In this podcast, Brookings President Strobe Talbott reflects on growing up in Cleveland, his career—as a journalist, State Department Official, and think tank leader—and today’s challenges for governance and stability. Learn how a career in journalism prepared him for State Department diplomacy; about his role in defusing two international crises in one dangerous week in June 1999; what he thinks about Vladimir Putin and Russia’s course; and why nuclear proliferation and climate change are “existential threats.” And also listen to his reflections on Brookings’s centenary next year.

Also at the top of the podcast, David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy, offers his economic update and previews two important upcoming events.

Show Notes:

• Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin, by Fiona Hill and Clifford Gaddy (2d edition)• The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century, by Angela Stent• Fast Forward: Ethics and Politics in the Age of Global Warming, by Strobe Talbott and William Antholis (revised edition)• Brookings India Initiative• "Monnet's Brandy and Europe's Fate: A determined Frenchman's vision of integration serves as a guide to ending the eurozone crisis," Brookings Essay by Strobe Talbott

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