On Shifting Ground

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.

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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.

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Category:News & Politics -- posted at: 7:13am PDT

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