Podcasts and Social Media

The business side of fighting climate change

On this podcast, you’ve heard from a range of experts about the policies and politics of decarbonization. But what does the fight against climate change look like from the business side?

Sophie Purdom is the Founder and Managing Partner of Planeteer Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage climate technology companies. She also writes Climate Tech VC, an industry newsletter that goes deep into the business side of the green transition.

On this episode, Sophie Purdom talks with a special guest host for the Rhodes Center Podcast, political scientist and director of the Watson Institute’s Climate Solutions Lab Jeff Colgan. They talk about the world of “climate tech,” as it’s known in the startup community, how the industry started, where it’s going, and what it can teach us about the relationship between private enterprise and the global fight against climate change.

An Immigrant Economist in the Land of Inequality: A Conversation with Sir Angus Deaton

In 2015, economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton published a paper that revealed something startling: an increase in mortality rates in the United States among white middle-aged men and women between the years of 1999 and 2013.

They published a book in 2020 that aimed to explain the trend, which they attributed to — among other factors — economic stagnation, social isolation, and the opioid crisis. The book, titled “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism,”, caused a stir inside and outside the field of economics, as people tried to make sense of America’s economy and society in the Trump years.

On this episode, Rhodes Center Director Mark Blyth talks with Deaton about his newest book “Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality,” which takes a broader view of the issues brought up in “Deaths of Despair.” They explore the pervasiveness of inequality in America, how it relates to the “deaths of despair” phenomenon, and why the field of economics often seems blind to the most pressing issues facing individuals and communities.

The new politics of growth and stagnation (part 3): houses, micro states, finance, carbon

This is part three in our companion series to the book “Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation” (co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro and Jonas Pontusson).

On this episode, Mark talks with four contributors for the book: Alex Reisenbichler, Aidan Regan, Oddný Helgadóttir, and Jonas Nahm. They look at case studies in a handful of countries, as well as some of the cross-cutting trends affecting all growth models across the world. They explore the role of finance and politics in growth models, and how the climate crisis is making us rethink this all even further.

Make Me Smart podcast: The clash of Bidenomics and MAGAnomics

Two competing visions for the U.S. economy.

President Biden is pitting his plan for the U.S. economy against so-called ‘MAGAnomics’, the economic ideas that defined the Trump era. Mark Blyth said the clash is all about who wins and who loses as the U.S. decarbonizes. “When we think about the election that’s coming up, think less about the personalities and think about it as a clash of business models,” said Blyth. On the show today, Blyth explains what Bidenomics actually means and why it’s not the easiest message to sell to voters. Plus, how the United States let go of its industrial base and what it will take to re-industrialize for a clean energy future.

The new politics of growth and stagnation (part 2): growth models at scale

This is part two in our companion series to the book “Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation” (co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro and Jonas Pontusson). 

In part one (which, if you haven’t listened to, we’d recommend you go back and do), Mark and his guests discussed how growth models are almost like the business model for a country. But of course, countries don’t exist in isolation. They can rise and fall together, and operate as regional economies tied into wider global networks. 

So…what do growth models look like at scale? How should we even think about them? 

To explore this concept, Mark spoke with two contributors to the book. Jazmin Sierra is an assistant professor of political science at Notre Dame, whose work focuses on the political economy of Latin America. Alison Johnston is an associate professor of political science at Oregon State University, whose work focuses on the European Union. 

The new politics of growth and stagnation (part 1)

This is the first in a three-part series on Diminishing Returns: The New Politics of Growth and Stagnation, a book co-edited by Mark Blyth, Lucio Baccaro, and Jonas Pontusson. 

Using examples from around the world, the book offers a new understanding of what happens to our politics when growth slows down. In this episode, Mark grills his co-authors about how the book came to be, and the big questions that guided its creation. 

Guests on this episode:

• Lucio Baccaro, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
• Jonas Pontusson, Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Geneva

Does economics do more harm than good? And if it does, how would we know harm when we see it?

In 1849, the historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle referred to economics as the “dismal science.” The pejorative stuck, and is still slung by critics of the field today. 

But what if economics is worse than “dismal”? What it’s…harmful? 

