The Georgetown Public Policy Review Podcast

Policy decisions matter to you every day. We're here to explain them.

Rank #1: Figuring Out Millennials: Interview with the 2018 Fall GU Politics Fellows.
In our first podcast of the new academic year, Senior Interview Editor Enakshi Das and four of the five new GU Politics Fellows discuss their expectations for their fellowship, their views on millennial attitudes towards politics and news consumption, what they might learn from being back on campus, and the evolution of media. Unfortunately, our conversation was cut short by the Georgetown Library fire alarm! But don't be alarmed-- we'll publish individual interviews with each fellows throughout the semester.Bonus featuresMeet the Fall 2018 GU Politics Fellows:Erin Conaton (SFS ‘92): Former Under Secretary of the Air Force and former Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and ReadinessEd Goeas: Republican pollster; President & CEO, The Tarrance GroupSuzanne Kianpour: Foreign Affairs & Political Journalist, BBC NewsTim Lim: Democratic digital strategist; Founder, Lim Consulting; former Partner, Bully Pulpit Interactive; Board Member, Run for SomethingJosh Pitcock: Vice President Government Affairs, Oracle; former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike PenceTheme music by Russell Lawrence. Visit his SoundCloud @cspanfam to hear more.

Rank #2: Spring 2018 GU Politics Fellows.
Welcome back to the Semester. GPPR Interview Editors Disraeli Smith and Erich Denk sat down with the Spring 2018 GU Politics Fellows and discussed their Discussion Groups, the GPPR Spring Theme of uncertainty and advice for those interested in public policy

CQ Budget

CQ's budget tracker David Lerman, and his colleagues, follow and explain how lawmakers in Congress spend the nation's money.

Rank #1: Inching Toward a Spending Spree.
CQ budget reporter Paul M. Krawzak explains the negotiations to lift the budget caps by as much as $250 billion over two years.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rank #2: Don't Pop the Champagne Just Yet on Tax Overhaul.
Republicans hailed their budget resolution as the key to unlocking a tax code overhaul, but history suggests a partisan tax bill could still face a rocky road, as CQ Budget editor Peter Cohn explains. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Gov Innovator podcast

Insights for results-focused public leaders

Rank #1: Improving public policy through behavioral economics: An interview with Raj Chetty, Professor, Harvard University – Episode #78.
How can tools from the behavioral sciences, such as behavioral economics, improve the design and implementation of public policies? We examine that question with a leading economist, Raj Chetty of Harvard University. In his recent keynote speech at the American Economic Association meeting, he argued that insights from the behavioral sciences can expand the scope of tools that are available to policymakers — insights such as the importance of defaults, salience and loss aversion. Professor Chetty has been widely recognized for his research that combines empirical evidence and economic theory to help design more effective government policies. This is Part One of our conversation. For part 2 of our conversation, on the use of administrative data (or “big data”) for research on what works in public policy, click here. The post Improving public policy through behavioral economics: An interview with Raj Chetty, Professor, Harvard University – Episode #78 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

Rank #2: The importance of administrative data for learning what works in public policy: An interview with Raj Chetty, Professor, Harvard University – Episode #83.
Why is administrative data, also known as big data, important for learning what works in public policy? And what steps can help the U.S. strengthen its data infrastructure for policy-relevant research? To gain insights, we’re joined by Raj Chetty for part 2 of our conversation. A Professor of Economics at Harvard University, his research combines empirical evidence (often using administrative data) and economic theory to help design more effective government policies. As background, administrative data means the data collected by government agencies for program administration, regulatory or law enforcement purposes. Federal and state administrative data include detailed, useful information on labor market outcomes, health care, criminal justice, housing, and other important topics. Access to administrative data for research purposes – while carefully protecting privacy – can produce important insights about what works and how to improve public sector programs and policies. For further reading, a useful resource is the chapter Building Evidence with Administrative Data from the Analytical Perspectives section of the President’s 2016 Budget. For part 1 of our conversation, on behavioral economics, click here. The post The importance of administrative data for learning what works in public policy: An interview with Raj Chetty, Professor, Harvard University – Episode #83 appeared first on Gov Innovator podcast.

