The Brookings Cafeteria

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How to Make Government Programs Work Dec 05, 2014

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“One thing most people don't know is that our [social] programs don't work,” says Senior Fellow Ron Haskins in this podcast about how the Obama administration is starting to create a “culture of evidence” for the design and evaluation of government programs, with the ultimate aim to increase equality of opportunity in America and spend less money doing it. Haskins, the Cabot Family Chair and co-director of both the Center on Children and Families and the Budgeting for National Priorities project, is the co-author, with Greg Margolis, of Show Me the Evidence: Obama's Fight for Rigor and Results in Social Policy (Brookings, 2014). The book, Haskins says, tells the story of “how the Obama administration has been the most important administration ever for using the results of social science research and especially scientific program evaluation to improve federal programs.” Listen as Haskins describes the origin of the research, the “sausage making” of the policy process, and the move to instill a commitment to evidence-based policymaking across the political spectrum. “There is a growing commitment to evidence and a growing accepting by both parties of the logic of evidence that we need to figure out if these programs work,” Haskins says. In the segments, first hear from Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy Director David Wessel discuss the problem of uncertain forecasts about the federal budget, and tee up an upcoming event, The Long Run Outlook for the Federal Budget: Do We Know Enough to Worry? on December 15. Second, after the interview, Wells Bennett, fellow in National Security Law, explains a recent paper series about the future of civilian robotics, which explores various questions about the integration of robots and robotics into civilian life. Show Notes: • Show Me the Evidence: Obama's Fight for Rigor and Results in Social Policy • Social Programs that Work • The Obama Administration’s Evidence-Based Social Policy Initiatives: An Overview • Social Science Rising: A Tale of Evidence Shaping Policy • Uncontrolled: The Surprising Payoff of Trial-and-Error for Business, Politics, and Society • Murray and Ryan Team Up to Propose Commission On Evidence-Based Policymaking Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

Our Dysfunctional Politics and the Road to 2016 Nov 21, 2014

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“The Republican Party has become like a parliamentary party, vehemently oppositional and opposed to anything that the other party would do,” says Thomas Mann in this podcast in which he shares his expertise and insight on political dysfunction in America, on the roots of today’s divisive partisanship, on ideas for solutions, and on the 2016 presidential contest. Mann, a senior fellow in Governance Studies and the W. Averell Harriman Chair in American Governance, also reflects on his 45 years studying and engaging with the political scene in Washington, sharing what he has seen, heard and done along the way. In his regular segment on what's happening in Congress, Fellow John Hudak explains what Congress is doing now that the midterm elections are over. He focuses on the new confirmation environment for the president and also how congressional Republicans will react to Obama's executive action on immigration. Show notes: • It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism (with Norman Ornstein)• Which Republican Party Won the Midterms?• 2014 Midterms Post-Election Special (podcast)• 2014 Midterms: Why the Election Will Matter... and Why It Won't• Party Polarization and Campaign Finance• Pew Research Center poll Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

America's Diversity Explosion Is Coming Just in Time Nov 14, 2014

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"I am convinced that the United States is in the midst of a pivotal period ushering in extraordinary shifts in the nation's racial demographic makeup," writes William Frey in his new book, Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America. In this podcast, Frey, a senior fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program and an internationally regarded demographer, explains what he means by "diversity explosion"; why growing minority populations are so important for America; and what public officials, community leaders, and decision-makers need to understand about the importance of educating and training a new generation of workers. Frey also discusses how he got into the field of demography, and what it means when people say "demography is destiny." Also in the podcast, David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy, offers his regular economic update, noting that "something weird is going on" when broad measures of the labor market are looking better yet two-thirds of the voters say the economy is getting worse. Show notes: • Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics Are Remaking America• Immigrants Continue to Disperse, with Fastest Growth in the Suburbs• Social Mobility Memos• "The Great American Melting Pot" (music/lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, performed by Lori Lieberman, Schoolhouse Rock, 1977) Subscribe to the Brookings Cafeteria on iTunes, listen on Stitcher, and send feedback email to BCP@Brookings.edu.

