Freakonomics Podcast: Speak Softly and Carry Big Data

Do economic sanctions work? Are big democracies any good at spreading democracy? What is the root cause of terrorism? It turns out that data analysis can help answer all these questions — and make better foreign-policy decisions.

Interesting listen, particularly the first part on the efficacy of economic sanctions. Great to make connections between Global Politics and TOK as far as how we know what we know (whether a certain policy approach is effective).

http://freakonomics.com/podcast/chicago-live/

 

The Inquiry Podcast: How soon can we go carbon zero?

This month activists all over the world have taken over city centres, demanding urgent action to halt climate change. They say we need to eliminate all carbon emissions by 2025. Most people think that’s impossible. But scientists are warning that if we want to stop global warming, we need to cut our CO2 emissions fast. So how soon can the planet achieve carbon zero?

Part 3 of this episode, titled, “Out of Africa” (starting at 11:22), does a great job discussing the issue of energy use and development and the challenges of who pays the cost of reducing carbon emissions.

From that section, “How do we tackle this monstrous problem of climate change without exacerbating the problem of global poverty and inequality?” Do developed nations have a responsibility to help subsidize the development of developing nations in order to make sure their development is “clean”?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csytgx

The Long Kurdish Struggle

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s war is an ethnonationalist attack on Kurds and their aspirations.

Mr. Erdogan’s war is an ethnonationalist attack on Kurdish people and their aspirations, and an attempt at using Turkish military might to engineer demographic changes on land that belongs to more than one nation.

Anywheres vs. Somewheres help explain Brexit and Trump

A collection of articles, etc. on the issue.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/22/the-road-to-somewhere-david-goodhart-populist-revolt-future-politics

Relatedly: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/too-diverse-david-goodhart-multiculturalism-britain-immigration-globalisation

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-and-the-revolt-of-the-somewheres-11551483212

https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2017/07/31/david-goodhart-the-road-to-somewhere/

Podcast: Can you reduce Central American migration?

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More and more families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador are travelling to the US. Can security measures lower the numbers taking the dangerous journey?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csytg9

Related article:

The Root Causes Of Migration In Central American Countries

NPR’s Audie Cornish speaks with Shannon O’Neil, of the Council on Foreign Relations, about U.S. efforts to solve the root causes of migration in Central American countries.

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/06/700873481/the-root-causes-of-migration-in-central-american-countries

 

Saudi Arabia & The Paradox of Plenty

This week, back in 1933, a team of American Geologists from Standard Oil Company in California arrived on the shore of a small, sparsely populated Middle Eastern country called Saudi Arabia. Today on the Indicator: what the team of geologists found and how it changed the economy of a country and the global economy for better … and for worse.

https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/09/24/651231709/saudi-arabia-the-paradox-of-plenty