RAND Congressional Briefing Series

The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis. RAND Congressional Briefings connect RAND experts with lawmakers, legislative staff, and respected opinion leaders on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to present findings and recommendations on issues relevant to the current policy debate. For more about RAND, visit www.rand.org.

Rank #1: Protecting Consumer Data: Considerations for Congress.
Rebecca Balebako and John S. Davis discuss the benefits and risks of data sharing, opportunities for protecting privacy at both the personal and industry level, current U.S. laws and how they compare to European laws, and policy options for Congress.

Rank #2: Overcoming the Threats of Our Strategic Competitors.
David Ochmanek discusses challenges posed to U.S. force planning by China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Salafist-Jihadi groups; and weapon systems and posture enhancements that could potentially overcome those challenges.

Policy 360

Policy 360 is a series of audio conversations from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. The series is hosted by Sanford's dean, Judith Kelley.

Rank #1: Ep. 12: Food: Hello, Finland.
Finland used to have a diet with high saturated fat and sodium. No anymore. A conversation with Francesco Branca of the World Health Organization. Part of series on the future of food policy.

Rank #2: Ep. 97 Anatomy of a Flawed Policy.
In 2009, President Obama launched an initiative designed to use a community outreach approach to counter violent extremism. Ten years later, Professor David Schanzer, Director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security has analyzed the policy, and he says it was deeply flawed, but there are lessons to be learned. Read the episode transcript Read the report, “Engaging with Communities to Prevent Violent Extremism: A Review of the Obama Administration’s CVE Initiative” Music: Careless Morning by Blue Dot Sessions / Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution

State of Reform: Health care policy across the U.S.

Podcast by State of Reform

Rank #1: Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley on Healthcare Reform and Politics.
As governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley led one of the most innovative reform efforts to have been implemented in any state. By moving hospitals to a fixed and predictable payment model, incentives for the organizations were redirected from quantity to a new focus on quality. O’Malley was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 2016, and made health care an important part of his campaign.We sat down with O’Malley at our 2018 Hawaii State of Reform Health Policy Conference, where he was one of the keynote speakers. We talk through some of the health care reforms he worked on in Maryland, and the current state of our national politics.

Rank #2: MultiCare and Premera Blue Cross executives discuss new alliance.
Today, Premera Blue Cross and MultiCare announced an alliance that promises a better customer experience while providing the right care at a lower cost through a new product Peak Care. In this podcast, we sit down with Bill Robertson, President and CEO of MultiCare and Dr. John Espinola, Executive Vice President of Healthcare Services for Premera to learn more about how this alliance was formed and what it seeks to accomplish.

Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI) Public Policy Podcast

Mixed audio and video content from the Institute for Policy Innovation (IPI), a conservative, free-market public policy think tank. Supply-side economics, tax cuts, entitlement reform, deregulation. We advocate lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a smaller, less-intrusive government.

Rank #1: Looking at a More Balanced Assessment of the U.S.- China Trade Deal (Audio: Interview).
In an interview with WAVA's Don Kroah in Washington DC, IPI's Dr. Merrill Matthews notes that although one of the president's top trade advisors sees nothing but positives from imposing tariffs, a more balanced view sees some positives, but many negatives.

Rank #2: Blue State Exodus (Audio: Interview).
Merrill Matthews joins the WBAP Morning News discussing his recent article about people leaving blue states for red ones, and how that momentum is picking up.

Poverty Research & Policy

The Poverty Research & Policy Podcast is produced by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP) and features interviews with researchers about poverty, inequality, and policy in the United States.

Rank #1: Kathleen Moore on the Housing Choice Voucher Program and Rental Market Discrimination.
In this podcast episode, IRP National Poverty Fellow Kathleen Moore talks about the Housing Choice Voucher Program and her research about how landlords respond to inquiries from potential renters who hold housing vouchers. Transcript 

Rank #2: Mustafa Hussein: Can Your Neighborhood Affect Your Health?.
In this podcast episode, Mustafa Hussein of the School of Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee discusses his research on how differences in socioeconomic status can lead to differences in health and, specifically, how much a person's neighborhood contributes to their health outcomes.

