This September, Professors John Mearsheimer and Sebastian Rosato released their controversial new book, “How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy.” Mearsheimer, a longtime Professor at the University of Chicago, ranks among the most well-known advocates for the realist school of international relations. Put simply, realism argues that states act in their own interest. Rosato, a Professor at Notre Dame and fellow traveler, joins as his co-author.  

Among other assertions, Mearsheimer and Rosato argue that our tendency to view one nation’s adversaries as irrational or amoral clouds that nation’s ability to clearly assess others’ actions and determine an appropriate response.  

As one notable example, “How States Think” takes Vladmir Putin’s war against Ukraine as a case study in our human tendency to dismiss other states’ actions as irrational when perhaps what we mean is that we find them morally abhorrent. To be clear, Mearsheimer and Rosato don’t endorse Putin or his war, but they encourage us to reconsider our perception of his behavior and look deeper to see whether an underlying rationale may exist.  

The two scholars bring decades of experience to the project: Mearsheimer is a West Point grad and Air Force veteran who has authored a number of seminal political science and more popular books. He serves as the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor Political Science at the University of Chicago, and has taught at the university since 1982. Rosato currently serves as the Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, and has authored several books.  

Listen along as Mearsheimer and Rosato join host Eric Jaffe to discuss the unique writing dynamic that shaped their remarkable collaborative work, their approach to rationality and what they think policymakers could learn from it.  

While the US has managed to stave off a recession–at least for the time being–the global economy has nonetheless experienced a rocky couple of years: the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in the U.S. this spring; the growing impact of artificial intelligence on virtually all industries; inflation in the West and deflation in China, and the subsequent interest rate hikes. 

Fortunately, today’s guest on Deciding Factors is a veteran expert who can take us behind the curtain of the Federal Reserve to make sense of these factors and help us assess the state of the US economy.

Eric Rosengren is the former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, where he also served as a member of the Federal Open Market Committee—the FOMC—which sets policies for the Fed.

Listen along as Eric helps explain the processes that the FMOC uses to guide their decision-making, offers a nuanced take on how artificial intelligence will impact the economy and shares why he’s surprised that markets have stayed resilient this year.

This episode marks our first with an individual who has made decisions regarding our military, in times of war: Decisions that impact the safety and well-being of millions of people, potentially for years to come. How exactly does one navigate such extraordinarily high stakes situations?

Ambassador Douglas Lute is a retired three-star general and the former US Ambassador to NATO. In 2007, then-President George W Bush appointed him to oversee the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, a role that earned him the title —one that doesn’t exactly thrill him— of war czar. Ambassador Lute additionally served as Director of Operations on the Joint Staff, where he oversaw U.S. military operations worldwide.

Listen in as Ambassador Lute discusses what it means to be an effective leader in the military, the lessons he thinks we have —or, for that matter, haven’t— learned from our military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and even the unexpected details of his first meeting with the second President Bush.

As countless employers and job seekers alike can attest, we’re in the midst of an extraordinary shift in the job market – and that includes the hiring process. COVID-19 has changed our understanding of how people get hired, as well as the wages and work environments that employees seek. This  has wrought confusion and challenges at every level of the job market. The system can seem to be broken. 

 In today’s episode of the podcast, we speak to Mona Mourshed, the founding CEO of Generation, a global non-profit. Generation connects employers around the world with “a pipeline of new talent:” marginalized individuals, mid-career job seekers, and those without formal training.  Listen in as Mona discusses the people Generation serves, the ROI for the organization’s employer partners, and how Mona’s collaboration with GLG as a social impact fellow has helped push the non-profit to even greater success. 

Although many of us often find ourselves feeling discouraged and helpless in our fight to combat the climate crisis, there are still some reasons to remain optimistic.

One example is the emerging field of ESG investing: the act—and art—of evaluating companies through the lens of their environmental, social, and governance standards.

