerkes

In this week's episode of "Intersections," Tamara Wittes, senior fellow and the director of the Center for Middle East Policy, and Sarah Yerkes, a visiting fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy, discuss their experiences as women working in foreign policy, both in and out of government. They also shed light on progress regarding the active participation of women in foreign policy, while looking forward to potential improvements in order to promote more equality for women's representation in government.

Show Notes

The Absence of Women from Middle East Policy Debates: An Update

Women still overlooked in vital peacekeeping process, study finds

An All-Women Symposium: The Missing XX-Factor

Foreign Policy Interrupted

Women Are Underrepresented In Cable News Segments On Foreign Affairs, National Security

With thanks to audio engineer and producer Zack Kulzer, Mark Hoelscher, Carisa Nietsche, Sara Abdel-Rahim, Eric Abalahin, Fred Dews and Richard Fawal.

Subscribe to the Intersections on iTunes, and send feedback email to [email protected].

"If we think about the progress of getting people out of extreme poverty, it is really impressive. But it is actually a much slower trend then what we have seen in the spread of digital technology. The speed with which mobile phone ownership has spread around the world, access to bank accounts, biometric identification cards, people getting online – these trends are happening even faster. We are seeing 100-300 million people each year getting access to a phone or biometric ID for the first time. These trends in getting people digitally connected. . .are progressing at such speed that they're starting to reach some of the poorest people in the world. Digital technology is changing what it means to be poor because it's bringing poor people out of the margins."- Laurence Chandy

"The role of governments will continue to be central in improving education. At the end of the day, they're the only ones who have the duty and the mandate to care about the poorest of the poor. But they will more and more have to partner with organizations from the private sector, the philanthropic community and the non-profit community to try to reach the most marginalized kids for education. Governments can set an enabling environment that lets these sets of actors bring their creativity, their new way of approaching intractable problems into a space where they're given the ability to scale up their work." -Rebecca Winthrop

In this week's episode of "Intersections," Laurence Chandy, fellow in the Global Economy and Development program, and Rebecca Winthrop, senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education, discuss progress toward meeting the Sustainable Development Goals of ending poverty and achieving education for all, and how digital technologies can be harnessed in that pursuit. Also, Winthrop and Chandy addressed the tools needed to reach the last 10% - those most marginalized.

Show Notes

What Works in Girls' Education: Evidence for the World's Best Investment

Millions learning: Scaling up quality education in developing countries

Connecting the poor is the best hope for ending poverty

Disrupting development with digital technologies

With thanks to audio engineer and producer Zack Kulzer, Carisa Nietsche, Sara Abdel-Rahim, Brionne Smith, Eric Abalahin, Fred Dews and Richard Fawal.

Subscribe to the Intersections on iTunes, and send feedback email to [email protected].

"We set out to make this game because we think that the national debt is an important issue that budget experts talk about all the time but it is very hard for the general public to really understand, so we thought to do it in a way that is more entertaining and more fun." — Louise Sheiner

"One of the goals of the game is to give people a big picture in their mind, so when some person runs for president or Congress they can say, 'Hey this person's numbers don't add up.'" — David Wessel

In this episode of "Intersections," Brookings experts Louise Sheiner, senior fellow and policy director for the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy, and David Wessel, senior fellow and director of the Hutchins Center, discuss their new interactive game "The Fiscal Ship." This computer game allows players to pick from a menu of tax and spending options to reduce the debt from projected levels over the next 25 years. Sheiner and Wessel also discuss the long-term changes in policy that could potentially boost the economy and reduce the debt in the future.

Show Notes

Why we made a computer game about the federal budget

How we picked the debt goal for "The Fiscal Ship"

How important is lowering the national debt?

With thanks to audio engineer and producer Zack Kulzer, Carisa Nietsche, Sara Abdel-Rahim, Brionne Smith, Eric Abalahin, Fred Dews and Richard Fawal.

Subscribe to Intersections on iTunes, and send feedback email to [email protected].

