Policy Punchline
News & Politics
About
Created and produced by Princeton students, Policy Punchline sits down with the thinkers, leaders, and innovators defining public policy today. Each episode features in-depth interviews with leaders shaping today’s most pressing debates. We bring rigorous analysis and accessible storytelling to the issues that matter.Sponsored by the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance and the Griswold Center for Economic Policy Studies at Princeton University. Visit us on policypunchline.com
Episodes
- Fixing Democracy’s Bugs: Sam Wang on Gerrymandering, Ballot Design, and Congressional Bid
Sam Wang, a Princeton neuroscientist and NJ-12 candidate, joins Policy Punchline to discuss his work in election reform. The conversation covers his transition from brain science to challenging gerrymandering, advocating for fair represent…
- ‘My State Senator is a Rocket Scientist’: A More Perfect Fusion
State Senator Andrew Zwicker, a plasma physicist, shares his dual perspective on translating frontier research into policy. The episode covers science's role in political decision-making, New Jersey's innovation landscape, and the challeng…
- Trading on Mars: How Global Imbalances Really Work with Michael Pettis
Economist Michael Pettis joins Policy Punchline to discuss global trade, distinguishing between gains from balanced trade and costs of imbalances. The episode covers economic philosophies, deficit country adjustments, and historical contex…
- Search Isn’t Research: Digital Humanities with Meredith Martin
Professor Meredith Martin joins Policy Punchline to discuss digital humanities, challenging the idea that data is neutral and search equates to knowledge. The conversation covers digital tools, the Princeton Prosody Archive, large language…
- Inside America’s Health Engine: Expanding Access and Equity with Chiquita Brooks-LaSure
Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, former CMS Administrator, discusses the U.S. health care system with Princeton students, covering access, equity, the Affordable Care Act, innovation versus cost, and the maternal health crisis.
- Voice Without a Veto: How to Bring Progress Back with Marc Dunkelman
Why can’t America build anymore housing, transmission lines, and even EV chargers without getting stuck in endless reviews and lawsuits? Marc J. Dunkelman. author of "Why Nothing Works: Who Killed Progress—and How to Bring It Back", joins…
- Jason Furman Interview with Princeton's Policy Punchline
A conversation with Jason Furman, Harvard Professor and former Obama Administration economic advisor, discussing key economic policy issues. Furman shares insights on economic resilience, fiscal stimulus responses to the 2008 and COVID-19…
- Acquired Podcast's David Rosenthal: The Art of the Long-Form
The Art of the Long-Form: Crafting Epic Business Narratives and Creating Amazing Podcasts Every Host has a Story.... In this latest episode of Policy Punchline, we sit down with David Rosenthal, co-founder and co-host of the Acquired Podca…
- Credit Scores, and Congress: the Front Lines of Financial Regulation
In this latest episode of Policy Punchline, we dive deep into the world of financial regulation and economic policy with our distinguished guest, Aaron Klein. Klein, the Miriam K. Carliner Chair and Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the…
- Making Sense of Globalization: The Past and Future of World Trade
In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Pinelope Goldberg, the Elihu Professor of Economics at Yale University and former Chief Economist of the World Bank Group. We discuss her extensive research into globalization, trade liberalization, an…
- Wall Street to Washington and Back Again: Meeting the Mooch
In this episode of Policy Punchline, we delve into the remarkable career path and insights of Anthony Scaramucci, the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge and former White House Communications Director. We start with Scaramucci's upbr…
- Economics in America and the World: Problems and Promise of the Profession
In this episode of Policy Punchline, we are honored to welcome Sir Angus Deaton, the esteemed British-American economist and recipient of the 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Sir Deaton discusses the dynamics of wealth, heal…
- Is India Broken? An Interview with Ashoka Mody
In this episode, we are joined by Ashoka Mody, the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor in International Economy and Lecturer in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. We discuss his latest book, India is Broke…
- Daron Acemoglu: The Past and Future of Innovation in our Economy
In this episode of Policy Punchline, renown MIT economist Daron Acemoglu takes us through the tumultuous and fascinating history of new technologies and how they have reshaped the societies we live in. He takes us back to the pre-Industria…
- Marcin Piatkowski: Europe's Growth Champion
Marcin Piatkowski is a Professor of Economics at Kozminski University in Warsaw and Lead Economist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Kozminski University and an MA in Finance and Banking from the Wars…
- Marc Ecko: Bringing Creativity to Scale