Today’s guest, Arun Sharma, is a leading advocate of ESG investing. Throughout his career—both as the current President of Grovepike Associates, a global strategic and financial advisory firm, and as the former Chief Investment Officer at the International Finance Corporation—Arun has championed causes and ideas that lead to more sustainable, pragmatic, and forward-thinking businesses.

Listen in as Arun walks us through his career and the lessons he’s learned about ESG investing: from his early experiences with environmental remediation in Poland, to the metrics for measuring success with ESG, to why he thinks humans will increasingly incorporate the ESG approach in the years to come.

As mask mandates and other COVID prevention measures ease across the country, companies are planning how they will bring their employees back into the office.

But in the two years since millions of Americans began working remotely, the entire world of work has changed. And it’s not going back to the way it was. 

In this episode, we speak to Kian Gohar, co-author of the new book, Competing in the New World of Work: How Radical Adaptability Separates the Best from the Rest, about some of the biggest challenges and questions facing employers in this new work landscape: from effective hybrid work models, to the software and tools that can help companies succeed, and harnessing the work styles and values of Gen Z. 

Of all the social media platforms that have become ubiquitous to modern living, Twitter has been among the most influential. 

The company’s success, however, has been a double-edged sword: utilized to spotlight wrongdoing and organize for positive change, it can also fuel echo chambers and further divide us from one another.  

In today’s episode, Eric speaks to Kirstine Stewart, the former Founding General Manager of Twitter Canada and the former VP of Media in North America, to learn more about the company’s roller coaster history, including the multiple departures of its founder and CEO Jack Dorsey, the way Twitter has shaped the media industry and the changes she would make to Twitter if she were CEO 

Each year since 2019, GLG has surveyed CEOs around the world to gauge their outlook on the global economy and the challenges they anticipate in the year to come.  This year, the 2022 GLG CEO Survey, a truly global document includes input from nearly five hundred executives from across the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific, examines a year like no other.  The survey includes insights into both these executives’ concerns for the global economy and their own businesses in 2022, as well as their reasons for optimism. 

 In this episode of Deciding Factors, Eric Jaffe speaks to veteran businessman and best-selling author Ron Williams about the survey. Together, they dig into some of the most significant findings from the survey - including concerns around employee engagement, a general bullish view of the market, and their outlook on the supply chain. Ron furthermore provides input from his own career and how he sees the widely-used apprenticeship model playing out in a hybrid or remote work environment. 

It’s been more than a year and a half since the coronavirus pandemic spread across the globe, and while some aspects of the crisis have been brought under control, others remain extremely difficult to manage. 

Navigating the pandemic, particularly at its outset, required resourceful experts who could make decisions of enormous consequence with limited data or precedent.  

 In this episode, we speak to Dr. Oxiris Barbot, who served as Health Commissioner for New York City from 2018 to 2020, about the lessons she learned during those harrowing first months of the pandemic, and the life-saving decisions she was forced to make. Dr. Barbot also walks us through her strategies for countering our ongoing challenges with COVID-19, such as the Delta variant, the logistics of vaccinating young children and how to ensure we consider racial equity in our approach to fighting the pandemic. 

You don’t have to look far these days to see that many Americans are skeptical of our political leaders, and even our political system writ large. 

Despite our wariness, however, many of us remain eager to participate constructively in the political process, or even run for office. Yet the path to getting involved in politics can be difficult to navigate, or even find. 

In this episode, John Podesta - former chief of staff to President Clinton, counselor to President Obama and chair of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign - reflects on the lessons he’s learned about effective leadership over 50 years of service, the joys and rewards of engaging in the political process and the young politicians he sees as the potential leaders of tomorrow. 

In May of this year, the Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, a top gauge of inflation, showed that April 2021 prices had jumped 4.2% over those recorded in April 2020. Prior to this, inflation had remained relatively dormant. But COVID-19 changed that. 