Taxology

This is Taxology, the podcast where experts from the non-partisan Tax Policy Center decode the tax code, translate the jargon, and do the math. Think of us as tax geeks in search of truth.

Rank #1: Do Tax Cuts Pay for Themselves?.
The White House aims to enact historically big tax cuts and claims they would not add to the federal deficit because they would stimulate the economy and pay for themselves. On this episode of Taxology, we explore the theory and history behind this approach to formulating tax policy: the Laffer Curve.

Rank #2: The Stars Align: the 1986 Tax Reform.
As the 115th Congress weighs tax reform policy, Taxology takes a look back at the last time the United States actually enacted substantive tax reform. A conversation with Eugene Steuerle, Janice Mays, and Howard Gleckman reveals what was happening behind the scenes at the time and what lessons current lawmakers and White House officials can use going forward.

Government Accountability Office (GAO) Podcast: Watchdog Report

Featuring interviews with GAO officials on significant issues and new reports, the Watchdog Report is recorded, hosted, and produced by GAO staff.

Rank #1: Imported Seafood Safety .
This episode explores FDA's role in ensuring the safety of our imported seafood.

Rank #2: Climate Change Strategies .
Hear about federal approaches to climate change and climate resilience.

New Books in Public Policy

Interviews with Scholars of Public Policy about their New Books

Rank #1: William Gale, "Fiscal Therapy: Curing America's Debt Addiction and Investing in the Future" (Oxford UP, 2019).
The US government is laboring under an enormous debt burden, one that will impact the living standards of future generations of Americans by limiting investment in people and infrastructure. In his new book, Fiscal Therapy: Curing America's Debt Addiction and Investing in the Future (Oxford University Press, 2019), Brookings Institution senior scholar William Gale tackles the challenge head on, addressing what needs to happen to healthcare spending, Social Security, individual taxes, and corporate taxes, in order to make the numbers add up. It makes for sober reading, and the longer we wait, the worse the situation becomes. And the key challenge may not even be fiscal, but political, as the disagreements in Washington over the debt are as deep as the debt is large. Gale ends by making a few simple, inside-Washington suggestions as to how he thinks the political impasse can be broken.Daniel Peris is Senior Vice President at Federated Investors in Pittsburgh. Trained as a historian of modern Russia, he is the author most recently of Getting Back to Business: Why Modern Portfolio Theory Fails Investors. You can follow him on Twitter @Back2BizBook or at http://www.strategicdividendinvestor.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rank #2: Hidetaka Hirota, "Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy" (Oxford UP, 2018) .
Hidetaka Hirota is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Advanced Study at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. Prior to his current position, he was a Mellon Research Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University and taught at the City University of New York-City College. Dr. Hirota’s book, Expelling the Poor: Atlantic Seaboard States and the Nineteenth-Century Origins of American Immigration Policy (Oxford University Press, 2018) has received awards from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society, the New England American Studies Association, and the American Conference for Irish Studies, and Dr. Hirota’s book also received a special commendation for the Massachusetts Historical Society book prize.Dr. Hirota’s book focuses on state legislation policies of immigration control in New York and Massachusetts. Dr. Hirota asserts those laws come to act as a framework for subsequent federal policy. While most American Studies scholars have mostly aligned with the dominant theory that our nation had open borders prior to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, Hirota’s research reveals that prior to the 1880s laws of exclusion and deportation were used to to rid communities of the poor and infirm."Hidetaka Hirota's Expelling the Poor is an exceptional, deeply researched, and timely study that transforms our understanding of U.S. immigration history and of Irish American studies. Shockingly, Hirota demonstrates that in the mid-nineteenth century Massachusetts and New York officials, inspired by nativism, anti-Catholicism, and what would now be called neoliberalism, excluded and/or deported roughly 100,000 would-be immigrants to the United States: mostly Irish paupers, many of them helpless widows and orphans, often expelled in the cruelest and most autocratic manner. As Hirota also shows, these vicious state policies were later adopted on the federal level, and, indeed, they are implemented today against the immigrants and refugees that US economic and foreign policies have uprooted from their homes."​--Kerby A. Miller, author of ​Emigrants and Exiles: Ireland and the Irish Exodus to North America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ways & Means

