PolicyCast

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy discusses the challenges posed by the growing crisis of opioid addiction in the United States, how to combat the over-prescription of painkillers, and the importance of eliminating the stigma that often surrounds addiction. He also discusses how his advocacy on public health issues will continue during the Trump administration.

Murthy was on campus thanks to the Center for Public Leadership, the Wiener Center, and the HKS Healthcare Policy Program to deliver the Seymour E. and Ruth B. Harris Lecture at the JFK Jr. Forum.

Nancy Lindborg, President of the U.S. Institute of Peace, discusses the development of practical tools that empower communities around the world to avoid violent conflict before it starts, and de-escalate where violence has already erupted.

Dr. Amanda Sloat, former US State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for Southern Europe and Eastern Mediterranean Affairs, explains the situation in Turkey, just a few months removed from a military coup attempt, as it grapples with stark internal political divisions, violent conflicts in neighboring Syria and Iraq, an influx of millions of refugees and increasingly tense alliances with the United States and European Union.

Chuck Hagel, former US secretary of defense, discusses what motivated him to pursue military and public service, and examines how military service is regarded in modern American society. Secretary Hagel is at the Kennedy School as a joint visiting fellow at the Institute of Politics and Belfer Center.

HKS Associate Professor Todd Rogers demonstrates the drastic emotional impact electoral wins and losses have on political partisans, influencing their overall happiness even more than national tragedies. He also discusses our tendency to believe in a favorable future and introduces the concept of paltering, which describes the active use of truthful statements to mislead.

HKS Professor Alex Keyssar offers an historical perspective to modern worries about rigged elections and weighs the prevention of voter fraud against the risk of voter suppression.

Peter Quilter, a non-resident fellow at the Kennedy School’s Ash Center, details the internal state of affairs in Colombia, Venezuela, and Cuba, revealing that despite the unique nature of each country’s problems, their futures are all interconnected.

HKS Professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad makes the case that modern hot-button issues surrounding race, policing and mass incarceration are fundamentally rooted in a widespread failure to educate Americans about their country’s racial history.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize, discusses his desire to pursue peace despite the concessions it might entail in a 2013 interview on PolicyCast. Santos had been on campus to deliver an address at the JFK Jr. Forum, sponsored by the Institute of Politics.

HKS Lecturer Siddharth Kara of the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy explains how his research into the tens of millions of girls around the world who have been forced into sexual slavery led him to Hollywood, where he wrote and produced the new feature film “Trafficked.” The film, based on true stories, follows three enslaved teens who end up in a Texas brothel after being trafficked across the globe.