On Shifting Ground

In the third and final episode of our series on Putin’s Russia, we feature an interview with Fiona Hill. Long before she testified in the first Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, her life experiences opened her eyes to the conditions which give rise to populist leaders. Coming of age in a coal-mining town during Thatcher-era austerity, Hill observed how a lack of opportunity in working class communities can manifest at the ballot box, with serious consequences for democracy. As the lead Russia expert in Trump’s White House, she watched Vladimir Putin manipulate Trump’s weaknesses and observed in the former president “autocrat envy.” “He was always talking about people like Putin being strong and powerful and making it very clear that's how he saw himself.”

 

In an interview with Ray Suarez, she spoke about her new memoir, There’s Nothing For You Here, the impact of economic despair on politics, and what needs to change to save democracy. 

 

Guests:

Fiona Hill, former Russia advisor in the National Security Council and senior fellow at The Brookings Institution

 

Hosts:

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

 

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.

Direct download: 11-22_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Carmen Carcelén lives in a small town on the Colombia-Ecuador border. One night in 2017, she invited 11 beleaguered Venezuelan migrants into her home for a meal and a decent night's sleep. From there, word of Carmen's shelter spread all the way back to Venezuela. In the past four years, Carmen has fed and sheltered over 10,000 migrants.

After we ran a story about Carmen in August, listeners reached out and asked how they could help. Thanks to their generous donations, a GoFundMe campaign to support Carmen's "Casa De Paz," has raised more than $2,000. 

In case you missed the original story, "In Carmen's Hands," you can listen here, with a special update from Carmen explaining how she is using the funds to expand her work. 

If you want to support Carmen’s shelter, it's not too late to donate to her GoFundMe campaign.

Direct download: In_Carmens_Hands_Update_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 3:00am PDT

The Pandora Papers, a massive data leak connecting individuals to offshore accounts and tax havens, shined a light on the shadow world where celebrities, politicians, dictators and drug traffickers hide their money. In the second installment of our three-part series on Putin’s Russia, investigative journalist Luke Harding explores a trail of documents and properties linked to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, which show how “Putin and the people around him became fantastically rich, even more rich once he became president.”

 

Then, we go inside “Putin’s Palace,” a secretive and sprawling luxury complex on the Black Sea allegedly owned by the Russian president. Images of the palace were exposed in a documentary released by Alexei Navalny’s organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation. But who is Navalny really, and what politics does he embody? For that, we turn to Jan Matti Dollbaum, Morvan Lallouet, and Ben Noble, co-authors of “Navalny: Putin's Nemesis, Russia's Future?”

 

Guests:

 

Luke Harding, author and journalist, The Guardian
Jan Matti Dollbaum, postdoctoral researcher, Bremen University
Morvan Lallouet, PhD candidate, University of Kent
Ben Noble, associate professor, University College London

 

Hosts:

 

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

 

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.

Direct download: 11-15_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed_Rev1.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

It’s been about 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, and in many post-Soviet countries, people are still fighting for basic rights. From Belarus to Central Asia, to the Caucasus, to Russia itself, people still struggle under regimes that flout democratic norms. Unresolved border disputes sometimes lead to devastating wars.

In this episode, we look at democracy movements fighting to survive in the shadow of a Russian government that’s determined to consolidate power. We start in Armenia. This is part of a 3-part series on Putin’s Russia.

Guests:

Harout Manougian, elections expert, EVN Report
Elize Manoukian, associate producer, World Affairs
Simon Ostrovsky, PBS NewsHour special correspondent
Arzu Geybulla, journalist and founder of Azerbaijan Internet Watch

Hosts:

Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer and co-host, WorldAffairs
Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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.

Direct download: 11-8_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

When delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco to sign the UN Charter in 1945, the goal was to maintain peace and security through international cooperation and to prevent another world war. Today’s UN has 193 member countries and is facing a new era of uncertainty.

As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, we revisit an episode we produced last year as the United Nations turned seventy-five. We look at the UN’s achievements, its shortcomings and what the future holds for international cooperation. Ray Suarez talks with author James Traub, Rt. Hon Kim Campbell, former prime minister of Canada, and Jorge Castañeda, former foreign minister of Mexico.

Guests:

Jorge Castañeda, former foreign minister of Mexico

Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, Canada's 19th prime minister

James Traub, fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation

Hosts:

Ray Suarez, co-host, World Affairs

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.

Direct download: 11-1_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

How do we know when it’s time to take a risk and push, or if it’s better to step back and negotiate?

In this episode, a co-production with Foreign Policy, we’re talking about calculated risks in high stakes situations. Retired four-star general Stanley McChrystal talks with Foreign Policy’s pentagon and national security reporter Jack Detsch about his new book Risk: A User’s Guide, ​​US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the risks that leaders face everyday. Then, we give you a preview of a new podcast series called The Negotiators. Wendy Sherman, currently Deputy Secretary of State, talks about the tactics she deployed in negotiating the Iran nuclear agreement. We close with an update on Iran nuclear negotiations with Jenn Williams, deputy editor at Foreign Policy, and Ali Vaez, director at the International Crisis Group.

Guests:
Stanley McChrystal, US Army General (Ret.), co-founder and partner, McChrystal Group

Wendy Sherman, Deputy Secretary of State

Ali Vaez, director, International Crisis Group

Hosts:
Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer, WorldAffairs

Jack Detsch, Pentagon and national security reporter, Foreign Policy

Jenn Williams, deputy editor, Foreign Policy

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

Direct download: 10-25_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

How are cities from Pittsburgh to Bogotá using sustainable development goals to guide pandemic recovery and increase health and equity?

We talk with Mamta Murthi, VP of human development at the World Bank, about the World Health Organization’s decision to endorse the first vaccine for malaria. The preventable disease kills around 500,000 people a year, mostly children in Africa. Then, we talk with global development veteran Tony Pipa and Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, about a bottom-up approach cities and communities are taking to drive local progress with the goal of making global change.

Guests:
Mamta Murthi, vice president for human development, The World Bank
Bill Peduto, mayor of Pittsburgh
Tony Pipa, senior fellow, Center for Sustainable Development, Brookings Institution

Hosts:
Philip Yun, CEO, World Affairs
Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 10-18_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

The discovery of mass graves at residential schools for indigenous children in Canada has shed new light on a disturbing chapter in North American history---the abuse and neglect of Indigenous children at the hands of the American and Canadian governments. This week, we look at Canada’s journey towards truth and reconciliation with its native people. From the late 19th century until the last school closed in 1996, the Canadian government took indigenous children from their families and forced them to attend schools run by churches. Little learning happened in these institutions, which were the sites of widespread abuse. Children were separated from their siblings and stripped of their native language and culture. First we speak with Connie Walker, an investigative journalist whose family members were forced to attend these schools. Then, we speak to Ry Moran, an indigenous archivist who works to preserve the testimonies of residential school survivors.

Guests:

Ry Moran, The University of Victoria Associate University Librarian - Reconciliation

Connie Walker, host of Stolen: The Search for Jermain, Gimlet Media

 

Hosts:

Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer, WorldAffairs

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

Direct download: 10-11_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Wildfires are devastating Northern California, threatening the region’s famous dairy and wine country. More than 7,000 miles away, Iran is grappling with a water crisis, after one of the driest years on record.

This week, we take a look at farming communities on opposite sides of the world: both struggling to adapt to climate change, and to better manage our most precious natural resources. In this episode, WorldAffairs producer Teresa Cotsirilos investigates a program that puts low-wage farm workers inside wildfire zones. Next, we travel to the pistachio groves of Kerman, Iran, where farmers cope with drought, mismanagement of water resources, a failing groundwater supply, and US sanctions. Then, Ray Suarez talks with Kaveh Madani, an Iranian environmental scientist and former Deputy Vice President, who led a crusade to improve water policy in Iran until he was forced to flee.

This episode was produced in partnership with the Food & Environment Reporting Network and Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting, with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Guests: Zohreh Soleimani, documentary filmmaker & photojournalist; Kaveh Madani, scientist at Yale University and Imperial College London & former Deputy Vice President of Iran

Hosts: Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer, WorldAffairs; Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 10-4_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 12:00am PDT

It’s not just you. Considering that one in three Americans experienced a natural disaster this summer, it’s no wonder that a majority of us admit to being anxious about climate change. As Arctic permafrost thaws and the Amazon burns, stress about the future is intensifying worldwide. According to a newly published global study, 75% of young people are frightened by climate change and over half believe humanity is doomed.

In this episode, Caroline Hickman, a co-author of the study and a climate psychology researcher at the University of Bath, joins co-host Ray Suarez to discuss eco-anxiety—and how we can channel it into climate action.

Guests: Caroline Hickman, lecturer in climate psychology at the University of Bath

Hosts: Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs; Philip Yun, CEO, World Affairs

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

Direct download: 9-27_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Nearly 100 years ago, Congress passed a law making it a felony to reenter the US after being deported. Known as Section 1326, this obscure line of immigration code is the most prosecuted federal crime in America. Now, a federal judge has declared it unconstitutional and racist.

In this week’s episode, we look at the far-reaching effects of a single deportation after the 2019 ICE raid of a chicken processing plant in Mississippi. Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Emily Green tells us the story of Edgar Lopez, a grandfather of four who was killed trying to make his way back home to the US. Then, we talk with historian Kelly Lytle-Hernandez and legal scholar Ahilan Arulanantham about the origins of this law and why it might be unconstitutional.

Guests: Emily Green, Pulitzer prize winning reporter for VICE News based in Mexico City; Kelly Lytle-Hernandez, UCLA professor and leading expert on race, immigration, and incarceration; Ahilan Arulanantham, Co-Director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA School of Law

Hosts: Ray Suarez, Co-host, WorldAffairs; Teresa Cotsirilos, Co-host & Senior Producer, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 9-20_World_Affairs._for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Just weeks after the assassination of Haiti’s president, the island nation was rocked by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. More powerful than the deadly 2010 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people, the 2021 quake hit a remote part of Haiti, but it still killed more than 2,000 people and destroyed tens of thousands of homes.