Dr. Marc Ecko is a serial entrepreneur who has been one of the influential figures of the early 2000s in shaping culture, especially around hip-hop and streetwear. His brand — Ecko Unltd. — amalgamated the cultural elements of hip-hop with…
- Matthew Yglesias: Discussing a Career in Political Media
Matthew Yglesias is a leading policy blogger and journalist, and has long pioneered what political media looks like on the internet. He has written about politics and public policy for a wide array of publications, including the American P…
- Tiffany Vora: Science Communication in the Post-COVID Era
(Disclaimer: This episode was originally recorded in July 2021.) Dr. Tiffany Vora is an educator, researcher, and entrepreneur who is the chair of medicine and digital biology at Singularity University. She does a huge amount of work in sc…
- Ethan Nadelmann: Drug Policy's Past, Present, and Future
Dr. Ethan Nadelmann is one of the foremost experts on drug policy in the US and the world. Originally from New York City, he received his BA, JD, and PhD from Harvard, then his master’s degree in international relations from the London Sch…
- Nicholas Christakis: Understanding the Genetics of Social Networks
Professor Christakis is the Sterling Professor of Natural and Social Science at Yale University. His research is focused on understanding social networks through their biological and evolutionary determinants, which encompasses studying a…
- Lord Mervyn King: Radical Uncertainty
Lord Mervyn King is a professor of economics and law at the NYU Stern School of Business and the School of Law, and the former governor of the Bank of England. He served as Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of its Monetary Polic…
- Gregory Zuckerman: A Shot to Save the World
Gregory Zuckerman is a nonfiction author and special writer at The Wall Street Journal. Before joining the Journal, Zuckerman was managing editor of Mergers and Acquisitions Reports, a trade publication of Investment Dealers’ Digest, and t…
- Sandro Galea: The Contagion Next Time
Professor Sandro Galea is a physician and epidemiologist who is dean and Robert A. Knox Professor at Boston University School of Public Health. His research is centered on the social factors that influence health and trauma, and his work i…
- Tiger’s Last Interview - Prema Gauranga Das: Satsang on the Ganges and the Pursuit of Absolute Truth
This interview marks my last interview as the host of Policy Punchline. I will soon release another recording giving you an update about Policy Punchline’s future, but for now I just want to present to you the following conversation with P…
- Jean Hebert: Do Our Minds Have To Decline With Age?
Dr. Jean Hebert is a professor at the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also a professor in the department of genetics, and has conducted research that has been published in re…
- Anders Sandberg: Radical Views of Utility and Evaluating Risk
Dr. Anders Sandberg is a James Martin Research Fellow at the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. He is a senior research fellow on the ERC UnPrEDICT Programme, and a research associate to the Oxford Uehiro Centre for…
- Peter Wendell: The Evolution of Venture Capital and Secular Tech Growth
Peter Wendell is the founder of Sierra Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that has invested more than $2 billion over the past 35 years in a wide variety of successful technology companies. Peter has taught more than 2,000 Sta…
- Richard V. Spencer: Integrated Naval Force, Eddie Gallagher, and the Philosophy of War
Richard V. Spencer served as the 76th United States Secretary of the Navy from 2017 to 2019. He also briefly served as Acting Secretary of Defense and Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense in 2019. Sec. Spencer’s term as the Navy Secretary wa…
- Jamil El-Imad: Connecting Our Brains to the World
Dr. Jamil El-Imad is the CEO of The Brain Forum, a neuroscience, brain-computer interface (BCI), and virtual reality (VR) research foundation in Switzerland, as well as the co-founder of NeuroPro, a Swiss-based Digital Health Solutions com…
- Toni Townes-Whitley: Digital Transformation in Government and Ethics of Innovation
Toni Townes-Whitley graduated from Princeton University in 1985 with a B.A. in Public Policy and Economics. She then went to the peace corps for three years in Gabon. With a non-tech background, she went on to become the President of the I…
- Mitch Julis: Credit Investing in Covid, Complex Systems, and How Structure Determines Behavior
Mitch Julis is the Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Canyon Partners, one of the largest and best-performing multi-strategy hedge funds in the world. If you listen to the end of our interviews or visit our website, you’ll see that Policy Punch…
- Paul Haaga Returns: A Deep Dive Into Facebook Oversight Board and Deplatforming Trump
Paul G. Haaga Jr. is the former acting CEO of NPR, the former chairman and director of Capital Research and Management Company, and the Chairperson of the Facebook Oversight Board Trust. In this episode, we welcome back Mr. Haaga Jr. to Po…
- Paul Haaga on Leading NPR and the Threats to Public and Local Journalism
Paul G. Haaga Jr. is the former acting CEO of NPR, the former chairman and director of Capital Research and Management Company, and the Chairperson of the Facebook Oversight Board Trust.
