World Affairs: Recent Episodes
World Affairs
The world as we knew it is undergoing a rapid transformation…so what's next?
Welcome to WorldAffairs, your guide to a changing world. We give you the context you need to navigate across borders and ideologies. Through sound-rich stories and in-depth interviews, we break down what it means to be a global citizen on a hot, crowded planet.
Our hosts, Ray Suarez and Philip Yun, help you make sense of an uncertain world, one story at a time.
While in China, Ray Suarez had a front-row seat to draconian lockdowns, the White Paper Protests, and Xi Jinping’s triumphant acceptance of a third term. But a year later, President Xi made his first visit to Europe since before the pandemic, to stave off a trade war with the EU. What happened to China’s economic dominance, and why is Xi turning to the West?
Sue-Lin Wong, a reporter from The Economist, joined Ray for a live-streamed discussion of Xi’s consolidation of power, and the future of the Chinese Communist Party. Then, Ray is joined by Christina Yu, staff writer at Foreign Policy, to break down what Xi’s recent European trip means for China’s economic future.
Guests:
Sue-Lin Wong, The Economist’s Southeast Asia correspondent, host of The Prince: Searching for Xi Jinping
Christina Yu, staff writer, Foreign Policy
Host:
Ray Suarez, host of On Shifting Ground
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.
Next Monday (5/13) at noon PT, we're hosting a special live event where Ray will peel back the curtain on his latest book, We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21st Century.
He'll be joined in conversation by the amazing Ali Noorani, Director of the U.S. Democracy Program at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
You can get your tickets here. Ray will take questions from the audience at the end of the program!
We Are Home: Becoming American in the 21st Century
Immigrants to America have always faced resistance, and have always – over time – assimilated and become vital parts of America. This is a process as old as the nation itself, and it can't be stopped, no matter how many – or how few – new immigrants arrive every year.
But in a fraught political moment where “America First” is threatening their security, what does it mean to be an immigrant in the 21st century?
Ray Suarez has criss-crossed the country to speak to new Americans from all corners of the globe, and to record their stories.
Silicon Valley relies on a huge foreign born workforce, mostly from India and China, to provide specialized skills in fields like engineering, biotech, AI and computer science. But after layoff, these visa holders have 60 days to find a new job, or lose their residency in the United States.
In 2023, tech reporter Pranav Dixit dug into the mass layoffs in Silicon Valley, and why these drastic reductions were forcing some foreign-born workers to reevaluate the decision to live in the US. At the time he was working for Buzzfeed News. But when the news unit shut down, Dixit was put in the same precarious situation as the H-1B workers he covered in his reporting.
Ray Suarez catches up with Pranav Dixit to get an update on his complicated journey to find new work, and his race to stay in the United States.
Read more of Pranav Dixit’s reporting for Buzzfeed: Laid-Off Tech Workers On H-1B Visas Might Be Forced To Leave The Country
Guest:
Pranav Dixit, senior editor at Engadget
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.
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.
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.
Christmas is here, but for many Christians around the world, war has cast a shadow over this year’s festivities. To break with Russian orthodoxy and influence, Ukraine will officially observe Christmas on December 25, even as the terror of airstrikes taints the air. And in Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, Palestinian Christians have canceled all celebrations in solidarity with their countrymen under attack in Gaza.
Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, Senior Pastor at The Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, and Bohdan Nahaylo, Chief Editor of Kyiv Post, join Ray Suarez to share what Christmas in wartime looks like, from Palestine to Ukraine.
Guests:
Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, Senior Pastor at The Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Palestine and Academic Dean at the Bethlehem Bible College
Bohdan Nahaylo, Chief Editor at Kyiv Post
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 Putin’s costly war in Ukraine, to simmering tensions between the US and China, and renewed violence in the Middle East, this week, we’re looking back at the international news stories that defined 2023. Professor Jessica Chen Weiss, senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute; Karim Elgendy, founder of the Carboun Initiative for Middle Eastern Sustainable Cities; and Luke Harding, foreign correspondent at The Guardian, join Ray Suarez to dissect this year’s most significant geopolitical shifts… and the foreign policy issues that will define 2024.
To dive deeper, check out these episodes:
- China’s Dream of Global Dominance
- Why China and the US are Saber-Rattling Over Taiwan
- Is The Middle East Swiping Left on America?
- How the Palestinian Question Could Unravel Netanyahu’s “New Middle East”
- Two Dictators Walk Into a Bar: What We Learned From the Putin-Kim Summit
- Putin’s Prigozhin Trap, with Anne Applebaum
Guests:
Jessica Chen Weiss, Michael J. Zak Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies at Cornell University and senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute
Karim Elgendy, Urban sustainability and climate consultant, and founder of the Carboun Initiative for Middle Eastern Sustainable Cities
Luke Harding, foreign correspondent for The Guardian and author of Invasion
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.
As the war on Gaza continues with no end in sight, two peace activists – one Palestinian and one Israeli – are already charting a non-violent path forward. Ray Suarez sits down with Luxembourg Peace Prize laureates, Ali Abu Awwad, founding leader of the Taghyeer (Change) Palestinian National Nonviolence movement, and Dr. Gershon Baskin, the Middle East director of the International Communities Organization, to learn why they maintain hope for a peaceful, two-state solution.
Ali Abu Awwad was just awarded the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace. Learn more.
Guests:
Ali Abu Awwad, Palestinian peace activist and founder of the Taghyeer (Change) Palestinian National Nonviolence Movement
Gershon Baskin, Israeli peace activist and the Middle East Director of the International Communities Organisation
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 APEC Multistakeholder Forum (AMF), organized by the Commonwealth Club World Affairs, was the first of its kind to feature Indigenous perspectives on what a ‘just transition’ away from fossil fuels should look like. Maui Solomon, Chairman of Moriori Imi Settlement Trust, and Raylene Whitford, Director of the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board, join Ray Suarez to explain how Indigenous representation and inclusion means putting people and the planet above profit.