George DeMartino’s recent book, “The Tragic Science: How Economists Cause Harm (Even as They Aspire to Do Good)”, makes exactly that claim: that economists aren’t just ineffective at solving social problems; they often end up creating new ones. Worse still – since economics lacks a meaningful criteria for defining what harm is, economists often don’t know how to measure (and fix) the problems they create. 

George is an economist himself, and his work isn’t just a pile-on against the field. Rather, his critique points a way towards a more socially engaged version of economics – one that takes the notion of harm seriously. 

Nazi billionaires, capitalist ethics, and other notable contradictions

On this episode Mark Blyth talks with this year’s invited speaker at the Rhodes Center’s annual 'Ethics of Capitalism’ lecture series, journalist D​​avid de Jong. 

David’s groundbreaking book “Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany's Wealthiest Dynasties”, looks at the individuals and companies that accumulated unimaginable wealth under the Third Reich. Through his incredible investigative work, he exposes how these companies – including iconic German businesses like Volkswagen, BMW, and Allianz – thrived under the Nazi regime. He also looks at how, despite their dark history, most have never fully reconciled with their past – and how the families that founded such enterprises have only grown more wealthy in the decades since. 

David and Mark discuss this dark history, and explore the questions it poses about the nature of capitalism: how can businesses operate responsibly in a world where it’s so easy to profit off the suffering of others? And what do private companies owe the rest of us, above their bottom line? 

A wee podcast on the last 50 - and next 50 - years of the global world order

The history of international politics since 1945. The role of values in the global economy. The future of America’s relationship with China. All three of these would be ambitious topics for a work of political economy. But combining them? That’s not for the faint of heart.  

However, that’s exactly what Sir Paul Tucker has done in his new book, “Global Discord: Values and Power in a Fractured World Order”. 

Tucker is a former central banker, and a current research fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. In this episode, Mark Blyth talks about the book with Paul and political economist Aditi Sahasrabudde.

The ‘free market’ is a fever dream and Adam Smith wasn’t in it

One concept that comes up a lot on the Rhodes Center Podcast: the idea of the 'free market’.

The idea, as you might know it, begins with John Locke, is fashioned fully by Adam Smith, and is delivered to us gift-wrapped (after some delays) by the likes of Hayek and Friedman in the mid 20th century.

But as our guest on this episode explains, the idea of the free market is hardly so straightforward. Jacob Soll is a professor of philosophy, history, and accounting at the University of Southern California, and in his book “Free Market: The History of an Idea,” he begins way back in ancient Rome, stops in 17th-century France with Louis XIV’s minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert, and, on the way to the present, barely mentions Adam Smith at all. 

No matter what you think of when you hear the words ‘free market’, Jacob's incredibly informative – and highly readable – history will make you see the concept in a whole new light.

State Power in China: More "Parks and Rec" than Command and Control?

On the last episode of the podcast, Mark talked with two experts regarding the Inflation Reduction Act, and the political and logistical challenges of accelerating a ‘Green Transition’ in the US. 

Which makes for an interesting comparison to our topic today.

Because these days, when people want to critique how slow and ineffective the US government can be, they often compare it to another country – one that we tell ourselves is where big government projects happen faster and better than almost anywhere: China.

But as Iza Ding, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, explains to Mark on this episode, China’s government might not be quite as dominant and proficient as we think. And nowhere is this more clear than at the local level, as Iza explores in her recent book, “The Performative State: Public Scrutiny and Environmental Governance in China.”

Even though the book focuses on aspects of environmental governance like conservation and pollution mitigation, her conclusions are far-reaching. Primarily, the idea that even so-called strong states have weaknesses, and when they are asked to address them, they often ‘perform’ the task of governing in informative and surprising ways.

What Mark Blyth Got Wrong About Bidenomics and Climate Change

Over the last two years, if you had asked Mark Blyth if the Biden administration would ever do anything meaningful to fight climate change, he’d have said “no.” These feelings only got stronger in 2021, after the Democrats failed to pass their first big attempt at climate legislation, known as ‘Build Back Better.’

But then, something changed. The Inflation Reduction Act became law. And despite the name, it’s a decarbonization bill, and a better one than Mark ever thought we were going to get. (It might also reduce inflation, but that’s for another episode).

In this episode, Mark talks with two experts about why climate legislation was finally able to get passed in the United States, and what it means for the country and the planet. 

