Only 2,000 of the 22,000 man-made objects that currently circle the Earth are fully operational, functioning satellites. The rest—roughly 90 percent—is space junk, or cosmic garbage. In this episode of New Frontiers, economist Akhil Rao explains how it got there, why it accumulates, and why economic tools could be the best way to address this problem.

Did the collapse of the Soviet Union—and the tumultuous years which followed—help shape Russians’ attitudes toward capitalism and democracy in the Putin era? If so, how; and why would the effects of the Soviet collapse still be felt and manifest thirty years later? In this episode, economist Will Pyle joins RCGA director Mark Williams to unravel this puzzle.

Joyce Mao, Associate Professor of History at Middlebury College, discusses her research and book, "Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism," the first publication to look at the imprint of US-China-Taiwan relations upon the American Right after World War II.

With global food insecurity on the rise, what can the United Nations do to help protect the world's food systems and establish safeguards against food insecurity? Did the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit take us in the direction of a future where populations' access to food is ever more secure? If not, why; and what would a more optimal approach entail? Middlebury College William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Food Studies, Molly Anderson discusses these and other issues examined in her recent article, “UN Food Systems Summit 2021: Dismantling Democracy and Resetting Corporate Control of Food Systems.”