On Shifting Ground

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

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