On November 5, Americans went to the polls and once again elected Donald Trump president of the United States. By this point, you probably know the broad strokes of his victory: He won every swing state and, unlike in 2016, the popular vote as well. 

It also seems clear that a key part of the Democratic Party’s message — that another Trump term would threaten democracy and push the nation toward authoritarianism — didn’t resonate with voters like they hoped it would. 

However, as Financial Times U.S. National Editor and Watson Institute Senior Fellow Edward Luce explains on this episode of “Trending Globally,” that doesn’t mean it’s not true. 

“There's this sort of surpassing irony of what happened last Tuesday is that it was a free and fair election. Democracy worked to elect a person who rejects the democratic system unless he wins,” Luce told host Dan Richards.

Luce is the author of several books, including “The Retreat of Western Liberalism,” which was published in 2017. He is an indispensable voice when it comes to understanding Trump and the MAGA movement as a phenomenon that is both uniquely American and part of decades-long trend in global politics. 

This is something Luce also explores with Watson Institute students in his study group, “The Revenge of Geopolitics.” On this episode, Luce spoke with Richards about what another Trump term could mean for American democracy, geopolitical stability, and the future of liberal democratic values around the world.

Learn more about and purchase “The Retreat of Western Liberalism” by Ed Luce

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On November 5, all eyes will be on the race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump for the White House. But no matter who wins the presidency, there’s another close competition that will have a huge impact on U.S. politics: the fight for control of Congress. In fact, next year’s Congress will play a role in our politics even before the next president is sworn in; they’ll be responsible for certifying election results on January 6, 2025.  

Republicans appear very likely to regain control of the Senate, while control of the House of Representatives is up for grabs. To make sense of this crucial battleground within the 2024 election, Dan Richards spoke with Olivia Beavers, a congressional reporter for Politico who focuses on House Republicans and the GOP leadership. 

They discuss why so many House races are so close this year, how control of Congress will affect the next presidential administration and the role House Republicans would play if Trump decides to contest the results of this November’s election. 

Watch Olivia Beavers’ talk at the Watson Institute’s Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy

Remember the supply chain problems of 2020 and 2021? The story we were told was that COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the world’s ability to make and transport goods, leaving us with shortages of everything from surgical masks to infant formula (not to mention seven dollar eggs).

However, it turns out that the real story behind those shortages is more complicated, and has less to do with the pandemic than with transformations to our economy that have been taking place over decades. 

On this episode (originally broadcast on the Rhodes Center Podcast), political economist Mark Blyth talks with Peter Goodman, a New York Times' global economic correspondent and author of the book, “How the World Ran Out of Everything: Inside the Global Supply Chain,” about why these shocks really occurred, and what they can tell us about the fragility of our global economy today. They also explore what these supply shortages looked like from inside individual companies, and why, unless we make some major changes to our economy, we’re at risk of running out of everything again. 

Subscribe to the Rhode Center Podcast, hosted by political economist Mark Blyth

Watch Peter Goodmans’ talk at the Watson Institute

While no one knows how this November’s election is going to go in the U.S., there’s one thing most experts agree on: It’s likely going to be close. Very close. Poll after poll suggests that, especially in a few key states, support for the two candidates is evenly split in a way we haven’t seen in decades. 

So, with just about four weeks to go before election day, Dan Richards spoke with two experts about the key factors shaping this race. They discuss why neither Biden’s winning coalition in 2020 nor Trump’s coalition in 2016 seem likely to re-form and what this all means for American politics beyond November 5. 

Guests on this episode: 

• Wendy Schiller is a political science professor and director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy. She is also the interim director of the Watson Institute. 
• Katherine Tate is a professor of political science at Brown University and an expert on public opinion and Black politics in the U.S. 

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Even for an election year, the last few months have seen a head-spinning amount of political news in the United States.

So, on this episode, Dan Richards spoke with someone uniquely suited to help make sense of the race as it enters the homestretch. Isaac Dovere is a senior reporter for CNN based in Washington covering Democratic politics. He’s also a senior fellow at the Watson Institute and teaches a class on political journalism. Prior to working at CNN, he was a staff writer at The Atlantic, and before that, he served as Politico’s chief Washington correspondent. 

Beyond being one of America’s most insightful political reporters, he’s also a deep thinker when it comes to how political news works in America—how it’s made, how it’s consumed, and it in turn shapes our politics. 

Dan and Isaac discuss how this election has been covered in the press, how political journalism has changed since Trump first ran for president, and why everyone would benefit from being a little more critical of the news they consume (and maybe, sometimes, taking a break from the news altogether). 

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Many Americans see a potential Trump victory in this year’s election as a threat to American democracy. Whether you share that concern or not, the rise of Donald Trump and the prospect of a second Trump term have brought up new and unsettling questions about presidential power and the fragility of our democratic institutions. 

But as Corey Brettschneider explains in his new book “The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It,” these concerns are hardly unprecedented in our history. And the ways our country has navigated authoritarian presidents before has a lot to teach us about many of the legal and political issues defining our current moment. 

In the book, Brettschneider looks at examples from the 18th century through the 20th century of presidents who challenged key features of American democracy and how the country recovered from these moments of crisis.

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Brettschneider about what these lessons history can teach us, why our Constitution is so vulnerable to authoritarian Presidents, and why, despite these threats, we’ve been able to defend against them — so far.

