Vis a Vis
"Vis a Vis" is a podcast produced by the Alliance Program at Columbia University. It features conversations that challenge our understanding of key global, economic, and social issues by casting them in a transatlantic perspective. The show contrasts the viewpoints of Columbia faculty with their French and European counterparts on urgent topics such as climate change, migration, freedom of expression, diversity, the politics of memory, the role of culture in society, AI and the future of work, democracy and social media, and participatory democracy. Guests include Columbia faculty, researchers, doctoral students, and visiting French scholars.
Episodes
Writing Colonial History
As many economists, political scientists, and policy makers reflect on growing economic inequalities dividing world populations today, a question often arises: how did we get here? Why is it that such significant wealth gaps grew over the years, both within countries and among different regions of the world? Many experts turn to history for answers,…
Research at École Polytechnique
85 years ago, Louis Leprince Ringuet created the first research lab at École Polytechnique – a physics lab dedicated to research on the atom, cosmic rays and subatomic particles. Today, École Polytechnique boasts 23 research centers staffed by 1600 researchers in fields as diverse as mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and social sciences. Most recently,…
Understanding Russia: The French Connection
Winston Churchill famously said: “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.” Today, almost four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many people, throughout the world, are baffled by the long-term goals of the Russian regime and by its internal workings. Historically, France provided a successful model for understanding Russia. Much of…
The Rest is Silence
One of the mottos of the Enlightenment was “sapere aude”: Dare to know. With this motto, Enlightenment thinkers like Diderot, Voltaire, and Rousseau rejected fanaticism, conventional thinking, and, in many cases, the authority of the Church, submission to religious principles and belief in the afterlife. As they faced death, therefore, it seemed natural that these…
Research at Sciences Po
Over the last few decades, Sciences Po has significantly increased its footprint in research, becoming one of the world’s leading institutions in social science research. The Sciences Po ecosystem is structured around five disciplines: law, economics, history, political science, and sociology. Research priorities include: the analysis of social policy; economic transformations; social inequalities
Women’s Rights Today
Thirty years ago, the Beijing Declaration charted a path to achieve gender equality worldwide. Since then, some progress was achieved. Girls are surpassing boys in school completion, women are gaining seats in parliament, and nearly 100 countries have scrapped discriminatory laws. But poverty, hunger, conflict, climate change, and backlash against women rights are eroding progress…
Mending The Living World – a Conversation with Corine Pelluchon
Debates about climate change and the environment often focus, understandably, on risk evaluation, mitigation, and adaptation. Important research is dedicated to technical innovations like carbon capture or renewable energy; adaptive strategies to protect biodiversity; or financial solutions to bolster sustainable investment. This work is important, of course. But in order to get to the root…
News from the Extreme Universe
In 2027, we will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Big Bang theory, first proposed by the Belgivan priest and astronomer Georges Lemaître. In the last 100 years, our knowledge and understanding of the universe has been radically transformed. Back in 1917, Einstein still believed in a static universe. Then came Edwin Hubble, who demonstrated,…
The Era of Impostures: Beyond Identity and Polarization
Politics, today, seems to be divided by ideology, as much as it is by identity. Our political leanings are determined, not only by our particular vision of the common good, but by who we are, where we come from, and the groups we belong to. One way to understand the degree to which identity shapes…
Can Responsible AI Make Humans More Responsible?
