All Episodes
S8E5 Bringing Water to Thirsty Fields With Help From the Sun
New research into how solar mini-grids could change lives for farmers in Ethiopia, and why that matters for the climate as a whole.
S8E4 How Cleaner Cookstoves Can Help Build a Healthier Planet
Climate Change Solutions Series 4: How upgrading stoves for people in the developing world could improve lives and fight climate change.
S8E3 Greener Pastures: The search for climate-friendly ways to raise animals.
Climate Change Solutions Series 3: Can we find a better way to raise animals as food and help the planet at the same time?
S8E2 Getting Strategic with Solar
Climate Change Solutions Series 2: how to get the best bang for our buck when it comes to solar incentives.
S8E1 Paying for a Healthy Planet
Climate Change Solutions Series 1: Research from Colombia, Africa and China illustrates how economics can help slow deforestation and combat the climate crisis.
S7E3 Begged and Borrowed
Big Tech Series 3: Large technology companies are so powerful they now threaten democracy. They are too big to sue, and current regulations are not holding them responsible for their actions or outcomes. What can be done when a large tech company is doing something that is harmful to society? How can the technology companies that want to differentiate themselves demonstrate they are behaving responsibly?
S7E2 What Hasn’t Worked
Big Tech Series 2: Very large technology companies fit into a special technology category called “platforms.” They are so big that even fines don’t seem to scare them. In this episode: we’ll explore what’s been tried to hold tech companies accountable.
S7E1 Too Big to Sue
This episode is the first of a three-part series, Defending Democracy (and Us!) from Big Tech. The series is produced by the Debugger podcast.
Debugger Podcast: Defending Democracy (and Us!) From Big Tech
New season of the Ways & Means podcast features a three-part series, Defending Democracy (and Us!) from Big Tech. Series is guest-produced by the Debugger podcast in partnership with Duke Cyber Policy program.
S6E6 Live Finale
Arc of Justice series finale. The U.S. government and governments of other countries have paid reparations to a wide range of people and groups, for a variety of wrongs, throughout history. But reparations to Black Americans have not been paid to date. In this episode: listen in on a live conversation about reparations with some of today’s top advocates for a federal rollout. How would the debt be calculated? Who would qualify? What methods might work? Would reparations fix racial inequality?
S6E5: White Brutality
Arc of Justice series episode 5: Throughout the nation’s history, promising signs of Black American progress have been shattered by acts of violence serving the interests of white supremacy. The extent of that violence is widespread and ongoing. From lynchings to the decimation of entire communities by white mob savagery with deadly and far-reaching consequences. Examples of this American brand of white violence affected Black wealth and Black lives in Colfax (1873) and Coushatta, Louisiana (1874), Wilmington, North Carolina (1898), Atlanta (1906), Elaine, Arkansas and Chicago (1919), in Ocoee, Florida (1920) and the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma (1921), to name only a few.
S6E4: Whitening the Middle Class
Arc of Justice series episode 4: Time and again, the route to upward mobility in American society has been blocked for Black people. Consider the G.I. Bill, which provided college education and housing benefits for veterans after World War II. The G.I. Bill was a conveyor belt into the middle class for millions of white WWII veterans, but many Black veterans were excluded and subsequent generations continue to feel the effects.
S6E3: A Tale of Two Cities
Arc of Justice series episode 3: Home ownership played an important role in how many Americans built wealth in the 20th century. Yet, Black Americans faced significant obstacles on the path to owning a home in the same time period. In this episode, how U.S. government policies promoted residential segregation and destroyed African-American neighborhoods in the process.
S6E2: This Land is My Land
Arc of Justice series episode 2: A tale of two promises made by the government — one kept, one broken — that helps explain the existing wealth gap between Black and white Americans.
S6E1: Not So Long Ago
Arc of Justice series episode 1: It hasn’t been very long at all since we were one nation under slavery. The effects still linger. One example: Today, white households in Boston have a median net worth of about $247,000. The median net worth of a Black household in Boston is a mere $8. You read that right. What could have been done, and what could still be done, to start to close the wealth gap between white and Black Americans? Welcome to The ARC of Justice.
Announcing Season 6 Series ARC of Justice
The ARC of Justice: From Here to Equality The Ways & Means podcast series ARC of Justice responds to the need for Acknowledgement, Redress and…
Live Event: Climate Whistleblowers
The Ways & Means podcast team hosted the live Climate Whistleblowers event as a part of Duke Energy Week 2020. Featured guests include environmental justice…
S5E6 Reparations: How it Could Happen
The question of whether and how to compensate descendants of people formerly enslaved in the United States has hung over the country since the end of the Civil War. It’s getting new traction in the 2020 election, and now a Duke researcher has assembled a team to determine how such a program could be enacted.
