Mark Blyth, political economist at Brown's Watson Institute, and Carrie Nordlund, political scientist and associate director of Brown's Master of Public Affairs program, share their take on the week's news.

Today's topics include the continued government shutdown, early thoughts on the 2020 Democratic Presidential Primary, what the media got right and wrong about the Covington Catholic story, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's marginal tax rate proposal, Brexit as Greek Tragedy, Venezuela's uncertain future, and Jeff Bezos's mild (but oh so costly) affair.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1r2QMYa7vTm5keosfhNFqbFe549qT1bRd/view]

On this episode of Trending Globally, host Sarah Baldwin speaks with Adaner Usmani [https://watson.brown.edu/people/postdocs/usmani] and Terry-Ann Craigie [https://www.brown.edu/academics/population-studies/people/person/terry-ann-craigie-0] about the web of issues surrounding criminal justice in America. Terry-Ann Craigie is an Associate Professor of Economics at Connecticut College, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law, and a visiting faculty at Brown's Population Studies and Training Center. Adaner Usmani is a sociologist and postdoctoral fellow at The Watson Institute. They discuss the cause of our mass incarceration crisis, the value of taking a public health approach to criminal justice, and how to translate economic and social research into actionable public policy.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E74_Adaner%20and%20Terry-Ann.pdf]

On this episode of Trending Globally, Margaret Weir, a political scientist at the Watson Institute, spoke with Assistant Professor of Government at Cornell University Jamila Michener [https://www.jamilamichener.net/] about her book 'Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid, Federalism and Unequal Politics' [https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/fragmented-democracy/9A69DF1567190EF38883D4766EBC0AAC]. Michener explains how Medicaid’s effects go far beyond hospitals and health clinics. A complex federal program that varies tremendously across the country, Medicaid affects not only participants' healthcare, but their perception of our democracy.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E73_Weir%20Michener%20REV.pdf]

Sometimes, in the world of social justice organizing, it can seem like there are actually two worlds. One is made up of theoreticians and scholars. The other is made up of organizers on the ground. Legal scholar and Dejusticia Executive Director César Rodríguez-Garavito [https://www.dejusticia.org/en/responsible/cesar-rodriguez-garavito-2] and Watson Senior Fellow Peter Evans [https://watson.brown.edu/people/fellows/evans] want us to challenge this distinction. On this episode of Trending Globally, Sarah Baldwin spoke with them about their most recent work -- an anthology titled 'Transnational Advocacy Networks: Reflecting on 20 years of Evolving Theory and Practice' [https://www.dejusticia.org/en/publication/transnational-advocacy-networks/] -- and about how interdisciplinary, global networks are essential for confronting human rights challenges today.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E72_Peter_Cesar_mixdown.pdf]

From The United Nations’ 'Decade of the Girl-Child' to the White House’s ‘Let Girls Learn,’ investing in education for girls has become a global priority. On this episode of Trending Globally, Sarah Baldwin talks with Shenila Khoja-Moolji [https://www.bowdoin.edu/profiles/faculty/skhoja/], Professor of Gender studies at Bowdoin College, about questions regarding girls' education that are often overlooked: which girls do we choose to teach? What sort of subjects should they learn? What do governments and NGOs hope for when investing in girls education? Perhaps most important: what do the girls hope for when they sit at their desks? Shenila Khoja-Moolji asks these questions and more in her book in ‘Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects In Muslim South Asia’ [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520298408/forging-the-ideal-educated-girl].

*CORRECTION: Khoja-Moolji's book is titled 'Forging the Ideal Educated Girl: The Production of Desirable Subjects in Muslim South Asia' [https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520298408/forging-the-ideal-educated-gir]. The book is referred to 'Forging the Educated Girl' in the interview*

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E71_Khoja-Moolji_mixdown.pdf]

On this episode, we revisit one of our favorite interviews from 2018. Watson Professor Rose McDermott [https://watson.brown.edu/people/faculty/mcdermott] spoke with journalist Sebastian Junger about his book 'Tribe,' [http://www.sebastianjunger.com/tribe-by-sebastian-junger/] and about what military culture can teach us when it comes to rebuilding our civic life back home.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E70%20-%20Sebastian%20Junger%20%28Holiday%29_mixdown.pdf]

In this episode, Mark Blyth talks with Watson economist John Friedman [https://watson.brown.edu/people/faculty/JFriedman] about his work charting social mobility in America. He and his colleagues have created the “Opportunity Atlas,” [https://opportunityinsights.org/] an interactive tool that uses U.S. Census Bureau data to map social mobility in great detail. It measures the likelihood of moving up in society based on where people live -- down to the block they grew up on [Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/01/upshot/maps-neighborhoods-shape-child-poverty.html]. The findings are highly detailed and often surprising, and they’re changing the discussion about mobility in America.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E69_DAN%20REV%20-%20Blyth%20-%20Opportunity%20Atlas_mixdown.pdf]

Mark Blyth, political economist at Brown's Watson Institute, and Carrie Nordlund, political scientist and associate director of Brown's Master of Public Affairs program, share their take on the week's news.

In our 2018 year end wrap-up, Mark and Carrie discuss new twists in the Mueller investigation, state government lame-duck power grabs, the latest on Brexit, the riots in France, Angela Merkel's successor, gun control in the US, the 2020 presidential race, and the fate of one of Mark's favorite Christmas songs.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RAoGamlN99AhZ9ZwFuCuYi67OO50RPHC/view]

Sarah Baldwin talks with Elias Muhanna [https://vivo.brown.edu/display/emuhanna] about an essay he wrote for the New Yorker [https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/a-new-history-of-arabia-written-in-stone] in May 2018 in which he describes recent advances in translating pre-Islamic Arabic texts. The conversation focuses on the groundbreaking translations of Muhanna's friend and colleague Ahmad Al-Jallad and how his work has changed our understanding of life on the Arabian peninsula before Islam.

Editing by Babette Thomas '19

Theme music composed by Henry Ross Bloomfield: www.heybloomfield.com

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://watson.brown.edu/files/watson/imce/news/podcast/trending-globally/transcripts/E68_Elias%20Final%20mp3%20Bounce_mixdown.pdf]

Mark Blyth, political economist at Brown's Watson Institute, and Carrie Nordlund, political scientist and associate director of Brown's Master of Public Affairs program, share their take on the week's news.

Today's topics include the California wildfires and the recent government climate report, the latest on Brexit, US midterm election postmortem, Facebook's continued existence as a platform for disinformation, the Trump tariffs and GM plant closings, Amazon and your personal data, DNA profiling, and 2018's gift of the year.

You can read a transcript of this episode here: [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lOYiaKqnmBiM_vcXlg8JW7CjugRbIrVA/view?usp=sharing]