By all accounts, the AI revolution is upon us and, although we know it will transform our world, its long-term impact – on jobs, on education, on privacy, on our political life – can only be surmised with some degree of prudence. While applications of artificial intelligence in the worlds of transport, communications, and medicine…
Young Researchers Who Mend Broken Hearts
Every year, 1.3 million babies are born with congenital heart disease worldwide. One third of them need an artificial valve implant. These complex heart surgeries save hundreds of thousands of babies’ lives every year. But valve implants are not a perfect solution. New valves need to be implanted every few years, which requires multiple operations…
Proust, A Jewish Way: A Conversation with Antoine Compagnon
When the French writer Marcel Proust died at the age of 51 more than a century ago, many obituaries highlighted the fact that his mother was Jewish. But Proust’s relationship with his Jewish side was complex and many critics and readers of his masterwork, In Search of Lost Time, perceive signs of self-hatred and even antisemitism…
Knowledge is Beautiful
When we think about works of philosophy, sociology, history, or economics, we often think of rigorous, methodically argued tomes written in arid, dispassionate prose. Social science enquiry aims to deliver clear, objective knowledge about the human world, not beautifully written narratives. In fact, we tend to be suspicious of social science and humanities works that…
The Rise of the French Far Right
In June 2024, the French Far Right party, the National Rally came in first at the European elections, way ahead of the party of President Macron. This sent shockwaves in the French political world and Emmanuel Macron decided to dissolve the National Assembly and call for early legislative elections. On June 30th, the National Rally won 33% of the…
Research at Columbia
Over the last 80 years, research has been at the core of scientific and technological progress in our societies; and universities have played and continue to play a critical role in this process. At Columbia University, research offers a critical pathway to build new knowledge and practical solutions that impact people’s lives in significant ways.…
New Trends in World Cinema
Over the last decades, the world of cinema has gone through profound transformations. The advent of streaming platforms, the COVID pandemic, and the introduction of AI technology at multiple stages of film production all contributed to create a new landscape which raises many questions about cinema in the future. Will cinema theaters thrive again or…
After the Fire: Lead Pollution and Notre Dame
On April 15th, 2019, the world saw in awe the Notre Dame Cathedral ravaged by flames. As the fire spread through the beloved Paris landmark, toxic smoke spewed billions of particles of lead from the collapsing roof and spire. In the weeks that followed the disaster, experts and civil society groups raised the alarm about…
In Search of the ‘Lost Generation’: American Writers in Paris
In Woody Allen’s 2011 movie Midnight in Paris, Gil, a young Hollywood screenwriter and aspiring novelist, played by Owen Wilson, is transported back to the 1920s Paris. Every night, he meets his heroes, Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein. He encounters a cast of artists like Picasso, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dáli, Man Ray. Soon,…
Technopolitics: Will AI Reshape Global Power Relations?
In most areas of our lives, artificial intelligence is promising to bring revolutionary change – from medicine to transport, from education to food production. Even creative industries – filmmaking, music, and the visual arts – will not be spared. We are all aware that we are part of a huge experiment: indeed, we contribute, willy-nilly,…
Will AI Revolutionize Transport?
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way we work, the way we stay informed, the way we interact with others. It is also set to transform the way we move around in cities. In the air, electric vertical take-off and landing vehicles – eVTOLs – (or air taxis) are already being tested, promising to take passengers…
Can AI Help Save the Planet?
Over the last few years, the rise of artificial intelligence has been reshaping many areas of our lives. From healthcare to law, from self-driving cars to self-written novels, AI promises to transform our relationship with the world and remodel our interactions with our fellow human beings. In the area of climate research, AI is proving to be a powerful tool. In particular, the use of AI to develo
Is Polarization Threatening American Democracy?
Since the storming of the Capitol on January 6th 2021, there have been growing fears about the risk of political violence in the United States. Efforts to cast doubt on the results of the election, combined with the spread of inflammatory rhetoric and increased polarization on social media, represent serious threats, not only to civility, but…
Combatting Screen Addiction: A Conversation with Célia Zolynski
Today, the average American teen spends 7 hours and 22 minutes looking at screens each day (an increase of 30% in the last 10 years). At the same time, 7 out of 10 teens say they often or sometimes feel more peaceful when they don’t have their smartphone. The surgeon-general recently called for a warning label on social…
The Ebbs and Flows of Jihadism
Since September 11th 2001, there have been close to 150 Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe. But in order to understand the phenomenon of jihadism, one has to look beyond the attacks themselves. The periods of high tide, justifiably, grab public and media attention. But we need to focus on jihadist networks at periods of low tide…
Reproductive Rights: A New Era? Featuring Olatunde Johnson and Eleonora Bottini
Today, March 4th 2024, France becomes the first country in the world to enshrine the right to abortion in its Constitution. In the United States, by contrast, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, and ruled that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion, sending legal and social aftershocks throughout the…
Reflections on Racism: A Conversation with Maboula Soumahoro
To mark Black History Month, Vis A Vis spoke to Maboula Soumahoro, one of the leading transatlantic thinkers on race, racism and the African Diaspora. While French and American societies struggle against racism, intolerance and discrimination take different forms on each side of the Atlantic. The French republican tradition emphasizes “laïcité” (or secularism) and color-blindness,…
Voices for the Future: The Obama Presidency Oral History
As the United States embarks on a new election cycle, Vis A Vis is looking back on the Obama Presidency for insights on the challenges the country is now facing and how we got here. Last spring saw the launch of the Obama Presidency oral history, an archive of over 400 interviews with Obama cabinet…
Anthropocene: French Historians, François Hartog and Frédérique Aït-Touati, on Whether Humans Can Change Earth’s History
According to many scientists and historians, we have entered a new historical period: the age of the Anthropocene. For the first time in history, as a result of climate change, humans are altering the makeup of planet Earth. In this episode of Vis A Vis, history professor François Hartog and Frédérique Aït-Touati, historian of modern science,…
Can Memory Change the Present?
