After eight years of civil war in Syria, with hundreds of thousands of its citizens dead and millions more fleeing the country, one question looms large: how did things get so bad? During those early days of peaceful protest, what prompted a shoot-to-kill order from the highest levels of government? The answer begins with the rise to power of the Assad family.

Ian Bremmer sits down with Harvard Astrophysicist Avi Loeb to examine cutting-edge research on the galaxies -- everything from interstellar travel to black holes.

How do you measure success? Maybe it's by money, job, or family. Whatever it is, there's usually something tangible to gauge. But what happens when the old metrics stop working? This week Ian Bremmer sits down with Gillian Tett of the Financial Times, who says the scales by which we evaluate everything from the global economy to what constitutes a monopoly is in dire need of a makeover.