Tim Sahay is a physicist, Senior Policy Manager of Green New Deal Network, and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Ted Fertik is a historian, and Senior Strategist for Policy and Research with the Working Families Party. As they both see it, this bill has the potential not just to curb the worst of climate change, but to transform our society.

Why Undoing Globalization is Going to Be a Painful Affair

In the last few years, globalization has gotten an increasingly a bad rap. Whether because of increasing geopolitical tensions over high end computers chips, or the realization that when you outsource your manufacturing base it’s quite hard to make things in a hurry (see: the pandemic), people across the political spectrum are calling time on ‘make it there, ship it here.’ 

It seems that politicians of all stripes want to roll back global supply chains and ‘friendshore’ all our wants and needs. The problem with doing so however lies at the level of the firm, as has recently been pointed out by Jonas Nahm. And for a number of reasons, it won’t be an easy transition. 

Jonas is an Assistant Professor of Energy, Resources, and Environment at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and author of the recent and excellent book Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy. 

On this episode, Mark talks with Jonas about all the ways that private firms, domestic institutions, and national industrial policies mesh together to produce outcomes that are more than the sum of their parts.

This Week in ‘Ask a Philosopher’: Is the ‘American Dream' Dead?

It looks like the American Dream is dead.

But is that true?

What does it mean for a dream to die, anyway?

And if it is dead, is there a way to revive it? 

These sound like questions for a philosopher. 

Someone who has thought about this a great deal is Josh Preiss. He’s a philosopher, Professor at Minnesota State University, and author of Just Work For All: The American Dream in the 21st Century. 

On this episode, Mark talks with Josh about the ideas behind what we call ‘The American Dream,’ and looks at the reality behind its decline: what’s gotten worse for who, and what’s needed to make things better.

How Did We End Up with the Idea of a Growing Economy? ‘The Journey of Humanity’ with Oded Galor

On this episode Mark talks with Oded Galor, Professor of Economics at Brown University, and author of the new book The Journey of Humanity: The Origins of Wealth and Inequality. 

In this book Oded survey’s 200,000 years of human history to create a theory for why societies and economies grew so slowly for so long – and why, starting about 200 years ago, that began to change very rapidly. 

It’s a sweeping history that puts the work of many influential economists into a new light – from Adam Smith to Karl Marx to Paul Romer. But Oded’s story is about much more than economics. It’s about technology, geography, psychology, and politics. In short, it’s about the nature of humanity. 

Mark and Oded discuss all of this, as well as how – as we stumble through a global pandemic and catastrophic climate change – we can grow in ways that benefit us all.

What if I told you that international money is governed by no more than the beliefs of a handful of super-connected global elites…and yet there is no conspiracy. Would you be interested?

There’s a standard story economists and historians use to explain the global economy over the last 100 years: there was the gold standard, which gave way to the Bretton Woods system, which gave way to “neoliberal globalization”. 

But on this episode of the Rhodes Center Podcast, Mark talks with someone whose work challenges this story by attacking its foundational myth with deep archival work. 

James Ashely Morrison is an associate professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and author of the new book England’s Cross of Gold: Keynes, Churchill, and the Governance of Economic Beliefs. 

In it, he recounts the fight over Britain’s return to the Gold Standard after World War I, and comes to a bold conclusion: there never really was a “gold standard” – at least, not as we understand it. As James makes vividly clear, the “gold standard” was always more of an idea about a perfect state of the world, rather than an economic reality. As such, fights over it have always been less about actual monetary policy, and more about how people believe the economy is supposed to work. 

James’ work not only adds depth and nuance to this misunderstood turning point in 20th century economics. As he and Mark discuss, it also forces us to reconsider so many of the more contemporary stories we’ve been told about how our economy works, and why. 

Can Social Media and Democracy Co-exist? A Conversation with Frances Haugen

From 2019 to 2021, Frances Haugen worked as a Product Manager in Facebook’s Civic Integrity Department. During that time she got an inside view into how Facebook’s algorithms are deliberately designed to influence its users. She also saw something deeply worrying: that this influence was often used to grow Facebook’s profits at the expense of users' safety and wellbeing. 

In 2021 she anonymously leaked tens of thousands of internal documents to the Wall Street Journal. Since then she’s testified before Congress on the matter, and helped start a global movement to better understand and regulate Big Tech. 

