The Brookings Cafeteria

Latest Episodes:

Will foreign aid matter in the 2020 election? Aug 30, 2019

Show notes

Will foreign assistance and foreign policy matter to voters in the 2020 elections? At the 16th Annual Brookings-Blum Roundtable, Merrell Tuck-Primdahl--communications director of Global Economy and Development at Brookings--leads a discussion with Brookings Senior Fellow E.J. Dionne, Jr.; Liz Schrayer, the president and CEO of U.S. Global Leadership Coalition; and Charlie Dent, former U.S. representative and senior policy advisor, DLA Piper. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Colombia's search for peace and justice Aug 23, 2019

Show notes

In June 2016, the government of Colombia signed a historic peace agreement with the armed rebel group known as FARC-EP to end a conflict that over five decades had taken the lives of at least 260,000 Colombians and displaced over 7 million. Three years later, the peace accord—a complex effort to not only stop the fighting but also address the underlying causes of the conflict, and to seek truth, justice, and reconciliation for victims—remains not fully implemented as new political disputes and leaders have hampered its progress. On this episode, experts Ted Piccone and Vanda Felbab-Brown explain the situation and how to move forward. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Don't be fooled by deepfakes Aug 16, 2019

Show notes

Deepfakes are videos that make a person appear to say or do something they did not say or do, and they are coming to an election near you. With the 2020 election contests coming up, how can we guard ourselves against deep fakes and prevent them from changing the outcome of an election? To address this problem, this episode features a conversation with John Villasenor, a nonresident senior fellow in Governance Studies and the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings. He is also a professor of electrical engineering, public policy, law, and management at UCLA. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

On racism and white supremacy Aug 09, 2019

Show notes

The language of racism and white supremacy is all around us; people are getting hurt, and also killed. But racism also pervades our public policies. To address these issues and how to move forward, this episode features a discussion with two Brookings experts: Andre Perry, David M. Rubenstein Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program, and Vanessa Williamson, senior fellow in the Governance Studies Program and also in the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Protecting American elections from foreign interference Aug 02, 2019

Show notes

In June, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee that "the Russians are absolutely intent on trying to interfere with our elections," and just recently the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a bipartisan report finding that governments at all levels are unprepared to combat a Russian attack on U.S. election infrastructure. Meanwhile, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell has refused to allow a vote on House-passed election security measures, calling such efforts partisan and pointing to steps the Trump administration has taken to bolster election security. On this episode, Darrell West, the vice president and director of Governance Studies and Founding Director of the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings, addresses these issues. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

What really drives voters to the polls? Jul 26, 2019

Show notes

Brookings Press Director Bill Finan sits down with Donald P. Green, the J.W. Burgess Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Doctor Green is co-author, with Alan S. Gerber, of "Get Out the Vote: How to Increase Voter Turnout," now in its fourth edition from the Brookings Press. In "Get out the Vote," Green and Gerber take a scientific approach to the challenge of voter mobilization, and examine new data on the efficiency of various campaign tactics, including door-to-door canvassing, email, direct mail, and telephone calls. Also on the program, Senior Fellow David Wessel discusses whether the crisis in state and local pensions we so often hear about is really a crisis at all. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

What can we do to reduce unplanned pregnancies? Jul 19, 2019

Show notes

Nearly half of the pregnancies in the United States each year are unplanned, and such unwanted or mistimed pregnancies can create negative outcomes for women, children, and families. Greater access to birth control, especially long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCS) empower women to only have children if, and when, and with whom they want. As restrictions on abortion become more widespread, how can states and organizations increase the availability of family planning information and access to contraceptive methods like LARCS? In this episode, Brookings Senior Fellow Isabel Sawhill leads a conversation with former Delaware Governor Jack Markell and Mark Edwards, the co-founder and co-CEO of Upstream USA, a non-profit working to expand opportunity by reducing unplanned pregnancy in the US. Also on the program, in a new Metro Lens segment, Senior Fellow Jennifer Vey, director of the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Center for Transformative Placemaking, describes how the digital revolution is shifting where jobs are concentrating and why this job density matters to cities and regions. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

The US in Southeast Asia, and the China challenge Jul 12, 2019

Show notes

Jonathan Stromseth, a senior fellow and Lee Kuan Yew Chair in Southeast Asian Studies at Brookings, interviews Brookings President John R. Allen about the strategic significance of Southeast Asia, US relations with countries in the region, and the China challenge. President Allen recently returned from an extended trip to East Asia, where in June he opened and participated in a Brookings conference in Taipei on "The Risks of the Asian Peace: Avoiding Paths to Great Power War." That conference is part of a broader Brookings project focused on Sustaining the Long Peace in East Asia. Subsequently, President Allen traveled to Singapore where Stromseth had an opportunity to join him for a series of dialogues with senior officials and regional policy experts. In this episode, President Allen reflects on his trip and considers the possible implications of his discussions and observations for U.S. Asia policy. Also on the program, what's happening in Congress, with Senior Fellow Molly Reynolds on divisions in the House Democratic caucus and why inter-party polarization is the more serious issue in Congress. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Americans fear the wrong threats Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

The authors of a new book argue that national security "fearmongering" is causing U.S. leaders to focus more on the threats that Americans perceive—like terrorism and nuclear war—than the ones that exist at home, like gun violence and the opioid crisis. In Clear and Present Safety: The World Has Never Been Better and Why That Matters to Americans (Yale University Press), Michael Cohen and Micah Zenko argue that "The American public is being fed, by politicians and pundits alike, a steady diet of threat inflation that has made them deeply fearful of the world outside their borders." In this episode, Thomas Wright, director of the Center on the United States and Europe and senior fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy at Brookings, speaks with Zenko, a columnist at Foreign Policy, about the premise of the book, the geopolitical risks that do exist, and what role foreign policy might play in the 2020 presidential election. Zenko explains why the mid-1990s were the most dangerous time to be alive, the wide array of domestically driven risks, and why these factors matter more to American security than distant threats. Also, meet Christen Linke Young, a fellow in our USC-Brookings Schaeffer Initiative for Health Policy. Find out what she's working on and why she recommends reading both Dreamland, by Sam Quinones, about the rise of the opioid epidemic, and Infinite Jest, by David Foster Wallace. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

Advancing opportunity in California's Inland Empire Jun 28, 2019

Show notes

After three years of intensive collaboration with Brookings, public, private, and civic leaders in California's Inland Empire have launched an ambitious strategy to expand opportunity and grow middle-class jobs in the region. In this episode, several of those leaders and Brookings experts discuss why this work is so important, how the Inland Empire reflects broader economic challenges and opportunities, and what other city-regions can learn to develop smarter approaches to building inclusive economic growth. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts here or on iTunes, send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu, and follow us and tweet us at @policypodcasts on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the Brookings Podcast Network.

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