Ray Suarez speaks with Sebastien Lai, the son of the imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai, and Jonathan Price, a member of Lai’s legal team. He’s on trial for his pro-democracy campaign, and they explore the fate of Hong Kong after China’s passage of the restrictive Article 23.

Guests:

Sebastien Lai, democracy advocate and son of jailed Hong Kong businessman and publisher

Jonathan Price, a member of Jimmy Lai’s legal team

Host: 

Ray Suarez

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The US has once again ignored the United Nations’ annual resolution calling for an end to its decades-long embargo on Cuba, even as Cubans took to the streets to protest the island nation’s worst economic crisis in decades, with shortages of food and fuel. And when the US Embassy urged the Communist-led regime to “attend to the legitimate needs” of its people, the Cuban government criticized the comment as “open interference in Cuba’s domestic affairs.” For Cuba, Washington's long standing role in the current crisis makes their complaints a “hypocrisy.” 

In this episode, we revisit Ray’s conversation with Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Ada Ferrer on just how intertwined the histories of the US and Cuba are, and why we’re so inseparable. 

Guest:

Ada Ferrer, Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American Studies at New York University and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Cuba: An American History 

Host(s):

Ray Suarez

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Mass death and disappearances have become normalized on Europe’s borders. Back in 2015, when more than a million refugees turned up on Europe’s doorstep to request asylum, the European Union cut deals with North African and Middle Eastern nations to hold back the flow of asylum-seekers. Since then, roughly 29,000 people have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean, reports the Missing Migrants Project. 

And for the migrants who were were intercepted while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea and forcibly placed in detention centers in Libya, they face inhumane living conditions, beatings, sexual abuse, starvation… and death — consequences of Europe’s ongoing cooperation with nations like Libya on migration and border control.

In My Fourth Time, We Drowned, journalist Sally Hayden reports on the shadowy immigration system created by the European Union which captures and imprisons migrants from Africa to keep them from reaching European soil. In an interview with Senior KQED editor Rachael Myrow, Hayden explains how western institutions are complicit in this humanitarian crisis. 

Featuring:

Rachael Myrow, senior editor of KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk

Sally Hayden, author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned and Africa correspondent for the Irish Times

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Saturday marks the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And while foreign support may be dwindling, Ukrainian determination to win the war is not. But what’s at stake when war no longer feels like an emergency… but a way of life?

Ray Suarez sits down with Masha Gessen, staff writer for The New Yorker, to unpack the toll of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine’s freedoms… and democracy.

Guest:

Masha Gessen, Russian-American award-winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker 

Host(s):  

Ray Suarez

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin set the world on edge when Russia invaded Ukraine. Two years later, international support for Ukraine’s sovereignty is becoming more precarious, and war weariness amongst the resistance — and their allies— has begun to set in. 

Global affairs analyst Michael Bociurkiw joins Ray Suarez to explain how a besieged Ukraine may be Europe’s last line of defense against Putin.

Guest:  

Michael Bociurkiw, global affairs analyst and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center

Host:  

Ray Suarez

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Americans — from the largest urban centers to the smallest rural towns — are deeply pessimistic about the state of the nation. And on both sides of the political aisle, there seems to be a disconnect between what people want… and where they feel the country is headed. 

This week, we’re kicking off our special election series, and throughout the year we’ll deep-dive into the issues driving the 2024 Presidential Election. 

In this first episode, we’ll hear from Iowa voter Phil Hemingway about how he’s feeling about this contentious election year. Then, Ray Suarez sits down with Dante Chinni, director of MSU J-School’s American Communities Project, to explore how to unite a divided country.

Guests: 

Phil Hemingway, owner, manager and automotive technician at Phil’s Repair, LLC

Dante Chinni, data and political journalist and director of the MSU J-School’s American Communities Project

Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, Pulitzer-prize winning historian and author of “The Twilight of Democracy”

Ian Bremmer, a political scientist, author of “The Power of Crisis,” and professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Political Affairs

Host:  

Ray Suarez

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

From accidental collateral damage deaths to targeted murders by the people in charge who don’t want them telling the truth, an unprecedented number of journalists are being killed while reporting. So what motivates reporters to keep filing stories despite the ever present threat of danger?

Sean Carberry, author of the memoir “Passport Stamps: Searching The World For A War To Call Home,” joins Ray Suarez to unpack the human costs of reporting from war zones.  

Guest:

Sean Carberry, Managing Editor of National Defense Magazine and author of the memoir “Passport Stamps: Searching the World For a War to Call Home”

Host:

Ray Suarez

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

What does a ‘just’ transition away from fossil fuels actually mean for Indigenous communities? At the APEC Multistakeholder Forum (AMF), organized by the Commonwealth Club World Affairs,  Ray Suarez sat down with Chéri A. Smith, a renewable energy expert and Mi’kmaq descendant. They discussed how the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy is working to combat energy poverty, bring solar to Indigenous communities and secure Native people a seat at the clean energy development table.

Guest:

Chéri A. Smith, founder, president and CEO of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy

Host:  

Ray Suarez

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

It’s been 78 years since a nuclear weapon was last used in war. Since then, the number of countries with a nuclear arsenal has increased from one… to nine. For the US government, two of the greatest nuclear threats are China and Russia – two superpowers that are escalating their nuclear capacity. US State Department nuclear expert, Mallory Stewart, shares how serious these threats are to the US.

Guest:

Mallory Stewart, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability.

Host:  

Ray Suarez

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

This year, Uganda enacted one of the harshest anti-LGBT+ laws in the world, making homosexuality punishable by death. Ugandan Human Rights activist Dr. Frank Mugisha joins Ray Suarez to share how American Christian evangelicals radicalized the East African country, and how the fight for human rights has turned deadly.

Guest:

Dr. Frank Mugisha, Ugandan LGBT advocate and Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda

Host:  

Ray Suarez

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.