According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, access to water in Gaza has dropped by 95 percent since October 7th, and as many as seven-in-ten Gazans are drinking salty and contaminated water to survive. Water is at the center of environmental challenges facing the whole Middle East, and it is perhaps the most pressing concern for desperate Gazans. So what are regional NGOs doing to provide clean water to millions of displaced people?

Climate One’s Greg Dalton speaks with Nada Majdalani, Palestinian Director of EcoPeace Middle East, about Ecopeace’s three-decade journey to water security in the Middle East. Then, Ray Suarez speaks with Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Executive Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, to understand how climate scientists are trying to rebuild in Gaza following the recent violence.

Guests: 

Nada Majdalani, Palestinian Director of EcoPeace Middle East

Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, Executive Director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies

Host: 

Ray Suarez

Greg Dalton, founder and co-host, Climate One

By 2030, it’s estimated one out of every six people on planet earth will be over 60. Thanks to leaps in technology and public health, people are living longer and better than ever before. 

We’re taking a look at what economists and demographers are calling “the Silver Wave.” Ray speaks with MIT’s Joseph F. Coughlin,and New York Times Tokyo Bureau Chief Motoko Rich, on the challenges – and opportunities – that global aging presents. 

Guests:

Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD, Founder and Director of MIT’s AgeLab

Motoko Rich, Tokyo Bureau Chief for the New York Times

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

For the most part, the world has gone back to normal. We’re getting on planes… going to concerts… but many Americans haven’t changed their pandemic drinking habits. And this increased consumption trend is especially high for older Americans.

In 2020, alcohol accounted for more than 11,000 deaths among those 65 and up – that’s an 18 percent increase from the previous year – and many of those cases went untreated. 

Ray speaks with Keith Humphreys, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, to understand why.

Guest:

Keith Humphreys, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

Ray Suarez talks with former NPR Beijing correspondent Louisa Lim about China’s brazen efforts to stamp out free speech in Hong Kong, the city she grew up in. Lim shares the experiences she chronicled in her book Indelible City, an emotional eyewitness account of the pro-democracy protests and a reflection on Hong Kong’s identity.

Guest:  

Louisa Lim, journalist and author of  “Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong” 

Host: 

Ray Suarez

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.

Ray Suarez speaks with Sebastien Lai, the son of the imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai, and Jonathan Price, a member of Lai’s legal team. He’s on trial for his pro-democracy campaign, and they explore the fate of Hong Kong after China’s passage of the restrictive Article 23.

Guests:

Sebastien Lai, democracy advocate and son of jailed Hong Kong businessman and publisher

Jonathan Price, a member of Jimmy Lai’s legal team

Host: 

Ray Suarez

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.

Abortion advocates have long warned the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would reverberate across all areas of reproductive health. Two years later, state personhood laws have challenged IVF and birth control… further threatening women’s bodily autonomy.

In our third special election episode, we explore how the issue of abortion rights is likely to shape the 2024 election. First, we hear from two women whose lives were changed by rapidly shifting legislation surrounding IVF and abortion access. Then, Ray Suarez sits down with Dr. Jamila Perritt, President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH), and UC Davis Law Professor Mary Ziegler to discuss the upcoming cases before the Supreme Court, and who may be the next “Roe”.

Special thanks to All Roads Productions LLC for sharing the audio of Maleeha’s encounter with a crisis pregnancy center. You can watch the full scene from “Preconceived” at preconceivedfilm.com.

Guests:  

Latorya Beasley, therapist and in vitro fertilization (IVF) patient in Alabama

Maleeha Aziz, Deputy Director at the Texas Equal Access Fund

Dr. Jamila Perritt, President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH)

Mary Ziegler, Martin Luther King Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis

Host: 

Ray Suarez

Guest Producer: Elize Manoukian

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.

Earlier this year, a grassroots movement emerged in the key battleground state of Michigan calling on Democratic voters to cast “uncommitted votes” in protest of president Joe Biden’s policy towards Israel’s war in Gaza. And in the months since, it’s gone national. But are Arab and Muslim American voters willing to gamble a second Trump presidency to hold Biden accountable for his Israel policy?

Nihad Awad, a CAIR Action board member, joins Ray Suarez to share why Arab and Muslim voters feel abandoned by the Democratic party, and why they won’t be bullied into accepting the “lesser of two evils.” 

Guest:

Nihad Awad, Board Member of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Action

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's staunch opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza — and a future Palestinian state — is putting President Joe Biden in a vulnerable position at home. And as the 2024 election quickly approaches, it’s becoming clearer that US-Israel policy will be a lingering concern. 