Guests:
Maui Solomon, Indigenous rights activist and Chairman of Moriori Imi Settlement Trust
Raylene Whitford, Director of the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board
Host:
Ray Suarez
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What does a ‘just’ transition away from fossil fuels actually mean for Indigenous communities? At the APEC Multistakeholder Forum (AMF), organized by the Commonwealth Club World Affairs, Ray Suarez sat down with Chéri A. Smith, a renewable energy expert and Mi’kmaq descendant. They discussed how the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy is working to combat energy poverty, bring solar to Indigenous communities and secure Native people a seat at the clean energy development table.
Guest:
Chéri A. Smith, founder, president and CEO of the Alliance for Tribal Clean Energy
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.
It’s been 78 years since a nuclear weapon was last used in war. Since then, the number of countries with a nuclear arsenal has increased from one… to nine. For the US government, two of the greatest nuclear threats are China and Russia – two superpowers that are escalating their nuclear capacity. US State Department nuclear expert, Mallory Stewart, shares how serious these threats are to the US.
Guest:
Mallory Stewart, Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Deterrence, and Stability.
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Former president Dwight Eisenhower described nuclear war as “unwinnable, unsurvivable and unthinkable.” But what changes when the use of a nuclear weapon now seems thinkable, and maybe… inevitable?
Ray Suarez sits down with Shannon E. French, Director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence, and Matt Korda, Senior Research Fellow for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists, to unpack why talk of nuclear annihilation is now being so casually thrown around by world leaders.
Guests:
Shannon E. French, Director of the Inamori International Center for Ethics and Excellence and a tenured professor in the philosophy department at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland
Matt Korda, Senior Research Fellow for the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists and Associate Researcher with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s Weapons of Mass Destruction program
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.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who died in 2018, was one of the most famous diplomats of his time. In today’s episode, we're sharing an Foreign Policy Magazine's The Negotiators about Annan’s mediation of a Kenyan political crisis in 2008—which stands out as one of his most impressive acts of diplomacy.
What we can learn about the nuances of negotiating?
Guest:
Meredith Preston McGhie, Secretary General for the Global Centre for Pluralism
Hosts:
Ray Suarez
Jenn Williams
Producer:
Laura Rosbrow-Telem
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.
During APEC, President Xi Jinping reminded world leaders that China is “open for business.” So what does the next era of US-China relations look like? Ivan Kanapathy, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, joins Ray Suarez to unpack the stakes of the Biden-Xi sideline talks, and just how far the two leaders will go to reestablish ties.
Guest:
Ivan Kanapathy, Senior Associate, Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic & International Studies
Host:
Ray Suarez
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While the past year has seen major gains for LGBT+ rights, politicians around the world are increasingly using the community as scapegoats. Julie Dorf, Co-Chair of the Council for Global Equality, joins Ray Suarez to explain how a transnational network of American Christians is targeting LGBT+ rights at home… and abroad.
Guest:
Julie Dorf, Co-Chair of the Council for Global Equality
Host:
Ray Suarez
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This year, Uganda enacted one of the harshest anti-LGBT+ laws in the world, making homosexuality punishable by death. Ugandan Human Rights activist Dr. Frank Mugisha joins Ray Suarez to share how American Christian evangelicals radicalized the East African country, and how the fight for human rights has turned deadly.
Guest:
Dr. Frank Mugisha, Ugandan LGBT advocate and Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Can economic power-brokering overcome decades of repression and human rights abuses? Karen Elliott House has covered Saudi Arabia for over four decades, and the Pulitzer-Prize reporter joins Ray Suarez to share her take on Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s vision for his country’s future.
Guest:
Karen Elliott House, Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Saudi Arabia has embarked on a bold vision of innovation, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stated aims for a long war on Gaza could interrupt Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman’s plans. NPR International Correspondent Aya Batrawy joins Ray Suarez to unpack how Saudi Arabia’s leader may react.
Guest:
Aya Batrawy, NPR International Correspondent and head of NPR’s Gulf Bureau
Host:
Ray Suarez
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By 2030, around 600 million people will be struggling with extreme poverty. And the effects of climate change will only exacerbate the problem. Jorge Familiar joins Ray Suarez to share how the World Bank has revised its mission to tackle the twin problems of climate change and inequality.
Guest:
Jorge Familiar, VP and Treasurer of the World Bank
Host:
Ray Suarez
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What do you need to know about wealth to understand structural inequality in America? Becoming wealthy is getting harder with each generation, and the biggest predictor of whether you’ll achieve it isn’t your class… but your race. Ray Suarez sits down with economist Darrick Hamilton to discuss closing the racial wealth gap in the US.
Guest:
Darrick Hamilton, American economist and Henry Cohen Professor of Economics and Urban Policy and Professor at The New School for Social Research
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Thousands have been killed in the ongoing violence between Israel and Hamas, and a ground invasion into Gaza appears imminent. Former US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates predicts how war could ripple through the Middle East.
Guest:
Robert Gates, former US Secretary of Defense
Host:
Ray Suarez
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On October 7, Hamas, an Iran-backed Islamist terrorist group, broke through the high-tech security barrier which divides Israel from the Gaza Strip, and launched a coordinated surprise attack on neighboring Israeli military targets and communities. Over 1,200 were killed, and 200 Israelis are still being held hostage. In retaliation, Israel has bombed the Gaza Strip — killing almost 4,000 Palestinians— and cut off water, electricity, medical and humanitarian aid in the occupied territory.
As the conflict spills over to the occupied West Bank and to neighboring Lebanon and Syria, and Israel’s far-right government prepares troops for a ground invasion into Gaza, how is the Arab world responding? Ray Suarez speaks with Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about how the attacks may undo years of relationship-building in the Middle East.
Guest:
Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Host:
Ray Suarez
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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
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How does Russia benefit from conflict in the Caucasus? And what role can the media play in building bridges of understanding? In this episode, we revisit our conversations with Russian-American journalist Simon Ostrovsky and independent Azeri journalist Arzu Geybulla on the roots of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict post-Soviet collapse, and the potential for future reconciliation.