We start with an audio diary from Jean Simon Féguens, an English teacher from Les Cayes, one of the cities hardest hit by the disaster. Next, former US Ambassador to Haiti Pamela White reflects on lessons learned about aid distribution after the 2010 earthquake.

Then, we turn to Haitian author Évelyne Trouillot and historian Leslie Alexander, for a conversation about Haiti’s turbulent history since its revolution. In 1804, Haiti became the first nation to free itself from slavery. According to Trouillot and Alexander, it has been paying for its freedom ever since. 

Guests: Leslie Alexander, Professor of History at Arizona State University, activist and author; Evelyne Trouillot, Author, Poet and Professor of French at Universite d’Etat d’Haiti; Pamela White, Former US Ambassador to Haiti, 2012-2015; Jean Simon Féguens, English Teacher in Les Cayes, Haiti

Hosts: Ray Suarez, Co-host, WorldAffairs; Teresa Cotsirilos, Co-host & Senior Producer, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 9-13_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 12:48am PDT

The US led what the White House called one of the biggest airlifts in history as Afghans fled Taliban rule. That exodus has become part of a longstanding humanitarian crisis involving the U.S., Europe, parts of Asia and the Middle East.

On this week’s episode, we hear from Nazanin Ash, Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee and Kelsey P. Norman, Fellow and Director, Women’s Rights, Human Rights, and Refugees Program, Baker Institute, about the evolving situation for Afghan refugees: where displaced people are going, how they’re getting there, and what waits for them on the other side. 

Then, journalist Hana Baba talks with former refugee Maryan Hassan and author Ty McCormick, whose book "Beyond the Sand and Sea" tells the story of Hassan and her family’s heroic journey from Somalia, to the world’s largest refugee camp in Kenya, and eventually, on to the United States.

Guests: Maryan Hassan, Former refugee; Ty McCormick, Journalist and author of "Beyond the Sand and Sea"; Nazanin Ash, Vice President, Global Policy and Advocacy at International Rescue Committee; Kelsey Norman, Director of Women’s Rights, Human Rights and Refugee Program at Rice University’s Baker Institute

Hosts: Philip Yun, CEO, WorldAffairs; Hana Baba, Journalist and Podcast host; Ray Suarez, Co-host, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 9-6_World_Affairs.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

The majority of murders in Mexico have one thing in common: the victims were killed with American guns. Now, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador is suing a slew of American gun manufacturers for their “destabilizing effect on Mexican society”—and they’re seeking $10 billion in damages. This week, we take a look at the “Iron River,” a stream of American guns that wreak havoc south of the border. Journalist Ioan Grillo, and author of Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels, helps us analyze Mexico’s unprecedented lawsuit, and the complex world of arms trafficking.

Guests: Ioan Grillo, journalist and author of Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels

Hosts: Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 8-30_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

How did Afghanistan fall to the Taliban so fast? Civilians are fleeing, journalists are hiding as the Taliban goes door to door to find them, and women are being forced out of workplaces. In this episode, we do our best to unpack the war in Afghanistan, the misguided way it began and the catastrophic way it ended.

We hear from former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, Massoud Hossaini, who witnessed it all.

Guests: Karl Eikenberry, former US ambassador to Afghanistan and retired US Army lieutenant general; Massoud Hossaini, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist from Afghanistan

Hosts: Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs; Teresa Cotsirilos, producer, WorldAffairs; Philip Yun, CEO, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 8-23_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 4:09pm PDT

On a  Sunday night in 1971, many Americans were at home watching “Bonanza” when President Nixon interrupted the broadcast to share some urgent news. He was taking the US off the gold standard, a move that completely upended the world’s economic order and became part of a series of policy changes that became known as “the Nixon Shock.” In this episode, NPR’s Chief Economics Correspondent Scott Horsley talks with Jeffrey Garten, former Undersecretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration, about what this move meant for the US economy and its implications today.

Guests: Scott Horsley, NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent;
Jeffrey E Garten, Dean Emeritus, Yale School of Management, former Undersecretary of Commerce, and author of Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy

Host: Philip Yun, President and CEO, World Affairs

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

Direct download: 8-16_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

It’s been a few weeks since the president of Haiti was brazenly murdered in Port Au Prince. Though we’re not sure who ordered the assassination, we do know who carried it out. Eighteen Colombians, most former soldiers, were arrested in connection with the July 7 assassination. Seven received training in the United States. So how did this happen?

This week, we’re looking at Colombia, its increasingly tenuous peace process, and how US intervention has shaped the country, for better or for worse. We also take a deep dive into the protests that have resurged in recent weeks, why they started in the first place, and what the Colombian people hope to see change.

Guests: Adam Isacson, Director of Defense Oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America; Laura Duarte Bateman, organizer and Communications Manager at California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice; Alexander Fattal, documentarian, author and Associate Professor at UC San Diego; and Juanita León, Founder and Director of La Silla Vacía

Hosts: Teresa Cotsirilos, Producer, WorldAffairs; Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 8-9_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Carmen Carcelén lives in a small town on the Colombia-Ecuador border. One night in 2017, she invited 11 beleaguered Venezuelan migrants into her home for a meal and a decent night's sleep. From there, word of Carmen's shelter spread on hand-written notes along the migrant route all the way back to Venezuela.

In this episode, journalist Kimberley Brown takes us to that small town in Ecuador, where Carmen has now housed more than 10,000 migrants.

If you'd like to make a donation to Carmen, we can help make that happen. Please send us an email at feedback@worldaffairs.org.

Direct download: Kimberley_Brown_Segment_for_Podcast_Feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

When a wave of citizen-led uprisings swept the planet last summer, the Black Lives Matter movement forced a moment of reckoning at many international institutions. The word “racism” used to be taboo in many donor circles, but now people are talking openly about the role that race and colonialism have played in making foreign aid ineffective. Will this momentum affect meaningful, systemic change or is it just rhetoric?

Degan Ali, a Somali-American who heads the Nairobi based NGO ADESO, talks about the future of aid with Eileen O'Connor, Senior Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Guests: Degan Ali, Somali-American director of aid organization ADESO; Eileen O'Connor, Senior Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation and former official in the Obama Administration

Host: Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: International_Aid_Segment_Final_Mixdown_for_Podcast_Feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Last March, six Asian-American women were killed by a gunman in Atlanta. The murders focused the public, as never before, on violence against America’s Asian communities—but a lot of Asian Americans saw this spike in hate crimes coming.

In this collaboration with the podcast Self Evident, we look at what happens when we ignore anti-Asian hate—and what happens when we mobilize against it instead. Self Evident co-founder James Boo takes us to New York City at the height of the pandemic and explains how he anticipated the latest wave in hate crimes. Then, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña takes us to 1980’s Detroit, where anti-Japanese rhetoric fueled another burst of shocking violence.

To learn more, check out Self Evident’s original series on anti-Asian hate, Renee Tajima-Peña’s documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin?, and Tajima-Pena’s docuseries, Asian Americans.

WARNING: There are curse words in this week's episode.

Guests: James Boo, audio producer and co-founder of Self-Evident; Charlie Wang, photographer; Renee Tajima-Peña, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and Professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA

Hosts: Philip Yun, CEO, WorldAffairs; Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to WorldAffairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
Direct download: 7-26_World_Affairs_Uncensored.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

In the past year, reports of anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked in major cities, and a third of Asian Americans say they live in fear of racially-motivated attacks. A lot of this is attributed to anti-Asian rhetoric about the pandemic. But the hard truth is that whenever tensions escalate between the United States and Asian nations overseas, Asian-Americans bear the brunt of that anger at home.

This week, we’re revisiting an episode we first released in May that explores the structural racism Asian Americans face within our government. We hear from US Congressman Andy Kim about how the power competition between China and the US creates fear and anxiety on the homefront, which often escalates to anti-Asian rhetoric. Then, we hear the stories of two scientists, Wen Ho Lee and Xiaoxing Xi. Both were racially profiled by the FBI—and falsely accused of spying for the Chinese government.

Guests: Rep. Andy Kim, (D-NJ); Helen Zia, journalist, activist and author of many books including Last Boat out of Shanghai and My Country vs. Me; George Koo, retired business consultant and writer; Joyce Xi, community advocate

Hosts: Philip Yun, CEO, WorldAffairs; Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs; Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer, WorldAffairs

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

Direct download: 7-19_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Ready or not, the Tokyo 2020 Games are happening...in 2021. Since the Olympics as we know them started in 1896, they have only been canceled or postponed for drastic events like World Wars… and now, a pandemic. Japan is entering a state of emergency as COVID-19 cases are on the rise, so why do they insist on hosting the Olympics? In this week’s episode, we take a look at what it takes (and costs) to host the world’s largest sporting event during a global crisis. We hear from an athlete, a journalist based in Tokyo, and an Olympic historian.

Guests: John MacAloon, Olympic Historian and retired Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago; Keturah Orji, Olympic Athlete, Track and Field; Motoko Rich, Tokyo bureau chief for the New York times

Hosts: Ray Suarez, Co-host, WorldAffairs; Philip Yun, President & CEO, WorldAffairs

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.

Direct download: 7-12_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

On August 3, Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline judge with close ties to Ayatollah Khameini, will replace Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran. And now, the fragile Nuclear Deal negotiated under former President Obama, hangs in the balance. As a candidate, President Biden promised to return to the Iran Nuclear Deal, and relieve crippling economic sanctions imposed under Trump’s policy of maximum pressure. But in the recent aftermath of his landslide victory, Ebrahim Raisi has already rejected a meeting with President Biden and said that he will not negotiate over Tehran’s ballistic missile program, nor its support of regional militias.

In this week’s episode, we talk with US-Iranian relations expert, Trita Parsi, and journalist Negar Mortazavi, about the recent elections in Iran, and whether the Iran Nuclear Deal can get back on track. Plus, we host a conversation between Barbara Slavin and former US Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel.

