Coronavirus has been called an ‘equal opportunity' virus. But of course... it's not. Communities of color are being disproportionately affected; instead of equalizing anything, this pandemic has thrown into relief the stark inequalities along lines of race and class that are built into American society. And unfortunately, one of the clearest examples of this can be found quite close to Watson's campus.

On this episode, the third in a series we're co-producing this semester with Watson’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Sarah talks with three medical experts who are on the front lines of this pandemic in some of Rhode Island’s hardest hit communities. It’s a conversation about community health, local politics, and social justice, and while it’s focused on Rhode Island, it speaks to struggles playing out around the world.

You can learn more about the Blackstone Valley Community Health Care here.

You can read a Spanish translation here.

You can learn more about Watson’s other podcasts here.

The spread of the coronavirus has highlighted how international development affects the well-being of us all. On this episode Sarah talks with someone who has been a leader for decades in rethinking how we do international development: Watson Senior Fellow Brian Atwood. Brian’s worked with multiple US Presidents, including as the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) during the Clinton Administration. They discuss how international development has transformed in the last few decades, the reason that some humanitarian goals were surprisingly easy to meet in the beginning of this century, and why free-flowing information is essential to global health and security.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

This will be the first in an ongoing series of conversations with Brown students about life during the coronavirus pandemic. On this episode Dan and Sarah talk with Alina Kulman, a junior, and Babette Thomas, a senior; two friends who are experiencing this crisis in very different ways. They discuss what it’s like quarantining with classmates, studying abroad while the government wants to ban travel, and the weird feeling of worrying that your parents aren’t properly washing their hands.

You can learn more about Watson’s other podcasts here.

On this episode, something you might not be getting a lot of these days: a story to raise your spirits. The second in a special series co-produced with Watson’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS), guest host Dr. Pablo Rodriguez talks with Mohamed Malim, founder of Epimonia. Epimonia is a Minnesota-based apparel company that’s fighting to help refugees around the world: 50% of their proceeds go to charities supporting refugees, they employ recent refugees in their factory, and their products are designed to raise awareness of refugees’ stories. It’s social entrepreneurship in every sense of the word. On this episode they discuss Mohamed's story, his vision for Epimonia, and why everybody wins when refugees are allowed to thrive.(Record in March 2020.)

You can learn more about CLACS here.

You can learn more about Epimonia here.

You can watch Mohamed’s talk at Watson here.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I3a8-AlWNGsaAeZwbxJg5XEvytmGfyJ9/view?usp=sharing]

On this episode, Watson's Director Ed Steinfeld talks with film music supervisor Randall Poster '83. Randall has worked with many of Hollywood’s most distinguished filmmakers on a wide variety of projects, including on the hit Netflix series Tiger King. On this live-streamed podcast taping, Ed and Randall talked about the craft of documentary filmmaking, and the role of music in telling stories on film. They also discuss the inspiration for the JFK Jr. Film Initiative, and what to expect from the Initiative going forward. And, of course, they talk Tiger King.

This event is part of the John F. Kennedy Jr. Initiative for Documentary Film and Social Progress. You can learn more about the Initiative here.

You can watch a video of Ed and Randall's Trending Globally conversation here.

You can learn more about Watson’s other podcasts here.

What role do photo ops play in diplomatic negotiations? How much do changing US Presidential administrations affect US-China relations? What’s it like to have dinner with Yao Ming? On this episode, Watson’s Director Ed Steinfeld talks about all this and more with James Green, former official at the US Embassy in China and senior research fellow with the Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University. James and Ed go from the big picture to the nuts and bolts of China-US diplomacy, and explore what lifelong diplomats learn that political leaders too often miss. There’s never been a more important time to understand the relationship between these two governments, and this discussion will help you do just that. 

(Note: this interview was recorded in February of 2020.)

You can subscribe to James’s podcast ‘US-China Dialogue Podcast’ on your favorite listening app. You can also find all the episodes here.

You can read a transcript of this episode here.

Adam Levine is the director of the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at Watson and associate professor of emergency medicine at Brown. Much of his work has grown out of an essential fact about epidemics that many of us are just now learning: as Adam explains on this episode, “our global public health system for detecting outbreaks is only as good as the remote nurse working in a rural village in Africa or Indonesia or anywhere else in the world.” To address this interconnectedness, Adam and health care professionals at Brown have partnered with the healthcare NGO Project HOPE to remotely train health care workers on how to safely identify and combat COVID-19 and the coronavirus.

On this episode Adam talks with Sarah about this partnership and the role high-quality training plays at all levels in stopping the spread of a pandemic. They also discuss what Adam’s learned from treating Ebola in active war zones, and why this likely won’t be the last pandemic we see.

You can learn more about Watson's Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies here.

You can learn more about Project HOPE here.

You can learn more about Watson’s other podcasts here.

Peter Maurer is the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross. In early March he came to Watson, and Sarah talked with him about the challenges of humanitarian aid in the 21st century. Shortly after they spoke, Coronavirus travelled the globe, and everything seemed to change. But surprisingly, for all that's different now, so much of what Peter had to say still resonates -- maybe now more than ever.

It's not a light conversation, but but Peter's wisdom, kindness, and clarity of purpose might actually leave you feeling a little more hopeful about this scary, uncertain time.

You can learn more about Maurer's recent talk at Watson here.

You can learn more about Watson’s other podcasts here.

Mark Lurie is an epidemiologist and expert in infectious disease at Brown University's School of Public Health. On this episode he talks with Sarah about the underlying issues of the coronavirus pandemic: how the virus spreads, what can be done to slow it down, and the different ways it's being treated by countries around the world. They also discuss lessons we can learn from previous public health crises in fighting this one, and how the pandemic is interacting with other social and economic issues.

You can learn more about Watson’s other podcasts here.