Guests:
Simon Ostrovsky, PBS NewsHour Special Correspondent
Arzu Geybulla, Independent Azeri journalist and Founder of Azerbaijan Internet Watch
Hosts:
Ray Suarez
Teresa Cotsirilos
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In late September, Azerbaijan wiped out the self-proclaimed, ethnically Armenian Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh. The attacks prompted Armenia to finally join the International Criminal Court—despite warnings from Russia.
Ray Suarez speaks with human rights lawyer Sheila Paylan about what Armenia’s decision means for the country’s strained relations with Russia, and why Armenians are accusing Azerbaijan of war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
Guest:
Sheila Paylan, International Lawyer and Human Rights & Gender Expert
Host:
Ray Suarez
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The United Kingdom recently passed a law which grants immunity for the violence of The Troubles – adding another wrinkle to the ongoing Brexit saga. Jude Webber, Ireland correspondent for The Financial Times, joins Ray Suarez to unpack how the precarious peace held together by the Good Friday agreement is at risk of unraveling.
Guest:
Jude Webber, Ireland correspondent for The Financial Times
Host:
Ray Suarez
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April marked the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement, bringing to an end decades of violence known as “The Troubles.” But the chaotic implementation of Brexit and a new Northern Ireland Troubles “reconciliation” law from the UK are threatening that historic peace deal.
From our friends at Foreign Policy’s “The Negotiators,” Jonathan Powell, a chief negotiator of the Good Friday agreement, shares what actually happened in the room. Find the show’s new season wherever you get your podcasts.
Guest:
Jonathan Powell, chief negotiator for the Good Friday Talks under UK Prime Minister Tony Blair
Foreign Policy Production Team:
Host: Jenn Williams | Executive producers: Amjad Atallah, Jigar Mehta, and Japhet Weeks | Lead producer: Laura Rosbrow-Telem | Managing Editor: Dan Ephron | Additional support from: Rob Sachs, Rosie Julin, and Maria Ximena Aragon
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.
If military cooperation with North Korea is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions, why would Russia do it so publicly? And what’s in it for the Hermit Kingdom? Andrei Lankov, Director at NK News, joins Ray Suarez to explain why Kim Jong Un is solidifying relations with Russia… and not China.
Guest:
Andrei Lankov, Director at NK News and Professor at Kookmin University
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Russia is firing off more artillery shells than they can produce at home, forcing the Kremlin to shop around for a new supplier. Ray Suarez speaks with New York Times’ national security reporter Julian Barnes about Russia’s alleged arms deal with North Korea, and what it means for the war in Ukraine.
Guest:
Julian Barnes, national security reporter for The New York Times
Host:
Ray Suarez
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As many as 150,000 US auto workers have walked out in a historic strike against the Big Three Automakers. In this special rerun episode, Mark Phelan, auto writer and columnist for the Detroit Free Press, joins Ray Suarez to break down why electric vehicles and wages are a red line for autoworkers.
Guests:
Shawn Fain, President of the United Auto Workers
Mark Phelan, auto writer and columnist for the Detroit Free Press
Host:
Ray Suarez
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In 2023, the rapid pace of innovation in Silicon Valley is making it increasingly challenging for our global partners to keep up. Ray Suarez speaks with Gerard de Graaf, Senior Envoy for Digital to the US, about strengthening US-EU cooperation on digital affairs. Then, Caitlin Chin, Strategic Technologies Program Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, returns with an update on the latest digital drama between Washington and Beijing… and where a possible TikTok ban goes from here.
Guests:
Gerard de Graaf, Senior Envoy for Digital to the U.S. and head of the EU office in San Francisco
Caitlin Chin, Strategic Technologies Program Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Is West Africa going to war over Niger? And is the Niger coup part of a wider decline in French colonial influence – and growing Russian and Chinese interest – in the region? Ray Suarez sits down with security analyst Fola Aina and journalist Nabila Ramdani to discuss the coup in Niger – and across former French colonies in the Sahel region. They explain why the Niger coup could help the Wagner Group expand influence.
Guests:
Fola Aina, international security analyst at the Royal United Services Institute of Security and Defense Studies in London
Nabila Ramdani, French journalist and author of “Fixing France, How to Repair a Broken Republic”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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What will happen to Wagner without Prigozhin? And can Russia continue to isolate itself from the economic chaos its war has created? Ray Suarez speaks with Catherine Belton, The Washington Post’s Russia reporter, about the mercenary organization’s future and the price Russians — ordinary and oligarch — are paying for Putin’s power plays.
Guest:
Catherine Belton, international investigative reporter for The Washington Post and author of “Putin's People”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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On August 23rd, Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a mysterious plane crash just 60 days after his mercenary group Wagner led a failed coup attempt that Russian president Vladimir Putin called “treasonous.”
Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum argues that Putin needed a spectacular act of violence after Prigozhin’s challenge to his power. She and Ray discuss what this means for a fragile Russia.
Read Applebaum’s latest column for The Atlantic, Prigozhin’s Death Heralds Even More Spectacular Violence - The Atlantic.
Guest:
Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism and staff writer at The Atlantic.
Host:
Ray Suarez
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The aftermath of the Chinese surveillance balloon saga reveals a growing diplomatic divide between the US and China. Where does this mistrust come from?
In “Wealth and Power,” authors Orville Schell and John Delury argue that foreign humiliation over the past century and a half is the story that holds China together. They join host Ray Suarez to discuss China’s quest for global dominance.
Guests:
John Delury, US Professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea
Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China relations at the Asia Society
Host:
Ray Suarez, host of World Affairs
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Groups like the Reichsbürger and Sovereign Citizens are not new, but the ways in which they radicalize each other on the Internet are. Ray Suarez and journalist Julia Ebner explore how once-fringe movements like QAnon are popping up in European political circles.
