This is the first episode in a two-part conversation on the challenges facing Mexico domestically and in its relationship with the United States.

Mexico held its first judicial elections on June 1 following last year’s sweeping overhaul of the judiciary. Center for the U.S. and Mexico director Tony Payan joins “Baker Briefing” to explore the potential consequences of the judicial reforms and other domestic policy challenges President Claudia Sheinbaum is navigating as the successor to the political project begun by former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador — including Mexico’s complex public safety landscape and mounting public debt.

Featured:

Tony Payan, Ph.D., https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/tony-payan

Follow Tony on X: https://x.com/PayanTony

Follow Tony on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tony-payan-373bb870/

This conversation was recorded on May 14, 2025. A transcript of this episode is available here: https://bit.ly/445QmTK

You can follow @BakerInstitute on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Learn more about our data-driven, nonpartisan policy research and analysis at bakerinstitute.org.

Introducing “Texas Briefing,” a new podcast that brings expert insights into the challenges shaping life in the Lone Star State. Institute scholars and their guests will untangle issues in health, the economy, climate resilience, and more to understand how policy matters are impacting communities, from the Panhandle to the Gulf Coast.

In our first series, senior health policy fellow Elena Marks explores issues in reproductive health — including new abortion legislation, teen access to contraception, and the impact of the abortion ban on the state’s OB-GYN workforce pipeline — with guests Eleanor Klibanoff of The Texas Tribune, Kari White of Resound Research for Reproductive Health, and Manatt Health’s Alex Morin.

Listen to the first two episodes in the series now, wherever you get your podcasts.

Learn more on our website: https://www.bakerinstitute.org/texas-briefing

You can follow @BakerInstitute on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Learn more about our data-driven, nonpartisan policy research and analysis at bakerinstitute.org.

Drs. Sandra McKay and Eric Fleegler, both experts in the Baker Institute Firearm Injury Prevention and Safety Program, joined “Baker Briefing” to discuss the worsening gun injury epidemic ahead of our fourth annual firearm injury prevention conference on June 6.

They discussed areas of consensus among firearm-owners and non-owners alike, including child access prevention laws and age purchasing regulations, and prospects for commonsense gun legislation at the Texas and national levels.

Featured guests:

• Sandra McKay, M.D., FAAP, https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/sandra-mckay

• Eric Fleegler, M.D., MPH, https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/eric-fleegler

Mentioned in this episode:

• Christopher F. Kulesza et al., “The State of Student Mental Health in Houston Schools,” Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy, May 13, 2025, https://doi.org/10.25613/6823-6W19.

This conversation was recorded on May 20, 2025.

A transcript of this episode is available here: https://bit.ly/3SnjEXs

You can follow @BakerInstitute on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Learn more about our data-driven, nonpartisan policy research and analysis at bakerinstitute.org.

In its first months, the second Trump administration has upended the alliances, institutions, and norms that have anchored U.S. foreign policy for decades — hiking tariffs on virtually all countries, downplaying U.S. military commitments, and all but dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development. Meanwhile, as the U.S. steps back from a world order that’s largely of its own making, China is attempting to fill the void.

Steven Lewis, director of the Baker Institute China Studies Program, joined “Baker Briefing” to discuss what China’s global soft power campaign looks like and how successful it’s proven thus far.

Featured guest:

• Steven Lewis, Ph.D., https://www.bakerinstitute.org/expert/steven-w-lewis

This conversation was recorded on May 13, 2025.

A transcript of this episode is available here: https://bit.ly/43djVT8.

You can follow @BakerInstitute on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Learn more about our data-driven, nonpartisan policy research and analysis at bakerinstitute.org.

Syria’s 13-year civil war came to a stunning end on Dec. 8, 2024, when rebel fighters led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham succeeded in toppling the brutal dictatorship of Bashar Assad. With the country now deeply fragmented and impoverished, what will the future of governance be under the transitional government of Ahmad al-Sharaa?

Rana B. Khoury, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and Ibrahim Al-Assil, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute, joined “Baker Briefing” to discuss the regional reaction to Dec. 8, the structural challenges facing the rebuilding process, and prospects for the return of refugees and internally displaced Syrians.

Featured guests:

• Ibrahim Al-Assil, DIA, Senior Fellow, Middle East Institute, https://www.mei.edu/profile/ibrahim-al-assil

• Rana B. Khoury, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, https://ranakhoury.com/

This conversation was recorded on April 29, 2025. A transcript of this episode is available here.

You can follow @BakerInstitute on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Learn more about our data-driven, nonpartisan policy research and analysis at bakerinstitute.org.

We’re in a new era of discovery in the history of artificial intelligence, but rapid advances in the technology are also bringing major risks. Moshe Vardi, a leading expert in computational engineering and Baker Institute fellow, joins the podcast to discuss the ethical and strategic choices on AI facing the U.S. amid its competition with China and the unintended consequences of outsourcing our thinking to machines.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Moshe Vardi, “Big Tech, You Need Academia. Speak Up!,” Communications of the ACM 68, no. 5 (2025): 5, https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3727870.

This conversation was recorded in front of a live studio audience on April 17, 2025. Learn about future live recordings of the “Baker Briefing” podcast by subscribing to our “Events Digest” newsletter at https://www.bakerinstitute.org/newsletter.

You can follow @BakerInstitute on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Learn more about our data-driven, nonpartisan policy research and analysis at bakerinstitute.org.

With its aggressive mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration is attempting to reshape long-standing U.S. immigration policy — and increasingly defying constitutional guardrails in the process.

On this episode, experts examine the legal and social implications of the administration’s unconventional targeting of legal permanent and temporary residents, asylum seekers, and even foreign students, and well as the administration’s overt challenges to judicial authority and due process rights.

Host David Satterfield was joined by Tony Payan, director of the Baker Institute Center for the U.S. and Mexico; Luz Maria Garcini, assistant professor of psychological sciences at Rice University and director of the Center for Community and Public Health at Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research; and David Donatti, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas and lecturer at Rice.

This conversation was recorded on April 21, 2025, in front of a live studio audience. Learn about future live recordings of the “Baker Briefing” podcast by subscribing to our “Events Digest” newsletter at https://www.bakerinstitute.org/newsletter.

You can follow @BakerInstitute on X, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and learn more about our data-driven, nonpartisan policy research and analysis at bakerinstitute.org.