What’s the role of a university in a democratic society? What responsibility do universities have to foster the public good, and what responsibilities does the public have to support centers of education and research?

These have become some of the most fraught and pressing questions in our current moment. But of course, they’re also timeless questions — ones that are as old as the United States itself.

In May, Watson political economist Mark Blyth explored these questions with literary scholar Kevin McLaughlin and historian Karin Wulf on the Rhodes Center Podcast, another podcast from the Watson School. In addition to having thought deeply on just these types of issues, Kevin and Karin are also the co-chairs of “Brown 2026,” an initiative marking the 250th anniversary of the U.S. and exploring the past and future role of universities in a democratic society.

Their conversation has only become more salient since it was originally recorded, which is why we’re sharing it with Trending Globally listeners today.

Guests on this episode:

• Kevin McLaughlin is a literary scholar and director of the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study at Brown.
• Karin Wulf is a historian and director and librarian of the John Carter Brown Library.

Learn more about Brown 2026.

Transcript coming soon to our website.

On July 4th, President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” into law. The bill cuts trillions of dollars in taxes, and allocates hundreds of billions in new spending. To offset all of this, it calls for over a trillion dollars in cuts to a range of domestic programs.

On this episode, Dan Richards spoke with two experts from the Watson School about the bill: How it will shape American society, what its passage says about the Republican Party, and the role it might play in the 2026 midterms and beyond.

Guests on this episode:

• Eric Patashnik is a professor of public policy and political science and author, most recently, of “Countermobilization: Policy Feedback and Backlash in a Polarized Age.”
• Margaret Weir is a political scientist, professor of international and public affairs and political science, and co-editor, most recently, of the 2021 book “Who Gets What? The New Politics of Insecurity.”

Transcript coming soon to our website

On July 1st, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officially closed its operations. It was the culmination of a months-long effort by the Trump administration to dismantle the agency, which had been in charge of administering U.S. foreign aid for over half a century.

Why did President Trump make the dissolution of USAID a priority? And what will it mean for the people and places around the world that have relied on foreign aid from the U.S.?

To answer these questions, Dan Richards spoke with Jennifer Hadden, a political scientist and associate professor at the Watson School, as well as co-author, with Sarah Sunn Bush, of the new book “Crowded Out: The Competitive Landscape of Contemporary International NGOs.”

On this episode, they discuss the fate of USAID in the context of the broader international aid ecosystem. Specifically, they explore the evolving roles of international non-governmental organizations (INGO’s) in the foreign landscape, which have long worked with government agencies like USAID to deliver aid and assistance around the world.

To many, it was surprising that USAID became such a target of the Trump administration. But as Hadden makes clear, Trump’s moves are part of a larger shift in the world of foreign aid — one with truly global implications.

Learn more about and purchase “Crowded Out The Competitive Landscape of Contemporary International NGOs.”

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Mark Blyth about his new book, co-written with Nicoló Fraccaroli, called “Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers.”

Mark and Dan discuss the competing theories for what causes inflation, the merits of each, and how they explain (or fail to explain) the inflation we saw post-pandemic. They also explore why inflation harms some parts of society more than others, and how to make sure that, the next time inflation rears its head, we fight it in a way that’s more effective and more fair.

Learn more about and purchase “Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers”

Transcript coming soon to our website.

Mexico, like the United States, has a gun violence problem. It has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and most of those murders come from firearms. In 2019, for example, almost 70% of the country's 35,000 murders involved firearms.

But unlike the U.S., Mexico doesn’t have tens of thousands of licensed firearms dealers.

It has two.

So how do so many guns make their way into Mexico? And how do these guns shape Mexican society?

These are two of the questions Ieva Jusionyte explores in her new book “Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence across the Border.” Jusionyte is an anthropologist at the Watson Institute and spent much of the last few years following people whose lives are shaped by guns in Mexico. Guns, which, by and large, come from the United States.

On this episode, which was originally broadcast in May 2024, Jusionyte discusses the impact of American firearms on Mexican society and the role they play in spreading violence and trauma on both sides of the border.

Learn more about and purchase "Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence across the Border."

The World Press Freedom Index, which is issued by Reporters without Borders, measures the health of press freedom around the world. They do so along a number of axes, including the economic health of independent media, legal protections for the press and the physical security of journalists. In 2025, the global score on the index was the lowest it’s ever been.

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with three journalists and media thinkers who work in a part of the world where press freedom is, at times, a matter of life and death. Chernoh Bah is a Sierra Leonean journalist, historian and postdoctoral research fellow at the Watson Institute. Sadibou Marong is a journalist and Sub-Saharan Africa bureau chief for Reporters Without Borders, based in Sénégal. Zubaida Ismail is a freelance journalist and Ghana's correspondent for Reporters Without Borders.

They discuss the state of press freedom in countries across Africa, what the struggle for independent journalism in countries in Africa can teach the rest of the world, and the broader relationship between independent media and democratic health.

These guests, along with many others, gathered at the Watson Institute this Spring as part of the Media and Democracy Conference hosted by Watson’s Africa Initiative. You can watch more conversations and presentations from the conference here.

Tuesday, April 29, marked the first 100 days of Trump’s second term.

To help make sense of all that’s happened (and a lot has happened), Dan Richards spoke with political scientist and Interim Director of the Watson Institute, Wendy Schiller.

They discussed how Trump’s approach to governing has changed since his first term, and how the country, so far, has reacted to those changes. They also explore what’s been missing from mainstream coverage of this moment in U.S. politics, and the evolving relationship between national politics and institutions of higher education.

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Marc Dunkelman, Watson Institute fellow in International and Public Affairs and author of the new book “Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back.” In the book, Dunkelman explores how American progressives transformed from a movement dedicated to ambitious, effective, centralized government projects (think the New Deal or Medicaid) into a movement dedicated to limiting government power.

As Marc explains, this wasn’t an intentional project but the result of overlapping, competing impulses within the progressive movement and a cultural shift with progressivism in the 20th century, whose effects took decades to fully materialize.

In charting this transformation and its effects, Dunkelman explains why today, even when in power, progressives seem unable to achieve their own goals, from increasing housing supply to upgrading infrastructure to decarbonizing our energy grid. He also explains how this shift has shaped our electoral politics and what progressives can do to help get progressivism (and America) working again.

Learn more about and purchase “Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress―and How to Bring It Back.”