Many people think prisons are all the same—rows of cells filled with violent men whom officials rule with an iron fist. Yet, life behind bars varies in remarkable ways. Drawing on economics and a vast empirical literature on legal systems, David Skarbek, associate professor of political science at Brown University, explains why life on the inside varies in such fascinating and novel ways, and also how social order evolves and takes root behind bars.

Most societies outlaw drugs like marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Mainstream political discussion rarely challenges this policy, but theory and evidence indicate that drug prohibition causes far more harm than drug use itself.  This talk makes the case for legalizing all drugs, with particular applications to recent state marijuana legalizations, the opioid crisis, and the vaping “epidemic."

The digital revolution upended the media paradigm in ways that have both advanced and harmed society as we knew it. On the one hand, it democratized the production and dissemination of content, nullifying the influence of gatekeepers who once controlled the flow of information in print and across airwaves. But it also enflamed our tribal passions, allowing us to burrow into echo chambers that confirm our biases and stoke our grievances. And it hastened the dismantling of local and regional news outlets that served a vital function in the promotion of community and...

In this lecture, Professor Bueno de Mesquita will question the impact of the Protestant Reformation, arguing that it was not a major driver either of northern Europe's economic success or of the decline of Roman Catholicism's sway in Europe. Rather, both, along with Europe's secularization and creation of sovereign states, were predictable products of the Concordat of Worms (1122).