Guests: Chuck Hagel, Former US Secretary of Defense & US Senator; Barbara Slavin, Future of Iran Initiative, Atlantic Council & author; Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft & author; Negar Mortazavi, journalist & host of the Iran Podcast

Hosts: Teresa Cotsirilos, Senior Producer, WorldAffairs

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.

Direct download: 7-5_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

When Syrian protesters tore down pictures of their dictator, Bashar al-Assad, toppled statues, demanded government reform and braved a military crackdown in 2011, Feras Fayyad was twenty-six years old. He picked up a camera and filmed it all. As his country devolved into warring factions, Fayyad bore witness, documenting the horror, and went on to make two Academy Award nominated films. More than ten years after that first protest, 600,000 people have been killed, more than 6 million Syrians are now refugees, and Assad’s forces have retaken much of the country. This war may have fallen off the front page, but it’s not over, and it’s not just some humanitarian crisis on the far side of the world.

On this week’s episode of the podcast we revisit a program about Syria’s war. We explore what was accomplished after 10 years of bloodshed and what could happen if justice is not served for Syria’s people.

Guests: Feras Fayyad, documentary filmmaker, Last Men in Aleppo and The Cave; Tima Kurdi, author of The Boy on the Beach: My Family’s Escape from Syria and Our Hope for a New Home; Joby Warrick, national security reporter for The Washington Post and author of Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America’s Race to Destroy the Most Danger Arsenal in the World

Hosts: Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer, WorldAffairs; Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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.

Direct download: 6-28_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

As COVID-19 spread rapidly around the globe last year, teachers, parents and students scrambled to adapt to a world in lockdown. Some students turned to virtual and hybrid learning. Others had in-person school with social-distancing and masks, but some saw school closures and increased responsibilities at home. Now, many Americans are starting to get vaccinated, making it easier to imagine a normal school year in the fall, but the pandemic has disrupted the education of about 1.6 billion students worldwide. This massive disruption not only limits the skills of students now, but it could have economic implications for the rest of their lives.

In this episode, we look at the lasting effects of the pandemic on education around the world.

Guests: Xiaoyang Liang, lead education specialist at the World Bank Group; Alice Albright, CEO of the Global Partnership for Education; Whitney Dwyer, teacher at MetWest High School in Oakland, CA; Vanessa Rancaño, education reporter at KQED

Hosts: Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer, WorldAffairs; Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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.

Direct download: 6-21_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed_Rev1.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

The year is 2050. With 9.7 billion residents on Planet Earth, how will we feed everyone? In what ways will our lifestyles, and our global food system, adapt to meet the needs of a changing, warming and expanding planet? Today, we already have food shortages and the pandemic has revealed just how fragile our global food system is. On this week’s episode, we hear from two experts with competing visions of how we can sustainably feed a growing planet. Please join Ray Suarez, Raj Patel and Robert Paarlberg on a journey through the international food system.

Guests:

Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved and
co-director of The Ants and the Grasshopper, University
of Texas

Robert Paarlberg, author of Resetting the Table: Straight Talk About the Food We Grow and Eat, Harvard University

Hosts:

Philip Yun, CEO, WorldAffairs

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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.

Direct download: 6-14_World_Affairs_for_podcast_feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

When NATO leaders, including US President Joe Biden, meet in Brussels on June 14, one of the items at the top of the agenda is how the alliance should handle threats and opportunities from emerging technologies. What is the security impact of climate change? How can we responsibly harness artificial intelligence for defense? How do we strengthen cyber security and prepare against the threat of cyber warfare? As autonomous and quantum technologies are changing the world, how should  NATO work with the private sector? On this episode of the podcast, Markos Kounalakis talks with David Van Weel, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General, and Sarah MacIntosh, the permanent representative to the British delegation to NATO. 

 

This conversation was recorded on May 27, 2021 as part of The World Affairs Councils of America series NATO 2030 -  Strengthening the Alliance to Address New Security Threats.

Speakers:

Sarah MacIntosh, CMG, Permanent Representative to the UK’s Delegation to NATO

David Van Weel, Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, NATO

Moderator:

Markos Kounalakis, Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution

 

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.

Direct download: NATO_Episode_for_Podcast_Feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 9:31am PDT

Israeli politics are moving fast right now, and Benjamin Netanyahu’s future hangs in the balance. But no matter who wins the country’s latest political battle, many Palestinians see little hope for real change. Co-host Ray Suarez explores one of the underlying tensions that fuels the Israeli-Palestinian crisis by focusing on a single house in East Jerusalem. We hear from Samira Dajani, a Palestinian resident who’s facing eviction from her family home; Terry Boulatta, a Palestinian advocate; and Avi Bell, an Israeli-American law professor who advocates for the Jewish settlers.

Guests:

Samira Dajani, East Jerusalem resident

Terry Boullata, East Jerusalem resident

Avi Bell, law professor at the University of San Diego and Bar-Ilan University

Hosts:

Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer, WorldAffairs

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

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.

Direct download: Sheikh_Jarrah_Final_Mixdown_for_Podcast_Feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 7:13am PDT

In May, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis erupted into all-our war… again. Over 260 people were killed, the vast majority of them Palestinians in Gaza. Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire, and as of this reporting, it seems to be holding. They’ve also both declared victory, but neither party has much to show for it—and both have been accused of war crimes. So, where does the conflict go from here? And what role will the US play in future peace prospects? In this episode, we look at this seemingly never-ending conflict, Biden and Netanyahu’s approaches to the conflict, and emerging models of Palestinian governance.

Guests:

Anshel Pfeffer, columnist for Haaretz who covers Israel for The Economist, author of Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu

Khaled Elgindy, former advisor to Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and senior fellow at the Middle East Institute

Aaron David Miller, former historian and advisor at the US State Department and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Hosts:

Philip Yun, CEO, World Affairs

Ray Suarez, Co-Host, World Affairs

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.

Direct download: WA_Israel_Palestine_053121_for_Podcast_Feed.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Even before COVID-19, the world’s people were pulling apart from each other. Now, as the pandemic rages on, our differences are even more obvious as people focus on taking care of their own and feel estranged, fearful and suspicious. Turning inward is an understandable response to the heartaches of 21st century life, but is more isolation really what the world needs right now? Drawing from an ancient Sanskrit phrase, “the world is one family,” author Vishaka Desai challenges us to consider a different way of looking at each other and the world we share. She joins co-host Ray Suarez on the podcast to talk about her new book World as Family: A Journey of Multi-rooted Belongings.

 

 

Guests:

Vishakha Desai, Author and Scholar at Columbia University

 

Hosts:

Philip Yun, CEO, World Affairs

Ray Suarez, Co-Host, World Affairs

 

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.

Direct download: World_Affairs_Vishakha_Desai_Episode_052421.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

The world’s refugee population is the highest it’s been since World War II. After fleeing violence, poverty and climate change in their home countries, many displaced people seek asylum in the United States. But coming to the US as a refugee is not easy. Our resettlement system is hopelessly bureaucratic, and four years of President Trump’s nativist immigration policies just made things harder. On the campaign trail, Joe Biden promised to raise a cap on the number of refugees admitted to the US per year, but he’s wavered in recent months. In this episode, journalist Hana Baba talks with former refugee Maryan Hassan and author Ty McCormick, whose new book "Beyond the Sand and Sea" tells the story of Hassan and her family’s heroic journey from Somalia, to the world’s largest refugee camp in Kenya, and eventually, on to the United States. Then we hear from Nazanin Ash, Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee, who walks us through the state of displaced people worldwide.

 

Guests:

Maryan Hassan, former refugee 

Ty McCormick, Journalist and author of Beyond the Sand and Sea

Nazanin Ash, Vice President, Global Policy and Advocacy at International Rescue Committee

 

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.

Direct download: 05_16_21_Refugee_Crisis.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 8:09pm PDT

In the past year, reports of anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked in major cities. A lot of this is attributed to anti-Asian rhetoric about the pandemic. But the hard truth is that whenever tensions escalate between the United States and Asian nations overseas, Asian-Americans bear the brunt of that anger at home. In this episode, we hear from US Congressman Andy Kim about how the  power competition between China and the US creates fear and anxiety on the home front, which often escalates to anti-Asian rhetoric. Then, we hear the stories of two scientists, Wen Ho Lee and Xiaoxing Xi. Both were racially profiled by the FBI—and falsely accused of spying for the Chinese government. 

Read Joyce Xi’s op-ed in USA Today

 

Guests:

Rep. Andy Kim, (D-NJ)

Helen Zia, journalist, activist and author of many books including Last Boat out of Shanghai and My Country vs. Me

George Koo, retired business consultant and writer

Joyce Xi, community advocate

 

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.

Direct download: 05_10_21_Asian_Americans.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

When Joe Biden ran for president, he pledged to make climate change a major priority. During his first 100 days in office, he rejoined the Paris Agreement, pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and his administration hosted a global climate summit. Now comes the hard part; convincing Congress to pass a $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan. This week on the podcast, we talk about climate policy with former California Governor Jerry Brown, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, 2016 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, we visit Paradise, California, the site of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history.

 

Guests: 

Jerry Brown, Governor of California (1975-1983 and 2011-2019)

Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer and President & Chair of Mission Blue Sylvia Earle Alliance 

Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia & recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize

Emily Thomas, documentary filmmaker

Harmony VonStockhausen, student

 

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.

Direct download: 05_03_21_Climate_Future.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

US military forces have occupied Afghanistan for almost 20 years and now, President Biden says it’s time to end the war. But Afghanistan is still fragile, and the Taliban is more powerful now than it has been in years. In February of 2020, the Trump Administration signed a historic peace agreement with the Taliban, requiring them to renounce attacks on American forces and allies, and the US agreed to withdraw its troops, but the Afghan government wasn’t included in the negotiation -- and Afghan civilians continue to be targeted by the Taliban. Biden says that the US accomplished its goal of degrading Al Qaeda to the point that it cannot not use the country as an operations base again. But it’s possible Afghanistan could devolve into a civil war if the right decisions aren’t made -- and that could destabilize the region. In this episode, we look at the legacy of America’s longest war -- and what’s at stake as the US brings its troops home.
 
