On Shifting Ground

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

 

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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

 

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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

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