Ray Suarez sits down with Zack Beauchamp, a senior correspondent at Vox, to unpack how the political winds on Israel may be shifting.

Guest:

Zack Beauchamp, Senior Correspondent at Vox

Host:

Ray Suarez

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.

The US has once again ignored the United Nations’ annual resolution calling for an end to its decades-long embargo on Cuba, even as Cubans took to the streets to protest the island nation’s worst economic crisis in decades, with shortages of food and fuel. And when the US Embassy urged the Communist-led regime to “attend to the legitimate needs” of its people, the Cuban government criticized the comment as “open interference in Cuba’s domestic affairs.” For Cuba, Washington's long standing role in the current crisis makes their complaints a “hypocrisy.” 

In this episode, we revisit Ray’s conversation with Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Ada Ferrer on just how intertwined the histories of the US and Cuba are, and why we’re so inseparable. 

Guest:

Ada Ferrer, Julius Silver Professor of History and Latin American Studies at New York University and Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of Cuba: An American History 

Host(s):

Ray Suarez

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.

Cuba is facing its worst economic crisis in decades, and shortages of food, fuel, medicine — and opportunity — have fueled a record-breaking surge of Cuban immigrants at America’s borders. But the US shows no signs of changing its policy towards the embargoed island, nor reversing former President Trump’s designation of the communist-led nation as a “state sponsor of terror.”

Ray Suarez sits down with Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuban Ambassador to the US, to unpack how migration and economic sanctions are linked.

Guest:

Ambassador Lianys Torres Rivera, Chargée D'Affairs, Embassy of Cuba in United States

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

Mass death and disappearances have become normalized on Europe’s borders. Back in 2015, when more than a million refugees turned up on Europe’s doorstep to request asylum, the European Union cut deals with North African and Middle Eastern nations to hold back the flow of asylum-seekers. Since then, roughly 29,000 people have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean, reports the Missing Migrants Project. 

And for the migrants who were were intercepted while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea and forcibly placed in detention centers in Libya, they face inhumane living conditions, beatings, sexual abuse, starvation… and death — consequences of Europe’s ongoing cooperation with nations like Libya on migration and border control.

In My Fourth Time, We Drowned, journalist Sally Hayden reports on the shadowy immigration system created by the European Union which captures and imprisons migrants from Africa to keep them from reaching European soil. In an interview with Senior KQED editor Rachael Myrow, Hayden explains how western institutions are complicit in this humanitarian crisis. 

Featuring:

Rachael Myrow, senior editor of KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk

Sally Hayden, author of My Fourth Time, We Drowned and Africa correspondent for the Irish 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.

The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has forced millions to flee their homes. And for the Ukrainian civilians caught in the crossfire, war has become a way of life. 

This week, we talked to Ukrainians about the ways that the war unexpectedly changed their lives. Kateryna Lazarevych, an archivist at the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv, shares how she’s working to improve her country, as if everyday were her last day on earth. Filmmaker Iryna Tsilyk takes us through her decision to leave Kyiv where her husband is fighting as a soldier in Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces. And Alex Gerz, a Russian-Ukrainian student living in Germany, records his story from the road, where he provides humanitarian assistance and safe passage to those fleeing Ukraine with a ragtag army of volunteers. 

Guests:  

Kateryna Lazarevych, archivist at the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv

Iryna Tsilyk, filmmaker and director of “The Earth is Blue as an Orange”

Alex Gerz, Russian-Ukrainian student based in Kassel, Germany

Host:  

Ray Suarez

Producers:

Andrew Stelzer, KALW producer

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.

Shortly before the end of his term in 2022, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta pledged to end gender-based violence in his country by 2026. With two years left before the deadline, is Kenya still on track to fulfill the promises made to Kenyan women? And how is Kenyan media keeping the fight alive?

This week, we’re sharing an episode from Foreign Policy’s “Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women”, about how reality TV is helping women’s rights activists press the Kenyan government to uphold its pledge.

Guests:

Audrey Mugeni, the co-founder of Counting Dead Women Kenya

Anne Ireri, the executive director of the Federation of Women Lawyers in Kenya

Hosts:  

Reena Ninan, founder of Good Trouble Productions

Laura Rosbrow-Telem, senior producer at Foreign Policy

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.

To leaders in Silicon Valley, artificial intelligence is just the latest innovation in a never-ending “make our lives better.” But can we trust them with our data… and our lives… if they can’t be held accountable?

Journalist Kara Swisher joins Ray Suarez to discuss her newest book, “Burn Book,” and the psyche of Silicon Valley’s biggest players.