 
 

Guests:

Karl Eikenberry, former US ambassador to Afghanistan and retired US Army lieutenant general  

Annie Pforzheimer, former deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan

Rina Amiri,  senior fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs & United Nations senior mediation advisor

Robin Wright, columnist for The New Yorker and author of “Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World”

 

Hosts:

Philip Yun, CEO, WorldAffairs

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs
 
 
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.
Direct download: 04_26_21_Afghanistan.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Vaccine hesitancy is actually nothing new, and Pakistani Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq has been working to address the problem for a long time. In this episode, she talks with Ray Suarez about what we can learn from Pakistan’s experience distributing the polio vaccine. Even after CIA agents staged a fake vaccine campaign to collect intelligence on Osama bin Laden, stoking vaccine skepticism, health workers managed to brave death threats and convince people to vaccinate their children. They talked with families about the effects of polio, introduced them to victims of the disease and vaccinated the Prime Minister on live TV. Can we use the same strategies with COVID-19?

 

Guest:

Ayesha Raza Farooq, Senator in Pakistan and former focal point for Polio eradication

 

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.

Direct download: 04_22_21_Ayesha_Raza_Farooq.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 6:25am PDT

As vaccine roll-outs bring the end of the pandemic closer in wealthier countries, many poorer nations are enduring a surge in coronavirus cases without access to life-saving vaccines. COVAX, a global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, is working hard to bridge the divide. Anuradha Gupta, deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, talks with Ray Suarez about why vaccinating the whole world is not only the right thing to do, but it will keep the disease from mutating into a more dangerous one. Can we vaccinate a planet of 7.9 billion before the virus gets the best of us?

 

Guest:

Anuradha Gupta, Deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

 

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.

Direct download: 04_19_21_Anuradha_Gupta.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

H.R. McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general and former national security advisor, says the last twenty years of US foreign policy have been characterized by a belief that the world revolves around us. The result? A series of strategic blunders, from the war in Iraq to our missteps in Syria. And we’re not the only political power players who are guilty of “overconfidence” and “strategic narcism.” In this episode, we look at what happens when you think you know what you’re doing and don’t listen to the people you are trying to help.

 

Guest:

H.R. McMaster, Retired lieutenant general, former national security advisor and author of BattleGrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

 

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.

Direct download: 04_15_21_HR_McMaster.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

What Séverine Autesserre has learned from two decades working on the ground in war torn countries, from Afghanistan to The Republic of Congo, is that the top-down approach to international peacekeeping, practiced by what she refers to as “Peace, Inc,” doesn’t work. With examples drawn from across the globe, she shows how peace can grow in the most unlikely circumstances. Contrary to what most politicians preach, building peace doesn't require billions in aid or massive international interventions. Real, lasting peace requires giving power to local citizens.

Host: Ray Suarez

Guest: Séverine Autesserre, Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University and author of The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World

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.

Direct download: 04_12_21_Severine_Autessere.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

After more than five years of civil war, Yemenis are bracing for what could be the worst famine the world has seen in decades. Hunger Ward, a new documentary film, follows two healthcare professionals, on opposite sides of the war, who are fighting to save the children of Yemen from starvation. Oscar-nominated director Skye Fitzgerald and Dr. Aida Al-Sadeeq talk with WorldAffairs producer Teresa Cotsirilos about how hunger is being used as a weapon of war -- and what can be done to stop it.

 

Guests:

Dr. Aida Al-Sadeeq, assistant professor at the University of Aden and former supervisor at the pediatric malnutrition ward at Aden's Al-Sadaqa Hospital 

Skye Fitzgerald, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and director of “The Hunger Ward”

 

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.

Direct download: 04_08_21_Yemen.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

In 2018, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was elected with a promise to transform the country into a fully-fledged democracy after its people faced decades of oppressive rule. In 2019, he won a Nobel Peace Prize for peacemaking efforts with neighboring Eritrea. Last fall, however, Ethiopia’s democratic experiment seemingly fell apart. Now, the country is at the center of a humanitarian disaster. If Ethiopia erupts into an all-out civil war, it could trigger a regional conflict throughout the Horn of Africa, the continent’s ethnically diverse eastern peninsula.

 

Guests:

Michelle Gavin, Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Ambassador to Botswana

Adotei Akwei, Deputy Director for Advocacy and Government Relations for Amnesty International

 

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.

 

Direct download: 04_05_21_Ethiopia.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Last week, there were seven mass shootings in seven days. And though other nations with better gun control see this as an American problem, the US has been exporting its gun problem abroad for years. Arms traffickers thrive on the country’s inconsistent gun laws. And while President Biden is urging Congress to create stronger gun regulations, it’s unclear whether they will take any meaningful action beyond the usual “thoughts and prayers.” In this episode, journalists J Brian Charles and Ioan Grillo join us to talk about how complicated gun violence is, and how tighter gun laws could help reduce it.

 

Guests:

J Brian Charles, journalist covering guns, race and inequality for The Trace

Ioan Grillo, journalist and author of Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels

 

Produced by Madeleine Wood, Teresa Cotsirilos, and Jarrod Sport

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.

Direct download: 03_29_21_America_Gun_Problem.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Ten years since the war in Syria began and one month in office, President Biden launched his first airstrikes in Syria. The targets were Iranian backed militia groups in response to attacks on American personnel in Iraq. This is just one manifestation of the dangerous proxy wars at play in Syria, involving Russia, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The Syrian people are caught in the crossfire and have essentially lost their country. An estimated six hundred thousand people have been killed and twelve million people have been displaced. So what’s happened to the people who were forced to flee? And What does justice for Syria’s people look like? What happened with Syria's chemical weapon stockpile? What can the international community do to bring justice for the Syrian people? In this episode, a Syrian filmmaker, an author and refugee, and a journalist who covers national security explain how we got here.  

Guests:

Feras Fayyad, documentary filmmaker, Last Men in Aleppo and The Cave

Tima Kurdi, author of The Boy on the Beach: My Family’s Escape from Syria and Our Hope for a New Home

Joby Warrick, national security reporter for The Washington Post and author of Red Line: The Unraveling of Syria and America’s Race to Destroy the Most Danger Arsenal in the World

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.

Direct download: 03_21_20_Syria.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 5:09pm PDT

When Israelis head to the polls on March 23, it will be the fourth time in just two years. The most recent coalition government fell apart last December, when the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) failed to pass a budget, automatically triggering new elections. The vote is regarded as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is facing corruption charges. At the same time, Israel leads the world in COVID-19 vaccinations and is normalizing relations with some of its Arab neighbors. The Palestinians have been sidelined and will likely hold their own elections in May. In this week’s episode, we get two perspectives on the region’s political transitions, one Israeli and one Palestinian.

 

Guests:

Shlomi Kofman, Israel’s Consul General to the Pacific Northwest

Khaled Elgindy, Director of Middle East Institute’s Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs

 

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.

Direct download: 03_15_21_Israeli_Palestinian.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 9:29pm PDT

On February 1, Burma’s military stormed the country’s capital, arrested its elected leaders, and declared a military state of emergency. Since then, protesters throughout Burma (also known as Myanmar) have taken to the streets, even as the military threatens more violence. Dozens of people have been shot and killed by the military junta, and the crackdown has been compared to the 1989 protests and massacre in China’s Tiananmen Square. Burma was supposed to be a transitioning democracy, and the power-sharing agreement between its military and civilian leadership was regarded as one of the Obama Administration’s major foreign policy achievements. So, what went wrong? In this episode, we talk with former US Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Yun and Thant Myint-U, a former diplomat, historian and author, about what fueled the coup and what’s different about this protest movement.


Editor’s note: You may be wondering why we are using “Burma” rather than “Myanmar." For decades, the country was called “Burma,” after the dominant Burman ethnic group. But in 1989, one year after the ruling junta brutally suppressed a pro-democracy uprising, military leaders changed the country’s name to “Myanmar.” Out of sympathy with Aung San Suu Kyi and other advocates for democracy many people, and the United States government, continue to use “Burma.” For further explanation, please see this Associated Press article.

 

Guests:

Joseph Yun, former US ambassador to Malaysia and former US Special Representative for North Korea Policy

Thant Myint-U, historian, conservationist, former diplomat, and author of many books including “The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century”

 

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.

Direct download: 03_08_21_Burma_Protests.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:29am PDT

Computer security experts at the Department of Homeland Security sighed in relief after seeing minimal Russian interference in the 2020 elections. What they didn’t realize was that hackers were in the process of performing what might be the largest and most sophisticated cyberattack on the United States. SolarWinds is named after the software hackers used to breach computers throughout the federal government, including nuclear labs and the Department of Homeland Security, the agency charged with keeping us safe. Today, more than 35 countries have the technology to perform a major attack on the US while only nine have nuclear capabilities. In fact, cyberattacks are much easier to get away with because they’re hard to track and retaliate against. This week on WorldAffairs, New York Times reporters David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth join us to talk about the threat of cyberwarfare, how the United States is uniquely vulnerable, and whether or not there is something we can do to prevent it.

 

Guests:

Nicole Perlroth, Cybersecurity Reporter, The New York Times and author of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends

David Sanger, National Security Correspondent, The New York Times and author of The Perfect Weapon

 

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.

Direct download: 03_01_21_Perlroth_Sanger_Solarwinds.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a series of agricultural reforms last November, India’s farmers launched what might be the largest protest movement in modern history. An estimated 250 million Indians went on strike in solidarity, and today, tens of thousands of farmers are camped just outside the nation’s capital. Modi’s government has responded by silencing  journalists and detaining activists, raising troubling questions about the state of the world’s largest democracy. Then pop star Rihanna tweeted about the protests, causing an international incident, and all hell broke loose. In this episode, we talk with experts and journalists about India’s new agricultural reforms, why farmers don’t like it, and how platforms like Facebook and Twitter are playing a pivotal role in this conflict.  

