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The Brookings Current — News & Politics
The Brookings Current

The Brookings Current brings you smart, timely, and quick analysis from experts at the Brookings Institution on breaking news and current policy conversations. In these short episodes, learn not only what’s happening, but why and how to make sense of it.

Copyright: © The Brookings Institution

Latest Episodes:

Inside the next Democracy Playbook: Strategies for global democratic U-turns Dec 01, 2025

Show notes

In this episode, ACDS chair Norm Eisen discusses the forthcoming fourth edition of the Democracy Playbook and the emerging research showing how democracies can reverse democratic backsliding. He explains how the new edition—released on a rolling basis—will offer practical strategies drawn from scholarship and practitioner experience to help spark and sustain these "U-turns" globally. Drawing on global fieldwork and cutting-edge research, Eisen highlights what has strengthened democracies in real-world contexts thus far.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

The catastrophe in Sudan Nov 24, 2025

Show notes

The conflict in Sudan is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than 150,000 people have died; millions have fled their homes and are starving; and prospects for a ceasefire are bleak. To discuss the roots of the war, the humanitarian emergency, and prospects for peace, Visiting Fellow Jeffrey Feltman joins Michael O'Hanlon, director of research for Foreign Policy, on The Current.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Chicago's Latino business community is adapting in the face of policy volatility Nov 19, 2025

Show notes

Little Village, a Latino business corridor in Chicago, has been contending with tariffs, immigration enforcement, and other changes in federal policy. But business owners have been figuring out new ways to make money, sell their products, and stay open. Tonantzin Carmona, a fellow in Brookings Metro, as well as Chicago civic leaders Luis Gutierrez and Jennifer Aguilar discuss how.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Why are expiring ACA subsidies raising health insurance premiums? Nov 13, 2025

Show notes

With expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans set to expire at the end of 2025, Americans on ACA health plans are starting to see big increases in their monthly health insurance premiums for 2026 as insurers send out annual notices. To address why this is happening and what the impacts are for health care access, coverage, and outcomes generally, Brookings expert Matt Fiedler, a senior fellow with the Center on Health Policy, joins The Current.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Can the COP30 climate conference achieve its goals? Nov 06, 2025

Show notes

The thirtieth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP30, meets in Belém, Brazil next week. The most urgent challenge is finance: How do we pay for the massive global shift away from fossil fuels and fund essential adaptation projects to cope with a changing climate? To preview COP30, two leading Brookings experts on climate join the show: Samantha Gross is a fellow in Foreign Policy and director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative at Brookings; and Amar Bhattacharya is a senior fellow with the Center for Sustainable Development in the Global Economy and Development program at Brookings.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Syria at a crossroads Nov 03, 2025

Show notes

After years of war, Syria is attempting to rebuild under a new government. Brookings Fellow and Director of the Turkey Project Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is joined by Visiting Fellow Mara Karlin, a former assistant secretary of defense, who recently visited Syria. They discuss the country's "plastic moment" of transformation, analyzing the realities on the ground, the complex new leadership, the challenge of lifting U.S. sanctions for reconstruction, and the tough diplomatic balancing act with regional players like Turkey and Israel.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

APEC 2025: What's at stake? Oct 23, 2025

Show notes

The annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, or APEC, starts October 31 in South Korea. Leaders from the twenty-one Pacific Rim economies are expected to attend. In this episode of The Current, two Brookings senior fellows talk about the aims of the summit and what's at stake for the U.S. and other participants. Ryan Hass directs the John L. Thornton China Center and Mireya Solís directs the Center for Asia Policy Studies.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Is DC's economy stalling? Insights from the DMV Monitor Oct 16, 2025

Show notes

The Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, known as the DMV — District, Maryland, and Virginia — is home to the U.S. federal government, 6.4 million people, and hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs. To track the cascading impacts of federal restructuring and national policy shifts, Brookings has launched the DMV Monitor. Joining The Current to introduce the DMV Monitor are two of the researchers behind this crucial effort, Tracy Hadden Loh, a fellow in Brookings Metro, and Glencora Haskins, research associate and applied research manager at Brookings Metro.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Is this government shutdown different? Oct 09, 2025

Show notes

As of October 1, 2025, non-essential U.S. government operations ceased due to the failure of Congress to pass legislation that funds government agencies. The latest shutdown follows others that have occurred during both Republican and Democratic administrations and under Congresses' controlled by both parties. To discuss this shutdown and what it means for governance moving forward, Brookings senior fellows Elaine Kamarck and Molly Reynolds join The Current.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

The United Nations at 80: Does multilateralism still matter? Oct 03, 2025

Show notes

The 80th UN General Assembly is underway in New York City, in session from just after Labor Day into December. The annual High-Level Week, when world leaders gather, ended in September. To share their takeaways from the 80th General Assembly thus far and to look ahead at the UN's role in global security and development, experts Jeff Feltman and John McArthur join The Current.

Show notes and transcript.

Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

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