Episode 2.9: What can be done about fake news?
8 January 2018
Fake news has taken the world and especially America by storm, and in this episode, we talk with two academics who are part of LSE’s effort to define and address this threat to society. We talk with Charlie Beckett and Sonia Livingstone about fake news: what it is and what we can do about it.
Contributors: Professor Charlie Beckett, Director of Polis, the Media Policy Project and the LSE Truth, Trust & Technology Commission; Professor Sonia Livingstone OBE, Professor of Social Psychology in the Department of Media and Communications at LSE
Episode 2.8: Where did the opioid epidemic come from?
20 November 2017
With the skyrocketing rates of opioid abuse and overdose deaths in the US, John Collins and Alex Soderholm of the International Drugs Policy Unit join us to dissect the key questions behind this epidemic: what’s at the root of this opioid crisis? Where are these drugs coming from? And what can the US do about it?
Contributors: Dr John Collins, Executive Director of the International Drug Policy Unit; Alexander Soderholm, Policy Coordinator of the IDPU
Episode 2.7: The Rural-Urban Divide
12 October 2017
The distance between America’s rural and urban communities have become a pivotal element of politics and elections. Professor Kathy Cramer has spent the last decade investigating the attitudes and identities that have contributed to this divide, and in this episode, we dive into that work with her and PhD candidate Tory Mallett.
Contributors: Kathy Kramer, Director of the Morgridge Center for Public Service and Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; Tory Mallett, PhD Student in LSE's Department of Sociology
Episode 2.6: Racism towards Latinos: Past, present, and future
11 September 2017
The current US president is not the first American leader to use inflammatory rhetoric about Latinos and push anti-immigration policies, but Donald Trump’s presidency has certainly brought these issue to the forefront of American politics. This episode we’re diving into the fear, resentment, and history behind racism towards Latinos, and in doing so, we’ll see that this is far from a recent phenomenon.
Contributors: Neil Foley, Robert and Nancy Dedman Professor of History at Southern Methodist University; Susannah Crockford, Research Officer for Inform
Episode 2.5: The future of American progressivism
7 August 2017
After a number of disappointing elections, many people have been left asking “Who is the Democratic Party?” In this episode, we’ll not only take on that question, but we’ll take a step further. Who will the Democratic Party be going forward? Will there even be a Democratic Party going forward?
Contributors: Thomas Frank, author and former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and Harper’s, founding editor of The Baffler; Inge Kjemtrup, chair of Democrats Abroad UK.
Episode 2.4: The Changing Face of American Conservatism
4 July 2017
From the party of Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, the Republican Party is changing, but what caused these changes and where is American conservatism headed? This episode, we dive into these and other questions about the changing face of Republicans, the GOP, and American conservatism.
Contributors: Yuval Levin, Editor of National Affairs; Alex Sundstrom, Republicans Overseas UK.
Episode 2.3: Trumpian Foreign policy
2 June 2017
This episode, we're taking a look at how President Trump's prioritisation of "America First" will impact foreign policy. What will America's presence and actions in the world look like during the Trump era?
Contributors: Charles Kupchan, Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University; Emmanuelle Blanc, PhD Student in the International Relations Department at LSE.
Episode 2.2: Do state governments even matter?
2 May 2017
This episode, we’re looking into an often overlooked level of American policy-making: state governments. While the federal government is gripped by gridlock, the states surprisingly continue to pump out public policy. What makes these smaller governments work so efficiently? And do these laboratories of democracy really work for everyone?
Contributors: Jamie Monogan, Assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia; Chris Gilson, Managing Editor of USAPP.
Episode 2.1: Populism and the new political spectrum
31 March 2017
While populism isn’t a new phenomenon in the United States, it has produced a new political spectrum in American politics and elections. In this episode, we explore why populism is so influential in US politics right now, what impact it is having on the political landscape, and where the government or politicians should go from here.
Contributors: Eric Kaufmann, Professor of Politics at Birkbeck College, University of London; Brian Klaas, Fellow in Comparative Politics at the LSE’s Department of Government