The Current Podcast
1) Are students and workers ready for AI?
Artificial Intelligence (AI), is heralding a profound shift in how we learn, work, and live. To gain insight into how AI is reshaping the American workforce and economy, two Brookings experts join thi...Show More
2) Inside the next Democracy Playbook: Strategies for global democratic U-turns
In this episode, ACDS chair Norm Eisen discusses the forthcoming fourth edition of the Democracy Playbook and the emerging research showing how democracies can reverse democratic backsliding. He expla...Show More
3) The catastrophe in Sudan
The conflict in Sudan is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. More than 150,000 people have died; millions have fled their homes and are starving; and prospects for a ceasefire are bleak. To discuss...Show More
4) Chicago's Latino business community is adapting in the face of policy volatility
Little Village, a Latino business corridor in Chicago, has been contending with tariffs, immigration enforcement, and other changes in federal policy. But business owners have been figuring out new wa...Show More
5) Why are expiring ACA subsidies raising health insurance premiums?
With expanded subsidies for Affordable Care Act plans set to expire at the end of 2025, Americans on ACA health plans are starting to see big increases in their monthly health insurance premiums for 2...Show More
6) Can the COP30 climate conference achieve its goals?
The thirtieth Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP30, meets in Belém, Brazil next week. The most urgent challenge is finance: How do we pay fo...Show More
7) Syria at a crossroads
After years of war, Syria is attempting to rebuild under a new government. Brookings Fellow and Director of the Turkey Project Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is joined by Visiting Fellow Mara Karlin, a former assis...Show More
8) APEC 2025: What’s at stake?
The annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum, or APEC, starts October 31 in South Korea. Leaders from the twenty-one Pacific Rim economies are expected to attend. In this episode o...Show More
9) Is DC’s economy stalling? Insights from the DMV Monitor
The Washington, D.C., metropolitan region, known as the DMV — District, Maryland, and Virginia — is home to the U.S. federal government, 6.4 million people, and hundreds of thousands of private sector...Show More
10) Is this government shutdown different?
As of October 1, 2025, non-essential U.S. government operations ceased due to the failure of Congress to pass legislation that funds government agencies. The latest shutdown follows others that have o...Show More