2014 Midterms Post-Election Special Nov 05, 2014

Show notes

In this special edition of the Brookings Cafeteria, Senior Fellows Thomas Mann,Sarah Binder, and William Galston offered their insights and analysis about the 2014 midterm election results. Listen to find out why Mann called the results "a red tsunami"; why Binder said it was "oddly predictable"; and why, for Galston, the outcome was "challenging" in a variety of ways. Mann is the W. Averell Harriman Chair in American Governance and co-author of It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism. Binder is a professor of political science at George Washington University, a contributor to the Monkey Cage blog, and author of many books including Stalemate: Causes and Consequences of Legislative Gridlock. Galston, the Ezra K. Zilkha Chair in Governance Studies, was a policy advisor to President Bill Clinton and presidential candidates. He authored the recent essay, "The New Challenge to Market Democracies: The Political and Social Costs of Economic Stagnation." Send your feedback about this or any other podcast to BCP@brookings.edu. Subscribe on iTunes or listen on Stitcher.

Latin America: Grand Vision of a Shared Future Oct 31, 2014

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“Latin America actually lacks an identity because it has them all,” says Ernesto Talvi—a Brookings nonresident senior fellow—as he reflects on how Peruvian poet Mario Vargas Llosa described Latin America. In this podcast, Talvi, who directs the Brookings Global-CERES Economic and Social Policy in Latin America Initiative, explains why there are actually three Latin Americas based on macroeconomic factors; why nations such as Chile, Peru, Mexico and Colombia have very strong fundamentals (and why Argentina and Venezuela are troubling); why economic growth has slowed in the region since 2011; and why inequalities throughout the region are inconsistent with a stable social order. Also, listen to find out why Talvi chose the University of Chicago and its frigid winters for graduate study in economics, a world away from his temperate native country, Uruguay. Talvi recently authored the report, “Macroeconomic Vulnerabilities in an Uncertain World: One Region, Three Latin Americas.” In one of our regular special segments, Governance Studies Fellow John Hudak describes the blog series on the most important issues and Senate races in the upcoming midterm elections. Visit FixGov blog to learn more. Show Notes: • Macroeconomic Vulnerabilities in an Uncertain World: One Region, Three Latin Americas• A New Trans-American Partnership• U.S. Embassy Montevideo fact sheet on Uruguay (PDF)• Brookings Global-CERES Economic and Social Policy in Latin America Initiative• Latin America Initiative• The Paradoxes of Latin America (article by Mario Vargas Llosa)• Podcast: What You Should Know about the Rise of Brazil and the Rest of Latin America• Podcast: Trade Clearly Matters

Why Marriage Is the Best Environment for Kids Oct 17, 2014

Show notes

“Two married parents are the best environment for kids, on average,” says Isabel Sawhill in this podcast about her new book, Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage. Adding that “we all know single parents who are doing a great job,” Sawhill explains how her research and data show that gaps in education, family structure and parenting styles create unequal starts for American children in the aggregate. Seventy percent of all pregnancies to unmarried women under 30 are unplanned, she says, and today 40 percent of all children in American are born outside marriage. In the podcast, Sawhill, a senior fellow and co-director of the Center on Children and Families, talks about one of the central themes of the book, how to change “drifters” into “planners,” to “have people take responsibility and make explicit choices about when to have children, whether to have children, who to have children with, and not to treat it so casually.” Plus, in a new feature, Senior Fellow David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy, offers his thoughts in "Wessel's Economic Update." And finally, introducing a new series of FixGov blog posts on the website that will focus on the upcoming midterm elections. The series will feature Brookings scholars discussing key policy issues in the election, and spotlights from academics on key senate races. Show Notes: • Generation Unbound: Drifting into Sex and Parenthood without Marriage• Media Influences on Social Outcomes: The Impact of MTV’s 16 and Pregnant on Teen Childbearing• Bedsider.org• Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy• The Fiscal Barometer• FixGov blog Send feedback and questions for podcast guests to BCP@brookings.edu. * N.b.: In the podcast, Sawhill refers to the concept of "marriage-go-round" and cites Kathy Edin. The phrase "marriage-go-round" was originally used in sociologist Andrew Cherlin's book of the same name. The phenomenon has, however, also been referred to by Edin as the "family-go-round."

