PricePod - Public Policy Conversations

Rural America is often portrayed as a deteriorating place that’s hopelessly divided from other parts of the country. But our guest, USC Price Professor Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, has researched rural America and paints a more nuanced picture. Her book – The Overlooked Americans: The Resilience of Our Rural Towns and What It Means for Our Country – argues that rural and urban Americans have far more in common than not, and that many rural communities are faring much better than typically portrayed in media accounts.

The Food and Drug Administration plans to ban employees of regulated companies, including drug manufacturers, from serving on the agency’s advisory committees. The new policy is aimed at combating industry influence and conflicts of interest, but will it make a difference? We are joined by Genevieve Kanter, an Associate Professor at the USC Price School, who has researched conflicts of interest at the FDA as well as the “revolving door” of people moving between jobs in government and regulated industries.

The Los Angeles wildfires were one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history, killing dozens of people and destroying thousands of homes and businesses. As catastrophes like this one become more common, we are joined by Research Professor Adam Rose, a leading expert in the economics of disasters. We discuss how these estimates are calculated and what can be done to make disasters less costly.

The opioid epidemic has killed roughly 900,000 Americans since the year 1999 – and one of the factors that fueled the crisis was doctors overprescribing opioids to patients. Jason Doctor, a USC Price School Professor, has been researching a way to curb overprescribing: notifying doctors when their patients fatally overdose. In this episode, we’ll discuss his studies and how they can help policymakers combat this health crisis.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs – commonly known as DEI – have become a hot-button issue in U.S. politics. Many organizations launched or expanded DEI programs in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a police officer. Now, a backlash against DEI has turned into policymaking, with federal, state and local governments aiming to restrict or ban DEI programs. Shaun Harper, a University and Provost Professor at the USC Price School, joins the show to discuss policymakers’ actions against DEI and the potential consequences.

Owning a home has long been promoted as a tenet of the American Dream, but many Americans now find that dream out of reach. Last year, the share of first-time home buyers shrank to historic lows, according to the National Association of Realtors. To help us understand the causes of the housing crisis and how we can solve it, we are joined by Richard Green, director and chair of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.

With President-elect Donald Trump returning to the White House and Republicans retaking control of Congress, conservative policymakers are hoping to reshape the “administrative state.” That’s the collection of federal agencies, regulatory boards and the like that oversee everything from environmental protection to education policy. USC Price Associate Professor William Resh joins the show to explain how Trump and his allies, including billionaire Elon Musk, could transform the federal bureaucracy and what that could mean for government workers and the public.

Transportation is the largest direct source of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., according to the EPA – with cars, trucks, ships, trains, and planes burning fossil fuels to move people and goods across the country. Genevieve Giuliano, the Interim Dean of the USC Price School, joins the show to discuss sustainable transportation policies, as well as her own research on reducing emissions associated with California's freight industry.

Marijuana laws in the U.S. have changed rapidly over the past decade, with roughly half of states permitting adults to consume cannabis recreationally. Proponents say legalizing cannabis can reduce racial disparities in drug arrests, raise tax revenue and control cannabis purity. But the fast-growing retail market and availability of high-potency marijuana has raised public health concerns at a time when it’s difficult to assess which policy approaches are most effective. We are joined by Rosalie Pacula, a USC Price School Professor and leading expert on cannabis policy. Her research has explored the different regulatory approaches taken by st...

We are a month away from the U.S. presidential election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump. Polls have consistently shown the candidates locked in a tight race, suggesting that voter turnout could be crucial in deciding the winner. Our guest today is Mindy Romero, director of the USC Price School’s Center for Inclusive Democracy. She has conducted research focused on turnout for voters of color, who remain under-represented at the polls despite substantial population growth. We’ll discuss her survey’s findings, what’s driving racial disparities in voter participation and how we can get...