Plus: Hear Kara Swisher discuss “Burn Book,” the inside story of Silicon valley and the biggest boom in wealth creation in history live at the Commonwealth Club World Affairs on Thursday, March 7. Register here.

Guest:  

Kara Swisher, author of “Burn Book,” and host of the podcast “On with Kara Swisher”

Host: 

Ray Suarez

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.

Most Americans are far more focused on “pocketbook issues” – like stretching an ever-inflating dollar – than what the country does overseas in their name. But this election cycle, calls for additional aid for overseas wars has put foreign policy on the ballot for voters.

In the second episode of our special election series, South Carolina voter Maryann Wright shares her thoughts on the role of American democracy at home… and its responsibility abroad. Then, Ray Suarez sits down with Wendy Sherman, former US Deputy Secretary of State, and Nicholas Kristof, columnist at The New York Times, to see why international affairs will matter come November.

Guests:  

Wendy Sherman, former US Deputy Secretary of State

Nicholas Kristof, NY Times columnist

Maryann Wright, retired teacher and South Carolina voter

Phil Hemingway, former owner of Phil’s Repair, LLC and Iowa voter

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

Saturday marks the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And while foreign support may be dwindling, Ukrainian determination to win the war is not. But what’s at stake when war no longer feels like an emergency… but a way of life?

Ray Suarez sits down with Masha Gessen, staff writer for The New Yorker, to unpack the toll of Russia’s aggression on Ukraine’s freedoms… and democracy.

Guest:

Masha Gessen, Russian-American award-winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker 

Host(s):  

Ray Suarez

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.

Vladimir Putin set the world on edge when Russia invaded Ukraine. Two years later, international support for Ukraine’s sovereignty is becoming more precarious, and war weariness amongst the resistance — and their allies— has begun to set in. 

Global affairs analyst Michael Bociurkiw joins Ray Suarez to explain how a besieged Ukraine may be Europe’s last line of defense against Putin.

Guest:  

Michael Bociurkiw, global affairs analyst and nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

On February 16, 2024, the Russian prison service reported that Alexei Navalny had died, and offered no further explanation. 

The cause of death hasn’t yet been reported, but since the news broke, world leaders have started speaking out against Vladimir Putin… and it brings a new round of scrutiny to the Russian dictator.

In May 2022, Ray sat down with documentarian Daniel Roher to chat 'Navalny,' his new film following the famed Russian opposition leader’s recovery from a Kremlin-sponsored assassination attempt and his ongoing search for justice. The film took home the Academy Award for best documentary last year.

To remember the life and political career of Alexei Navalny, we’re revisiting Ray’s conversation with Daniel Roher.

Guest:

Daniel Roher, documentary filmmaker and director of 'Navalny'

Host:

Ray Suarez

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.

Nearly 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza as Israel continues its massive retaliation against Hamas. And as violence spreads to Yemen, Iraq, and Syria, America’s global standing is taking a hit.

Ray Suarez sits down with Trita Parsi, Iran expert and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, to unpack how Biden’s unwavering support of Israel could cost him in the Middle East… and at home.

Guest:

Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

Host: 

Ray Suarez

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.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was established to aid Palestinian refugees, but it has become yet another flashpoint in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. Israel has accused 12 out of the 13,000 UNRWA employees of taking part in Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israeli settlements. And as major donors like the United States, Germany and Britain have paused their funding, the aid agency may have to cease its life-saving operations for millions of Palestinians in Gaza by the end of February 2024. 

Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, joins Ray Suarez to address Israel’s allegations against UNRWA, and offers a critique of the Biden administration's unequivocal support of Israel, despite evidence that Israel is using starvation as a weapon of war against Palestinians in Gaza.

Guest:

Kenneth Roth, Former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch and author of “Righting Wrongs” 

Host: 

Ray Suarez

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.

Immigration has emerged as a major voter concern in the 2024 elections, and the challenge of securing America’s Southern border is once again a political flashpoint. But while the US debates immigration reform, tens of thousands of migrants have become pawns in a game that endangers their lives… 

Ray Suarez sits down with immigration attorney Mahsa Khanbabai to dive into what the broken visa process for Afghan refugees can teach us about immigration reform.

Guest:

Mahsa Khanbabai, immigration attorney at Khanbabi Immigration Law

Host:

Ray Suarez

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.

Immigrants in California are generally protected from federal deportation under sanctuary and safe haven laws, unless they've been incarcerated. And in 2022, after serving 25 years for murder, San Quentin State Prison parolee Phoeun You was turned over to ICE, and deported without warning. 