Trade Clearly Matters Oct 03, 2014

Show notes

Every increase of $1 billion in U.S. exports is estimated to support 6,000 jobs, and 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside the United States, says Miriam Sapiro in her new report, “Why Trade Matters.” It clearly matters, as she explains in this wide-ranging interview about the importance of trade, how trade negotiations work, why trade leads to net job gains, the prospects for ongoing trade negotiations with European and Asia-Pacific countries, and more. Sapiro, a visiting fellow in Global Economy and Development at Brookings, was deputy U.S. trade representative from 2009 to 2014, and also served on the National Security Council and at the U.S. State Department. Plus, in a recent event on the future of civilian robotics, moderator Benjamin Wittes, a senior fellow and editor-in-chief of Lawfare (and also the first guest on the Brookings Cafeteria), described the background of a flight experiment he and colleagues did with off-the-shelf drones, one that the FAA said could not take place in Washington, DC. Learn more about it on Lawfare. And finally, in a new "What’s Happening in Congress" segment, Fellow John Hudak offers his views of how both Congress and President Obama dealt with the administration’s decision to take military action against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq. Show Notes: • Why Trade Matters (paper by Miriam Sapiro)• Export Nation 2013 (data and interactive from the Metropolitan Policy Program)• The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Asia-Pacific Integration: A Quantitative Assessment (the Peterson Institute report)• Steven Pifer's podcast• The Lawfare Drone Smackdown• The Future of Civilian Robotics (event)• FixGov blog Send feedback and questions for podcast guests to BCP@brookings.edu.

Billionaires Are Not Like You and Me Sep 17, 2014

Show notes

The 1,645 wealthiest men and women worldwide—492 of them in the United States—who control assets worth $6.5 trillion are shaping the world for the better and sometimes for the worse. In this podcast and in his new book, Darrell West, vice president and director of Governance Studies at Brookings, explains who the billionaires are, how they are more involved than ever in politics and society, why this matters, and how, for many reasons, they really are not like the rest of us. Also, hear what John Hudak has to say about what's happening now in Congress. Show Notes: • Billionaires: Reflections on the Upper Crust• U.S. Billionaire Political Power Index• Global Billionaire Political Power Index• More resources about billionaires• Saving Horatio Alger: Equality, Opportunity, and the American Dream• FixGov blog Feedback or questions? Send an email to BCP@brookings.edu.

On ISIS, Syria, Iran, and President Obama's Middle East Strategy Sep 05, 2014

Show notes

ISIS establishes a jihadist caliphate across Syria and Iraq. Iran pursues its nuclear ambitions. Syria remains mired in a terrible civil war, exacting a toll on the civilian population and region. In this podcast, Senior Fellow Mike Doran (@doranimated) offers his views on these and related developments, the Obama administration’s response to them, and what he believes is the “great white whale” of President Obama’s Middle East strategy. Although he says that Obama’s initiatives in the region have failed, he explains what the president can do to put together a coalition of like-minded powers to act as a counterweight to the ISIS threat. Doran also offers candid thoughts on why “academia is a profoundly conformist place,” how he made the transition from that world to government and then to a think tank, and why he wanted to be a Middle East scholar in the first place. Plus, highlights from a recent Brookings expert panel on Russia and Ukraine, and what Russia's foreign policy moves indicate about Vladimir Putin's view on the global order. Show Notes: • "Somebody Else's Civil War" (Doran's article in Foreign Affairs, January/February 2002)• The Arc of Crisis: Beirut to Baghdad (Brookings event in which Doran made the Sarah Palin reference)• "Iran Surprises Itself and the World" (Brookings Essay by Suzanne Maloney)• "Is Obama Like Eisenhower?" (article by Doran)• "Pursue Regime Change in Syria" (Big Bets/Black Swans memo by Doran)• "Reconciliation with Iran Helps Fuel Middle East Mayhem" (for Doran's Captain Ahab reference)• "Going the Distance: On and off the road with Barack Obama" (David Remnick's interview with the president) Send feedback or questions for podcast guests to BCP@brookings.edu.

Much of What We Think about Privacy, Liberty, Security and Threat is Wrong Sep 04, 2014

Show notes

(originally aired on 8/30/13) In this inaugural edition of the Brookings Cafeteria podcast, Benjamin Wittes, senior fellow in Governance Studies, talks with host Fred Dews about a range of issues at the junction of liberty and security, privacy and government surveillance. Wittes explains how liberty and security are not always in tension; how we might think about the government's surveillance activities; and why technology makes this moment in the history of the world both exciting and terrifying. Wittes is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of Lawfare blog, which is devoted to sober and serious discussion of hard national security choices, and where you can read his detailed piece on what Ben Franklin really meant when he wrote, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

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