Ways and Means is a small radio show featuring bright ideas for how to improve human society. The show is produced by the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Rank #1: S3 Episode 1: Slum Detectives.
Today, for our Season 3 premiere, we begin a three-part series, New Ideas for Policy in the Developing World. In this episode, high-tech meets high-need. How researchers are using Google Earth to find the undocumented slums of India. Series supported by the Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation Endowment Fund.

Rank #2: S2 Episode 1: Dan Ariely, Gov't Innovation.
Every four years, candidates promise change. But is change possible? Dan Ariely says resistance to change is actually hard-wired into human nature, yet bright pockets of innovation exist.

PBPC Podcast

Podcast by PA Budget & Policy Center

Rank #1: 4-27-16 - Jeff Garis - On The Harmful Shift in Education Funding from State to Local Taxpayers.
PA Budget and Policy Center and Keystone Research Center staff appearances on the Rick Smith Show (http://ricksmithshow.com/).In 2005, The Rick Smith Show stepped into a local radio world devoid of progressive talk. Rick took his straight shooting no nonsense Teamster outlook to the air and started mixing it up with conservatives from one of the reddest areas north of the Mason Dixon line. His show grew steadily, attracting listeners starved for a voice that spoke to working stiffs who felt the economic floor crumbling beneath them.Five years after the start of his weekend program, Rick moved to new time slots and new stations. His show now airs Monday-Friday 3pm-6pm on several stations across the state of Pennsylvania where he offers hard truth and commentary with a unique blend of clear-headed, gruff analysis and bemused observation.

Rank #2: Episode 12 - A Fair Tax Plan.
PBPC Director Marc Stier joins us to talk about a proposal to tax income from wealth that could begin to address the structural deficit and, in conjunction with a few other revenue mechanisms, could also address the need for adequate funding for public education and human services.

Political Theater

Have you ever asked, “WTF?,” about politics? Or, “who are these people making decisions about my life?” Political Theater pulls back the curtain on the stunts, antics and motivations that drive Washington. Host Jason Dick and the Roll Call team spotlight the spectacle, the players and what’s going on behind the curtain in Washington’s long-running drama: Congress.

Rank #1: Mysteries of the Senate, bathtubs and beyond..
Politicians and pundits are fond of saying that Washington has never been more polarized and that the Senate in particular may never recover from hyper-partisanship and rule-bending. But it is assistant Senate historian Daniel S. Holt's job to remind us all that Senate disputes could result in pistols at dawn instead of dueling tweets.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rank #2: Brexit's Impact On The U.S..
Listen to The Economist Washington Bureau Chief David Rennie describe the potential economic consequences to the U.S. economy of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union and the parallels between Brexit voters and supporters of Donald Trump.  "The last thing the American government needs right now is global turmoil in any significant economy, '' Rennie says. Britain's investments in the United States amount to half a trillion dollars, Rennie says in his discussion with Chief Content Officer David Ellis and CQ Roll Call's Managing Editor Adriel Bettelheim.  @cqnow, @rollcall, @DSORennie Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Quorum Call

No one knows Capitol Hill and the corridors of Washington power like National Journal, and now NJ brings you Quorum Call—a weekly podcast on Congress, policy, and politics. Hosted by National Journal's veteran reporting team, new episodes of Quorum Call will be available every Monday.

Rank #1: Episode 51: Never Too Early.
Adam Wollner, Josh Kraushaar, Kyle Trygstad, and Hanna Trudo break down Hotline's inaugural 2020 Democratic presidential power rankings.

Rank #2: Episode 95: Closing Arguments.
Ben Pershing talks with Hotline reporters Zach Cohen, Ally Mutnick, and Madelaine Pisani about last-minute momentum, the Trump factor, and the key races to watch in the midterm elections.