Scope Conditions Podcast

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About the show

Latest episodes

• The Bombs America Left Behind, with Erin Lin

  May 6, 2026 · 1 hr 7 min

  Today on Scope Conditions: when the bombs don’t go off, the war isn't over. We tend to think of peace as beginning when the bombs stop falling. But as our guest today shows us, this is only half the story. Over the course of the Vietnam…

• When Unequal Places Invest, with Alice Xu

  February 23, 2026 · 1 hr 26 min

  Today on the podcast, why are more unequal neighborhoods sometimes better at promoting the collective good? A world of high inequality is, in many ways, a world in which the fortunes of the rich are detached from the welfare of the poor…

• Rules of Law, with Egor Lazarev

  June 17, 2025 · 1 hr 21 min

  Political analysts are thinking a lot these days about the rule of law: where it comes from, what sustains it, how it can break down. Those are hard enough questions in themselves. And, yet — they simplify away an important complexity…

• Violence as Campaign Strategy, with Niloufer Siddiqui

  February 20, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min

  When we think of weak democracies around the world, we often think of their inability to maintain a monopoly on violence because of challenges outside the state – like militias, rebel groups, criminal gangs, and other external, violent…

• How Criminal Governance Undermines Elections, with Jessie Trudeau

  September 20, 2024 · 1 hr 18 min

  In democracies all around the world, criminal organizations are involved in electoral politics. Notable examples include the Sicilian mafia and Pablo Escobar's drug cartel in Colombia. We sometimes think of these criminal groups as having…

• What College Dorms can teach us about Culture, with Joan Ricart-Huguet

  July 22, 2024 · 1 hr 19 min

  Today on Scope Conditions: college dorms shed light on where group culture comes from and how it molds us. At Harry Potter’s alma mater, each new student is assigned to a House that aligns with their true character. The mystical Sorting…

• Statecraft as Stagecraft, with Iza (Yue) Ding

  January 27, 2024 · 1 hr 16 min

  Most governments around the world – whether democracies or autocracies – face at least some pressure to respond to citizen concerns on some social problems. But the issues that capture public attention — the ones on which states have…

• How the UN Keeps Peace Among Neighbors, with William G. Nomikos

  October 1, 2023 · 1 hr 15 min

  Today on Scope Conditions, what’s the secret to successful peacekeeping? We often think of civil conflict as being driven by organized, armed groups – like rebel militias and state armies. But as our guest today reminds us, a leading cause…