On this episode Mark talks with Frances about her experience whistleblowing on one of the world’s most powerful companies, and what she thinks we need to do to create social media platforms that are compatible with a functioning democracy.

The Global Roots of Neomercantilism

In the last few years we’ve seen critiques of free trade from across the political spectrum. Trump focused on the US-China trade imbalance, while the left focuses its ire on free trade agreements themselves. 

It’s, of course, not the first time that protectionist ideas have found currency in a globalizing economy.  

In the late 18th century a theory known as ‘neomercantilism’ began to thrive in a number of western countries. It was a theory, most famously espoused by the German thinker Friedrich List, that focused on protectionism and government activism to create an industrial state. But as Eric Helleiner, a political science professor at the University of Waterloo explores in his new book ‘The Neomercantilists,’ this movement did not start in Europe and diffuse out to the rest of the world. Rather, it was a truly global phenomenon, with intellectual roots springing up everywhere from Africa to Asia to Latin America.

On this episode Mark talks with Eric about the neglected intellectual traditions that gave rise to varieties of neomercantilism. Eric’s analysis not only helps explain the protectionist revivals of today. It also challenges Western readers’ assumptions about how economic theory develops, and how economic ideas gain influence around the world.

Fiona Hill on Deindustrialization, Despair and Demagoguery

On this episode Mark talks with Dr. Fiona Hill about her new book There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century. A foreign policy expert and key witness in President Trump’s first impeachment trial, she reflects on growing up in the deindustrializing North of England in the 1980s and how that upbringing attuned her to developments in both Russia and America that we are coping with today. This talk was recorded in late February 2021. 

Learn more about and purchase There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First Century

The Past, Present, and Contested Future of Central Banks

On this episode Mark talks with Manuela Moschella about the recent transformations to central bank policy and orthodoxy. Central banking used to be straightforward - fix short term rates and get price stability. 2008 changed that. Engineering asset price instability and massive bailouts became the norm and, despite all that, deflation, not inflation became the problem. The Fed and the ECB were late in waking up to that fact, and just when they did, COVID hit and inflation came back. So Mark asks Manuela: what is a central banker to do? 

Manuela is an Associate Professor of International Political Economy at the Scuola Normale Superiore and Associate Fellow at the Europe Programme at Chatham House.

‘How Efficiency Replaced Equality in US Policy” with Elizabeth Popp Berman

On this episode Mark talks with Elizabeth Popp Berman, Professor of Sociology at the University of Michigan, and author of Thinking Like an Economist: How Efficiency Replaced Equality in US Public Policy. 

In it, she explains how in the middle of the 20th century a new kind of economic thinking took hold among policymakers at all levels of government. It replaced bold visions of justice and equality with a more technocratic style, one whose goals could be summed up in one word: efficiency. 

Over the last half century this quest for efficiency has guided policies in everything from public education to defense to environmental management. It’s dominance is also reflected in the wild proliferation of MPA programs that exist in American universities today that have cost-benefit analysis at their heart. 

Elizabeth and Mark discuss where this thinking came from, and why it appealed (and continues to appeal) to so many policymakers. They also talk about what’s lost in this focus on efficiency, and why it isn’t the panacea its advocates claim.

RCP - The Forgotten History of “The Labor Board Crew”: How Mediators at the US Labor Board Changed Organized Labor (and the World)

On this episode Mark talks  with Ron Schatz, Professor of History at Wesleyan University and author of the new book The Labor Board Crew. In it, Ron  tells the story of a groups of young professionals who, during WWII, took on roles that hadn’t really existed before: they were hired as mediators, recruited by the government to help end strikes at a time when the US government felt the country couldn’t afford to have factories sitting empty. 

They weren’t union organizers, businesspeople, or politicians. They were mostly economists and lawyers. They were also quite young. But they were very good at this new kind of job. And the techniques they pioneered changed not only labor relations in the US, but how conflicts were resolved in settings ranging from higher education to international relations.

RCP - America Has Always Been a 'Credit Nation'

On this episode: a conversation with Claire Priest. Claire is a historian and Professor at Yale Law School, and author of the book Credit Nation: Property Laws and Institutions in Early America. 

In it, she explains how even before the United States became a country, laws prioritizing access to credit set colonial America apart from the rest of the world. This reality didn’t just shape colonial economies -- it was also a key factor in the explosive growth of American capitalism in the nineteenth-century.