Guest:
Julia Ebner, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and author of “Going Dark: The Secret Lives of Extremists”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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When former President Trump incited his followers to storm the US Capitol, he punctured a 220-year-old tradition in the US. And from the looks of things, the country is headed for another contentious election in 2024. Ray Suarez and New York Times columnist Tom Edsall explore whether we’ve passed a point of no return in American politics.
Guest:
Thomas B. Edsall, political columnist at The New York Times and author of “The Point of No Return: American Democracy at the Crossroads”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Asian carmakers have pulled ahead in the race for EV innovation, leaving the US in their rearview mirrors. International auto journalist Hans Greimel joins Ray Suarez to break down how Asian countries are tackling the transition, and what the future of electric vehicles looks like.
Guest:
Hans Greimel, Asia editor for Automotive News
Host:
Ray Suarez
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President Biden’s bold energy future features significant investment in electric vehicles, but the United Auto Workers are pumping the breaks. Mark Phelan, auto writer and columnist for the Detroit Free Press, joins Ray Suarez to break down why the threat of EVs is a red line for autoworkers.
Guest:
Mark Phelan, auto writer and columnist for the Detroit Free Press
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. 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
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With a few keystrokes, users across the world can find virtually anything online. But at what cost? UC Berkeley researchers Alexa Koenig and Andrea Lampros join Ray Suarez to break down how everyday exposure to trauma is affecting social media users worldwide, and to discuss their upcoming book, “Graphic: Trauma and Meaning in our Online Lives.”
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.
In June, retired General David Petraeus joined the Marines’ Memorial Association “Leading From the Front” speaker series, where he offered insights on how small nations can contend with formidable superpowers, and how President Volodymyr Zelenskyy scored the role of a lifetime.
Guest:
General David Petraeus, Former CIA Director and Chairman of the KKR Global Institute
Host:
Mike Cerre, PBSNewsHour Special Correspondent
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After 20 years of “forever wars,” the American contest for influence and control in the Middle East hasn’t stopped. But now the US has company, and the countries in the region have options. Mara Rudman, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress, joins Ray Suarez to dissect the delicate state of play in the Middle East.
Guest:
Mara Rudman, Executive Vice President for Policy at the Center for American Progress
Host:
Ray Suarez
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At the 2023 APEC Forum in Detroit, Malaysian Deputy Minister Liew Chin Tong tells Ray Suarez how spaces like APEC are key to balancing relationships with competing superpowers. Then, Deputy Secretary Vangelis Vitalis shares how the demand for traditional Kiwi exports has kept Aotearoa’s economy afloat.
Guest:
Liew Chin Tong, Deputy Minister of Malaysian Investment, Trade and Industry
Vangelis Vitalis, Deputy Secretary, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Host:
Ray Suarez
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US Trade Representative Katherine Tai played host to the APEC Forum in Detroit, where she balanced American interests, international trade agreements and ongoing rivalries with China. Ambassador Tai joined Ray Suarez to speak about how that meeting went, and what it really means to put workers at the center of US trade policy.
Guest:
Ambassador Katherine Tai, US Trade Representative
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Researcher Christopher Reddy has watched in despair as public confidence in science has plummeted. He joins Ray Suarez to discuss his new book, “Science Communication in a Crisis,” and why scientists may be part of the problem in science denialism.
Guest:
Christopher Reddy, Senior Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and author of “Science Communication in a Crisis”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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In his new book, “A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World,” nature writer David Gessner grapples with communicating about climate change with the next generation. David and his daughter, Hadley, join Ray Suarez to have that conversation, and to spur all of us “hypocrites” who drive cars and fly in planes to fight the climate fight.
Guest:
David Gessner, nature writer and author of “A Traveler’s Guide to the End of the World”
Hadley Gessner, David’s daughter
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Screenwriter Noah Pink tells Ray Suarez how he discovered the true story behind “Tetris,” from the Cold War race to secure the rights to the classic video game to its escape from the former Soviet Union.
Guest:
Noah Pink, “Tetris” screenwriter
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Putin may have won the “battle” against Wagner’s Yevgeny Prigozhin, but he’s losing the meme war. Ray speaks with Jen Kirby, Vox’s foreign and national security reporter, about fact verification and conflict reporting amidst state propaganda and viral Twitter memes.
Guest:
Jen Kirby, senior foreign and national security reporter at Vox
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Peace is a process, not an outcome. And in the case of Yemen, Saudi Arabia’s meddling in the country’s civil war has prevented peace for almost a decade. Ray Suarez speaks with Arwa Mokdad, Peace Advocate with the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation, about what a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran could mean for the future of Yemen.
Guest:
Arwa Mokdad, Peace Advocate with the Yemen Relief and Reconstruction Foundation
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Can a single gathering of world leaders really pull billions of people out of poverty? Eric Pelofsky, Deputy Chief of Staff and Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation, joined Ray Suarez days before the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris to share how international financial institutions can make up for past mistakes.
Guest:
Eric Pelofsky, Deputy Chief of Staff and Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Conspiracy communities that once promoted QAnon and anti-vaccine theories have now sunk their teeth into an even tastier morsel: our food supply chain. Laicie Heeley, Executive Producer and Host of “Things That Go Boom,” joins Ray Suarez to break down how cracks in our food system have paved the way for international conspiracy theories about the ongoing food crisis.
Guest:
Laicie Heeley, Executive Producer and Host of “Things That Go Boom”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Concerns about a 'global elite' exerting control over demographic shifts and our food choices have hit the mainstream, and they are feeding anxieties. Ray Suarez speaks with French legal scholar Rim-Sarah Alouane about the "great replacement theory", and what it takes to be considered “French first.”
Guest:
Ridha Khadher, baker and owner of Au Paradis du gourmand
Rim-Sarah Alouane, French legal scholar
Host:
Ray Suarez
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The 1998-1999 war in Kosovo may have ended the fighting between Serbs and Albanian Kosovars, but it didn’t end the conflict. Anatol Lieven, journalist and Eurasian Program Director at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, joins Ray Suarez to explain why ethnic tensions are once again flaring up in the Balkans.