In this episode, Maurice Obstfeld, Professor of Economics at Berkeley, and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, discusses the current state of inflation, where we might be heading, and the impact of COVID-19. He also talks about unemployment, possible corporate tax hikes, and provides his advice for the Biden administration as it navigates these choppy waters. 

The streaming world has grown complex. In simpler times, there was Netflix and Hulu, along with a handful of niche services to choose from. But now there are more than 200 streaming services crowding the marketplace, competing for viewers every day. The good news is that only about six or seven of those are dominant, but that doesn’t make the space any less contentious.  Though the field is turbulent, Susan Ennis, a former Executive V.P. at HBO, brings with her the expertise and insight that can help us put the streaming wars in perspective.   

Although social media has enabled the public to obtain a more intimate and detailed understanding of the “real lives” of famous people, including our political leaders, this transparency doesn’t necessarily help us understand how the real work of lawmaking gets done in Washington. 

In today’s political climate, the art of deal-making, of enacting an agenda, of reading a room, remains as mysterious as ever. 

In today’s episode of Deciding Factors, Eric speaks to one of DC’s smartest operators to give us a peek behind the curtain.

Danny Weiss is a former politics reporter who eventually left his career in media to become the communications director for the legendary California Democratic Representative George Miller. Later, Weiss served as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Chief of Staff. In that role, he helped navigate the famously contentious relationship between President Trump’s administration and Democrats in Congress.

These days, Weiss works in the public policy space, focused on technology, education and workforce issues, and he remains extremely tapped in to the going-ons in Washington.

Listen along as Weiss discusses the debt-ceiling negotiations and how he thinks the White House worked with Speaker McCarthy to make a deal, reveals some of Speaker Pelosi’s work habits and quirks, explains how he thinks we can reduce extreme partisanship in Washington and much more.

The fact that the climate is changing is an incontrovertible fact. If we do nothing – or fall short of what is needed – human beings as a species are headed toward unprecedented disaster.  

Our guest in this episode, Dr. Ruth DeFries, Professor of Ecology and Sustainable Development at Columbia University and Co-founding Dean of the Columbia Climate School, is one of the people committed to addressing the factors driving climate change and helping us see a path other than the one we are on. 

In this episode, Dr. DeFries discusses how we’ve passed humanity’s climate “period of grace” and why we should immediately reduce planet-warming emissions while preparing for an unstable climate future.  

There are many voices in the United States that government has struggled to hear, thus failing to consider every point of view when it comes to policy making. While government has made progress in listening to marginalized communities, much more work remains to be done. 

In this episode of Deciding Factors, our guest played a large part in moving government closer to the goal of including these groups in the discussion, listening their voices in order to create policy that can better benefit every American. Ashley Allison was deputy director and senior policy advisor of the White House Office of Public Engagement during the Obama Administration. Her portfolio included managing a team that worked with the LGBTQ, Muslim, African American, disability, and entertainment communities. Allison’s primary policy focus at the White House was criminal justice and policing reform. 

Virtually everything we do in our lives today relies on technology. Yet, between five and six million Americans still don't have access to high-speed internet. And while that number is startling, it has fallen significantly in the last four years. 

In this episode of Deciding Factors, Ajit Pai, former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, talks about the role his administration played in decreasing the digital opportunity gap, and the work that’s still to be done. Ajit also speaks about the FCC’s plans for 5G, and changing regulations for media ownership that will help local news teams compete with Big Tech. 

On January 8, 2021, two days after rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Twitter permanently suspended President Donald Trump’s account on the platform. Though responses to the ban split along partisan lines, Trump’s suspension from Twitter has deep roots in a piece of legislation that draws criticism from across the political aisle: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which grants tech platforms immunity from liability for the speech of their users. 

In this episode of Deciding Factors, Matthew Perault, Director of the Center of Science & Technology Policy at Duke University and former Director of Public Policy at Facebook, discusses Section 230’s legal context, wide-ranging impact, and political stakes. He explores why, 25 years after Section 230’s passage, the provision is in the spotlight – and how it can be made to better reflect today’s online world. 

