
PolicyCast
PolicyCast explores research-based policy solutions to the big problems and issues we're facing in our society and our world. Host Ralph Ranalli talks with leading Harvard University academics and researchers, visiting scholars, dignitaries, and world leaders. PolicyCast is produced at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
Latest episodes

Nov 25, 2014 • 19min
Is it Civil Rights or Human Rights?
HKS Associate Professor Moshik Temkin argues that the debate over civil rights in the United States, sparked by the unrest in Ferguson, MO, is actually a debate about human rights and the difference is not just semantic.

Nov 19, 2014 • 15min
The Criminal Injustice System
HKS Alumnus Bryan Stevenson has spent his career working to address issues of racial and wealth inequality in the United States’ justice system. He believes this inequality stems from a failure of the nation to reconcile its dark history with regard to slavery and Jim Crow. His work as Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative focuses on defending those without the means to properly defend themselves.

Nov 12, 2014 • 17min
The Midterms, the Youth Vote and GOP Strategy
IOP Fall 2014 Fellow Kristen Soltis Anderson gives her take on the gains the GOP made in the midterm elections, how the party can better target the youth vote and what we can expect from congress over the next two years.

Nov 5, 2014 • 14min
The Accidental Fall of the Berlin Wall
Professor Mary Elise Sarotte, a visiting professor at the Harvard Center for European Studies and author of “Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall,” explains how the opening of the border between East and West Germany came down to a decision by a single border guard.

Oct 29, 2014 • 16min
Ending Veteran Homelessness
Andrew McCawley, president and CEO of the New England Center for Homeless Veterans, describes the steps the organization is taking to combat homelessness among US veterans and how likely it is that the nation will see the complete eradication of veteran homelessness by 2016.

Oct 22, 2014 • 19min
Steve Jarding on the 2014 Midterms
HKS Lecturer Steve Jarding, a longtime political operative who’s currently advising the Democratic candidate for US Senate in South Dakota, gives his take on how the upcoming midterm elections are shaping up. He explains the bipartisan lack of enthusiasm in this race, gives advice for struggling Democratic candidates and laments the increased role of money in the process.

Oct 15, 2014 • 14min
How Uber Wrangles Regulations
Brian Worth, the Public Policy Lead for ridesharing service Uber, discusses how the company works with governments at all levels to tackle hackney regulations it sees as outdated. Worth participated in the Harvard Institute of Politics' 2014 Internet Policy Conference.

Nov 13, 2013 • 13min
045 Feeding the World Through Science
HKS Professor Calestous Juma, Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization project, believes that science and technology are critical to the future of food security. He talks about meeting the needs of a growing human population, using science to improve agricultural productivity, the controversy over genetically-modified crops, the need for more science advisors in emerging countries and what the future holds for agriculture.

Jan 16, 2013 • 20min
015 Why Gun Violence is a Public Health Issue
In an interview conducted just a month after the horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary, Harvard Chan School of Public Health Professor David Hemenway makes an emphatic case for why gun violence needs to be researched through the lens of public health.