"People think poverty as a measure of income, but as a lived experience for what it means to be poor, it tends to involve a lot of other things as well. We have taken some other dimensions such as low education, lack of health insurance, being in an unemployed household, and being in an area with concentrated poverty, where 1 in 5 of your neighbors in below the poverty line. One of the interesting questions becomes, how do those different dimensions of disadvantage go together? Is it the same people experiencing all of those different kinds of disadvantage, or different people in different places experiencing different things?"—Richard Reeves

"Policies need to be better integrated to work. To alleviate poverty, rarely is just increasing income going to be enough if you're facing things like deep health disparities and concentrations of poverty that carry so many other barriers that make it much harder for people to move out of poverty. This sort of a lens just gives you that multidimensional look beyond income."—Elizabeth Kneebone

In this episode of "Intersections," Brookings experts Elizabeth Kneebone, fellow in Metropolitan Policy Program, and Richard Reeves, senior fellow in Economic Studies, discuss their recent research on the multiple barriers and challenges that complicate the path out of poverty, and how different dimensions of poverty affect different people across the country.

Show notes

The intersection of race, place, and multidimensional poverty

With thanks to audio engineer and producer Zack Kulzer, Carisa Nietsche, Sara Abdel-Rahim, Eric Abalahin, Fred Dews and Richard Fawal.

Subscribe to the Intersections on iTunes, and send feedback email to [email protected].

“I locate the common roots of the rise of right-wing populism in globalization and technological change. You have a lot of people in Europe and the United States displaced, in the sense that they had decent standards of living and could count on that happening for their children...but that is in danger now” -- E.J. Dionne, Jr.

“In my own country, Germany, the increasing amount of aggression and hate related to refugees, coming particularly from Eastern Germany, suggests that we underestimate the degree to which some people were taken along with reunification and globalization and some have felt stranded, not receiving some of the benefits of the last twenty or thirty years.” – Constanze Stelzenmüller

In this episode of “Intersections,” scholars Constanze Stelzenmüller, the Robert Bosch senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe and E.J. Dionne, Jr., a senior fellow in Governance Studies discuss how economic grievances and political fragmentation are fueling the rise of right-wing political movements in the United States and Europe.

Show Notes

Why the right went wrong: Conservatism from Goldwater to the Tea Party and beyond.

A Donald for all of us—how right-wing populism is upending politics on both sides of the Atlantic

With thanks to audio engineer and producer Zack Kulzer, Carisa Nietsche, Sara Abdel-Rahim, Eric Abalahin, Fred Dews and Richard Fawal.

Subscribe to Intersections on iTunes, and send feedback email to [email protected].

“We have to tackle a lot of problems to get Americans the jobs and standard of living that they want to get,” Elaine Kamarck says. In this inaugural episode of our new podcast series, “Intersections,” join scholars Elaine Kamarck, director of the Center for Effective Public Management and Michael O’ Hanlon, co-director of Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence as they sit down to discuss the real issues that the presidential candidates are and aren’t talking about during this election cycle.

“All of us need the promise of growth and a better economic future, therefore we have to allocate our government resources and our government reforms towards servicing that central objective.” O’Hanlon and Kamarck address what presidential candidates should be focusing on in order to ensure they are responding to voters’ top concerns.

Show Notes

Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know about How America Nominates Its Presidential Candidates

The Future of Land Warfare

With thanks to audio engineer and producer Zack Kulzer, Carisa Nietsche, Sara Abdel-Rahim, Fred Dews and Richard Fawal.

Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, and send feedback email to [email protected].

Economic recovery. Elections. Terrorism. Global poverty. Trade. Policy issues are complex and multi-faceted. Want more than the 30-second sound bite? Tune in to Intersections, a new podcast from the Brookings Institution, where two experts delve into the varying angles of the complicated issues facing our nation and the world. Subscribe now and be the first to hear new episodes.

Intersections is hosted by Adrianna Pita.