This episode was guest-hosted by Rhodes Center Fellow Ann Daly. She's a historian, Assistant Professor of History at Mississippi State University, and an expert on the economics of the American colonies.

RCP - The Other Problem with Ratings Agencies

On this episode Mark talks with Zsófia Barta and Alison Johnston, authors of the upcoming book Rating Politics: How Sovereign Credit Ratings Reward and Penalize Political and Policy Choices in Prosperous Developed Countries. They explain how agencies like Moody’s, Fitch, and Standard and Poor’s go about rating sovereign credit, and the surprising role a country’s internal politics play in the process.

Zsófia Barta is an associate professor of Political Science at the University at Albany SUNY.

Alison Johnston is an associate professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Oregon State University.

RCP - 'Bidenomics': Policy Change or Paradigm Shift?

On this episode Mark talks with economist and Brown Professor John Friedman. They discuss why decreasing income inequality is good for economic growth, the challenge of assessing inflation risk on the heels of a global pandemic, and whether 'Bidenomics' is an evolution of Democratic economic policy or a genuine paradigm shift.

RCP - The Robots May Be Comming, But Probably Not for Your Job

Most discussions about AI and the future of work tend to go in one of two directions: either excitement for a ‘post-work’ utopia, or alarm over the end of work. On this episode Mark talks with Aaron Benanav, an economic historian, postdoctoral researcher at Humboldt University of Berlin, and author of ‘Automation and the Future of Work,’ about why this whole debate sort of misses the point.

RCP - How Precarity Puts Capitalism on Edge

On this episode Mark talks with Albena Azmanova, IWM Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Human Studies in Vienna and author of ‘Capitalism on Edge: How Fighting Precarity Can Achieve Radical Change Without Crisis or Utopia’. In the book, Albena explains how precarity (not inequality) is the central driver of our current political, economic, and social woes. Mark and Albena explore the roots of economic precarity, the reasons it’s more dangerous and destabilizing than inequality alone, and why addressing it will require mixing tried-and-true economic policies with a radical rethinking of how our economy is structured.

RCP - Is Now the Time for a Federal Jobs Guarantee?

On this episode Mark talks with economist Pavlina Tcherneva about a policy proposal that’s bubbling under in the US policy debate: the creation of a federal jobs guarantee. Pavlina is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Bard College and author of 'The Case for a Job Guarantee.' As Pavlina describes it, a federal jobs guarantee isn’t just a good idea; in the face of our economic, environmental, and epidemiological crises, it may be a necessary one.

RCP - The Left, Divided Over the Extraction Economy

On this episode Mark talks with Thea Riofrancos. Thea is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Providence College, and author of two essential reads on the challenges facing global left movements today: 'Resource Radicals: From Petro-Nationalism to Post-Extractivism in Ecuador' and 'A Planet to Win: Why We Need a Green New Deal.'

Mark and Thea discuss why the Left in Ecuador fractured under the progressive Correa government starting in 2007, and the role resource extraction played in those divisions. As Riofrancos explains, this intra-left conflict isn’t just about political strategy or economic inclinations -- it’s also about competing visions of modernity, and it has lessons for progressive movements around the world.

RCP - Austerity Myths and the Health of Nations: What Malawi Tells Us About the Construction of Scarcity

On this episode Mark talks with Luke Messac, physician, historian, and author of ‘No More to Spend: Neglect and the Construction of Scarcity in Malawi's History of Health Care.’ They discuss how Malawi’s politics over the last century has - like in many countries - been defined by a rhetoric of scarcity and austerity. As Luke shows though, this scarcity is more often the product of political decisions rather than structural pressures, with devastating consequences for the country’s healthcare system. If you’re interested in how geopolitics and economics affect the health of nations, this is the book (and podcast) for you.

RCP - How Fraud Explains the Economy

On this episode Mark talks with economist Dan Davies about his book ‘Lying for Money: How Legendary Frauds Reveal the Workings of the World.’ Dan and Mark look at some of the great scams of modern history to explore how fraud works, why it persists, and what it can teach us about modern economies.

RCP - Who Owns the Economy and Who Pays for it?

