On this episode, Dan Richards talks with Mark Blyth about his new book, co-written with Nicoló Fraccaroli, called “Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers.”

Mark and Dan discuss the competing theories for what causes inflation, the merits of each, and how they explain (or fail to explain) the inflation we saw post-pandemic. They also explore why inflation harms some parts of society more than others, and how to make sure that, the next time inflation rears its head, we fight it in a way that’s more effective and more fair.

Learn more about and purchase “Inflation: A Guide for Users and Losers”

Transcript coming soon to our website.

Mexico, like the United States, has a gun violence problem. It has one of the highest murder rates in the world, and most of those murders come from firearms. In 2019, for example, almost 70% of the country's 35,000 murders involved firearms.

But unlike the U.S., Mexico doesn’t have tens of thousands of licensed firearms dealers.

It has two.

So how do so many guns make their way into Mexico? And how do these guns shape Mexican society?

These are two of the questions Ieva Jusionyte explores in her new book “Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence across the Border.” Jusionyte is an anthropologist at the Watson Institute and spent much of the last few years following people whose lives are shaped by guns in Mexico. Guns, which, by and large, come from the United States.

On this episode, which was originally broadcast in May 2024, Jusionyte discusses the impact of American firearms on Mexican society and the role they play in spreading violence and trauma on both sides of the border.

Learn more about and purchase "Exit Wounds: How America’s Guns Fuel Violence across the Border."

Transcript coming soon to our website

The World Press Freedom Index, which is issued by Reporters without Borders, measures the health of press freedom around the world. They do so along a number of axes, including the economic health of independent media, legal protections for the press and the physical security of journalists. In 2025, the global score on the index was the lowest it’s ever been.

On this episode, Dan Richards talks with three journalists and media thinkers who work in a part of the world where press freedom is, at times, a matter of life and death. Chernoh Bah is a Sierra Leonean journalist, historian and postdoctoral research fellow at the Watson Institute. Sadibou Marong is a journalist and Sub-Saharan Africa bureau chief for Reporters Without Borders, based in Sénégal. Zubaida Ismail is a freelance journalist and Ghana's correspondent for Reporters Without Borders.

They discuss the state of press freedom in countries across Africa, what the struggle for independent journalism in countries in Africa can teach the rest of the world, and the broader relationship between independent media and democratic health.

These guests, along with many others, gathered at the Watson Institute this Spring as part of the Media and Democracy Conference hosted by Watson’s Africa Initiative. You can watch more conversations and presentations from the conference here.