In this episode, Phoeun You tells “On Shifting Ground” senior producer Mateo Schimpf about coming to terms with surviving the Cambodian genocide, how he got caught up in the prison-to-deportation pipeline, and the hard choice he made to find freedom.

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.

Americans — from the largest urban centers to the smallest rural towns — are deeply pessimistic about the state of the nation. And on both sides of the political aisle, there seems to be a disconnect between what people want… and where they feel the country is headed. 

This week, we’re kicking off our special election series, and throughout the year we’ll deep-dive into the issues driving the 2024 Presidential Election. 

In this first episode, we’ll hear from Iowa voter Phil Hemingway about how he’s feeling about this contentious election year. Then, Ray Suarez sits down with Dante Chinni, director of MSU J-School’s American Communities Project, to explore how to unite a divided country.

Guests: 

Phil Hemingway, owner, manager and automotive technician at Phil’s Repair, LLC

Dante Chinni, data and political journalist and director of the MSU J-School’s American Communities Project

Anne Applebaum, staff writer for The Atlantic, Pulitzer-prize winning historian and author of “The Twilight of Democracy”

Ian Bremmer, a political scientist, author of “The Power of Crisis,” and professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Political Affairs

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

Elon Musk’s leadership at “X” (formerly Twitter) has been messy, and his disregard for user safeguards is part of a troubling trend in Silicon Valley. Revisiting the conversation from 2023, Ray Suarez sits down with NYU professor Dr. Scott Galloway to explore how Silicon Valley’s profit-chasing – and unchecked influence – is destroying American society… and our kids.

Guest:

Scott Galloway, Professor of Marketing at NYU Stern School of Business

Host:

Ray Suarez

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.

The 2024 US election season is officially underway, and experts are already bracing for the array of threats to free and fair elections that were made all too real the last time Americans elected a president. And this time, many are concerned that it’ll be even harder to combat fake election claims online and political violence.

Alexa Koenig and Andrea Lampros, co-founders of UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center Investigations Lab, join Ray Suarez to break down how our digital lives are destroying our mental health… and our democracy. 

Plus: check out our past conversation with Alexa Koenig on How Technology Fights – and Fuels – Misinformation to learn more about what UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Investigations Lab does.

Guests:

Alexa Koenig and Andrea Lampros, co-founders of UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center Investigations Lab and co-authors of “Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in our Online Lives”

Host:

Ray Suarez

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.

From accidental collateral damage deaths to targeted murders by the people in charge who don’t want them telling the truth, an unprecedented number of journalists are being killed while reporting. So what motivates reporters to keep filing stories despite the ever present threat of danger?

Sean Carberry, author of the memoir “Passport Stamps: Searching The World For A War To Call Home,” joins Ray Suarez to unpack the human costs of reporting from war zones.  

Guest:

Sean Carberry, Managing Editor of National Defense Magazine and author of the memoir “Passport Stamps: Searching the World For a War to Call Home”

Host:

Ray Suarez

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.

Reporting in war zones is an inherently dangerous job. Last year, 95 international media workers were killed while reporting, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. And as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza drag on, 2024 may be just as deadly. So how can we protect the journalists putting their lives on the line?

We revisit our conversation with CPJ’s Gulnoza Said on why the safety of journalists matters to the health of a free press. Then, Ann Simmons, Moscow Bureau Chief at The Wall Street Journal, joins Ray Suarez to give an update on the detention of American reporter Evan Gershkovich, who is accused of espionage by Russia. 

Guests:

Gulnoza Said, Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator for The Committee to Protect Journalists

Ann Simmons, Moscow Bureau Chief at The Wall Street Journal

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

Hate crimes, gun violence, political polarization…. to New York Times’ columnist David Brooks, these are signs that America is undergoing a new epidemic: social isolation. He joins Ray Suarez to discuss his new book, “How To Know A Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen,” and to unpack how we can rebuild trust and empathy “for the opposition”... by getting to know our neighbors.

Guest:

David Brooks, Op-Ed Columnist at The New York Times and author of “How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen”

Host:  

Ray Suarez

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.

While many Baby Boomers have already left the workforce behind, almost half are considering coming out of retirement in search of a new purpose in life. Leading sociologist and business economist Mauro Guillén joins Ray Suarez to explain why the days of “OK Boomer” are coming to an end… and why the future of work will be “post-generational.”

Guest:

Mauro F. Guillén, Vice Dean at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and author of “The Perennials: The Megatrends Creating a Post Generational Society”

Host:

Ray Suarez

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.