Guest:
Anatol Lieven, journalist and Eurasian Program Director at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Host:
Ray Suarez
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President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s all-powerful leader of 20 years, was recently re-elected, raising serious questions about the state of Turkey’s democracy. Is Erdoğan trying to rebuild the Ottoman Empire? And is his republic Russia’s Trojan Horse in NATO? Ray Suarez speaks with Merve Tahiroğlu, Turkey Program Director at the Project on Middle East Democracy about Erdoğan’s imperial ambitions.
Guest:
Merve Tahiroğlu, Turkey Program Director at the Project on Middle East Democracy
Host:
Ray Suarez
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For decades, Georgia has tried to extricate itself from Russia's shadow. But with the recent influx of Ukrainian refugees and anti-war Russians and the rise of Georgia’s Dream Party, the former Soviet state is once again walking a political tightrope between Russia and a tenuous future with NATO. In this episode, reporter Levi Bridges takes us on the ground to hear about the dangers of standing up to Russia.
Reporter:
Levi Bridges, journalist
Featured guests:
Daniil Chubar, co-founder of Emigration for Action
Monika Jaranowska, Director of Kids Club "Happy Me" Tbilisi
Giga Bokeria, leader of the European Georgia party
Sonja Schiffers, Director of the Heinrich Böll Foundation’s Tbilisi Office
Giorgi Khelashvili, Georgian Dream MP and Deputy Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee of the Parliament of Georgia
Host:
Ray Suarez
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“How is it that foreign corrupt interests could manipulate our government?” asked retired Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, in her testimony during the first impeachment trial against former President Donald Trump in 2019.
In her absorbing memoir, “Lessons from the Edge,” Yovanovich reflected on the disinformation campaign that eventually led to the end of her post as Ambassador to Ukraine. Ray Suarez spoke with Yovanovitch about a lifetime of public service, and why she remains optimistic about Ukraine’s fight for freedom.
Guest:
Marie Yovanovitch, Former US Ambassador to Ukraine and author of the memoir “Lessons From The Edge”
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 innovative concept of a “15-Minute City” holds the potential to address many urbanization challenges. But it hasn’t been without its critics. Ray Suarez and ‘CityNerd’ creator Ray Delahanty, delve into the eccentric conspiracy theories surrounding it, and its feasibility for the future of urban planning in American cities.
Guest:
Ray Delahanty, Host and creator of CityNerd
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Derailed trains, collapsed bridges and an unreliable power grid point to America’s growing infrastructure problem. And though President Biden campaigned on “building back better,” these issues have taken a back seat to political gridlock—at home and abroad.
US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg joins Ray Suarez to break down how the Biden administration plans to get America’s infrastructure back on track — one EV at a time. They spoke following the APEC Transportation Ministerial Meeting in Detroit, Michigan.
Guest:
Pete Buttigieg, US Secretary of Transportation
Host:
Ray Suarez
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The hard truth is that whenever tensions escalate between the US and Asian nations overseas, Asian Americans bear the brunt of that anger at home. In this episode, we revisit the story of Wen Ho Lee, a Taiwanese-American scientist who was falsely accused of spying for the Chinese government, with Helen Zia and George Koo.
Guests:
Helen Zia, journalist, activist and author of Last Boat out of Shanghai and My Country vs. Me
George Koo, retired business consultant and writer
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 decades, Asian-Americans have been the least likely racial minority to hold political office, accounting for less than 1% of elected leaders. But a new generation of Asian American leaders is changing the tide. In this episode, World Affairs President & CEO Philip Yun tells the story of the election that altered the course of his life. Then, California Assemblymember Alex Lee tells Ray Suarez about the political responsibility he has to all Americans.
Guests:
Philip Yun, President and CEO of World Affairs
Assemblymember Alex Lee, California State Assembly, District 24
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Aarthi Shahani, author of the memoir Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares, joins Ray Suarez to discuss her family’s painful path to citizenship, and why it’s time to change the immigration narrative in America.
Guest:
Aarthi Shahani, author of the memoir Here We Are: American Dreams, American Nightmares and host of “Art of Power”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Everybody knows the immigration system is broken. So what are policy makers doing to fix it? And with the end of Title 42 – a pandemic-era order to deny asylum at the US-Mexico border – Biden’s immigration policy will face new challenges.
Ray Suarez speaks with Sabrina Rodriguez, national political reporter at The Washington Post, about what the end of Title 42 means for the 2024 presidential campaign.
Guest:
Sabrina Rodriguez, national politics reporter for The Washington Post
Host:
Ray Suarez
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In an era where changing social norms and labor-market shifts are pushing men to the sidelines, can a crisis of masculinity explain why men are falling behind? Idrees Kahloon, author of “What’s The Matter With Men?,” joins Ray Suarez to explain why improving the welfare of struggling men may help bring greater gender equality.
Guest:
Idrees Kahloon, DC bureau chief for The Economist and author of “What’s The Matter With Men?”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Despite being found liable for sexual abuse, many commentators wonder if the E. Jean Carroll verdict will burden — or boost— Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. The rise of strongman rhetoric and polarizing gender politics is fueling a cultural war in the US, and masculinity is at the center of the debate.
Angela Saini, author of The Patriarchs: How Men Came To Rule, joins Ray Suarez to break down what the “patriarchy” is, and how it operates.
Guest:
Angela Saini, author of The Patriarchs: How Men Came To Rule
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Distrust in official election results isn’t a new trend in Nigerian politics, but the explosion of mis- and disinformation across social media platforms ahead of the country’s 2023 presidential elections made it even harder for Nigerian voters to sort fact from fiction. BBC Nigeria senior disinformation journalist, Fauziyya Tukur, joins Ray Suarez to share how digital disinformation is threatening the future of social trust and democracy in her country.