- Tim Roughgarden: Gödel Prize Winner and Trailblazer from Algorithmic Game Theory to EIP-1559
Tim Roughgarden is a Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and a winner of the Gödel Prize, which is often considered as “the Nobel Prize of theoretical computer science.” His research interests include the many connections…
- Atif Mian: Fixing the Imbalance of Global Macrofinance
My guest today is someone of great personal significance to me. He is my senior thesis advisor and one of the most important mentors in my student career. Atif Mian is the John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 Professor of Economics, Public P…
- Matt Levine: King of *The* Financial Newsletter
Matt Levine writes the popular daily newsletter “Money Stuff” on Bloomberg Opinion that has over 150,000 subscribers and a “cult-like” following on Wall Street and beyond. He is widely regarded as one of the most iconic, witty, and sophist…
- Alex Tabarrok: Fractional Dosing Vaccine, Libertarianism in COVID, and the Great Tech Stagnation
Alex Tabarrok is Bartley J. Madden Chair in Economics at the Mercatus Center and a professor of economics at George Mason University. Along with Tyler Cowen, he is the co-author of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution and co-foun…
- Ramesh Ponnuru on American Conservatism’s Crossroads
Ramesh Ponnuru is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion, senior editor with the National Review, and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. A leading conservative thinker and pundit, Ramesh has made numerous appearances on sho…
- Tony Yoseloff: Sustaining Excellence at Davidson Kempner and Supporting Equality in Education
Anthony (Tony) Yoseloff is the Executive Managing Member and Chief Investment Officer of Davidson Kempner Capital Management, one of the world’s largest alternative asset managers with more than $37 billion in assets under management. Tony…
- Bridgewater CEO David McCormick: Dalio's Transition, Macro Uncertainty, National Innovation Policy
David McCormick is the CEO of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund with over $140 billion in assets under management. David joined Bridgewater in 2009 and was President and Co-CEO before becoming CEO in 2020. Prior to Bri…
- John Ikenberry - A World Safe for Democracy: Liberal Internationalism and the Crises of Global Order
Professor Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University in the Department of Politics and the School of Public and International Affairs. He is one of the most notable scholars i…
- The Path to Net-Zero: Modular Nuke, Electric Vehicle, and Patient Capital in Green Tech
William Bohnett is the Chair of the Advisory Board of the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. He served from 2009-2018 as a member of the National Board of the Smithsonian Institution, the world’s largest museum and research complex…
- Matt Weinberg: A Mechanism Designer’s View on Cryptocurrency, Incentives, Trust, and Human Nature
Matt Weinberg is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. His primary research interest is in Algorithmic Mechanism Design: auction design, cryptocurrency, voting systems, and more. In this interview, Prof. Weinb…
- Ben Hunt: Epsilon Theory, Wall Street's Game of Leverage, Forecasting Uncertainty and Narratives
Ben Hunt is the creator of Epsilon Theory and inspiration behind Second Foundation Partners, which he co-founded with Rusty Guinn in June 2018.
- Gas, Green Electricity, and Geopolitics: America in a World of Renewable Energy
Nikos Tsafos is interim director and senior fellow of the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He’s researched, written, advised, and consulted extensively on a range of f…
- Rob Johnson: The Future of Economics, Social Design, and Radical Uncertainty
Our host Tiger recently received his first ever podcast interview as a guest on the Economics & Beyond podcast hosted by Rob Johnson, President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). This is certainly a great honor for him, as…
- Podcasting and the Fragile Public Discourse - Tiger Interviewed by Rob Johnson
Our host Tiger recently received his first ever podcast interview as a guest on the Economics & Beyond podcast hosted by Rob Johnson, President of the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). This is certainly a great honor for him, as…
- Nolan McCarty on Polarization: What Everyone Needs to Know
Nolan McCarty is the Susan Dod Brown Professor of Politics and Public Affairs and Interim Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. He is the co-author of several books, including Political Bubbles: Financial Crises…
- Jeremy Adelman: Fatigued Pluralist Narrative, The Gibbon Paradox, and Global Interdependence
Jeremy Adelman is the Henry Charles Lea Professor of History at Princeton University and the Director of the Global History Lab, which strives to teach students internationally how to create new global narratives even across divides. Recen…
- Esteban Rossi-Hansberg: Forecasting Climate Change with Spatial Economics
Esteban Rossi-Hansberg is the Theodore A. Wells '29 Professor of Economics at Princeton University. He performs research in macroeconomics, international trade, and urban and regional economics. He has been appointed the Glen A. Lloyd Dist…