In 2018, Chinese scientist He Jianku sent shockwaves through the world’s medical and scientific world when he claimed to have made two children immune to HIV using a powerful gene-editing technology called “CRISPR”. After a three-year prison sentence, Jianku is back in the lab, but should he be experimenting with human genes?

Ray Suarez talks with Dr. Alta Charo, the Warren P. Knowles Professor Emerita of Law and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, about the ethics of CRISPR, and the opportunities and risks of the technology.

Guest:

Dr. Alta Charo, the Warren P. Knowles Professor Emerita of Law and Bioethics at the University of Wisconsin at Madison

Host:

Ray Suarez, host of World Affairs

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.

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.