What makes people migrate? How does climate change drive mass migration in today’s world? How serious is this problem? How serious will it become in the future? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Abrahm Lustgarten in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An author and investigative reporter, Abrahm Lustgarten’s work for ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine has been focused on climate change and our response to a...

What is climate change? How is it affect our planet? What consequences does it have on our lives? And must we – and can we – do soften them? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Bill McKibben in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation. An expert on climate change, Bill McKibben is a founder of Third Act, which organizes people over the age of 60 for action on climate and justice. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded...

How old is the Universe? How was it born? How will it end? Why are we here? What is a black hole and what do they do? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Vítor Cardoso in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  A renowned astrophysicist, Vítor Cardoso is Chair of the Physics Department at Instituto Superior Técnico, and Villum Investigator and DNRF Chair at the Niels Bohr Institute. He received his PhD in Physics in 2003...

What is «corruption»? What different kinds of corruption exist in our modern societies? How does corruption manifest itself in governments, corporations, the judicial system and every other sphere of our lives? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Donatella della Porta in this episode of «It’s Not That Simple», a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  An expert on corruption, Donatella della Porta is a professor of political science, dean of the Faculty  of...

How much impact did the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have on the global economy? How will technology change sectors like health or education? What is causing the slowdown in economic growth around the world? How worried should we be about inflation? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Michael Spence in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.    A Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences, Michael Spence...

What is social mobility? How can we measure it? How can we promote it? Is the “American Dream” still alive? How did the Covid-19 pandemic impact social mobility around the world? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews John Friedman in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.    An expert on social mobility, John Friedman is a Professor of Economics at Brown University, as well as a founding co-Director of Opportunity...

How disastrous was “Brexit”? How much did it affect the United Kingdom’s economy and its living standards? How has it changed the political relationship between the UK and the European Union? Could it ever be reversed? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews R. Daniel Kelemen in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.    An expert on European Affairs, Kelemen is a Professor of Political Science and Law at Rutgers University,...

What is it like growing up in a country in civil war? What remains to be achieved in the struggle for women's rights? Will it be possible to heal the wounds opened by the wars of the present and the past? Is it possible to reach peace when the scars of war are still visible? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Leymah Roberta Gbowee in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  A Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2011, Gbowee is...

Has the Covid-19 pandemic changed the world's balance of economic power? How important were political leaders in responding to the crisis born out of the pandemic? Has the latter led to a proliferation of propaganda and disinformation? How serious is the threat of Covid-19 when compared to other problems facing humanity, such as global warming or other public health crises? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Adam Tooze in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the...

What does Vladimir Putin want? What makes him so dangerous? How can he be fought? What role could countries like China play in solving the crisis of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Are we on the brink of nuclear war? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Mark Galeotti in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.    A renowned author, speaker and professor at University College London, Mark Galeotti is an expert on Russian...

What challenges and threats do European democracies face today? How actually democratic are they? What is an illiberal democracy? Will democracy in Europe resist the stress-test of the Covid-19 pandemic? Was “Brexit” a vaccine against Euroscepticism? To answer this questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Catherine de Vries in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple” a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.  A political scientist and an expert on European politics, Catherine de Vries...

Is it possible to predict the future? What is “data journalism”? Have polls become increasingly unreliable? To answer these questions, Pedro Pinto interviews Nate Silver in this episode of “It’s Not That Simple”, a podcast by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation.    A statistician famous for correctly predicting the results of the 2008 US presidential election in 49 of the 50 states of the Union, Nate Silver is the founder of the website FiveThirtyEight.com, which uses “data journalism”...