Recently, the U.S. has experienced several financial crises - all of them hard on American families.  In 2008, over eight million Americans lost their jobs in the Great Recession. In 2020, unemployment was at 13 percent thanks to the COVID pandemic. By early 2025, the economy had recovered and unemployment had dropped back to the 4 percent range. Then sweeping new tariffs sent the stock market reeling. 

Vicki Bogan, who studies household finance, inequality and investment decision making, talks with Manoj Mohanan, Interim Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, about what this latest financial shock might mean for families.

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The U.S. is a nation of immigrants, but we have a complex history on the topic. At times, the government has tried deporting large numbers of immigrants, with the goal of protecting the jobs and wages of native-born Americans. The current administration has announced plans to deport all undocumented immigrants, even some legal immigrants, as well as new travel bans. Hannah Postel researches the relationship of migration and economic development and provides a historical perspective on immigration deportations and restrictions. She talks with Anna Gassman-Pines, who leads faculty affairs at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

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The price of housing has skyrocketed in recent years. Scholars estimate we are short between two and five million homes nationwide. Warren Lowell spent the last several years immersed in American housing policy as part of his PhD studies at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. For one study, he interviewed real estate developers and investors. He joins Sanford interim Dean Manoj Mohanan podcast to talk about what he learned.

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In the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, Congress established the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the CFPB. It protects Americans from predatory practices by consumer finance companies. The CFPB enforces federal laws and investigates fraud and abuse. It has sent over 6.8 million complaints to companies for resolution so far. The bureau has been targeted for massive cuts by the new administration which, thus far, have been blocked by a federal judge. Mallory SoRelle, a consumer finance expert and author of Democracy Declined: the Failed Politics of Consumer Financial Protection, talks with Manoj Mohanan, interim Dean of Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy, about the CFPB and what dismantling it could mean for Americans.

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What does it mean for the country that President Trump has signed an executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education? Leslie Babinski, a researcher who focuses on education and former director of the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy talks about this extraordinary change with guest host Anna Gassman-Pines, Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

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What does it mean for democracy when a president owns a social platform, and is supported by others with major platforms of their own? Philip Napoli directs the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University and he joins Manoj Mohanan, interim public policy dean at Duke to discuss historical parallels to the connection between policy and media ownership, and regulation options. His book is called “Social Media and the Public Interest, Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age." 

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The new administration’s interest in cold, snowy regions of the world might have come out of the blue to many Americans, but not to Tim Nichols. He leads the Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy Master of National Security Policy program – and he teaches about the growing strategic importance of Greenland and the broader Arctic. He joins Manoj Mohanan, interim public policy dean at Duke to discuss how melting ice is opening up international competition related to shipping and mineral drilling.

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President Trump returns to the White House with his “America First” approach - a strategy critics say often comes at the expense of international alliances and multilateral commitments. Duke professor Susan Colbourn, a historian specializing in NATO, joins Manoj Mohanan, interim Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke to discuss the topic. She’s the author of Euromissiles: The Nuclear Weapons That Nearly Destroyed NATO, and is associate director of the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy.

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It’s no secret that Americans’ ability to engage in meaningful conversations across political, cultural, and ideological divides feels more strained than ever. In this episode, we discuss how to bring people together. Two words: civil discourse. Duke professor Abdullah Antepli is a nationally recognized expert in civil discourse. Recently he’s been teaching a course on the topic and is creating public forums for dialogue between people with opposing views.

Antepli leads Polis, Duke’s Center for Politics. He talks with Manoj Mohanan, interim Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke.

This episode is part of a series of election-related conversations.

Could political polarization be addressed by something very simple – getting to know each other better? David Brooks argues that polarization stems from an urgent need for connection. "There are connections between seeing others and strengthening our communities and in turn, democracy," he says.

Brooks is an opinion columnist for the New York Times. He appears regularly on the PBS NewsHour, NPR's All Things Considered, and NBC's Meet the Press. His new book is titled, How to Know a Person, the Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.

This episode is part of our ongoing series of election-related conversations.

Guest host: Alison Jones of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy at Duke University.