 

Guests:

Ravi Agrawal, Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy Magazine

Milan Vaishnav, Director of the South Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and host of Grand Tamasha

Pranav Dixit, Tech reporter for BuzzFeed News, based in New Delhi


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.

Direct download: 02_22_21_India_Farmers.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Michael McFaul and Kathryn Stoner take a closer look at Russia — a country whose economy has continued to grow despite international sanctions—as Vladimir Putin cracks down on protestors. The discuss her new book, Russia Resurrected.

In this episode, we partnered with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

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.

Direct download: 02_18_21_Russia_Resurrected.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

In his inaugural address, president Biden declared, “Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause -- the cause of democracy.” But is the United States still a beacon for aspiring democratic societies around the globe?  In this episode, we’re partnering with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University to look at the state of democracy with Francis Fukuyama and Michael McFaul.

 

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.

Direct download: 02_15_21_Democracy_Peril.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

As the US reckons with the shock of the Capitol insurrection on January 6, the FBI has arrested dozens of alleged rioters, and we still don’t fully know why law enforcement was so unprepared for the attack.In this episode of the podcast, we talk with former FBI assistant director of counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi about the issues now facing authorities in the wake of the January 6 insurrection and reflect on the FBI’s history and culture. In his new book, The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence, Figliuzzi makes the case that the FBI, for all its recent and historic public controversies and transgressions, still sets a gold standard for excellence and ethics that should be followed more widely.

 

Guest:

Frank Figluizzi,FBI Assistant Director (ret) and author of THE FBI WAY: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence

 

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.

Direct download: 02_11_21_FBI_Way.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

When footage of rioters storming the US Capitol was broadcast live around the world, some far-right extremists in Germany were watching it like a soccer game. The country has spent decades confronting its dark history, but neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists remain a threat. In this episode, we hear from Stephan Kramer, the head of domestic intelligence in the eastern German state of Thuringia. He talks with Ray Suarez about what he’s learned trying to stop this movement.

 

Guest: 

Stephan Kramer, head of domestic intelligence for the eastern German state of Thuringia

 

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.

Direct download: 02_08_21_White_Nationalism_Germany.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:01pm PDT

After years of agonizing political and economic uncertainty, the United Kingdom has finally left the European Union. Brexit is the law of the land and UK voters are just as divided over it as they were five years ago. As the UK’s new trade deal with the EU rattles the country’s economy, Teresa Cotsirilos talks with two political activists on opposite sides of the Brexit divide. 

 

Guests: 

Lara Spirit, Our Future Our Choice

Hani Mustafa, Student and Brexit activist

 

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.

Direct download: 02_04_21_Brexit.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 8:52pm PDT

The United Kingdom has officially left the European Union, but Brexit is far from resolved. Both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted against leaving the EU in 2016, but they were powerless to stop it. Now, Scotland is talking about independence again and tensions are on the rise in Northern Ireland. With the Republic of Ireland still a member of the EU and Northern Ireland in the UK, how will Northern Irish people and commerce move freely between the two countries? Will Brexit divide or unite Ireland? Fintan O’Toole, a columnist for The Irish Times and author of  Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain breaks it down with co-host Ray Suarez.

 

Guest: 

Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times columnist and author of Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain

 


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.

Direct download: 02_01_21_Fintan_OToole.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Donald Trump is no longer in charge, and much of the world is hoping Joe Biden will rebuild America’s international reputation. President Biden got the ball rolling his first week by rejoining the World Health Organization and the Paris Accords, and stopping construction on a border wall with Mexico. How will his administration mend relationships with the rest of the world after four years of unpredictability? Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia, and Jorge Castañeda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico, join co-host Ray Suarez to talk about how to best address foreign policy moving forward. 

 

Guests: 

Michael McFaul, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Former Special Assistant to the President at the National Security Council and US ambassador to Russia and author of From Cold War to Hot Peace

Jorge Castañeda, Former Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico, professor and author of America Through Foreign Eyes

 

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.

Direct download: 01_25_21_Castaneda_McFaul.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

For months, the domestic terrorist attack on the US Capitol was planned in plain sight on social media. So why weren’t we ready for it? This week, former FBI special agent Michael German explains why the bureau deprioritized the threat posed by white supremacists… and why the Department of Homeland Security says they pose “the most persistent and lethal threat to the homeland.” Then, historian Nell Irvin Painter breaks down how a legacy of racism in the United States brought us to this moment. Can we change our trajectory? She argues that the Black Lives Matter Movement of 2020 could bring lasting, positive change to this country.

 

Guests: 

Nell Irvin Painter, American historian, artist, author of numerous books including The History of White People and Professor of American History Emerita at Princeton University

Michael German, Brennan Center for Justice at NYC Law School, former FBI agent and author of Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy



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.

Direct download: 01_16_21_German_Painter.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 3:19pm PDT

Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat has spent her career documenting the stealth strategies authoritarian leaders use to gain power. In her new book, Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, she outlines the “strongman playbook” used by authoritarian leaders including Donald Trump. She says that the January 6 insurgency by far-right extremists, meant to facilitate Trump’s self-coup, lays bare how much the 45th president has in common with autocrats like Benito Mussolini and Vladimir Putin. When President Trump incited his followers to storm the US Capitol, some were shocked, but Ben-Ghiat saw this coming. She joins Ray Suarez on the podcast to talk about last week’s events and warn us of what could come next.

Guest: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University

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.

Direct download: 01_08_21_Ruth_Ben-Ghiat.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 5:20pm PDT

As each country manages the pandemic differently, the already fragile global economy has been disrupted by broken supply chains and shifts in demand. Now we’re questioning the role of the government, the future of capitalism and changing our values. The choices we make now could change the world for decades. On this week’s episode, we revisit a conversation about the future of the global economy with James Manyika, Chairman and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute, Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, and Gillian Tett, Editor at Large at the Financial Times. 

 

Guests: 

James Manyika, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Chairman and Director, McKinsey Global Institute

Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor, Allianz 

Gillian Tett, Chair of Editorial Board and Editor-at-Large, US, Financial 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.

Direct download: 01_04_21_Global_Economy_COVID-19.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

With record unemployment, increasing income inequality and soaring poverty, it’s hard to escape the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but there is one group of people that have fared well. The world’s billionaires are 27% richer than they were last year. As of July, their wealth has soared to a record high of $10.2 trillion. In the absence of a strong social safety net --  these are the people our society turns to for help. But is this philanthropy model working?  For his 2018 book, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, Anand Giridharadas spent three years embedded with the donor class. He found that many of the same people who are trying to save the planet, are actually responsible for making it worse, but he’s hopeful that our society is poised to turn a corner after 2020. “And so I think about this year as being obviously just one of unendurable pain for so many people, of a tremendous amount of loss. You know, we're getting to the level of one in a thousand Americans no longer being with us at the end of this year because of COVID alone. And yet also I think there is a way in which we're going to look back on this moment as generating not 2020 hindsight, but 2020 foresight where we might look back on this year as the year that freed us of certain illusions and, and compelled us to, to choose a different way. And what I hope is we're going to come out of this time exuberant, joyful, ready to celebrate, ready to enjoy physical space together again, but also politically galvanized to build the next chapter of the American story, because this one, this story is done.This chapter is bankrupted itself. We have learned very clearly from this year. And from these years that we have not been living, right. We just have not been living right. Our society was designed wrong and the immense pain and the immense loss of this year only confirms that. And so my hope is that we come out of this with an appetite, well, to enjoy, to celebrate, to live again fully but also to transform this country.”

 

Guest: 

Anand Giridharadas, Author and publisher of The.Ink

Host:

Markos Kounalakis, Visiting fellow, Hoover Institution 

 

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.​

Direct download: 12_28_20_Anand_Giridharadas.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 10:12pm PDT

When the World Food Program was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, executive director David Beasley warned that “famine is at humanity’s doorstep.”  He said that a “hunger pandemic,” worse than COVID-19, is a real possibility if the world does not address the problem. Hunger is not new, but the coronavirus pandemic and global recession has thrown millions of people into poverty. The good news is that there is enough food to feed everyone on earth; it’s just not always distributed fairly and affordably. Famines are man-made political problems and we have the power to end them. This week we’re looking at how to solve food insecurity around the world and right here in the United States. We’ll hear from nonprofit leaders working on the frontlines and a doctor in Yemen who treats malnourished children. 

 

Guests: 

Dr. Aida Alsadeeq, assistant professor at the University of Aden and former supervisor at the pediatric malnutrition ward at Aden's Al-Sadaqa Hospital 

Skye Fitzgerald, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and director of The Hunger Ward

Reverend Eugene Cho, President and CEO of Bread for the World and the Bread Institute

Laura Melo, Country Director at United Nations World Food Programme - WFP, Guatemala

 

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.​

Direct download: 12_21_20_World_Hunger.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 9:36pm PDT

Now that the process is beginning for distribution of a vaccine for COVID-19  -- and another is close behind -- it seems as though ending the pandemic is finally in sight. But with the world’s wealthy countries hoarding billions of vaccine doses, the majority of people living in developing countries likely won’t get vaccinated in more than a year.

Dr. Larry Brilliant, best known for eradicating Smallpox, says that’s a problem because the virus “will continue to ping pong back and forth among nations.” “We cannot solve the COVID problem nationally. This is really a time for global cooperation.” He and Dr. Peter Hotez, who is part of a team developing a low-cost COVID vaccine for global distribution, join Ray Suarez to discuss how we will be able to vaccinate our way out of the pandemic.

 

Guests: 

Dr. Larry Brilliant, MD, PhD, epidemiologist and CEO of Pandefense 

Dr. Peter Hotez,  MD, PhD, epidemiologist and author of Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science

 

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.​

Direct download: 12_14_20_Brilliant_Hotez_Vaccines.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 5:29pm PDT

At 60 million people and counting, Latinos are the largest minority group in the United States. But if the 2020 election taught us anything, it’s that our political establishment does not understand this community, which is undergoing a transformation. Young Latinos across the country are redefining their identities, pushing boundaries, and awakening politically in powerful and surprising ways. Many of them are coming together in solidarity under the term "Latinx." Join co-host Ray Suarez and VICE's Paola Ramos for a conversation on how communities from New York to Texas and California are defining the controversial term "Latinx," and what it means to be Latino and American.

