Policy 360

In this episode, we sit down with two people with different views for a conversation about social media platforms and political advertising.

Matt Perault is a former director of Public Policy at Facebook. Phil Napoli is author of Social Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age. Both are faculty members at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke.

• Matt Perault's podcast is TBD: Technology By Design
• Phil Napoli's book is Social Media and the Public Interest: Media Regulation in the Disinformation Age
• Read the episode transcript
• Music: Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

Is tech moving too fast for policymakers to catch up? A conversation with Matt Perault. He served as a director of public policy at Facebook. He is now a faculty member at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke, and director of the Center on Science and Technology Policy.

Music: The Zeppelin by Blue Dot Sessions

Music licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

Being obese puts people at risk for chronic disease like diabetes and is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. In this episode we explore a policy approach to deal with this epidemic – a tax on sugary drinks.

Kelly Brownell, director of the World Food Policy Center at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University breaks down the research and policy behind the approach.

• Subscribe to the Leading Voices in Food podcast
• Read the episode transcript
• Music: Donnalee by Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

Nivruti Rai is country head of Intel India and was recognized by Fortune India as one of the top 20 Most Powerful Women in Business in that country. She joins host Judith Kelley to discuss women in business and how private business and government can intersect, especially when it comes to a U.S.-based company and a country that is growing as rapidly as India.

• Read the episode transcript
• Music: The Zeppelin and Union Hall Melody by Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

Jason DeParle is a reporter for the New York Times and a two-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He was just a young reporter when he moved to the slums of Manila and lived with a local family. He has followed that family for three decades. The resulting book is remarkable; it provides an intimate yet sweeping perspective on migration.

• Book: A Good Provider is One Who Leaves, One Family and Migration in the 21st Century (Penguin Random House 2019)
• Read the episode transcript
• Music: The Zeppelin by Blue Dot Sessions - Music licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

Medicaid is one of the largest social welfare programs in the United States. With over 70 million people enrolled, it covers 20 percent of the US population.

Though the program is federal, it's implemented by the state and some states offer generous benefits while others do not. Professor Jamila Michener argues these disparities are actually having an effect on democratic citizenship. Her research shows that when Medicaid expands, more people vote, and when it contracts (or there's a narrower scope of benefits) then people are less likely to vote.

Jamila Michener is an assistant professor at Cornell University. Her book is Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism, and Unequal Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2018)

• Read the episode transcript
• Music: Vittoro and Thannoid by Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

The number of college students across the nation who voted in the midterms doubled between 2014 and 2018. At Duke University, the voting rate was even higher – it jumped 114 percent. We explore how that jump happened and what specific strategies other colleges could use to increase their own student voting rates.

Guests: BJ Rudell, Associate Director of POLIS, the Center for Political Leadership, Innovation and Service at Duke University and Lindsay Morgenstein, student voting drive organizer.

• Read the episode transcript
• Visit the Duke Votes website
• Music: Georgia Overdrive and The Zeppelin by Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

In 2009, President Obama launched an initiative designed to use a community outreach approach to counter violent extremism. Ten years later, Professor David Schanzer, Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security has analyzed the policy, and he says it was deeply flawed, but there are lessons to be learned.

• Read the episode transcript
• Read the report, "Engaging with Communities to Prevent Violent Extremism: A Review of the Obama Administration's CVE Initiative"
• Music: Careless Morning by Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

With recent scientific reports on the effects of climate change, climate strikes around the world and big companies like Amazon promising action, climate change is a topic that is important to research and understand. We discuss climate-related policy ideas with Billy Pizer, an expert in climate change policy, law and legislation.

Billy Pizer is Susan B. King Professor of Public Policy and senior associate dean in the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

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• Read the episode transcript
• Music: Li Fonte and The Zeppelin by Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

New research shows forest fires are actually more harmful than we've previously thought. It's not just about the impact they may have on the environment or on the economy, but also on human health, especially unborn children.

Guest: Subhrendu Pattanayak, Oak Foundation Environmental and Energy Policy Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University

• Subscribe to the Policy 360 podcast
• Read an episode transcript
• Read more about Subhrendu Pattanayak's research
• Music: Night Light and The Zeppelin by Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution