Imagine if, when you were in middle school, an Ivy League professor came to your school and told you that you were going to be part of an experiment. You were going to get to decide how the money in your school was spent. 

What would you want to spend it on? How would you convince your classmates that your idea was best? Furthermore, would you even believe what this professor was telling you? 

Jonathan Collins is a professor of political science at the Watson Institute, and has recently been turning this hypothetical into a reality for students in the Providence area. He's been helping to design and evaluate what are known as participatory budgeting projects, and they're not just for students. In towns and cities around the world, everyday people are being let into the budgeting process of their communities. The effects have been profound, both on the local budgets, and on communities that have long felt marginalized and disempowered. 

"There's just something magical that can happen when there's skin in [the] game…the moment that you give them an opportunity to feel that they are a part of the stakes? I think the possibilities are endless," explained Collins. 

On this episode Dan Richards talks with Jonathan about participatory budgeting — where it came from, what it looks like on the ground, and how it might help strengthen our democracy, one community at a time. 

Learn more about the Watson Institute's other podcasts

Learn more about participatory budgeting in Rhode Island

Learned about PAVED, Browns democratic innovation research initiative

Photo credit: Nick Dentamaro

This summer, military forces in the West African country of Niger pushed the country’s president, Mohamed Bazoum, out of power.

This was not the first coup in Niger’s history, or in the recent history of the Sahel region of Africa. In the last few years there have been coups in multiple countries in the region, including Burkina Faso and Mali. 

But this one has put the West especially on edge. 

Why?

Listening to U.S. officials or much of the reporting on the topic, you’d think this coup has huge ramifications for the fight against Islamist militant groups in West Africa, and for the U.S. and Russia’s race to gain influence across Africa. 

But as Stephanie Savell, an expert on U.S.-Niger relations and a co-director of the Costs of War Project at the Watson Institute, explains, those framings of the coup largely miss what’s really going on in the region. And worse still — they might actually make it more difficult to bring peace and stability to this part of the world. 

Read more from Stephanie Savell on the coup in Niger

Learn more about the Costs of War project

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts

On August 23, at least 5 GOP hopefuls for the party’s presidential nomination will take to the stage in Milwaukee for their first primary debate. In other words, the 2024 election is about to get real.

In this episode, Dan Richards talks with Wendy Schiller, professor of political science at Brown University and director of the Watson Institute’s Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy, about where the race stands now, and what to expect in the coming months. They discuss why efforts to unseat Trump as the Republican frontrunner seem destined to backfire, and what it means for our country that a historically high percentage of American voters want neither Trump nor Biden to be president in 2024. 

In the second half of the show, Dan speaks with Othniel Harris, program manager of the Taubman Center, about a disturbing trend in U.S. politics that could have major implications for 2024 and beyond: the rash of restrictive voting laws passed in recent years in swing states around the country. 

Learn more about the Taubman Center research project “Democracy’s Price Tag”

Learn more about other podcasts from the Watson Institute

In the last year, programs like ChatGPT, Dall-E and Bard have shown the world just how powerful artificial intelligence can be. AI programs can write hit pop songs, pass the bar exam and even appear to develop meaningful relationships with humans. 

This apparent revolution in AI tech has provoked widespread awe, amazement — and for some, terror. 

But as Brown Professor of Data Science and Computer Science Suresh Venkatasubramanian explains on this episode of Trending Globally, artificial intelligence has been with us for a while, and a serious, nuanced conversation about its role in our society is long overdue. 

Suresh Venkatasubramanian is the Deputy Director of Brown’s Data Science Institute. This past year, he served in the Biden Administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he helped craft the administration’s blueprint for an “AI Bill Rights.” 

In this episode of Trending Globally, Dan Richards talks with Suresh about what an AI Bill of Rights should look like and how to build a future where artificial intelligence isn’t just safe and effective, but actively contributes to social justice. 

Read the blueprint for the AI Bill of Rights

Learn more about Brown’s Data Science Institute

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts

In May, Nigerian political veteran Bola Tinubu was sworn in as president of the country. The outcome was predictable, but that doesn’t mean there were no surprises in this year’s election. The biggest, perhaps, was the national rise of progressive politician Peter Obi. Obi galvanized young people around issues of government accountability, transparency, and generational change. In the process, he came closer to winning the presidency than any third-party candidate has in Nigeria’s modern history.

What to make of Obi’s unexpected performance in this year’s election? And what does it mean for the future of Nigeria, a country of some 220 million people that, by many estimates, will surpass the US as the world’s third most populous country in the coming decades? 

Daniel Jordan Smith is the director of the Watson Institute’s Africa Initiative, and as he explains, there’s one realm where many of the issues Obi ran on come to a head, and that can teach us a lot about the country’s future: its infrastructure. 

Smith’s newest book, “Every Household Its Own Government: Improvised Infrastructure, Entrepreneurial Citizens, and the State in Nigeria” explores why Africa’s most populous, economically powerful country fails so many of its citizens when it comes to providing basic services like water and electricity. He also explores the creative ways that citizens work around these shortcomings and how the government still makes itself, as Smith puts it, “present in its absence.”

Learn more about and purchase “Every Household Its Own Government”

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts

On May 14, 2023, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faced the most challenging test of his political career from a multi-party coalition led by social democrat and reformer Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The diverse coalition Kılıçdaroğlu represents, known as the Table of Six, is united by one cause: removing Erdogan from power and ending the country’s authoritarian turn. 