As we approach the end of 2020, it’s difficult to reconcile the conflicting signals and assess the outlook for the world’s fight against COVID. On the one hand, pharmaceutical companies have collaborated to accomplish what many scientists call a miracle in developing not one but several effective vaccines. On the other hand, in the month of December alone we saw over 3,000 COVID deaths in a single day in the United States – our highest ever single day total and eclipsing the death toll on 9/11. And across the globe populations remain divided in their willingness to adopt measures most medical professionals think are required to effectively combat the spread of this deadly pandemic. 

In this episode of Deciding Factors, we talked with Dr. Michael Osterholm, Regents Professor, McKnight Endowed Chair in Public Health and Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, and author of the 2017 New York Times bestseller The Deadliest Enemy, about the outlook for the world’s fight against the deadly pandemic and the prospects for vaccine efficacy and distribution.   

In this episode of Deciding Factors, Admiral John Polowczyk discusses how, after he was asked to lead the White House supply chain task force, he saw it as a duty as a naval officer. What’s more, because members of his own family worked in the medical profession, he felt a personal sense of urgency to succeed in getting the necessary supplies in the right hands. He assumed responsibility and took charge of the operation to move it forward. 

More than six months into the pandemic, COVID-19 is still not under control in the United States. With cases continuing to rise in what looks like to be a severe second stage of infection, the hope for a vaccine is a lifeline for both the mental health of individuals and an economy stretched thin.  In this episode of Deciding Factors, Jeff Kindler, the former CEO, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, talks about how – though a challenging endeavor— vaccine development for COVID-19 is a massive collaborative effort between academia, private industry, and government institutions. He stresses that the vaccine is essential but the road to it’s development and distribution isn’t as easy as moving from one square to the next. 

In this episode of Deciding Factors, Dr. Stephen Ostroff, former Acting Administrator of the Food and Drug Administration and former Deputy Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases, discusses what the U.S. learned about COVID-19 in the six months since the initial lockdown orders, the logistics behind developing and distributing a vaccine, and how politicization has been a roadblock to addressing the crisis.  

A significant change in the fundamental dynamics that shape the Middle East may have recently taken place, marked by the recent Israel-UAE “Abraham Accord” that formalizes what was a pre-existing relationship between those two unlikely allies. In this episode of Deciding Factors, Ambassador Dennis Ross, Counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, discusses the impact of the Abraham Accord and why the stability of the Middle East remains important even amid the myriad global crises we now face. 

While other countries have managed to contain COVID-19 and have now cautiously reopened their schools, the United States has not succeeded in suppressing the infection which is still showing up in record numbers throughout the country.  In this episode of Deciding Factors, Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician, public health professor at George Washington University, and Baltimore’s former Health Commissioner, discusses how the pandemic has impacted schools, students, and teachers, and what reopening looks like as COVID-19 continues to surge.

For many of us, the word “college” conjures images of old brick buildings, studying on the quad, and lecture halls full of students fervently scribbling notes and engaging in debate. 

But at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU), the entire idea of college—and how we define success there—has been flipped on its head. 

While four thousand students learn on-site at the school’s campus, a whopping 180,000 more study completely online.  

The school’s innovative approach speaks to its own leadership as much as the societal challenges, and opportunities, that we face today. As a result, SNHU has been named, among other accolades, as #12 on Fast Company magazine’s “World’s Fifty Most Innovative Companies” list. 

SNHU has succeeded in part because it recognizes that many—if not most—students today face a series of modern obstacles: they work part-time or full-time jobs with erratic schedules, face financial barriers which prevent them from attending more traditional colleges, and often have no realistic path to college straight from high school. 

In this episode of Deciding Factors, we welcome the President of SNHU, Dr. Paul LeBlanc, for an illuminating and wide-reaching conversation about higher ed in America, and how to make it attainable for everyone. 

