Social Science for a World in Crisis
The COVID pandemic is a crisis affecting not only public health but also governments, economies, and societies worldwide.
It disrupts virtually everything that enables us to work, learn, play, and thrive. It also amplifies multiple vulnerabilities that existed prior to it, exposing historic and persistent inequalities, discrimination, and disadvantage in numerous forms. The pandemic additionally provides a complex setting for global movements unfolding in its shadow – the upsurge in extremist populism and bitter polarization, accelerated demands for racial justice, contestation of elections, and insurrection abetted by disinformation and conspiracy theories. Such events, crises, and interactions among them bring the U.S. and the world to a dangerous moment. But they also present unique opportunities to confront challenges with needed correctives to political, economic, and social infrastructures. No institutions, behaviors, or beliefs should be exempt from reconsideration.
Launched in 2020, the Center’s webcast series offers themed public discussions. CASBS-affiliated scholars and practitioners explain what brought us to this moment and explore how to generate realistic, durable change in service of more prosperous, equitable, inclusive, and human centered societies.
The Center gratefully acknowledges the Hewlett Foundation and individual donors for their support toward the production and presentation of this series.
Scroll to the bottom of the page for series credits.
Episode 24
Details on the next episode coming soon!
Episode 23: "New Visions for Effective Worker Influence"
John Ahlquist, Roy Bahat, Oren Cass, Veena Dubal
Co-sponsors: William + Flora Hewlett Foundation; Center for Commerce and Diplomacy, UC San Diego; Peter F. Cowhey Center on Global Transformation, UC San Diego
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 21: "Creating a New Political Economy Framework: Where Do We Go From Here?"
Elizabeth Anderson, Samuel Bowles, Angus Deaton, Amy Kapczynski, and Debra Satz
Co-sponsors: Open-access Resources in Economics (CORE), the IFS Deaton Review, the McCoy Family Center for Ethics in Society at Stanford University, and the William + Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 19: "Gen Z is the Future -- Like It or Not!
Roberta Katz, Sarah Ogilvie, Jane Shaw, Kat Tenbarge, and Linda Woodhead
Co-sponsors: Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford University, Knight Foundation, and Stanford Social Media Lab
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 17: "The Voices of Americans in Crisis"
James Fallows, Corey Fields, David Grusky, and Hazel Markus
Co-sponsors: Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Russell Sage Foundation, and Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 15: "What Human Flourishing Looks Like"
Jenna Bednar, Hilary Cottam, James Manyika, and Gillian Tett
Co-sponsors: Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, McKinsey Global Institute, New America, Stanford SPARQ, and the William + Flora Hewlett Foundation
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 13: "America's Black-White Divide: Looking Back, Looking Around, Looking Forward"
Lawrence D. Bobo, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Margaret Levi, and Claude Steele
Co-sponsors: Program in African and African American Studies at Stanford University, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity at Stanford University.
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 11: "The Digital Dilemma in the Time of Covid"
John Markoff, Nilam Ram, Byron Reeves, Abby Smith Rumsey, and Maryanne Wolf
Co-sponsors: Bloomberg Beta, the Council on Library and Information Resources, and The Human Screenome Project at Stanford University
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 9: "The Persistence of Racial Inequality"
Joshua Cohen, Francis Fukuyama, Margaret Levi, Glenn Loury, and Alondra Nelson
Co-sponsors: Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Stanford University, and the Social Science Research Council
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 7: "What Will Become of Work and Workers?"
Tara Behrend, Louis Hyman, John Irons, Margaret Levi, and Phyllis Moen
Co-sponsors: Institute for Work Studies, ILR School, Cornell University; New America; Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis, The New School; Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 5: "Reimagining the Corporation"
Paul Brest, Shona Brown, Colin Mayer, & Margaret O'Mara
Co-sponsor: The British Academy
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 3: "Polarization and Contentious Politics in the Age of Covid"
Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar, Christian Davenport, & Rachel Kleinfeld
Co-sponsors: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Annual Reviews
*Audio version on CASBS's Human Centered podcast!
Episode 1: "Politics as the Problem and Solution During COVID-19 and Beyond"
Binyamin Appelbaum, Tim Besley, & Margaret Levi
Co-sponsor: Annual Reviews
Series creator: Margaret Levi
Series producer: Mike Gaetani
Live event production assistance: Janzen Alejo, Jason Gonzales
You also can view the series playlist on YouTube.
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CASBS presents this series for free. Please consider a donation to support the production of these webcasts and related outreach activities. A contribution now helps us to continue bringing you these great conversations.