The challengers were optimistic, given the multiple crises facing Turkey that Erdogan has struggled to manage: rampant inflation, mass migration of refugees from the Syrian Civil War, and last February’s devastating earthquake.  

Despite these challenges, Erdogan did better than many expected and pushed the election to a runoff, which is set to be held on May 28. 

At stake, according to Kılıçdaroğlu and his supporters, is nothing less than democracy itself in Turkey. 

On this episode, Dan Richards and Center for Middle East Studies postdoctoral scholar Fulya Pinar speak with experts on the ground in Turkey about the stakes of this election and why the race is so incredibly close. They also explore how anti-immigrant politics is driving many Turkish voters in a way it never before has, with ramifications that will extend far beyond this election. 

Learn more about Fulya Pinar’s research on the experience of undocumented immigrants in Turkey 

Guests on this episode: 

• Mert Moral, assistant professor of political science at Sabanci University.
• Ali Fisunoglu, assistant professor of political science at St. Luis University
• Deniz Sert, professor of political science at Ozyegin University.

Learn more about other podcasts from the Watson Institute

This Spring, visiting professor at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs’ China Initiative Lyle Goldstein made his first trip to China in five years. He met with military strategists, government officials and scholars to try to better understand China-Russia relations in the wake of the war in Ukraine. 

He left more concerned about another part of the world just 100 miles off the coast of China—Taiwan. 

As he described the current tension between China, Taiwan, and the U.S. to Dan Richards on this episode of Trending Globally, “This case, in my view, is extremely dangerous. I would argue that [it’s] the most dangerous flashpoint in the world, by a good margin.”

On this episode – our third in our “Escalation” series – you’ll hear from Goldstein about why Taiwan has become a global flashpoint. It’s not the first time a potential crisis in Taiwan has caused alarm, but as he explains, this time is different – it’s much more dangerous. 

Listen to the other two episodes on our “Escalation” series here and here.

Learn more about Watson’s China Initiative 

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts 

You’ve seen it in the headlines, and maybe you’ve felt it in your own life: over the last few years, cyber attacks have become more frequent and more damaging. They can also vary widely in nature, ranging from minor nuisances to national security crises.

Is there anything we can do to secure ourselves – as individuals, and as a society – from these attacks? Is there any way to get ahead of the problem, given the dizzying speed of change in our digital technology? 

According to our two guests on this episode of Trending Globally, to answer these questions, you need to ask some much deeper questions about the role of technology in society and the relationship between governments, businesses, and individuals. 

Congressman Jim Langevin represented Rhode Island in the House of Representatives from 2001 until 2023. Chris Inglis served as cyber director for the Biden Administration from 2021 until this past February and as deputy director of the NSA from 2006 until 2014. In this episode, you’ll hear from Chris and Jim about the future of cybersecurity, and why it’s so much more than just a technological problem. 

This spring, Jim Langevin is leading a study group at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs on the issue of cybersecurity. He recently brought Chris Inglis to campus to discuss their work together, including helping to create the Biden Administration’s National Cyber Strategy, which was released in March of this year. 

• Read a summary of the Biden Administration’s National Cyber Strategy
• Learn more about the Cyber Solarium Commission 
• Learn more about other podcasts from the Watson Institute

There are some ideas that inform so much of our thinking about the world that we tend to take them for granted. One example: the idea of the “free market.” Whether we’re talking about income inequality, climate change, or the future of U.S.-China relations – even if it doesn’t come up explicitly, the idea of the free market informs how we think about all of these topics and more. 

But despite its ubiquity, most of us can’t seem to agree what, exactly, we mean by the term. 

Which is why in this episode we’re going to take a closer look at the history of the concept. Jacob Soll is a professor of philosophy, history and accounting at the University of Southern California, and author of the book “Free Market: The History of an Idea.” 

On this episode, guest host Mark Blyth talks with Jacob about how the concept has evolved over the centuries (millennia, in fact) into the lightning rod of economic debate that it is today. But Jacob’s fascinating origin story doesn’t just correct the historical record – it also reframes how we should think about modern economies today. 

• This episode first appeared on another podcast from Watson, the Rhodes Center Podcast, which is hosted by the inimitable Mark Blyth. You can listen to the full version of this conversation by subscribing to the Rhodes Center Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. 
• Learn more about and purchase “Free Market: The History of an Idea”
• Watch Jacob’s talk on YouTube 

Every minute, roughly 20 people in America (mostly women and children) become victims of domestic violence. The effects of these crimes ripple out to families and communities in every corner of the United States. Yet, despite this, policymakers have failed to address domestic violence in a consistently meaningful way. 

In this episode, political scientists Wendy Schiller and Kaitlin Sidorsky – authors of the new book "Inequality Across State Lines" - explain how the government fails to protect victims of domestic violence in the U.S. Specifically, they explore how different states have approached (or ignored) the issue and what these test cases can teach us about how to address the crisis going forward.  

In looking at the policy failures around domestic violence, as well as possible solutions to the crisis, they also make clear: this issue affects us all, whether we know it or not. 

Kaitlin Sidorsky is an associate professor of political science at Coastal Carolina University. Wendy Schiller is a professor of political science and Director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at Watson. 

Learn more about and purchase their book Inequality Across State Lines: How Policymakers Have Failed Domestic Violence Victims in the United States

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts.