On Shifting Ground

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

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