DecidingFactors

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.

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, Dr. Stephen Ostroff, former Acting Pennsylvania Physician General and as 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,

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. 

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.  

Across the U.S. and the world, people have hit the streets to demonstrate for an end to systemic racism and police brutality. Dr. Michael Jeffries, a professor of American Studies at Wellesley College, discusses why this time things seem different

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.

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 this episode, Ron Klain, the former United States 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.

Are hospitals prepared for the COVID-19 pandemic? In this podcast, Dr. David Shulkin talks about hospital staffing, equipment shortages, and how hospitals might look after COVID-19.

In this episode, Dr. Mark Dybul, MD, former Global AIDS Coordinator, discusses the importance of regarding the COVID-19 pandemic as a true global crisis.

COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has unleashed an economic crisis both in the U.S. and abroad. In this episode, Deciding Factors brings you Dr. Sarah Bloom Raskin, former U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary and former member of the Board of Governors at the Federal Reserve Board.

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.

We make decisions every day. Often, there can be a lot riding on the choices you make: the future of your business, your investment portfolio, other people’s livelihoods. That’s why it’s important to understand all the factors that can impact a decision before you choose a path of action.