 

Guests: 

Paola Ramos, journalist and author of  Finding Latinx: In search of The Voices Redefining Latino Identity

Ray Suarez, co-host of WorldAffairs and author of Latino Americans: The 500 Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation

 

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.​

Direct download: 12_07_20_Redefining_Latino_Identity.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

When Joe Biden ran for president, he pledged to make climate change a major priority. How will he make good on that promise and what are the consequences if he fails to act? On this week’s episode, we discuss climate policy with former California Governor Jerry Brown, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, 2016 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, we visit Paradise, California, the site of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history.

 

Guests: 

Jerry Brown, Governor of California (1975-1983 and 2011-2019)

Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer and President & Chair of Mission Blue Sylvia Earle Alliance 

Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia & recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize

Emily Thomas, documentary filmmaker

Harmony VonStockhausen, student

 

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.​

Direct download: 11_30_20_Climate_Future.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

A recent Politico poll found that 70% of Republican voters don’t believe the presidential election was free and fair, even though there is no evidence to support this claim. Historian Claire Bond Potter talks with Rachael Myrow about the rise of alternative media and pseudo news sites that continue to spread misinformation and are helping Donald Trump convince his base that the election was fraudulent. It was not.

 

Guest: 

Claire Bond Potter, Professor of History and co-Executive Editor of Public Seminar at the New School

 

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.​

Direct download: 11_26_20_Alternative_Media.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Joe Biden will be President in two months. In the meantime, Donald Trump is doing everything he can to make that transition as difficult as possible. He has prevented the president-elect from receiving top secret intelligence briefings and made a flurry of decisions that could jeopardize our national security. Career diplomat Nicholas Burns and Ray Suarez discuss the implications - and how to rebuild America’s foreign service.

 

Guest: 

R. Nicholas Burns, Former US Ambassador to NATO and Professor of diplomacy at the Harvard Kennedy School

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.​

Direct download: 11_23_20_Nicholas_Burns.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 1:48am PDT

When Joe Biden takes office, he’ll face challenges like no other president before him. From the pandemic, to our fragile democracy, a world in transition, and challenges exacerbated by climate change, the Biden Administration will have to approach  foreign policy very carefully. On this episode, co-host Ray Suarez talks with Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor about these challenges and how the Biden Administration might tackle them.

 

Guests: 

Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post Columnist

 

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.​

Direct download: 11_19_20_Biden_Policy.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 4:58am PDT

Pulitzer Prize- winning historian Anne Applebaum is worried about authoritarianism in the US. Since the election, world leaders have congratulated President-Elect Biden on his decisive victory, and yet, President Trump has not conceded. He’s gone on a rampage to discredit the results and put his loyalists in charge. Applebaum joins producer Teresa Cotsirilos on the podcast to talk about the nature of authoritarianism and how fascist leaders come to power. Democracy is fragile and sometimes, she says, the best way to push back against populist authoritarianism is to not answer it directly.

 

Guest: 

Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, author of  Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism and staff writer at The Atlantic

 

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.​

Direct download: 11_16_20_Lure_Authoritarianism.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

This year, the US is on track to spend $4 trillion on healthcare -- more than any other nation. Yet our healthcare system is famous for its dysfunction. What are we getting for our money? And how does our system stack up against those in other countries? This week, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel joins co-host Ray Suarez to compare different healthcare systems around the world. Then, producer Teresa Cotsirilos and Radio New Zealand’s Indira Stewart explain how Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern managed to nearly eradicate the coronavirus from New Zealand and return the country to some sense of normalcy.

 

Guests: 

Ezekiel J. Emanuel, MD, PhD, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, University of Pennsylvania and author of Which Country Has The World’s Best Healthcare System?

Indira Stewart, Radio New Zealand

 

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.​

Direct download: 11_09_20_Healthcare_System.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

On October 25, an overwhelming majority of Chileans voted to throw out their constitution, written during Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship. It started as a student protest at a high school and grew into a national movement. Now, the streets of Santiago are filled with jubilant celebration, music and fireworks. But soon, the hard work of writing the new charter will begin. Daniel Alarcón discusses his reporting from Chile with Ray Suarez. 

Featuring:

Daniel Alarcón, contributing writer at The New Yorker and Executive Producer of Radio Ambulante

Ray Suarez, co-host of WorldAffairs & Washington reporter for Euronews

Reading Material: 

Chile at the Barricades, by Daniel Alarcón, The New Yorker

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.

Direct download: 11_05_20_Democracy_Chile.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Fraudulent elections can lead to long term voter apathy and erode democratic institutions. Sometimes, they can fuel widespread protests, and in some countries, revolution. On this episode of the podcast, we examine how a rigged election in Belarus is fueling a democratic uprising. Election observer and University of Missouri political scientist Mary Stegmaier is our guide.

 

Featuring: 

Mary Stegmaier,  Vice Provost for International Programs and Director of the International Center at the University of Missouri

Teresa Cotsirilos, WorldAffairs producer

 

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

Direct download: 11_02_20_Democratic_Belarus.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Voter suppression. Allegations of fraud. Political violence. The whole world is watching the United States’ presidential election, and it feels like democracy itself is on the line. Political scientist and election observer Susan Hyde explains how politicians steal elections, what international observers can do to help, and what happens when voters demand a fair process.

 

Featuring: 

Susan Hyde, professor of political science at UC Berkeley

Teresa Cotsirilos, WorldAffairs producer

 

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

Direct download: 10_30_20_Election_Stealing.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 5:50pm PDT

As tensions intensify between President Trump and Xi Jinping, China is pursuing its global ambitions through the “Belt and Road Initiative,” a massive global infrastructure project. In her new podcast, former NPR Beijing correspondent Mary Kay Magistad partners with local journalists on five continents to investigate the initiative’s impact. She joins journalist Shuang Li to explain how China tightens its hold on communities by building roads and pipelines around the world.

 

Guest: 

Mary Kay Magistad, Creator & Host, “On China’s New Silk Road” and former East Asia correspondent for NPR, & for PRX's The World

Shuang Li, Journalist and documentary filmmaker

 

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.​

Direct download: 10_29_20_China_Silk_Road.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

The US economy is floundering. Unemployment remains high and Congress is squabbling over a badly needed stimulus package. Meanwhile, China’s gotten its pandemic under control—and its economy is surging. In this episode, we look at China’s economic rise to power. Wall Street Journal correspondent Lingling Wei and her editor, Bob Davis, explain how US-China trade disputes are fueling a new Cold War.

 

Guests: 

Lingling Wei, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal and co-author of "Superpower Showdown"

Bob Davis, Senior editor at The Wall Street Journal and co-author of "Superpower Showdown"

 

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.​

Direct download: 10_26_20_US-China_Showdown.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Former CIA Director John O. Brennan worked at the agency under six different presidents, but he says he never served one quite like Donald Trump. In this episode, he talks with co-host Ray Suarez about Russian interference in US elections, America’s role in the global community, and what it’s really like to work at the CIA.

 

Guest: 

John Brennan, Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency

 

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.

Direct download: 10_22_20_John_Brennan.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Since the attacks on September 11th, 2001, many Americans associate terrorism with the Middle East. But since 2001, more Americans have actually been killed by domestic terrorists than by any international groups. According to the Department of Homeland Security, white supremacists pose the deadliest terror threat to the United States, and a growing number of homegrown militia groups are mobilizing across the US. In this episode, we talk with former FBI agent Michael German, who argues that structural racism blinded the agency to the threat of white supremacy.

 

Guests: 

Michael German, Brennan Center for Justice at NYC Law School and former FBI agent

 

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.

Direct download: 10_19_20_Undercover_FBI.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

As we spend time on social media, liking, clicking and scrolling, our behaviors are being monitored and sold.Corporations, governments, and advertisers are spending unprecedented sums of money to collect data about us. Social media algorithms are pushing us toward partisan and extremist views to keep us online as much as possible, and many major events happening around us, like protests and even acts of violence, are started in Facebook groups. How does this process affect democracy? Media Editor at BuzzFeed News Craig Silverman joins co-host Ray Suarez to talk about Facebook, fake news, and where we go from here.

 

Guest: 

Craig Silverman, Media Editor at BuzzFeed News

 

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.

Direct download: 10_15_20_Big_Tech-Democracy.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Governments around the world are struggling to take power back from the world’s biggest tech companies. In the US, House Democrats want to overhaul antitrust laws and force Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google to break into smaller companies. These brands wield a remarkable amount of wealth and power, and Alexis Wichowski has coined a new term for them: “net-states,” or companies that operate as sovereign entities. She joins us for a conversation with Financial Times reporter Patrick McGee about this phenomenon and her new book Information Trade: How Big Tech Conquers Countries, Challenges Our Rights and Transforms Our World.

 

Guests: 

Alexis Wichowski, Deputy Chief Technology Officer, City of New York; Professor, Columbia University

Patrick McGee, San Francisco Correspondent, Financial 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.

Direct download: 10_12_20_Alexis_Wichowski.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

The pandemic has seriously damaged the United States’ credibility abroad. Meanwhile, China is rising, climate change is getting worse, and an ongoing tech revolution is changing the world as we know it. How can the United States rebuild its global leadership in a world that’s changing this fast?  In this episode, Markos Kounalakis talks with academics Rebecca Lissner and Mira Rapp-Hooper, authors of An Open World: How America Can Win the Contest For 21st Century Order, about a new global strategy that could reposition the US in a post-COVID—and possibly post-Trump—world.

 

Guests:

Rebecca Lissner, Assistant Professor, U.S. Naval War College, co-author of An Open World

Mira Rapp‑Hooper, Senior Fellow at the Yale Law School’s China Center, co-author of An Open World

 

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.