On this episode Mark talks with political economist Brett Christophers. Brett’s a Professor at Uppsala University, and author of ‘Rentier Capitalism: Who Owns the Economy, and Who Pays for It?’. In the book, Brett explains how neoliberalism and financialization have led to an explosion of rent-seeking businesses in a variety of sectors, from natural resource extraction and finance, to tech and hospitality. And while it allows some companies to thrive, Brett argues that mostly it stifles innovation, hurts competition, and defangs what’s left of organized labor. In Brett’s view, this new model of capitalism is one of the key economics challenges we face. After reading his book, you might agree.

RCP - Do Deficits Matter? (MMT Explained)

On this episode Mark talks with Stephanie Kelton, Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Stony Brook University and author of 'The Deficit Myth: Modern Monetary Theory and the Birth of the People's Economy'. Kelton is one of the leading experts on modern monetary theory (MMT), a view of macroeconomics that upends many long-held assumptions about federal government spending. Mark and Stephanie start by unpacking a key tenet of MMT: when it comes to spending, debt, and savings, governments are NOTHING like households. But as you'll hear, that's only the tip of the MMT iceberg.

RCP - Populisim, or 'Anti-System Politics'

On this episode Mark talks with Jonathan Hopkin, author of 'Anti-System Politics: The Crisis of Market Liberalism in Rich Democracies.' Unlike most analyses of populism and the breakdown of party systems, Hopkin argues that the way countries' have governed their markets in the last 30 years has shaped not just the rise of populism, but a form of politics opposed to market liberalism that spans the ideological spectrum.

RCP - The Fraught, Complex, and Important 'Economics of Belonging'

On this episode Mark talks with Martin Sandbu, a journalist at the Financial Times and author of 'The Economics of Belonging.' In addition to having a great title, the book provides a penetrating explanation for why so many people have come to feel so left behind in wealthy Western countries. Mark and Martin discuss the role economics plays in this discontent, and look at how radical economic policy could help not just boost national GDP's and employment rates in the West, but renew a widespread sense of citizenship and belonging.

RCP - How US Hegemony Ends

On this episode Mark talks with Alex Cooley and Dan Nexon, authors of 'Exit from Hegemony: The Unraveling of the American Global Order.' Scholars and pundits have been predicting the US's decline as the singular world power since at least the 1970s. Now, with President Trump's isolationist, nativist politics, many are saying this decline has finally arrived. Cooley and Nexon agree that the US exit from hegemony has begun, but as they explain, it started long before Trump's inauguration.  

RCP - The Corona Oil Shock

Something strange happened in late April: the price of oil went negative. This below-zero price tag didn’t last long, but it remains unusually cheap. And thanks to the coronavirus, it will likely stay that way for a while. In this episode Mark talks with Watson Associate Professor Jeff Colgan, an expert on the oil industry and the geopolitics that define it. They get into oil's current price fluctuations, how it’s related to the coronavirus pandemic, and how changes to this singular commodity will affect industries and countries in a post-pandemic world.

RCP - State Capacity, Growth Models, and Coronavirus in Latin America

In this episode, Mark talks with Jazmin Sierra, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame, who is a specialist in the political economies of Latin America. This interview was on the books before the coronavirus pandemic; Mark and Jazmin were planning to talk growth models in Latin America - that is, what bits of GDP the different economies tickle to generate growth. Now of course, there’s a more pressing topic at hand. But surprise, surprise: the two topics are deeply connected. They discuss how different countries in Latin America are responding to this crisis, and what it’s revealing about the strengths and vulnerabilities of their different growth models in this moment. Plus, the eerie feeling of deja vu one gets when watching Brazilian politics from the US.

RCP - The First Globalist: Sandy Zipp Talks Wendel Wilkie's World

At a time when globalization is being contested by nationalists and battered by coronavirus, Mark talks to Samuel (Sandy) Zipp, Associate Professor of American Studies and Urban Studies at Brown, about the first American globalist: ex-Republican Presidential Candidate Wendell Willkie. Sandy is the author of 'The Idealist: Wendell Willkie's Wartime Quest to Build One World,' and as he describes in it, after losing to FDR, Willkie circumnavigated the globe in 1942, steeled the Allied countries' resolve to fight Nazism, and in the process picked up a new politics of globalism. Back home Willkie wrote 'One World,' a wildly successful book that briefly pushed Americans to embrace the causes of decolonization. Mark and Sandy discuss Willkie’s odyssey, and its relevance for the world we find ourselves in today.