Guest:
Fauziyya Tukur, senior journalist, Disinformation at BBC News Nigeria
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Despite being the first president—former or sitting—to be indicted for a crime, Donald Trump remains the front-running candidate for the GOP nomination. If the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol and allegations of assault and defamation aren’t enough to deter diehard MAGA fans, what does the future of American politics look like?
Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins Ray Suarez to break down what Trump’s historic indictment—and the fight for the truth in the US—means for the coming 2024 elections.
Guest:
Tom Nichols, staff writer at The Atlantic and professor emeritus of national-security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Media is being challenged as audience consumption trends continue to change, and journalists are facing violence and imprisonment in the field. What do these threats mean for the future of journalism? Ray Suarez sits down with Mark Goldberg, host of “Global Dispatches,” to explore how international journalism can remain vital.
Guest:
Mark Leon Goldberg, editor of UN Dispatch and host of "Global Dispatches"
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Recently, media organizations have laid off thousands of journalists, and in March, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained by Russia’s federal security services under suspicion of espionage. It’s clear that international journalism is under threat.
Gulnoza Said, the Europe and Central Asia program coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, joins Ray Suarez to discuss why the safety of journalists matters to the health of a free press.
Guest:
Gulnoza Said, CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator
Host:
Ray Suarez
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The Chinese balloon’s voyage over American skies has escalated concerns about foreign land ownership in the US. Lawmakers in roughly 11 states — from Arizona, to Montana, to Texas — are up in arms about Chinese ownership of American farmland. Nancy Qian, James J. O'Connor Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences at Kellogg MEDS, Northwestern University, joins Ray Suarez to share how a proposed ban of foreign land ownership could backfire.
Guest:
Nancy Qian, James J. O'Connor Professor of Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences at Kellogg MEDS, Northwestern University
Host:
Ray Suarez
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The Chinese Communist Party has made reunification with Taiwan one of its main political goals, and it has threatened to take the island by military force. Meanwhile, President Biden has reiterated unequivocal support for Taiwan’s security. Dr. Joel Wuthnow, senior research fellow at the National Defense University's Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs, tells Ray Suarez why this puts the US in a political bind.
Guest:
Dr. Joel Wuthnow, senior research fellow at the National Defense University's Center for the Study of Chinese Military Affairs
Host:
Ray Suarez
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As Arizona grapples with looming cuts to its allocation of Colorado River water, the arid state is taking a hard look at how its groundwater is used and who has access to it. Dr. Natailie Koch, author of “Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia,” joins Ray Suarez to explain how Saudi Arabia ended up at the center of a water crisis in the American Southwest.
Guest:
Natalie Koch, Professor for Human Geography at Heidelberg’s Geography Institute and author of “Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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The OPEC+ oil cartel’s surprise decision to cut oil production has the potential to cause all kinds of trouble for the global economy, and may increase geopolitical frictions between longtime allies – the US and Saudi Arabia. So what happens to US-Gulf ties when the desert kingdom turns off the tap?
Ray Suarez sits down with Jim Krane, author of “Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Persian Gulf,” to unravel what these escalating tensions mean.
Guest:
Jim Krane, author of “Energy Kingdoms: Oil and Political Survival in the Persian Gulf”, journalist, and the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston.
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Amid heightened tensions between the US, North Korea, and South Korea in recent weeks, we produced a few episodes about nuclear ambitions and deterrence on the Korean peninsula.
In our first episode, we featured the voice of Siegfried Hecker – he's a nuclear scientist and former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and author of a new book called Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea's Program.
It’s the story of how North Korea went from zero nuclear weapons in 2001, to an arsenal of nearly fifty in just twenty years. And it’s an amazing story… because Sig was there to witness it firsthand…
Guests:
Siegfried Hecker, former Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and professor emeritus at Stanford University
Host:
Ray Suarez
Jim Falk
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Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are heating up once again. For the first time in years, the South Korean and US militaries have been conducting combined military drills in response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats. And as South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declares nuclear weapons a policy option, journalist Jeongmin Kim, Lead Correspondent at NK News and Editorial Director at Korea Pro, answers what it’s like for South Koreans who live under the threat of a nuclear neighbor.
Guest:
Jeongmin Kim, Lead Correspondent at NK News and Editorial Director at Korea Pro
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 security alliance between the United States and South Korea dates back to the Cold War. At its heart is the containment of North Korea, one of three nuclear powers that could threaten the United States – and South Korea and Japan – with catastrophic nuclear war.
Siegfried Hecker, the former Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory, identifies the moment North Korea became a nuclear power–and how the U.S. missed its chance to stop it. Then, Ray Suarez talks with Dr. Victor Cha, Senior Vice President for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to make sense of this escalating tension.
Guests:
Dr. Victor Cha, Senior Vice President for Asia and Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies
Siegfried Hecker, former Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory and author of Hinge Points
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.
In the background of the latest US-China political disputes, is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. This year, the United States plays host to the meeting, which involves more than 1,500 delegates from 21 economies – including China and Russia.
Ray Suarez spoke with Ambassador Matt Murray, senior US official for APEC, from the conference's first event in Palm Springs. Murray, who spent a number of years in Beijing and Shanghai, talks to Ray about whether the US and China can find common ground in trade on the Asian continent.
Guest:
Matt Murray, US Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), US Department of State
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Congress is debating the future of TikTok, the hugely popular video app owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance. TikTok’s detractors suggest that while you watch, the app may be watching you too… vacuuming up data from user’s devices, which can then be handed to the Chinese government.
Caitlin Chin, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joins Ray Suarez to explain the hubbub. She suggests the calls to ban Tiktok aren’t really about data privacy: they’re about China.
Guest:
Caitlin Chin, Fellow, Strategic Technologies Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies
Host:
Ray Suarez, host of On Shifting Ground
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.
In recent decades, millions more Russians have died than have been born. There are many causes – Russian women don’t have many children, and Russian men are dying young in large numbers – and the war in Ukraine is only worsening the trend. So why is Vladimir Putin risking the future of Russia?