In this episode, the PricePod goes to Hollywood. Since the turn of the century, dozens of states have collectively given billions of dollars in tax breaks for an unusual purpose: to subsidize the development of movies and TV shows. Local governments across the country offer tax breaks to attract film productions, which proponents say stimulate the economy with new jobs and spending. But are the subsidies good public policy? Michael Thom, an associate professor at the USC Price School, shares his research into whether the programs are meaningfully creating jobs and economic activity.

Are you feeling happy today? California lawmakers want to know. A newly formed legislative committee is taking on an unusual public policy challenge: They want to make California residents happier. Our guest today, Mark Baldassare, recently testified before the committee and shared his insights into how Californians are feeling. Baldassare, who is Senior Fellow at the USC Price School’s Bedrosian Center on Governance and statewide survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California, has surveyed Californians on their happiness. We’ll discuss his research into happiness, his advice to lawmakers, and why policymakers should care about how happy –...

When it comes to politics, Americans don’t agree on much these days, but they do agree that they don’t like Congress. Just 16% of Americans approve of the job Congress is doing, according to a June Gallup poll, continuing a trend of low approval ratings for the legislative body. That may be for good reason. From repeated battles for the House speakership to threats of government shutdowns, the current Congress has been, in historic terms, more dysfunctional. Our guest today is Jeffery Jenkins, Provost Professor of Public Policy, Political Science and Law for the USC Price School. Jenkins lite...

Thank you to all of our listeners for tuning into the podcast this year. We’re taking a short break this summer to record new conversations that explore the impact of public policy with USC Price School faculty. In the meantime, here are some highlights from our first season, where our guests offered evidence-based insights that paint a more nuanced picture of timely news topics – like policing, political polling and COVID-19 policies.

Four years ago, Elizabeth Currid-Halkett received some of the worst news imaginable: her son, Eliot, was diagnosed with a fatal neuromuscular disease. In her quest to save her son, she learned of a gene therapy that ultimately helped Eliot, but she ran into roadblocks that made it difficult to access this life changing treatment. Her story, recently published in The New York Times, illustrates the obstacles that prevent some patients from obtaining rare disease treatments. In this episode, we are joined by Currid-Halkett, a USC Price School professor of public policy, and Alice Chen, an associate professor of public...

Recent elections outcomes have made many Americans question the accuracy of public polling. Political polls for the 2016 and 2020 presidential contests, for example, generally underestimated the support for former President Donald Trump. In many ways, measuring public opinion is more difficult than ever, but polls are still often accurate. They also play an important role in giving residents voters a voice and informing policymakers. With another presidential election looming, Christian Grose, a USC Price School professor and academic director for the Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, joins the show to discuss how polling works, how it’s evolved, an...

It’s been four years since the COVID-19 pandemic first swept the globe, shutting down schools and businesses and killing more than 1.1 million people in the U.S. alone. In response to the crisis, governments implemented public health policies that would come to define life for the next few years: Mask mandates, stay at home orders, vaccines and boosters. But were these policies effective in slowing the spread of the virus and saving lives? USC Price School Professor Neeraj Sood joins the show to share his research on pandemic policies.

Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell discusses the lack of trust between police and the communities they serve. The challenge climaxed in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd, which sparked nationwide protests and calls for police reform. But McDonnell, now director of the Safe Communities Institute (SCI) at the USC Price School, says police rely on public trust to investigate, solve and combat crime, making distrust of police a public safety challenge. In this episode, McDonnell discusses what police, SCI and USC researchers are doing to help, from organizing community meetings to examining body camera footage of traffic...

From combating climate change to improving sex education, Provost Professor Wändi Bruin de Bruin uses behavioral science to understand what motivates people’s behavior and how to change it for the better. In this episode, Bruin de Bruin shares how simpler language can make climate change easier to understand, why asking people who their friends are voting for produces more accurate polling, and why hardly anyone understands their blood pressure readings. Behavioral science – which brings together psychology, economics and other social sciences – is not typically