Paul joined SNHU twenty years ago after a seven-year stint as the President of Marlboro College in Vermont. In addition to his work creating and leading toward a new version for the university, he is the author of several best-selling books, including “Broken: How Our Social Systems Are Failing Us and How We Can Fix Them.” 

Listen along as Paul explains what makes SNHU’s approach different from other models of higher ed, how it embraces data to ensure quality in the courses it offers, and how AI’s potential impact on the work force could change our expectations around higher education. 

Across the U.S. and the world, people have hit the streets to demonstrate for an end to systemic racism and police brutality. In this episode of Deciding Factors, Dr. Michael Jeffries, a professor of American Studies at Wellesley College, discusses why this time things seem different than in the past and what we need to understand as professionals to chart a path forward for our organizations. 

In this episode, Dr. Betsey Stevenson, former Chief Economist of the U.S. Department of Labor, discusses how COVID-19 has impacted the job market, where it might go, and what it might look like after the pandemic. She talks about how, as industries adapt to the new normal, jobs themselves may change and what government can do to help workers adapt.

In this episode, Ben Baldanza, the former CEO of Spirit Airlines, talks about the state of the airline industry; what it will take for airlines to survive the COVID-19 downturn and what managing for the future of air travel might look like. In their discussion, Ben and Eric talk about the biggest decisions that airlines are facing, and what we might see as the new normal for passengers. 

In this episode, Ron Klain, the former United Sates Ebola response coordinator under President Obama, discusses the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic and what we have learned from the current state that can help us contend with a future resurgence. He talks about the importance of official communication and how a quicker future response will mitigate both health and economic risks.

Are hospitals prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic? In this podcast, the Hon. Dr. David Shulkin talks about hospital staffing, equipment shortages, and how hospitals might look after COVID-19. He discusses the importance of strong leadership, and how we must always be prepared for the worst case scenario.  

In this episode, the Hon. Dr. Mark Dybul, former Global AIDS Coordinator, discusses the importance of regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as a true global crisis. The only way to make complex decisions is to collaborate and learn across borders. We can return to normalcy if we coordinate our efforts, initiate significant testing procedures, and operate systematically in the weeks and months ahead.  

COVID-19 is both a public health crisis that has unleashed an economic crisis both in the U.S. and abroad. In this episode, Deciding Factors brings you Hon. Sarah Bloom Raskin, former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary and former member of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve Board. Sarah talks about these unprecedented times and the decisions that the Federal government is making about our future. 

In this uncertain time, it’s increasingly difficult to motivate ourselves, let alone our teams. In this episode, Deciding Factors brings you Neel Doshi, author of the New York Times Bestseller, "Primed to Perform: How to Build the Highest Performing Cultures Through the Science of Total Motivation." Neel breaks down the decisions we need to make around motivation, inspiration, and the difference between task-based management and problem solving.

GLG’s DECIDING FACTORS takes a close look decision-making, what influences it, and how to learn and apply insight to make an informed choice. Our guests are experts in their fields with impressive records of decision-making in business, government, journalism, academia, and finance. In every episode, we’ll dive into the world these experts know and draw out the insights that can help you navigate the decisions you make.

The past month has been a volatile one for the banking sector, and its impact has been felt across the entire global economy.  On Friday, March 10, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation seized control of Silicon Valley Bank after a run on its deposits left it insolvent.  The next domino to fall was crypto-friendly Signature Bank, which shut down on Sunday, March 12.   

While Credit Suisse has also since been absorbed by UBS, many lawmakers have criticized U.S. federal agencies' actions and pointed to rollbacks of consumer protections in the Dodd-Frank Act of 2018 as a primary contributor to the banks’ collapse.  The rollback lessened scrutiny for banks with less than $250 billion in assets, meaning the landmark, post-financial crisis law would only apply to a handful of big banks.  

In today’s episode, Representative Barney Frank, the chief architect of that regulation, joins us to make light of the current situation.  