Direct download: 10_08_20_US-World_Order.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

With just a few weeks to go before the election, the whole world is holding its collective breath to see what will happen next. Global dynamics have shifted, and American leadership is not what it used to be. Since taking office, President Trump has dramatically changed the country’s priorities, and the US's pandemic response has lowered its global standing considerably. In this episode, we examine two very different ideas for what US Global leadership should look like. Ben Rhodes, a former Obama advisor and the co-host of Pod Save the World, and Colin Dueck, a professor at George Mason University and author of Age of Iron: On Conservative Nationalism talk with Ray Suarez about the foreign policy issues at stake this election.

 

Guests: 

Ben Rhodes, former Deputy National Security Advisor for President Obama and host of Missing America

Colin Dueck, Professor at George Mason University and author of Age of Iron: On Conservative Nationalism

 

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.

Direct download: 10_05_20_Rhodes-Dueck.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 5:59am PDT

When Israel signed deals with two Gulf States earlier this month, Saudi Arabia was notably absent. The regional powerhouse recently opened its airspace to Israel for the very first time, but it still does not have any official diplomatic relations with them. In this episode, avid Rundell, former Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Riyadh and author of Vision Or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads talks with NPR international correspondent Deborah Amos about the Kingdom, its political intrigues, and the crises it’s managing at home and abroad.

 

Guests: 

Deb Amos, NPR correspondent @deborahamos 

David Rundell, former Chief of Mission at the American Embassy in Riyadh and author of Vision Or Mirage: Saudi Arabia at the Crossroads

 

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.

Direct download: 10_01_20_Saudi_Arabia.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

This month, Israel signed deals with two Gulf States on the White House South Lawn. They’re the first Arab-Israel agreements in 25 years, known as the “Abraham Accords,” and President Trump hailed them as a major foreign policy achievement. So why were the Palestinians missing from the agreements? In this episode, we take a closer look at these deals and how they will affect the peace process in the region. 

 

Guests:

Daniel Estrin, NPR Correspondent in Jerusalem @DanielEstrin

Khaled Elgindy, Director of the Program on Palestinian - Israeli Affairs at the Middle East Institute and Author of Blind Spot: America and the Palestinians, From Balfour to Trump  @elgindy_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.

Direct download: 09_28_20_Israel-Middle_East.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

As climate change gets worse, it’s hard to imagine a world in which we achieve a fair and sustainable future, But there’s hope. Political leaders around the world are taking action. In this episode, we'll hear from activists and political leaders who discussed climate resiliency at World Affairs’ recent Global Philanthropy Forum. Environmentalist Wanjira Mathai talks to  former Irish President and UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson about climate resiliency in Africa, and their histories fighting for climate justice. Then we’ll hear from some of the next generation of activists, Vanessa Nakate from Kampala, Uganda and Isha Clarke from Oakland, California, who discuss what motivates them to continue the fight for justice with Jacqueline Patterson of the NAACP.

 

Guests: 

Mary Robinson, Trinity College Dublin, Professor and Former President of Ireland

Wanjira Mathai, World Resources Institute, Vice President and Regional Director for Africa @MathaiWanjira 

Jacqueline Patterson, Director of the Environmental and Climate Justice Program, NAACP @JacquiPatt

Isha Clarke, Youth vs Apocalypse, Co-Founder and Activist

Vanessa Nakate, First Fridays for Future, Climate Activist @vanessa_vash

 

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.

Direct download: 09_24_20_Climate_Resilience.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

This week, we’re launching an ongoing series about our climate future. Climate change is making global inequality worse, hitting low income communities and communities of color harder than everyone else. Just look at California, where wildfires have burned to the edges of farm country and agricultural workers are still going to work, risking heat and smoke to pick our food. This is an essential workforce, mostly Latinx, that has spent decades fighting for better labor protections. In this episode, we hear from activists who are now raising concerns that 2020's wildfires, in the midst of a pandemic, are triggering unsafe working conditions. Fires and other natural disasters have also triggered a wave of climate refugees that will continue to grow. Environmental Justice Foundation’s Steve Trent and The Institute for Climate and Peace’s Maxine Burkett will also join us to talk about protecting human rights for climate refugees.

 

Guests: 

Steve Trent, Environmental Justice Foundation, Executive Director @steventrent 

Maxine Burke, The Institute for Climate and Peace, Co-Founder and Senior Advisor

Zeke Guzman, President of Latinos Unidos

Omar Paz, lead organizer for North Bay Jobs with Justice, @NorthBayJwJ

David Hornung, Senior Safety Engineer with California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) @CA_DIR

 

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.

Direct download: 09_21_20_Climate_Change.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Universal Basic Income is an idea that has long been studied by economists as a way to ensure a basic standard of living for all people. Most of the studies have taken place outside the United States, but this year, in the city of Stockton, California, 125 residents have been receiving $500 payments every month for the past year as part of a UBI pilot program. On this episode of the podcast, Ray Suarez talks with Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs and Nobel prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee about the viability of a Universal Basic Income. Then, Teresa Cotsirilos takes us to Alaska, where every resident gets an annual dividend from the government.

 

Guests: 

Michael Tubbs, Mayor of Stockton, California & founder of Mayors for a Guaranteed Income @MichaelDTubbs

Abhijit Banerjee, Nobel Prize winning economist at MIT & co-author of Good Economics for Hard Times

Rashah McChesney, Alaska's Energy Desk - Juneau, Alaska Public Media

 

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.

Direct download: 09_17_20_UBI-Stockton_Juneau.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

What if we could lower COVID-19 rates all over the world with one program? It’s not a medical innovation, but an economic one. If all the world’s countries distribute a temporary basic income, could we slow the spread of the coronavirus? The idea was recently floated by United Nations Development Program, and it’s. In its report, UNDP says many people are too poor to shelter in place even when they are sick.  Staying home can be a choice between hunger and exposure to the coronavirus...and the consequences of their decisions affect us all.

UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner makes the case for a temporary basic income that would enable nearly three billion of the world’s poorest people to stay home. The idea is built upon the concept of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), something economists have studied and debated for decades. Tech entrepreneurs like Andrew Yang are only making it more popular, something economists have studied for decades. Tech entrepreneur Andrew Yang ran for president on a promise of a $1,000 per month UBI for every American adult. He called it the Freedom Dividend. On this episode, we explore a Basic Income project in Kenya.

 

Guest: 

Tavneet Suri, MIT Sloan School of Management & Editor in Chief of VoxDev @SuriTavneet

 

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.

Direct download: 09_14_20_UBI_Kenya.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 6:54am PDT

The United States is three months into a mass movement against police violence. We are the midst of a  national conversation about the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color, but the fight over defining the problem of systemic racism, and how to fix it, is only intensifying. In the first half of this episode, Teresa Cotsirilos brings us the story of Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira, a hip-hop artist who lost a friend to police violence and still chose to join law enforcement. Next, we look at how South Africa has grappled with its legacy of white supremacy and police brutality. With the end of Apartheid in 1994, the police were supposed to be reformed, but a quarter-century later, South Africa is still struggling with this issue. Ray Suarez talks with Stan Henkeman, Executive Director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa, and John Steinberg, Professor of African Studies at Oxford University, about policing in South Africa today.

 

Guests: 

Stan Henkeman, Executive director of the Institute and Reconciliation in South Africa

Jonny Steinberg, African Studies Professor, at Oxford University

Jinho “The Piper” Ferriera, musician, actor and former Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy


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.

Direct download: 09_07_20_Oakland_Johannesburg.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

As inequality rises around the world, some citizens are losing faith in the liberal democratic capitalism that emerged in the 20th century. Protests from the United States to Belarus share themes of resentment towards economic policies that are seen as inherently unfair. Stanford University’s Larry Diamond and Francis Fukuyama join Ray Suarez and Philip Yun to discuss what’s at stake for liberal democracy and the changing world order.

 

Guests: 

Larry Diamond, Stanford University and author of Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency

Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University and author of Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment

 

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.

Direct download: 08_31_20_Democratic-Capitalism.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

It’s been three months since George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minnesota. The movement prompted an outpouring from lawmakers in Canada and Australia, and protests started in countries that share the United States’ colonial history. Now that the protests have started to slow down, how do we enact effective policies? The Black Lives Matter movement is calling to redirect police funding toward education and public services. Ideas that once seemed radical are now being discussed by politicians both on the local and federal levels. Historian Nell Irvin Painter and anthropologist Christen Smith join Ray Suarez to talk about the global Black Lives Matter movement, policing in the Western Hemisphere and why it’s important to understand the role white supremacy has played in building our institutions. 

 

Nell Irvin Painter, American historian, artist, author of numerous books including The History of White People and Professor of American History Emerita at Princeton University


Christen Smith, Associate Professor of Anthropology and African and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, founder of Cite Black Women and author of Afro Paradise: Blackness, Violence and Performance in Brazil

 


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.

Direct download: 08_24_20_White_Supremacy.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

After the Rwandan genocide, 70 percent of the country’s surviving population were women. They propelled the country’s reconciliation process and fostered its economic development. Today, life expectancies in Rwanda have doubled… and its parliament is majority female. Karen Sherman has witnessed many of these changes. She’s the president of Akilah, a college in Rwanda that provides affordable higher education for women, and she has interviewed thousands of women in war-torn and transitional countries. She joins us on the podcast to talk about her memoir Brick by Brick: Building Hope and Opportunity for Women Survivors Everywhere that covers her experience in global development.

 

Guests: 

Karen Sherman, President, Akilah Institute 

Linda Calhoun, Executive Producer, Career Girls

 

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.

Direct download: 08_20_20_Karen-Sherman-Rwanda.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

In the United States, the pandemic is getting worse than we ever could have imagined. Many of our political leaders underestimated the virus… And as they fumbled the country’s initial response, developing nations with far fewer resources got prepared. This week, we’re looking at Uganda and Rwanda, two countries who have fought pandemics before and were ready for this one. Both countries have lost very few people to the virus. How did they do it?