Public debate today often focuses on uncertainties about the future: what to do about climate change, how to prevent the next pandemic, how to cope with technological revolutions? But many issues that divide societies also have to do with the past. How do we ensure continuity with the values that have shaped us? How should…
Can the Courts Combat Climate Change?
This episode delves into a critical examination of how the legal system is increasingly becoming a frontline battleground in the fight against climate change. In a conversation that covers the impact of climate-related court decisions on governments and corporations, the potential outcomes of landmark cases like Juliana v. the United States, the legal obligations towards…
Can Media Regulation Tackle Disinformation?
There is no denying the fact that social media and the Internet have the power to inform, educate, spread knowledge and create new pathways of activism. At the same time, the online world is full of deep, dark spaces. Fake news, misinformation, cyber-harassment and hate speech proliferate. They endanger the social fabric of our communities. They also threaten our democracies. European Union-impose
Climate Change: Towards a New Paradigm?
Today, more than ever, climate change and its effects are in the news. One the one hand, what we learn is a constant cause for alarm: the number and the intensity of hurricanes is on the rise; forests the world over are being decimated by wildfires; and communities in low lying lands (like Bangladesh and Pakistan) are devastated by floods. Many countries are not keeping up with their carbon-zero c
Can Slavery Be Repaired?
In the wake of current debates on racism and racial discrimination in the US and Europe, the question of reparations for slavery is gaining renewed interest. In her book Faire justice de l’irréparable, (Justice As a Response to the Irreparable), Magali Bessone, Professor of Philosophy at Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, explains that the French abolition of slavery in 1848 did not put an end to econom
Translation: Mending the Wounds of Colonialism
As our societies in Europe and America struggle with economic inequality, police violence and social injustice, it is quite clear that we are still dealing with the long-term after effects of colonialism and historic racism. This power imbalance is visible in the cultures we inhabit and the languages we speak. Of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, half are endangered and may disappear
Mending Hearts: A Pioneering Innovation
Every year, 1.3 million babies are born with congenital heart disease worldwide. One third of them need an artificial valve implant. These complex heart surgeries save hundreds of thousands of babies’ lives every year. But valve implants are not a perfect solution. New valves need to be implanted every few years, which requires multiple operations that have a deep impact on these children’s qualit
Is India becoming an Ethnic Democracy?
Since being elected Prime Minister in 2014, Narendra Modi and the BJP party he leads have implemented legislation and policies that call into question India’s commitment to democracy. Today, legitimate dissent in India is compromised. The BJP has used the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act to designate individuals as terrorists without providing corroborating evidence, and provisions in the penal
Iran Protests: A Feminist Social Movement
On September 16th, a young Iranian woman of Kurdish origin, Mahsa Amini, died after being arrested by Iran’s Guidance Patrol – the morality police – for wearing her hijab too loosely. Her death triggered a wave of protests throughout the country. In this episode, we speak with Dr Kian Tajbakhsh, Fellow of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, to understand the origins of this “fe
Nuclear Proliferation, Close Calls, and Luck.
The 13,000 nuclear warheads that exist across the world today are enough to eradicate humanity several times over. Given the real risk that nuclear disruption still represents, it should feature more prominently in the public debate. In this episode, we speak to Benoît Pelopidas, Associate Professor at Sciences Po, to understand the state of the threat today. We ask him about his research on close
Trailer
"Vis a Vis" is a new podcast brought to you by the Alliance Program at Columbia University. Alliance is a partnership bringing together Columbia University and three leading French higher education institutions: Sciences Po, Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and Ecole Polytechnique.
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