General Martin Dempsey is former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as such was the nation’s highest-ranking military officer. He talks about his unlikely rise in the military, changes in the military since 9-11, the one thing he wishes he could have accomplished during his time as chairman, and the words he found to comfort those left behind when a fellow serviceman or woman has been killed.

Parents have all sorts of concerns about their children when it comes to technology. Duke Professor Candice Odgers tells us which concerns her research shows are valid. 

Since the late 1990s, the academic performance of many students in London has risen dramatically – so much so, it now exceeds national averages. The improvement is due largely to big gains in the 13 districts of Inner London – places with the greatest concentrations of low-income and minority students. Sanford professor Helen “Sunny” Ladd spent a month in two of those boroughs, Tower Hamlets and Hackney, in order to identify what policies are driving the change.

How should we determine whether children are actually learning in school? The U.S. has standardized testing, but some other countries have followed a different approach known as "inspection and review". Sanford professor Helen "Sunny" Ladd thinks such an approach shows great promise. 

Kelly Brownell and Billy Pizer discuss the pros and cons of different policy approaches to climate change, from carbon taxes to cleaner automobiles and renewable energy. They also discuss the potential for these options to succeed given the polarized political landscape. From 2008 to 2011, Pizer was deputy assistant secretary for environment and energy in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, where he created and led a new office responsible for the department’s role in the domestic and international environment and energy agenda of the U.S. Pizer joined the faculty of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in the fall of 2011. The two discuss the pros and cons of different policy approaches to climate change.

North Carolina’s contentious political climate is making national headlines. But there's a new effort to get people with differing political viewpoints talking civilly to each other. 

Will Chile be the first country to end obesity? Health expert Barry Popkin of the Nutrition Transition Research Program at UNC Chapel Hill says yes. Another in series about the future of food policy.

Mexico taxed soda, and people drank less of them. Barry Popkin, director of the Nutrition Transition Research program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, talks about why the tax worked and what it means.

Finland used to have a diet with high saturated fat and sodium. No anymore. A conversation with Francesco Branca of the World Health Organization. Part of series on the future of food policy.

Another in our series of conversation with global food leaders. Francesco Branca, Director of the Department of Nutrition for Health and Development at the World Health Organization, says there's a need for change. "People have been talking about a food revolution," he says. "I think we should believe in it."