 

Guests:

Stephen Asiimwe, Program Director, Global Health Collaborative, Uganda

Agnes Binagwaho, Vice Chancellor at the University of Global Health Equity, former Minister of Health, Rwanda

 

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.

Direct download: 08_17_20_Uganda_Rwanda.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Vietnam may have limited resources to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but it’s made up for it with proactive policies and manpower. The country mobilized tens of thousands of military personnel, health care workers and ordinary citizens to fight COVID-19. This level of collective action requires a unified front, and though it was ultimately successful, Vietnam is still an authoritarian country that weathered a 20-year, famous civil war. There are plenty of Vietnamese people who, with good reason, don’t trust their government, and our guest on the podcast, Nguyen Qui Duc, is one of them. He’s a journalist and restaurant owner who joined us to describe his experience in Vietnam during a global pandemic.

 

Guest: 

Duc Qui Nguyen, journalist and restaurant owner

 

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.

Direct download: 08_13_20_Vietnam_COVID-19.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

With 5 million recorded COVID-19  infections and 160,000 deaths, the coronavirus has paralyzed the United States…the richest, most powerful country in the world. We know it was preventable because at the same time, some countries with far fewer resources have kept infection and death rates remarkably low. Even with its close proximity to China, where the pandemic started, parts of Southeast Asia have managed to control the coronavirus far better than the US and Europe. What are Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar doing that the rest of the world finds itself unable to do? In this episode, we hear from New York Times Southeast Asia Bureau Chief Hannah Beech, Country Director for the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam Dr. Todd Pollock and Director of the Oxford University clinical research unit in Vietnam Guy Thwaites about the quick decision making that went into these countries’ successes. What can we learn from them?

 

Guests:

Hannah Beech, NYTimes Southeast Asia Bureau Chief, based in Bangkok, Thailand @hkbeech

Dr. Todd Pollock, Country Director for the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam @toddmpollack

Guy Thwaites, Professor of infectious diseases and the director of the Oxford University clinical research unit in Vietnam @ThwaitesGuy

 

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.

 

Direct download: 08_10_20_Southeast-Asia_COVID-19.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

How did El Salvador become one of the most violent countries on earth? And what role did the United States play in creating the notorious MS-13 gang? In this episode, we revisit and update a program we recorded in January about the origins of El Salvador’s bloody gang war with journalist William Wheeler and Joanne Elgart Jennings. Wheeler spoke with gang members, frustrated reformers, crime investigators and government officials to better understand the violence in the country and what is driving Salvadorans northward. His book is: “State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador’s World of Violence.” 

 

Guest: 

William Wheeler, journalist and author of State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador’s World of Violence

Moderator:

Joanne Elgart Jennings, executive producer & co-host

 
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.

Direct download: 08_03_20_MS-13_El-Salvador.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

After nearly twenty years of conflict, the United States is, once again, attempting to extricate itself from Afghanistan. This year, the US and the Taliban signed an agreement that was intended to be a first step towards an intra-Afghan peace deal and US forces began withdrawing troops. But for the time being, the peace process remains tenuous, and Afghanistan is still being used by Russia and the US as proxy war. Over the past few years, Russia has tried to present itself as an ascendant global power, expanding its influence in Syria, Ukraine, as well as Afghanistan. But Putin's government is also grappling with a raging pandemic and an economic crisis. Markos Kounalakis recently discussed Russia's delicate political moment with Steven Pifer.  He was ambassador to Ukraine, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and was a senior director for Russia and Eurasia at the National Security Council.

 

Guest:

Steven Pifer, William J Perry Fellow at Stanford, nonresident Brookings fellow and former US Ambassador to Ukraine

 

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.

Direct download: 07_30_20_Russia_Putin.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

United States forces have been fighting in Afghanistan for almost twenty years, making it the longest war in American history. But for many Americans, the conflict only became top of mind again after hearing reports that a Russian military intelligence unit offered bounty money to the Taliban for killing US soldiers. In this episode, we take a closer look at how the war in Afghanistan has served as a proxy conflict between the US and Russia and how it fits into Russia’s global agenda. Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry joins co-host Ray Suarez, followed by a conversation with Jennifer Glasse of Al Jazeera.

 

Guests: 

Jennifer Glasse, Senior Managing Editor at the Americas at Al Jazeera

Karl Eikenberry, former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, retired US Army Lieutenant General

 

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.

Direct download: 07_27_20_Afghanistan_Taliban.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Protesters are back in the streets in Hong Kong to fight against a new security law that tightens the Chinese government’s  grip over the city. On this week’s episode, we look at how Hong Kong’s new security law will impact US-China relations, and what it means for the millions of people who live there. First, we’ll hear from Human Rights Watch’s China Director, Sophie Richardson, who argues that US-China relations are at their worst point since the Cold War. Will this new law make them worse? Next, an activist and artist from Hong Kong discusses the evolution of her city’s protest movement. Then, we revisit a conversation with journalist Mary Kay Magistad and professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian specializing in modern China. They unpack the history of Hong Kong and how the city got to where it is today. 

 

Guests: 

Mary Kay Magistad, former East Asia correspondent for NPR & Director of Audio Journalism at UC Berkeley

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Professor at UC Irvine and author of Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink

Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch and author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence

Claire, artist and activist from Hong Kong


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.

Direct download: 07_20_20_Hong-Kong.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 6:07am PDT

The United States is in the midst of a national conversation about the role systemic racism plays in law enforcement, but police brutality is not just an American problem. In this episode, we look at how South Africa has grappled with its own legacy of white supremacy and police violence. Under Apartheid, South Africa’s white leaders used the police as an instrument of control, enforcing a web of laws that bound black lives. When liberation came with the end of Apartheid, the police were supposedly reformed. Now, a quarter-center later, has anything changed? Co-host Ray Suarez talks with Stan Henkeman, Executive Director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa, and John Steinberg, Professor of African Studies at Oxford University, about South Africa’s cautionary tale of police reforms made after Apartheid.

 

Guests: 

Stan Henkeman, Executive director of the Institute and Reconciliation in South Africa

Jonny Steinberg, African Studies Professor, at Oxford University

Credits:

Philip Yun, President and CEO, WorldAffairs

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

Teresa Cotsirilos, producer, WorldAffairs

Jarrod Sport, senior producer, WorldAffairs

Joanne Elgart Jennings, executive producer, WorldAffairs

 

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.

 

Direct download: 07_16_20_South_Africa.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Black Lives Matter might be the largest social movement in American history. Last month, an estimated 15-25 million people took to the streets to protest police violence, launching a national conversation about the role systemic racism plays in law enforcement. In this episode, producer Teresa Cotsirilos tells the story of a man whose past experiences with the police drove him to fight for justice from the inside. Jinho Ferreira, also known as “The Piper,” discusses his childhood in West Oakland, his experiences working in law enforcement and what it means to be an artist in a moment of radical change.

Guest: 

Jinho Ferreira, artist, actor and former Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy

Credits:

Teresa Cotsirilos, producer

Jarrod Sport, senior producer

Joanne Elgart Jennings, executive producer

Philip Yun, President and CEO

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.

Direct download: 07_11_20_Jinho_Journey.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 10:39am PDT

Over the past few months, we’ve had to reimagine everything we do. From shopping, to eating and socializing, the ways we spend money have completely changed. And as each country manages the pandemic differently, the already fragile global economy has been disrupted by broken supply chains and shifts in demand. Now we’re questioning the role of the government, the future of capitalism and changing our values. The choices we make now could change the world for decades. On this week’s episode, we tackle these big issues and examine our new digital economy with James Manyika, Chairman and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute, Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, and Gillian Tett, Editor at Large at the Financial Times.
 
 
James Manyika, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Chairman and Director, McKinsey Global Institute
 
Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor, Allianz
 
Gillian Tett, Chair of Editorial Board and Editor-at-Large, US, Financial 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.

Direct download: 07_06_20_Global_Economy_COVID-19.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Seventy-five years ago, delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco to sign the UN Charter. Initially, the purpose of the United Nations was to maintain peace and security through international cooperation and to essentially prevent another world war.  Today’s UN has 193 member countries and is facing a time of uncertainty and open disdain from US President Donald Trump, who has cut funding to the world body and declared, “The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots.” On this week’s episode, we look at the UN’s achievements, its shortcomings and what the future holds for international cooperation with journalist James Traub. Then Ray Suarez talks with former Prime Minister of Canada The Rt. Hon Kim Campbell and former Foreign Minister of Mexico Jorge Castañeda about how the United States is viewed by its neighbors. 

 

Jorge Castañeda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico and author of America Through Foreign Eyes

The Hon Rt. Kim Campbell, Canada's 19th Prime Minister

James Traub,  fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, author of The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power and regular contributor to Foreign Affairs and the New York Times Magazine


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.

Direct download: 06_29_20_UN_75.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Some countries are using smartphones and facial recognition to track COVID-19 outbreaks, but here, in the US, we’re starting with simple phone calls. On this week’s episode, we take a closer look at contact tracing in California and what it might look like into the future. We also hear from San Francisco Bay Area activists about the risks of protesting during a pandemic and how to protect yourself and others.

Dr. George Rutherford, Director of Prevention & Public Health at University of California at San Francisco

Melissa Millsaps, Investigator at San Francisco City Attorney's Office

Jon Jocobo, Latino Task Force for COVID-19

Cat Brooks,  Justice Teams Network and co-founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project

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.

Direct download: 06_25_20_Contact_Tracing_Testing.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT

Can we contain COVID-19 without a vaccine? Congress allocated $25 Billion for COVID-19 testing this year, but Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul M. Romer, says  that’s a fraction of what we need. On this week’s podcast, he and epidemiologist Dr. Jonathan Quick join co-host Ray Suarez to talk about what it would take to use testing and tracing to contain the virus safely reopen the US.

Paul M. Romer, Co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics and Professor at New York University

Dr. Jonathan Quick, Managing Director, Pandemic Response at The Rockefeller Foundation and author of The End of Pandemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It

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.

Direct download: 06_22_20_Romer_Quick_Testing.mp3
Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 2:00am PDT