The Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol is a stately room just off the Great Rotunda, whose walls are lined with — you guessed it — statues. The statues celebrate notable figures from all 50 states.

For most of its existence, there wasn’t a single statue of a Black American in this hall. But that changed in 2022 when a statue of Mary McCleod Bethune was delivered to the Hall from Florida.

Bethune, who was born in 1875 and died in 1955, might not be the first name you would have guessed to break this racial barrier. But as Noliwe Rooks, chair of Africana Studies at Brown University, shows in her new book “A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune,” her achievements as an educator and civil rights leader were profound, her life story is an inspiration, and her place in the statuary hall is well-deserved.

The book — which has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award — is part biography, part memoir and part analysis of a period in American history that’s often overlooked in the story of racial progress.

If you’ve never heard of Bethune, this book is for you. And if you think you know the story of Mary McCleod Bethune, this book will probably show you a side of her you haven’t seen before.

Learn more about and purchase “A Passionate Mind in Relentless Pursuit: The Vision of Mary McLeod Bethune”

On Monday, January 20, Donald Trump was once again sworn in as President of the United States. The ceremony was moved indoors due to the cold, where Trump declared in his inaugural address that no president has ever been tested like he has, and that “the new golden age for America starts now.”

However, it wasn’t all speeches and ceremonies on Monday — Trump also signed dozens of executive orders, affecting U.S. policies on a range of issues, including climate change, public health, immigration and transgender rights. And while his administration is only days old, last week, we also saw the beginning of confirmation hearings in Congress for his cabinet nominations.

On this episode, Dan Richards spoke with political scientist Wendy Schiller about what these early moves in Trump-world can tell us about what’s to come in a second Trump administration and how Trump will operate in a country that seems more open to his brand of politics now than it was in 2016.

Guests on this episode:

• Wendy Schiller is a political scientist and director of the Taubman Center for American Politics and Policy at the Watson Institute. She is also the interim director of the Watson Institute.

While there are many hurdles to addressing the climate crisis in a meaningful way, there’s been one consistent bright spot in climate news over the last decade: the price of renewable energy — particularly solar and wind power — has dropped dramatically. By many measures, they’re now cheaper to produce than fossil fuels.

So does that mean that when it comes to a “green transition,” the hardest part is behind us? With wind and solar now cheaper than fossil fuel, can simply let “the market” take care of the rest?

According to Brett Christophers, a professor at the Institute for Housing and Urban Research at Uppsala University and author of the new book “The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet”: absolutely not.

On this episode (originally broadcast on the Rhodes Center Podcast) political economist and Rhodes Center director Mark Blyth talks with Brett about why cheap renewable energy production won’t lead to renewables dominating the energy market. In doing so, they also put the entire energy economy under a microscope and challenge the notion that the private sector will ever be able to lead us through a green transition.

Learn more about and purchase “The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won't Save the Planet”

Watch Brett’s October 2024 talk at the Rhodes Center

Subscribe to the Rhodes Center Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts

In the last two presidential elections in the United States, one issue has entered our political debates in a way we haven’t seen in recent history: the health and future of American democracy itself. And as Rob Blair, a political scientist at the Watson Institute and co-founder of the Democratic Erosion Consortium, explains, this isn’t without reason.

“I am not especially bullish on the future of American democracy. I think it has deteriorated quite a bit in recent years, and I suspect we will see continued deterioration in the years to come,” Blair explained to Dan Richards on this episode of Trending Globally.

However, while this erosion is concerning, it might not mean exactly what you think it does.

“If what we're expecting is tanks rolling down the streets at least anytime in the immediate future, I think that's very unlikely...the end can just be a worse democracy,” said Blair.

On this episode, Blair talks with Dan about the nuanced, complex reality of democratic erosion in the U.S. and around the world: what causes it, how to measure it, what it looks like in our politics, and how we might stop it.

Learn more about the Democratic Erosion Consortium

In January of 2019, journalist Elizabeth Rush joined 56 scientists and crew people aboard an ice-breaking research vessel to study the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. The glacier, which is about the size of the state of Florida, has been nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier” for the effect its disintegration would likely play in the rise of global sea levels.

“If we lose Thwaites, there's great concern that we will lose the entirety or big portions of the West Antarctic ice sheet and that those glaciers combined contain enough ice to raise global sea levels 10 feet or more,” Rush told Dan Richards on this episode of Trending Globally.

Rush recounts her voyage aboard the Palmer and how it reshaped her understanding of our changing climate and planet in her 2023 book, “The Quickening: Antarctica, Motherhood and Cultivating Hope in a Warming World.” However, as the title suggests, the book is also about another, more personal journey: Rush’s decision to have a child.

The resulting book is part adventure travelogue, part mediation on the meaning of motherhood, and part climate change manifesto. It also offers some much-needed wisdom on how to envision a future when it feels like the world is falling apart.

Learn more about and purchase “The Quickening”

Learn more about “The Conceivable Future”

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

Learn more about the Watson Institute’s other podcasts

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