Applications for the 2026-2027 Podcast Team have closed. If you submitted an application by the deadline (May 8th, 2026), please stay tuned for updates via email.
More About Chalkboard Politics
Chalkboard Politics is a student-produced and student-hosted podcast that aims to connect concepts that students encounter in the classroom with real-world political events and to show how these concepts, which can sometimes feel abstract or inaccessible, help us make sense of the world. Building on the Saltzman Student Scholars program at the Saltzman Institute, the podcast reflects a broader vision: one in which students are not just consumers of knowledge, but active producers, working alongside faculty to bridge the gap between academic frameworks and real-world questions of war, peace, and international politics.
For each episode, our student-producers choose the topic, the guests, and the questions with the support of Saltzman Institute Director Elizabeth Saunders. The podcast will feature curated conversations with Institute faculty and invited guests (from Columbia and beyond) across topics of interest to the Saltzman community. It will also seek to make connections across expertise and subjects that are not often in conversation. Topics will be guided by student-submitted questions, recorded live or pre-produced with broader community input.
Chalkboard Politics is produced by the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University, in partnership with Good Authority. It is made possible with the support of Columbia’s Department of Political Science and the School of International and Public Affairs.
Contact the Chalkboard Politics Team: If you have any comments or questions about Chalkboard Politics, or ideas for future segments, please email us at chalkboardpolitics@columbia.edu.
Chalkboard Politics Editorial Team:
- Ayaan Ali, Producer
- Paul Audoin, Technical Producer
- Gulnaz Bibi, Producer
- Rose Cole, Producer
- Rachel Finlayson, Managing Editor
- Cassidy Murray, Producer
- Zara Williamson, Lead Producer
Original music written and recorded by Ingrid Gerstmann, Assistant Director of the Saltzman Institute, and jazz pianist and educator John Austria.
Episode Library:
Episode 5: Can Civil-Military Norms Survive a Polarized America?
Release Date: May 11, 2026.
In this episode of Chalkboard Politics, the team explores the growing pressures facing civil-military relations in the United States during a period of stark polarization, institutional distrust, and heightened debate over executive power. To begin the episode, professor Peter Feaver examines how the American constitutional system intentionally creates tension between civilian leaders and military institutions through checks and balances, making systems of trust, restraint, and professionalism central to democratic governance. The discussion then turns to the politicization of the military, including how partisan rhetoric, social media, and public polarization risk drawing military institutions into broader cultural and political conflict. Feaver also analyzes questions surrounding leaks, resignations, legality, and the role of military officials in advising civilian leaders during crises, particularly in debates over Iran and the use of force. Together, the episode considers whether American democratic institutions can remain resilient under mounting political strain—or whether the erosion of longstanding civil-military norms risks destabilizing the constitutional balance between civilian authority, military professionalism, and democratic accountability.
Episode 4: How Did the 2025 India-Pakistan Conflict Change Global Politics?
Release Date: April 8, 2026.
In this episode of Chalkboard Politics, the team examines the causes, escalation, and aftermath of the 2025 India-Pakistan crisis. Professor Niloufer Siddiqui and Professor Sushant Singh first address last year’s Pahalgam attack in India-administered Kashmir and analyze how the conflict between the two nuclear-armed states escalated in unprecedented ways. The discussion then explores how the “fog of war,” media environment, and external actors played a role in both escalation and the eventual ceasefire. Our guests then consider the broader geopolitical consequences of the conflict, including implications for India’s doctrine of strategic autonomy, shared resources like the Indus River system, and relations with the U.S. The conflict has unexpected consequences for the region and beyond, especially Pakistan’s mediation in the Iran war, its defense pact with Saudi Arabia, and its current conflict with Afghanistan. Overall, this episode analyzes whether the 2025 India-Pakistan crisis reflects a continuation of long-standing patterns in India-Pakistan relations or a turning point in regional order—and the effects of these events on global politics.
Episode 3: Are International Organizations Losing Authority?
Release Date: March 10, 2026.
In this episode of Chalkboard Politics, the team explores the evolving challenges facing international institutions in a period of populist backlash and shifting global power. In the first conversation, professors Allison Carnegie and Richard Clark discuss how international organizations—from the European Union to the IMF and WTO—navigate growing populist resistance, funding withdrawals, and declining hegemonic support. The episode then turns to an interview with Professor Anjali Dayal, who examines the changing role of the United Nations in peacekeeping, humanitarian coordination, and global governance. Together, this podcast episode considers whether international institutions can adapt to populist pressure and declining hegemonic leadership, or whether the global order is entering a more fragmented and uncertain era.
Episode 2: Will Tariffs Unravel the Global Economic Order?
Release Date: February 12, 2026.
In this episode of Chalkboard Politics, students sit down with Professor Jeffry Frieden, author of Global Capitalism: Its Fall and Rise in the Twentieth Century, to unpack what tariffs are, how they work, and their role in U.S. policy and abroad. Frieden describes how tariffs are some of the oldest tools of statecraft, tracing their history of domestic impacts through the British Corn Laws and showing how they raise prices for consumers while protecting favored producers. The conversation addresses the Trump administration’s expansive use of tariffs, operating not just as economic policy tools, but as instruments of foreign policy, bargaining, and national security. Overall, this episode asks whether Trump’s tariffs will ultimately decenter the U.S. in the global economy, and what a potential re-ordering could look like.
Episode 1: What just happened in Venezuela?
Release Date: January 20, 2026.
In this episode of Chalkboard Politics, students sit down with Professors Eduardo Moncada, Sarah Daly, and Elizabeth Saunders to unpack how concepts like narco-terrorism, criminal governance, and credible commitment have, and continue to, shape U.S. policy toward Venezuela. Drawing on the legacy of the War on Drugs, the conversation challenges the argument that militarized intervention or leadership removal can dismantle illicit economies. Instead, our guests explore the relevance and role of patronage systems, the “balloon effect,” and the political incentives behind spectacular uses of force, while asking what all of this means for Venezuelan citizens, democracy, and regional sovereignty, and whether the Trump administration can actually get what it wants.