Learn more about and purchase "The Presidents and the People: Five Leaders Who Threatened Democracy and the Citizens Who Fought to Defend It"

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In March 2020, the Vatican’s Apostolic Archives of Pope Pius XII — also known as the Vatican’s “secret archives” — were opened to scholars from around the world. Historian and Watson Professor David Kertzer was one of those scholars. 

What he found there is helping to reframe the role that the Catholic Church — and its then-leader, Pope Pius XII — played in World War II.  

Pius XII’s legacy is heavily debated. Some want him to be made a saint. Others call him ‘“Hitler’s Pope,” blaming him for aiding the Nazi regime and, ultimately, facilitating the Holocaust. 

What David Kertzer found is a much more complicated story. 

On this episode of “Trending Globally,” originally broadcast in the summer of 2022, the story of “a pope at war” and what it can teach us about the need for moral leadership in times of crisis. 

Learn more about and purchase David Kertzer’s 2022 book “The Pope at War: The Secret History of Pius XII, Mussolini and Hitler"

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This is the second part in our two-part series on South Africa’s politics 30 years after the election of Nelson Mandela, and with it, the end of apartheid. 

Around the same time as that anniversary this past spring, there was another momentous event in the country: South Africans went to the polls in May, and for the first time in 30 years, the African National Congress — the political party of Nelson Mandela — lost its parliamentary majority. 

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with three experts on South African politics about this pivotal moment in the country: what it can tell us about South Africa’s politics since the fall of apartheid, and what it might mean for the country’s future. 

Guests on this episode: 

• Wilmot James, a senior advisor at Brown University’s Pandemic Center. Prior to coming to Brown, Wilmot was a member of South Africa’s parliament. Before that, he managed multiple special projects for Mandela's office and was a co-editor of his presidential speeches.
• Redi Tlhabi is an award-winning South African journalist, producer and author. She hosted the acclaimed “Redi Tlhabi Show” for many years in South Africa, and regularly comments on the country’s politics for international media. 
• Stanley Greenberg is an American political strategist and pollster who assisted in Nelson Mandela’s presidential campaign in 1994 and has written extensively on politics and race relations in South Africa. 

Listen to part one of this two-part special, exploring the history of the fall of apartheid

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Over the course of 2024, roughly half of the world’s population will participate in national elections. 

On this episode, we take a closer look at two of them: this summer’s elections in the United Kingdom and France. 

In the U.K., the center-left Labour Party won in a landslide in July, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule. In France, an alliance of left-leaning parties banded together to defeat the right-wing National Rally Party, led by Marine Le Pen.  

But as political economist and Watson Professor Mark Blyth explains, neither was as resounding a victory for the center-left as the topline results suggest. Furthermore, if these new governments fail to address the social and economic distress so many people in their countries are experiencing, the far-right may not be sidelined for long. 

Mark Blyth is the director of the Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance at the Watson Institute. He’s also host of the Rhodes Center Podcast, another podcast from the Watson Institute. On this episode, he spoke with Dan Richards about what these two elections can tell us about the political fault lines running through European politics today and what they can also tell us about right-wing populism in the U.S. ahead of our own election in November. 

Subscribe to the Rhodes Center Podcast, hosted by Mark Blyth

This spring marked the thirtieth anniversary of the election of Nelson Mandela as South Africa’s president and the end of apartheid, the system of legalized racial segregation that had existed in South Africa for decades. 

Around the same time as that anniversary, there was another momentous event in the country: South Africans went to the polls in May, and for the first time in 30 years, the African National Congress — the political party of Nelson Mandela — lost its parliamentary majority. 

These two events — the anniversary of Mandela’s election and the unprecedented defeat of his party today — bring up important questions about South Africa’s politics since the fall of apartheid and where the country will go from here. 

This will be the first in a two-part special looking at South Africa 30 years after the end of apartheid. Wilmot James, a senior advisor at Brown University’s Pandemic Center, will be our guide for these two episodes. Prior to coming to Brown, Wilmot was a member of South Africa’s Parliament, and before that he managed multiple special projects for President Mandela's office, and was a co-editor of his presidential speeches.

To start this episode, we’ll hear some of Wilmot’s story and how his life intersected with the rise and fall of apartheid in his home country. 

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On June 4, results came in from the largest democratic election in history. Over 640 million people voted in India’s election, which took place at over one million polling places across the country over the course of six weeks. 

Many predicted that India’s prime minister Nerandra Modi and his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would dominate the election, grow their ranks in Parliament, and further impose their Hindu-nationalist ideology on the country. 

However, that wasn’t what happened. Modi was reelected, but his party lost over 60 seats in the lower house of Parliament. The BJP will have to govern as part of a multi-party coalition, and most likely moderate their Hindu-nationalist aspirations.

On this episode, you’ll hear from Ashutosh Varshney, a political scientist at Brown University and director of the Watson Institute’s Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia, about this historic election: what led to its surprising outcome, what it means for the Hindu-nationalist movement embodied by Prime Minister Nerandra Modi, and what it might tell us about the struggle for democracy occurring in countries around the world.  

*Trending Globally will be taking a brief summer hiatus, but we’ll be back in July with all-new episodes*

Learn more about the Saxena Center for Contemporary South Asia at the Watson Institute

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