S5E5 Secrets of Great Political Leadership
What makes a great leader during a deeply divided time? And what can we learn from one of the most striking examples of leadership in history? We look at the story of Nelson Mandela and some of the surprising strategies that made his leadership work.
S5E4 When Local News Dries Up
A look at why local news is struggling, why that matters for democracy and what can be done about it.
S5E3 The Battle Over Guns in America – What’s Changed
On this episode of Ways and Means we ask – how did the gun control movement become a force in American politics — after being overshadowed for so long by the NRA? In a word: money.
S5E2 Why Young People Don’t Vote – And How to Change That
There’s a big gap between young Americans’ intention to vote and the chance that they will actually do it. In this episode: why so few young people in the U.S. vote and what can be done about it.
S5E1 How Afterschool Programs Can Empower Parents
Research into how government-funded afterschool programs for poor families are empowering politically motivated parents. Features Chicago and Durham, NC programs.
Ways & Means Podcast Dedicates Season Five to Issues in Politics
Season 5 of Ways & Means is dedicated to issues in U.S. politics, civic life and hot topics in the 2020 election. The season is made possible by Polis: Center for Politics at Duke’s Sanford School of Public Policy.
S4E6 Beyond Elmo: How Puppets Teach Preschoolers Self-Control
New research into how to best help children control themselves in the classroom.
S4E5: Answering New Parents’ Cries for Help
We go inside an innovative, free public program that helps new moms and dads adjust to life with a newborn.
S4 Episode 4: Adding Up the Bill for Climate Change
Who will take the hardest hit financially as the world heats up, and can anything be done about it?
S4 Episode 3: A Small Green Idea to Power Rural Nepal
A research team from Duke University treks into the Himalayas to investigate why a promising way to deliver electricity to those who need it, the micro-hydro minigrid, sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.
S4 Episode 2: A Greener Commute: One City’s Story
Using behavioral economics to nudge commuters into leaving their cars behind.
S4 Episode 1: How Parenthood Affects Climate Change Skeptics
Explore new research into how to overcome partisanship when it comes to belief about climate change.
Climate Change Miniseries
Season 4 launches with a miniseries featuring policy ideas for understanding and dealing with our changing climate.
Ways & Means Podcast Wins Award for International Series
Ways & Means wins CASE Award for the second year in a row.
S3 Episode 6: Life After Loss for Orphans in Africa
A research team is testing a novel new approach to helping orphans in Kenya get mental healthcare.
S3 Episode 5: Childbirth, Babies & Bonuses
New research on how providing incentives for doctors in the developing world might help more women survive childbirth. (Malur, India.)
S3 Episode 4: How Sputnik Sent Women to College
How the authors of the National Defense Education Act turned politics of crisis into a law that opened the door to college for millions of American women.
S3 Episode 3 How Do Criminals Get Their Guns?
Learning about how criminals actually get their guns could lead to a change in how law enforcement does its job.
S3 Episode 2: Robots, WikiLeaks & The Fight Against Human Trafficking
There’s evidence that diplomacy and public shaming are helping shine a light on a problem that depends on secrecy to survive: human trafficking.
S3 Episode 1: Slum Detectives
How researchers are using Google Earth to find the undocumented slums of India.
S2 Episode 7: Secret Life of Muslims
How hyper-vigilance about the possible threat of Muslim-American violence might be making all Americans less safe.
S2 Episode 6: Flimflams, Scams and Ripoffs
Why fraud has been a key feature of American business from the beginning.
S2 Episode 5: Bootstraps and Silver Spoons
New research on the difficulties some people face to gain wealth, even when they do everything right.
S2 Episode 4: 7 Concerns About Teens and Phones, Unwrapped
Are the major concerns parents have about teens and their mobile devices justified?
S2 Episode 3: Crazy Districts, Lopsided Elections
What reformers across the nation are doing to combat gerrymandering and restore the power of your vote.
S2 Episode 2: Who is White?
“Whiteness” in America – how it’s changed, what it means, and how it may be changing still.
S2 Episode 1: Can Government Really Change?
What gets in the way of change in government, and what we need to know about ourselves to make something new work.
Episode 5: The Extraordinary Search for Ordinary Politicians
Exploring the vexing issue of how to get more ordinary people to run for office.
Episode 4: Sugar Fix
How yesterday’s war on tobacco is shaping today’s war on sugar.
Episode 3: Women in Politics, A Shout or a Whisper?
How women gained a political voice in the U.S. and then – in some ways – lost it.
Episode 2: A Beautiful Death
Why asking seniors what they really want when they’re dying could lead – surprisingly – to cost-savings for big government systems.
Episode 1: Pants on Fire
A new movement of reporters is going to great lengths to ensure we the people know the truth, especially when it comes to politics.