Ray Suarez talks with post-Soviet expert Nicholas Eberstadt to understand why this historic population collapse is fueling Putin’s brinkmanship in Ukraine.
Guest:
Nicholas Eberstadt, Henry Wendt Chair in Political Economy at the American Enterprise Institute
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, thousands of Ukrainian children have been abducted by Russian forces. On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant to arrest President Vladimir Putin for crimes against humanity.
In the weeks before the ICC's action, officials within the state department were pressuring the US to support the court’s efforts to hold the Kremlin accountable, but the Pentagon blocked the Biden administration’s coordination with the ICC.
To understand why, Ray Suarez speaks with Beth Van Schaack, ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice at the State Department.
Guest:
Beth Van Schaack, ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice at the State Department
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has long had strong ties to the Kremlin, but he has become increasingly dependent on Putin since he retained power after a contested election in 2020. International observers recognized the true victor as Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is now leading her country’s democratic movement in exile.
With Belarus’ neighbors still at war, we’re revisiting her conversation with Ray Suarez to understand how women might light a new path of leadership, and why there is still more work to do following the country’s struggle against its strongman.
Guest:
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, exiled leader of the Belarusian democratic movement
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.
So far, the world has failed to keep up with the U.N. development goals for gender equality… and the clock is ticking. Can increased financial inclusion and political participation for women help bridge the gap?
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, believes our traditional financial system fails women. She speaks with Ray Suarez about how tech and global investment can help level the playing field.
Guest:
Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President & CEO of Women’s World Banking and author of “There’s Nothing Micro About A Billion Women: Making Finance Work For Women”
Host:
Ray Suarez
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Last May, 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.
We revisit the episode after 'Navalny' recently took home the Academy Award for best documentary.
Guest:
Daniel Roher, documentary filmmaker and director of 'Navalny'
Host:
Ray Suarez
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There are few places in the world where delegates from the United States, China and Russia meet together to consider trade and economic issues, but they met recently in Palm Springs. World Affairs visits a recent Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) event, where 21 nations hashed out the future of global trade. Ray Suarez talks with APEC research head, Carlos Kuriyama, about how the global economy can bounce back from the pandemic.
Guest:
Carlos Kuriyama, Policy Support Unit at APEC
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.
One billion children lost a year or more of critical schooling due to the lockdowns caused by COVID-19. How can we make up for this lost time? On this week’s program, Ray Suarez is joined by Norbert Schady, Chief Economist for Human Development, and Mamta Murthi, Vice President for Human Development, both at the World Bank. They address the challenge of lost human capital, and explain why it’s not too late to get kids back on task.
Guests:
Norbert Schady, Chief Economist for Human Development, World Bank
Mamta Murthi, Vice President for Human Development, World Bank
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.
Joshua Yaffa wasn’t a war correspondent, but The New Yorker writer became one when Russia invaded Ukraine. He tells Ray Suarez how the war solidified a sense of Ukrainian unity that didn’t exist previously. “That is the tragic and dark irony of this war,” said Yaffa. “Putin's invasion brought about the very thing Putin thought he was fighting against from the beginning.”
Guest:
Joshua Yaffa, contributing writer at The New Yorker
Host:
Ray Suarez
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The war over Ukraine continues, and former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul says Putin is not backing down. He tells Ray Suarez why the global response to the current crisis will determine who wins or loses.
This episode was produced in partnership with Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies podcast WorldClass.
Guest:
Michael McFaul, US ambassador to Russia (2012-2014), director at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Host:
Ray Suarez
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When Putin announced a mandatory draft of Russians after taking huge losses in Ukraine, thousands fled the nation. As these anti-war activists have taken refuge in post-Soviet countries, they’ve had to face Russia’s complicated relationship with its neighbors.
In part two of our Ukraine war anniversary series, journalist Levi Bridges tells the story of the Russian exodus, and the cultural reckoning that followed.
Guest:
Levi Bridges, journalist and audio producer
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Bill Browder, formerly Russia’s largest foreign investor, predicted President Vladimir Putin’s long and cruel war in Ukraine. One year later, Browder says Putin’s failures extend far beyond the battlefield.
So, what fuels Putin’s destructive campaign? And what can the rest of the world do to bring the war to an end?
In the first part of our Ukraine anniversary special, Browder joins host Ray Suarez to answer what Putin might do next – and how long this war may last.
Guest:
Bill Browder, financier and author of Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath
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 aftermath of the Chinese surveillance balloon saga reveals a growing diplomatic divide between the US and China. Where does this mistrust come from? And why would Beijing take the risk of high-stakes state espionage?
In “Wealth and Power,” authors Orville Schell and John Delury argue that foreign humiliation over the past century and a half is the story that holds China together.
They join host Ray Suarez to discuss China’s quest for global dominance.
Guests:
John Delury, US Professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University in Seoul, South Korea
Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China relations at the Asia 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.
A father and daughter journey to their ancestral homeland, looking to track down the place their family had lived before being forced to flee the Armenian genocide.
Armenian Pilgrimages: A Journey to the Homeland, comes from Kerning Cultures, a podcast telling stories from the Middle East, North Africa, and the spaces in between.
As a postscript to this story – Nubar ended up going back, on a second trip to historic Armenia. This time with a camera crew and a fixer. He wanted to see if he could buy his grandmother’s plot of land.
The film’s not out yet, but you can watch the trailer at scarsofsilence.com.
Guests:
Nubar Alexanian, filmmaker and photographer
Abby Alexanian, Nubar’s daughter
Carel Bertram, author of A House in the Homeland
Armen Aroyan, (tour guide)
Annie Kahkejian, (tour guide)
Hosts:
Dana Ballout, editor, Kerning Cultures
Alex Atack, managing producer for English production, Kerning Cultures
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 December 12, 2022, Azerbaijan blockaded a narrow road into Nagorno-Karabakh, creating a disastrous situation for the region’s 120,000 Armenian residents. The blockade is the latest in a bloody, post-Soviet conflict flying under the radar.
