The Current

On this episode of The Brookings Current, Brookings Senior Fellow Rashawn Ray sits down with two former teachers-turned-lawmakers: Reps. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) and Kevin Kiley (I-Calif.), members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. They engage in a candid dialogue on the state of K-12 education amid changing student demographics, the introduction of AI in the classroom, and the challenge of workforce preparation. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has brought the largest energy disruption the world has seen in decades. Adie Tomer, senior fellow in Metro, talks with Samantha Gross, director of the Energy Security and Climate Initiative, to break down the implications of this crisis for American consumers and the United States. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

With an indefinite ceasefire in place and continued attacks in the Strait of Hormuz, the war in Iran has reached a turning point. Given the chasm between the strategic interests of the United States and Iran, where does the conflict go from here? In this episode of The Current, Brookings Fellow Aslı Aydıntaşbaş is joined by Vice President of Foreign Policy Suzanne Maloney and Visiting Fellow Mara Karlin to discuss the impact of the war, the status of negotiations between the US and Iran, and potential off-ramps for President Trump to seek an end to the conflict. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Culture wars have distracted America's K-12 system at the expense of students, says former U.S. Ambassador and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. On this episode of The Current, Emanuel sits down with Jon Valant, director of the Brown Center on Education Policy, to diagnose what went wrong and how some schools are trying to get it right. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

This episode of The Current features excerpts from a new Brookings podcast, The Beijing Brief, on which scholars from the China Center at Brookings discuss a range of issues in the U.S.-China relationship. On this episode, they focus on why the Trump-Xi summit was delayed and what the rescheduled summit could look like. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Brookings Metro Senior Fellow Joe Parilla speaks with Alma Flores, executive director of the Latino Economic Development Center, and Peter Frosch, CEO of the GREATER MSP Partnership, about how their Minnesota-based organizations responded to the crisis brought about by Operation Metro Surge, the federal immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

This week, Brookings experts convened to discuss the Iran war and its implications for Iran, the Middle East, and international security. This episode of The Current offers highlights from that event, moderated by Michael O'Hanlon, and including panelists Philip Gordon, Mara Karlin, Jeff Feltman, and Suzanne Maloney. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

With the annual Munich Security Conference now wrapped, Brookings expert Constanze Stelzenmüller brings back insights from the conversations unfolding on the ground. In her conversation with Aslı Aydintaşbaş, Stelzenmüller, director of the Center on the United States and Europe at Brookings, reflects on the main stage speeches from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and shares what she learned from reactions in the hallways. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

In the first year of his second term, President Trump has conducted a trade policy that features tariff cuts, tariff raises, and tariff exemptions. While the economic impacts of this tariff approach are uncertain, it's clear that the post-World War II rules-based liberal trade policy is over. On this episode, David Wessel talks with Kari Heerman, director of Brookings's Trade and Economic Statecraft Initiative, about Trump's pursuit of foreign policy objectives through trade actions. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Brookings senior fellows Michael O'Hanlon and Robert Kagan discuss O'Hanlon's latest book, To Dare Mighty Things: U.S. Defense Strategy Since the Revolution, an examination of 250 years of U.S. defense policy around the world. "Isolationism," O'Hanlon says, "strikes me as the least accurate term" to describe that history. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Are we heading in the right direction with AI in education, or drifting into a "wild west" of privacy risks and lost learning? In this episode, Rebecca Winthrop, senior fellow and director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, sits down with tech reporter Kara Swisher to unpack the urgent findings from her task force's new report, "A new direction for students in an AI world: Prosper, prepare, protect." The episode also features highlights from the report's launch event, where student co-author Rida Karim joins the conversation to discuss practical strategies for integrating AI without sacrificing critical thinking. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

Tony Pipa, senior fellow at the Center for Sustainable Development and host of the Reimagine Rural podcast, sits down with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear to discuss what the governor calls the "biggest threat to rural healthcare in my lifetime." With nearly 200 rural hospitals having closed since 2005, the stakes for rural America have never been higher. In this episode, Governor Beshear breaks down the devastating economic ripple effects of these closures, from lost jobs to reduced workforce productivity. He notes that rural hospitals are often the largest payrolls in their communities and explains why he believes new federal policy proposals could shutter 35 hospitals in Kentucky alone. Show notes and transcript. Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.

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 this episode of The Current. First, Molly Kinder, senior fellow in Brookings Metro, examines how AI is impacting the American workforce today; and then Senior Fellow Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education at Brookings, looks at how we can prepare our students to thrive in the future workforce. Show notes and transcript. Show notes and transcript. --> Follow The Current and all Brookings podcasts on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Send feedback email to podcasts@brookings.edu.