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Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs

New Frontiers Podcast

New Frontiers 350

New Frontiers is the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs’ podcast series. Hosted by Mark Williams, RCGA director and Russell J. Leng ’60 Professor of International Politics and Economics, it offers a deeper view into global areas through one-on-one discussions with Middlebury College faculty and others.

New Frontiers topics—from big tech, environmental conservation, global security, and political economy, to culture, literature, religion, and changing work patterns—have global or international dimensions.

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  • medical workers

    Season 1 Ep. 7 - Whatever Happened To “Essential” Workers?

    How did the COVID pandemic affect America’s workers—especially those deemed “essential” who often were poorly paid, nonunionized, lacked meaningful benefits, and were required to continue working while most other workers stayed home? How did these workers respond to the health risks they encountered on the job, and how did their struggle for labor justice transform—at least for a while—political discourse and consciousness in America? Jamie McCallum and Mark Williams explore these and other issues in this episode of New Frontiers.

  • Castle

    Season 1 Ep. 6 - Understanding Slavery in Medieval China

    Slavery lasted for centuries in China, and yet its particulars are not well known. In this episode of New Frontiers, historian Don Wyatt takes us back to help us understand how the institution thrived during imperial times and the roles it played in Chinese culture.

  • Turkish Flag image

    Season 1 Ep. 5 - Why Did Turkish Democracy Collapse

    After decades of democratic governance, Turkish democracy has not just declined, but collapsed. How? Why? In this episode, Sebnem Gumuscu traces the rise and decline of Turkey’s democratic system and provides insights into the forces by which Turkey has slid ever deeper into autocracy.

  • Stars and bright clouds

    Season 1 Ep. 4 - What to Do about Cosmic Garbage

    Only 2,000 of the 22,000 man-made objects that currently circle the Earth are fully operational, functioning satellites. The rest—roughly 90 percent—is space junk, or cosmic garbage. In this episode of New Frontiers, economist Akhil Rao explains how it got there, why it accumulates, and why economic tools could be the best way to address this problem.

  • Palace

    Season 1 Ep. 3 - What Made Russians Skeptics about Democratic Capitalism?

    Did the collapse of the Soviet Union—and the tumultuous years which followed—help shape Russians’ attitudes toward capitalism and democracy in the Putin era? If so, how; and why would the effects of the Soviet collapse still be felt and manifest thirty years later? In this episode, economist Will Pyle joins RCGA director Mark Williams to unravel this puzzle.

  • China and US flags

    Season 1 Ep. 2 - China and the American Right

    New Frontiers - Season 1, Ep 2: China and the American Right
    Joyce Mao, associate professor of history at Middlebury College, discusses her research and book, Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism, the first publication to look at the imprint of U.S.-China-Taiwan relations upon the American Right after World War II.

  • Wheat in hands

    Season 1 Ep. 1 - Should Corporations Govern Global Food Systems?

    With global food insecurity on the rise, what can the United Nations do to help protect the world’s food systems and establish safeguards against food insecurity? Did the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit take us in the direction of a future where populations’ access to food is ever more secure? If not, why, and what would a more optimal approach entail? Middlebury College William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Food Studies, Molly Anderson, discusses these and other issues examined in her recent article, “UN Food Systems Summit 2021: Dismantling Democracy and Resetting Corporate Control of Food Systems.”

Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs

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