Congressman Frank served in Congress for over 30 years until 2013. He spent four of those years as Chair of the House Financial Services Committee.  As one of the co-authors of Dodd Frank, Frank earned a reputation as one of the most outspoken members of Congress and authorities on financial regulation.  He also happened to serve on the board of Signature Bank when it collapsed, and before taking on his role at Signature Bank, personally advocated for the $250 billion threshold adjustment.  

Listen along as Congressman Frank sheds light on the events of the past month, why he believes they did not represent a systemic failure, and why he believes business leaders need not adjust their banking approaches in the future.    

Since it launched in November 2022, the artificial intelligence bot known as ChatGPT has generated a lot of both excitement and controversy.  

 The conversation around ChatGPT invites larger questions around the role of artificial intelligence in our lives: where and how should we set limits? How can we employ it in a way that allows us to advance while minimizing collateral damage?  And can computers ever attain the ability to demonstrate empathy? 

In this episode, Eric speaks to Rajen Sheth, one of the leading experts in the field of AI, to help shine light on some of these profound and complicated questions. 

Rajen spent nearly two decades at Google, where he helped create the company’s ubiquitous suite of apps, and eventually served as the VP of AI for Google Cloud. He currently serves as the CEO and Founder of Kyron Learning, a company focused on applying AI to the education system. 

Listen along as Rajen helps us make sense of the evolution of AI, its limits and where he sees it headed next.

Since 2019, GLG has conducted a survey of global CEOs to help our clients and the broader public better understand how these trends impact business, and what business leaders expect for the future. 

In our fourth annual survey, we interviewed more than 450 executives. And the results tell a markedly different—and less optimistic—story than in previous years. 

Yet numbers don’t tell the whole story. Fortunately, our guest today, Sheri McCoy, the former CEO and Director of Avon Products, Inc. is here to help analyze the results, and add her own perspective to the conversation. 

Listen in as Sheri shares her thoughts on the biggest concerns executives face, including hot-button issues like how to navigate inflation, remote work policies and even Elon Musk’s handling of Twitter. 

On the long road towards the 2022 midterm elections, the passion – and outrage – around the candidates, the polls, the talking points and the endless Twitter angst has reached a saturation point.  

Yet this state of chaos leaves us wondering how to evaluate candidates amid this noise, and which factors impact the results of an election.  

Wild times require a sober mind for guidance. On today’s episode of Deciding Factors, Eric speaks to Greg Schultz, the longtime political strategist who served as campaign manager for Joe Biden in 2020. He discusses what he sees as his own party’s strengths and shortcomings and what might influence the midterms, whether Dobbs will impact the results of the midterm races, and what difference Twitter makes in a campaign.  

Navigating the ups and downs of the real estate market has always been challenging, but 2022 has presented would-be buyers and sellers alike with a singular set of complications. 

The COVID pandemic and the rise of remote work have changed our calculations for deciding where we want —and can afford— to live. Significant inflation —and rising interest rates— have further muddied the equation.  

In today’s episode, Eric speaks to Dr. Rob Dietz, ​​Chief Economist and Senior Vice President for Economics and Housing Policy for the National Association of Home Builders, to help untangle this knot of real estate confusion and make sense of a chaotic market. 

Listen in as Rob brings his expertise to bear on emerging trends in the market, his tips for both buyers and sellers, and what to expect in the months and years to come. 

 The combined forces of the COVID-19 pandemic, soaring inflation, and a looming recession have aligned to rock virtually every sector of the American economy; our education system has not been spared.  

As a result, those working within the education sector—as well as parents and students themselves—are left to grapple with a set of newly urgent questions: can we learn effectively in a remote setting? Can educational technology help students find the employment they seek? Can online learning offer a truly stable and high quality educational model for the future? 

In today’s podcast, Eric is joined by ed tech veteran John Katzman to learn why he’s so optimistic about the efficacy of ed tech, how he thinks it should be tailored to different age groups, how it can help job seekers weather a difficult hiring market, and much more.