For as long as this thing we call “capitalism” has existed, it has had its fair share of critics. (You’ve heard more than a few of them on this very podcast.)

On this episode, Mark talks with someone whose new book makes clear that when it comes to understanding this globe-spanning economic system - where it came from, how it’s shaped our world, and where it’s going – those critics might be some of our best guides. 

John Cassidy is a staff writer at The New Yorker covering politics and economics, and his new book, “Capitalism and Its Critics: A History from the Industrial Revolution to AI,” tells the story of capitalism in a way you haven’t heard before. 

Learn more about and purchase “Capitalism and Its Critics: A History from the Industrial Revolution to AI”

Transcript coming soon to our website

Lithium is an essential ingredient of most modern electronics. It helps to power our phones, our laptops, and increasingly EVs and other key parts of the green transition.  

As Thea Riofrancos, a political scientist, environmentalist, and author of the new book “Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism,” explains to Mark on this episode, the story of lithium — how it's mined, how it’s refined, and how it makes its way around the world — isn’t just a business story. It's a story of geopolitics and power.

On this episode, Mark and Thea discuss the surprising story of lithium extraction, how the race to electrify our energy supply is reshaping the global economy, and what it all means for the future of our planet. 

Learn more about and purchase Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism

Watch Mark and Thea’s discussion at the Watson School

Transcript coming soon to our website 

This is the second part of a two-part series featuring Leah Downey, a political economist at King’s College London and author of the new book “Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.” 

Mark Blyth and Leah discuss what has happened at the Federal Reserve since they first talked about Leah’s book in May, what Leah’s book has to say about it, and what it all means for the future of central banks in the US and beyond.

Learn more about and purchase “Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.”

Transcript coming soon to our website.

This is the first in a two-part series featuring Leah Downey, political theorist at King’s College London and author of the new book “Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.” 

On this part (recorded in May) Mark Blyth and Leah discuss her book, and take a look at the historical evolution of the relationship between independent central banks and democratic politics. 

In the second part (which will come out next week) Mark and Leah explore how this relationship has changed in the US in the second Trump term, and what it might mean for US monetary policy and US politics going forward. 

Learn more about and purchase “Our Money: Monetary Policy as if Democracy Matters.”

Transcript coming soon to our website.

What’s the role of a university in a democratic society? What responsibility do universities have to foster the public good, and what responsibilities does the public have to support centers of education and research? 

These have become some of the most fraught and pressing questions in our current moment. But of course, they’re also timeless questions — ones that are as old as the United States itself. 

On this episode, Mark explores these questions (and more) with literary scholar Kevin McLaughlin and historian Karin Wulf. In addition to having thought deeply on just these types of issues, Kevin and Karin are also the co-chairs of “Brown 2026,” an initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. and exploring the past and future role of universities in a democratic society. 

Guests on this episode:

• Kevin McLaughlin is a literary scholar and director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study at Brown. 
• Karin Wulf is a historian and director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library.

Learn more about Brown 2026. 

Transcript coming soon to our website.

On this episode, Mark talks with two guests to try and understand why, despite growing right populist movements emerging and winning elections in countries around the world, the left seems to be stalling. It’s a simple question with an incredibly complex answer. Hopefully, though, these two guests will help you to see both the question and its possible answers in a new light. 

Guests on this episode:

• Björn Bremer: political scientist at Central European University, John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellow at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) at Harvard University, and author of “Austerity from the Left: Social Democratic Parties in the Shadow of the Great Recession”
• Paul Pierson: professor of political science at UC Berkeley and author of, most recently, “The American Political Economy Politics, Markets, and Power”  

Learn more about the Watson Institute's other podcasts

On this episode, Mark Blyth talks with Małgorzata Mazurek, a historian, associate professor of Polish Studies at Columbia University, and author of the forthcoming book “The Economics of Hereness: The Polish Origins of Global Developmentalism 1918-1968.”

Mazurek explores how, between World Wars I and II, a group of thinkers led by economists Michał Kalecki and Ludwik Landau began to re-envision Poland’s economy – and future. Their work, and Mazurek tells it, threatened many of the assumptions held by those in power about economic development in the mid-20th century, and would go on to influence thinkers around the world in the decades to come. 

In telling the story of these thinkers, Mazurek also recounts a fascinating moment in Poland’s history, when a unique confluence of attitudes towards trade, immigration, and ethnic diversity created a laboratory for new economic ideas. 

Listen to other podcasts from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University

In this episode, Mark Blyth talks with two inequality experts to try and understand something that’s been bugging him for years.

It goes like this: inequality has profound effects on our economy, society, and lives. It has also been growing, and today is at historically high levels. Given all that, why does inequality never seem to be a topic around which we organize our politics? 

Too complicated? Too boring? Too unsolvable? 

The answers that Mark got made him rethink the question itself, and hopefully will make you see inequality in a new light, too. 

Guests on this episode:

• Charlotte Cavaille is an assistant professor of public policy at the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and author of “Fair Enough? Support for Redistribution in the Age of Inequality”.
• Branko Milanovic is a senior scholar at the Stone Center on Socio-Economic Inequality at the CUNY Graduate Center.
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To state the obvious, there are many hurdles to addressing the climate crisis in a meaningful way. However, there’s been one relatively bright spot on this front in the last decade: the price of renewable energy — particularly solar and wind power — has dropped dramatically. By many measures, they’re now cheaper to produce than fossil fuels. 

So does that mean when it comes to a “green transition” can we just sit back and let the market take care of it? 

According to Brett Christophers, a professor at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University and author of the new book “The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet”: absolutely not.

On this episode, Mark and Brett discuss the many reasons why cheap renewable energy production won’t lead to renewables dominating the energy market. In doing so, they also put the entire energy economy under a microscope and challenge the notion that the private sector will ever be able to lead us through a green transition.

Learn more about and purchase “The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet”

Watch Brett’s October 2024 talk at the Rhodes Center

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts 

This is a new experiment we’re trying at the Rhodes Center Podcast. 

From time to time, going forward, instead of focusing on one expert and their latest research, Mark will take a deeper dive into one issue (or one question) that’s been bothering him. 

Future episodes will examine the politics of immigration and the persistence of inequality. But the first episode in this new series will explore a topic especially near and dear to Mark: inflation. Specifically, the stories we tell about what causes inflation, how those stories affect our efforts to curb it, and who wins and loses depending on which stories our leaders believe. 

In the first half of this episode, Mark talks with economist Nicolò Fraccaroli about a book he and Mark wrote called “Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers” (coming out in Spring 2025). 

In the second half, Mark talks with economist Claudia Sahm about the history of inflation, the role central banks play in it, and what’s lost when we try to take politics and politicians out of the inflation debate. 

(One thing to note: both of these conversations were recorded before the election, but the ideas explored in these conversations are just as relevant now as ever.)

Guests on this episode:

• Nicolò Fraccaroli is an economist at the World Bank
• Claudia Sahm is Chief Economist for New Century Advisors and former Section Chief at the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts