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Podcast: The IOC's Dick Pound on how sports and politics should mix
Listen: On the GZERO World Podcast, a look at the long history of protest at the Games with Dick Pound, the longest serving member of the International Olympic Committee and a former Olympic athlete himself. With COVID rates rising globally, this year's Olympics faced some major hurdles. But the pandemic was only part of the picture. The Tokyo Games played out against a backdrop of mounting global tension surrounding gender equality, racism and human rights, leaving many people to examine the place of politics on the playing field and podium.
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Does alcohol help or harm society?
University of British Colombia professor Edward Slingerland says drinking makes us feel good and has historically encouraged socializing. But there are negative implications, as well. We now have the problem of "distillation and isolation": getting as much booze as you want and drinking alone, especially during the pandemic. There's a gender issue too: the "bro culture" associated with alcohol can exclude and even be dangerous for women. Not all regions have the same problems, though, as drinking habits vary widely. Watch Slingerland's interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.
Watch the episode: The (political) power of alcohol
How booze made us...civilized
Did beer come before bread? Perhaps, says University of British Colombia professor Edward Slingerland, who credits alcohol with spurring humankind's first agricultural revolution thousands of years ago. "Our drive to get intoxicated is what caused us to create civilization," he explains, adding that booze provided a "tool for helping us to cope with all the challenges of living in civilized societies." Find out more from Slingerland about the history of alcohol in the latest episode of GZERO World.
Watch the episode: The (political) power of alcohol
How the social contract broke
Anyone who's seen an episode of "Leave it to Beaver" or "The Wonder Years" knows how the American dream is supposed to work: the white picket fence, the suburban home and the 2.5 handsome young children playing in the backyard. It's a sort of social contract, one that this country has built its identify around for the last half century. But is that dream dead? Or at the very least, far outdated? Few young people today can expect a stable career without an expensive college education and many older people are spending far more years in retirement than past generations. So what do we do when the social contract breaks down? And how do we patch up all the holes in the social safety net? London School of Economics Director Minouche Shafik shares some solutions (hint: "free money" isn't one of them).
Watch the episode: Is modern society broken?
Is modern society broken?
What does President Biden's "build back better" slogan really mean? If you asked him, he'd likely say that life after the pandemic shouldn't just be as good as it was before COVID hit…it should be better. Who would disagree with that? But beyond the sloganeering, the need to create a much improved "new normal" has never been greater. With global inequality on and extreme poverty on the rise, how do we patch up the many holes in the world's social safety nets? Renowned economist and London School of Economics director Minouche Shafik has some ideas, which she shared with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World.