Woocast's Politics & Polls

Within the grand speeches at this week’s Democratic National Convention lies a central message — Clinton and the Democrats, not Trump, can better serve struggling working and middle-class voters who have felt excluded from both parties. When both candidates return full-throttle to the campaign trail, they’ll be competing for these voters in key states such as Pennsylvania. How has the Democratic Party’s relationship with these voters evolved in the past? What messages should the candidates deliver to sway them, and in what ways? Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang debate this issue and more in episode five of Politics & Polls.

It’s been an interesting week at the Republication National Convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump’s wife Melania was accused of plagiarizing her speech. Ted Cruz was booed offstage after failing to endorse Trump. And Hillary Clinton was called a “criminal” and compared to “Lucifer.”   Will such dramatic incidents have an impact on voters? And more generally speaking, what role do these conventions play in modern America? Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang debate this issue and more in episode four of Politics & Polls.

People often vote based on who’s already in the White House. How have we seen this play out throughout history? And how is President Obama’s legacy shaping the current campaign? Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang discuss in episode three of Politics & Polls.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will soon announce their running mates—but does the vice president pick still matter? While it was once used as a way to bring regional balance to the ticket, it's not clear what the vice president selection means in 2016. Professors Julian Zelizer and Sam Wang discuss this and more in episode two of Politics & Polls.

In 1964, Lyndon B. Johnson crushed Barry Goldwater in the presidential election. Could we see another landslide like this in 2016? Or does today’s political environment make that impossible? Tune in to the first episode of "Politics and Polls” as Professors Julian E. Zelizer and Sam Wang debate this issue and more.

Nancy Duff Campbell is the founder and co-president of the National Women's Law Center. In this podcast, she discusses her path to public service.

When engaging with other countries, the U.S. government has a number of different policy instruments at its disposal, including foreign aid, international trade and the use of military force. But what determines which policies are chosen? A new book released by a Princeton-Harvard team focuses on how domestic U.S. politics – in particular the interactions between the president, Congress, interest groups, bureaucratic institutions and the public – have influenced foreign policy choices since World War II and shows why presidents have more control over some policy instruments than others. Presidential power matters, and it varies systematically across policy instruments. The book, "Sailing the Water's Edge: The Domestic Politics of American Foreign Policy" was written by Helen V. Milner, B.C. Forbes Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and Dustin Tingley, professor of government at Harvard University. In the followi

Paul Volcker has spent most of his professional life in public service. In this WooCast, he discusses the importance of public service, its role in good governance and his advice for students charting career paths in public service. He also talks about the papers he donated to Princeton’s Seely G. Mudd Manuscript Library.

Resolving epidemics like the Ebola crisis requires a multidisciplinary approach –involving not only public health and medical knowledge but an understanding of its economic, environmental, political and historical roots and consequences. This is why Princeton University is gathering together some of the world's leading academic, public health experts and more at this year's Princeton-Fung Global Forum, "Modern Plagues: Lessons Learned from the Ebola Crisis." This year's conference will bring together multiple perspectives in the hopes of identifying methods for avoiding future global health crises. In this WooCast, we take a behind-the-scenes look at the forum, which will be held Nov. 2 and 3 in Dublin, Ireland. Joining us is Elisabeth Donahue, associate dean of public affairs and communications at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School, one of the lead organizers of the event.

When someone has a heart attack, he or she is immediately rushed to the emergency room. At that point, the doctor has to make a choice: either treat the patient with clot-busting drugs or perform invasive surgery. But how do doctors decide which procedure is best? Do they rely on what's worked in the past, or do they choose based on the individual patient? How do these decisions influence patient outcomes? Janet Currie, Henry Putnam Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School and chair of the Department of Economics, wanted to answer these questions. She discusses her findings on this episode of WooCast. Currie, who is director of Princeton's Center for Wellbeing, is a panelist at the upcoming Princeton-Fung Global Forum, "Modern Plagues: Lesson Learned from the Ebola Crisis."

The Iran nuclear deal proposes limiting Iran's production of enriched uranium and plutonium – the two fissile materials used to build nuclear weapons – in exchange for the end of international oil and financial sanctions. So far, negotiations have primarily focused on Iran's capacity to produce enriched uranium. But the world’s stockpiles of separated plutonium has grown enormously over the decades. Today, there is enough separated plutonium – which is extracted from highly radioative spent fuel produced by nuclear reactors – to produce 30,000 nuclear bombs, according to metrics provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency.* In this WooCast, we discuss the process of plutonium separation – and its associated risks – with M.V. Ramana, a physicist and lecturer at Princeton University's Program on Science and Global Security, based at the Woodrow Wilson School. Ramana is part of the International Panel on Fissile Materials, an independent group of arms-control experts from 18 countries. The group recently

Can history shape decision-making regarding the Ebola crisis? In this WooCast, health historian Keith Wailoo discusses the past plagues, how they were handled and the lessons learned. Wailoo, vice dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, is a panelist at the upcoming Princeton-Fung Global Forum, "Modern Plagues: Lesson Learned form the Ebola Crisis." Register for the forum: http://bit.ly/1ces4dP

America has long struggled over pain. Liberals "understand" your pain while conservatives say "grin-and-bear-it." Such political stances and today's debates over who is in pain, who feels another's pain and what relief is deserved continue to form new chapters in America's history of pain. In his new book, "Pain: A Political History," Keith Wailoo, vice dean of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, explores the political pain divide between liberals and conservatives, tracing the development of pain theories in politics, medicine and law as well as legislative and social quarrels over the morality and economics of relief. We sat down with Wailoo and asked him a few questions about his new book.