Ways & Means Podcast
Polis is proud to sponsor of Season 5 of Ways & Means. Produced by the Duke Sanford Communication team, this award winning podcast showcases cutting-edge research that offers insightful perspectives for improving society.


S5E3 How Afterschool Programs Can Empower Parents
In this episode: research into how government-funded afterschool programs for poor families are empowering politically motivated parents. Hear first-hand from staff and parents about how these programs have inspired change in their community and learn what elements build effective programs.

S5E2 When Local News Dries Up
On this episode: a look at why local news is struggling, why that matters for democracy and what can be done about it.

S5E1 Reparations: How it Could Happen
The question of whether and how to compensate descendants of people formerly enslaved in the United States has hung over the country since the end of the Civil War. It’s getting new traction in the 2020 election.

Ways & Means Podcast Dedicates Season Five to Issues in Politics
The Sanford School launches Season 5 of its award-winning documentary podcast, Ways & Means, on Wednesday, Feb. 19. The season is dedicated to issues in U.S. politics and civic life and hot topics in the 2020 elections.

S4E6 Beyond Elmo: How Puppets Teach Preschoolers Self-Control
Four-year-olds are expected to be able to behave in the classroom, but more and more preschools are kicking children out for bad behavior. In this episode: new research into how to best help children control themselves in the classroom.

S4E5: Answering New Parents’ Cries for Help
On this episode of Ways & Means, we go inside an innovative, free public program that helps new moms and dads adjust to life with a newborn.

S4 Episode 4: Adding Up the Bill for Climate Change
Who will take the hardest hit financially as the world heats up, and can anything be done about it?

S4 Episode 3: A Small Green Idea to Power Rural Nepal
Researchers are investigating a method of creating power from fast moving streams in Nepal. Sometimes these micro-hydro minigrids work and sometimes they don’t and the researchers want to know why.

S4 Episode 2: A Greener Commute: One City’s Story
What motivates commuters to leave their cars behind, and take the bus or a bike to work instead? A government innovation team in Durham, North Carolina recently tested several ideas with real commuters.

S4 Episode 1: How Parenthood Affects Climate Change Skeptics
For former Republican Congressman Bob Inglis, thinking about climate change in the context of being a parent rather than being a Republican was a significant factor in changing his mind about the issue.

Climate Change Miniseries
A new season of Sanford’s award-winning documentary podcast, Ways and Means, premieres Wednesday Feb. 20, 2019!

Ways & Means Podcast Wins Award for International Series
The Ways & Means podcast produced by the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy has received a 2019 Award of Excellence from CASE, an international association of educational institutions.

S3 Episode 6: Life After Loss for Orphans in Africa
The majority of the world’s population lives in low-income countries with extremely limited access to mental health care.

S3 Episode 5: Childbirth, Babies & Bonuses
More than 800 women die in childbirth every day in the developing world – often because doctors know what to do, they just don’t do it.

S3 Episode 4: How Sputnik Sent Women to College
Today, women outnumber men on college campuses, but that wasn’t always the case. Before the 1960s, colleges routinely used gender quotas to suppress the number of women on campus.

S3 Episode 3 How Do Criminals Get Their Guns?
Duke professor Philip J. Cook has been tracking the underground gun market in America for the last 15 years.

S3 Episode 2: Robots, WikiLeaks & The Fight Against Human Trafficking
There’s evidence that diplomacy and public shaming are helping shine a light on a problem that depends on secrecy to survive: human trafficking.

S3 Episode 1: Slum Detectives
Today, for our Season 3 premiere, we begin a three-part series, New Ideas for Policy in the Developing World. In this episode, high-tech meets high-need.

S2 Episode 7: Secret Life of Muslims
Ahmed Ahmed is an American-Muslim comedian who was typecast as a terrorist. Khalid Latif is a Muslim chaplain for the New York Police Department who was saluted in uniform, but harassed as a civilian.

S2 Episode 6: Flimflams, Scams and Ripoffs
John Rusnak was a currency trader in Baltimore when he was convicted of one of the largest bank frauds in American history.

S2 Episode 5: Bootstraps and Silver Spoons
Most of us prize stories of people who start with nothing in life, and then become rich. Americans even have a saying for it: pulling yourself up by your bootstraps.

S2 Episode 4: 7 Concerns About Teens and Phones, Unwrapped
Ninety percent of adolescents in the U.S. now either own or can access a mobile phone with the internet.

S2 Episode 3: Crazy Districts, Lopsided Elections
In the 2012 election, Democratic candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives nationally got 1.5 million more votes than Republican candidates but the Republicans emerged with a 33-seat majority in the House.

S2 Episode 2: Who is White?
Very often, we toss around the terms “black,” “Latina,” and “white” as if we all agree on what they mean.

S2 Episode 1: Can Government Really Change?
One thing remains constant in our political discourse: talk of how much we need to change. Every four years, candidates for office make their pitch to voters, including a laundry list of things they promise to change once elected.

Episode 5: The Extraordinary Search for Ordinary Politicians
On this episode of Ways & Means, we explore one of the most vexing issues in politics – how …

Episode 4: Sugar Fix
In this episode of Ways & Means: How yesterday’s war on tobacco is shaping today’s war on sugar.

Episode 3: Women in Politics, A Shout or a Whisper?
On this episode of Ways & Means we look at how women gained a political voice in the U.S. and then – surprisingly – in some ways lost it. Guests include Pat Schroeder.

Episode 2: A Beautiful Death
What do seniors really want when they’re dying? Asking them, and listening carefully to what they say, could lead – surprisingly – to cost-savings for big government systems like Medicare.

Episode 1: Pants on Fire
On this episode of Ways & Means we hear from the Daily Show’s resident fact-checker Adam Chodikoff.