On this episode, Dan Richards spoke with Watson School Senior Fellow Stephen Kinzer about the history of U.S. foreign intervention and how it can help us to understand today’s conflict in Iran.

Stephen is an award-winning foreign correspondent who spent more than 20 years reporting around the world with the New York Times, and has written multiple books on the history of U.S. intervention abroad, including “All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror,” which explored the history and unintended consequences of the CIA-backed 1953 coup in Iran.

Transcript coming soon to our website.

On this episode, Watson School Dean and economist John Friedman talks with economist Sebnem Kalemli Ozcan about how U.S. economic policy in the last year has changed the American economy, how those changes have rippled throughout the global economic and financial system, and what it means for America’s place in a rapidly evolving international order.

Sebnem Kalemli Ozcan is a professor of economics at Brown and the director of the Global Linkages Lab, a collaborative research hub dedicated to deepening our understanding of globalization. Starting in July, she'll also be serving as the director of the Watson School’s Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance.

John Friedman is Vascellaro Family Dean of the Watson School, and Briger Family Distinguished Professor of Economics and International and Public Affairs

Watch this episode of Trending Globally on YouTube.

President Trump has issued more executive orders in the first year of his second term than he did in all four years of his first. These orders — which have directed government action on issues ranging from immigration to tariffs to the funding of federal agencies — have been met with hundreds of lawsuits filed in federal court.

As a result, our federal court system is shaping U.S. public policy more than at any time in recent history, and federal judges are making decisions on many of the most pressing policy issues facing society today.

So, what does this new legal landscape mean for American politics, and what does it mean for America’s judicial branch?

To help make sense of this change (and to put it in historical context), Dan Richards spoke with Judge William Smith, former Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court of Rhode Island. Judge Smith was appointed by George W. Bush in 2002 and retired in 2025; he is also a Senior Fellow in International and Public Affairs at the Watson School, where he currently leads a study group on the role of the courts in U.S. public policy.

Violent, organized conflict is a near constant in human history.

But why?

Often, large-scale conflicts and wars are explained in material or political terms: humans engaging in conflict over land, resources, or ideologies.

But as Rose McDermott, the David and Marianna Fisher University Professor of International Relations, sees it, these explanations fail to fully account for war’s existence and persistence throughout the long history of our species.

To do that, McDermott argues that we need to take more seriously the ways that human psychology — shaped by our evolution as a species — predisposes some of us to violence.

On this episode, Dan Richards spoke with Rose McDermott about how millennia of human evolution have wired our brains — particularly male brains — for war; what this means for modern society; and how we might think about building structures and institutions to help chart a new, more peaceful path for humanity.

When President Trump took office in January, Congress seemed poised to play a supporting role in the story of Trump’s second term. Republicans largely fell in line to support President Trump’s cabinet nominees and much of his broader agenda; it’s been reported that Trump himself has joked that he’s both the President and Speaker of the House.

Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, appeared helpless to mount a vigorous opposition to Trump’s policies, or even to energize their own base.

But this fall, those dynamics began to shift.

Congressional Republicans have stood up to Trump on some key issues, including most notably the release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case. And Congressional Democrats galvanized supporters around this fall’s government shutdown fight over the future of ACA health insurance subsidies.

On this episode, two experts on Congressional politics spoke with Dan Richards about the shifting role of Congress in U.S. politics, as President Trump enters his “lame duck” phase and America gears up for a midterm election in less than 12 months. They also discuss Congress’s consistently low approval rating among Americans, and explore what (if anything) could be done to make Congress work better under the Trump administration and beyond.

Guests on this episode:

• Eric Patashnik is a political scientist and director of the Watson School’s Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy.
• Congresswoman Kathy Manning represented North Carolina’s sixth district from 2020 to 2024 and is currently a senior fellow in international and public affairs at the Watson School.

In October, President Trump and President Xi Jinping met for the first time in Trump’s new presidential term. The meeting ended with commitments from both countries designed to lower trade tensions —– something many observers greeted with relief.

But, according to Watson Senior Fellow and Director of the Watson School’s China Initiative Lyle Goldstein, perhaps more noticeable was what was left out of this meeting; almost all of the pressing security issues that exist between the two countries, including the one Goldstein sees as the “most dangerous of all”– the U.S. relationship with Taiwan.

On this episode, host Dan Richards speaks with Goldstein about the state of U.S.-China relations over Taiwan, why he believes this issue represents one of the world’s greatest risks to human safety, and why now is the moment to reconsider the U.S. foreign policy consensus on this geopolitical flashpoint.

Learn more about the Watson School’s China Initiative

Read Lyle’s multi-part series on the past, present, and future of US-China relations

In August 2022 — just over three years ago — the Inflation Reduction Act was signed into law. It represented the largest federal investment in renewable energy and climate action in U.S. history. The bill was a historic victory for the climate movement — and, as it turns out, its high-water mark in the United States for the foreseeable future.

Since returning to office, President Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement, rolled back numerous environmental and climate regulations, issued executive orders to pause renewable energy projects, and worked with Congress to dismantle key parts of the IRA.

On this episode, Dan Richards speaks with two experts on climate politics at the Watson School: Jeff Colgan, professor of political science and director of Watson’s Climate Solutions Lab, and Chris Rea, assistant professor of sociology and expert on climate and environmental governance about the new landscape of climate politics. They discuss the state of the climate movement and green transition in America and around the world, where the climate movement goes from here, and what it all means for our politics and our planet.

Learn more about the Watson School’s Climate Solutions Lab.

Read Jeff Colgan's recent article in International Organization on contemporary climate politics

In 2014, Narendra Modi became India’s Prime Minister, marking the beginning of what many experts and international watchgroups identify as a period of democratic erosion in the country.

Since then, a number of other democracies around the world have followed India on this path — including, by many measures, the United States.

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with two experts on Indian politics and society about Modi’s rise in India: its causes and effects, how it compares to other instances of democratic erosion around the world, and what it can teach us about democracy’s weaknesses and strengths.

Guests on this episode:

1. Poulami Roychowdhury is an associate professor of sociology and international and public affairs at the Watson School of International and Public Affairs.
2. Patrick Heller is a professor of sociology and international and public affairs and director of the Watson School’s Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia.

Read Roychowdhury’s and Heller’s recent work exploring democracy and democratic erosion in India.