Journalist Lara Setrakian and political scientist Artak Beglaryan join Ray Suarez to explain the stakes of the crisis, the role of regional powers Russia and Turkey and hopes for democracy’s survival in the region.
Guests:
Artak Beglaryan, advisor to the state minister of Artsakh, Nagorno-Karabakh’s Armenian government
Lara Setrakian, journalist
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.
Earlier in the week, we heard about how Jair Bolsonaro stoked a Second Amendement culture war in Brazil–a country without a Second Amendment.
Now we'll hear from Bloomberg reporter Neil Weinberg, who explains how the NRA forged ties with Brazilian gun advocates, and how the American gun lobby exported its aims around the world.
Guests:
Neil Weinberg, Bloomberg News reporter
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.
Over the course of his presidency, Jair Bolosonaro made a U.S.-style gun culture the defining characteristic of his movement.
By relaxing gun laws in Brazil, the former president armed his supporters. But he also spoke about the importance of guns as a symbol of political freedom...and as a tool for overturning the results of the 2022 presidential election.
How did Jair Bolsonaro leverage a Second Amendment culture war in a country...without a Second Amendment? And how did a fundamentally American ideology lead to an attack on Brazilian Congress earlier this year?
Ray Suarez speaks with Reuters reporter Gabriel Stargardter about Brazil’s version of the January 6th Insurrection, and the Latin American nation’s fight over the "right" to bear arms.
Guest:
Gabriel Stargardter, Reuters reporter in Rio de Janeiro
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 will be at World Affairs live and in-person on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, for a discussion about his life and career.
Find out more information by clicking this link to sign up and attend in person or view online.*
“On Shifting Ground” host Ray Suarez has just returned from a four-month stint living in Shanghai. There, he had a front-row seat to draconian lockdowns, the White Paper Protests, and Xi Jinping’s triumphant acceptance of a third term, cementing the Chinese President’s vision for the country’s future. On his way out of China, Ray witnessed the country’s chaotic exit from “Zero-Covid”, as Beijing scrambled to face the deadly fallout.
What is Xi Jinping’s plan to reset China, and how do we make sense of his enigmatic rule? Sue-Lin Wong, a reporter from The Economist, joined Ray for a live streamed discussion of the consolidation of power by the Chinese Communist Party, and its national and global implications. Wong is also the host of the magazine’s hit podcast “The Prince: Searching for Xi Jinping.”
Guest:
Sue-Lin Wong, The Economist’s Southeast Asia correspondent, host of The Prince: Searching for Xi Jinping.
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.
Economist Brad DeLong was feeling optimistic in February 2021, because inflation was well below target. Weeks later, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion of Ukraine, sending price shocks through the global economy.
The latest numbers indicate inflation is slowing, but people around the world are still feeling the sting. While the US has it better than most, no one is immune from the global economic slump.
So what does inflation mean for our pocketbooks, and for our mental health? Ray Suarez speaks with DeLong about why a little bit of inflation may be good for the economy, but also signals to service-sector and middle class workers that the system isn’t working for them.
Guest:
Bradford DeLong, UC Berkeley economist and author of Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century
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.
Silicon Valley relies on a huge foreign born workforce, mostly from India and China, to provide specialized skills in fields like engineering, biotech, AI and computer science. But after the most recent round of tech layoffs, visa holders have 60 days to find a new job, or lose their residency in the U.S.
Tech reporter Pranav Dixit has been paying attention to the outsized role foreign born workers play in companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon, who have laid off more than 26,000 employees in 2023, and thousands more at the end of 2022. In the course of his reporting, Dixit has found that these drastic cuts have left immigrant programmers and computer scientists wondering if it’s worth staying in the U.S. “People are really using this time to reevaluate their priorities and their relationships,” said Dixit, “with both the US and their own country in many cases.”
Read more of Pranav Dixit’s reporting for Buzzfeed: Laid-Off Tech Workers On H-1B Visas Might Be Forced To Leave The Country
And check out his past appearance on the program: Podcast: Why Farmers are Fighting in Modi’s India - World Affairs Council
Guest:
Pranav Dixit, tech reporter at Buzzfeed
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.
As we approach the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, Iran has been hit with further sanctions for supplying Russia with drones and ballistic missiles. The dense web of overseas conflicts and the growing use of remote weaponry has left many average Americans feeling disengaged from the human toll of war. Journalist Azmat Khan says our ignorance isn’t an accident. She was recently awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her work uncovering the US military’s systematic failure to investigate civilian casualties in the ongoing US fight against ISIS.
On this week’s program, Khan sits down with Ray Suarez to discuss what accountability looks like in the age of remote warfare, and the importance of civilian oversight in US military action. Then, Shannon French joins the program to chart the ever-evolving field of military ethics – and its central role in keeping both civilians and soldiers safe.
Guests:
Azmat Khan, investigative reporter for the New York Times Magazine
Shannon French, Inamori Professor of Ethics at Case Western 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.
What will a new Congress mean for the next two years of foreign policy? The writing on the wall of the new GOP-controlled House spells more hawkishness on China, and more scrutiny of the Biden administration’s aid to Ukraine.
Ray Suarez speaks with Chris Tuttle, from the Council on Foreign Relations, about the impact of the midterms on US foreign policy. Will the razor-thin Republican majority in the House of Representatives empower more conservative, “America-first” factions within the party?
Guest:
Chris Tuttle, Senior Fellow and Director of the Renewing America Initiative, Council on Foreign Relations
Host(s):
Philip Yun, CEO of World Affairs
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.
A viral photo captured Rep. Andy Kim as he worked to clear debris in the aftermath of the Capitol attack. Two years after January 6th, Congressman Andy Kim has been reflecting on today's era of division and uncertainty.
From the failure of deterrence with Russia and China, to rising authoritarianism and a growing disconnect between Washington and the American people, geopolitical norms are under stress. To avoid catastrophic international conflict, Rep. Kim says we will need to think creatively, and act empathetically.
Kim sits down with World Affairs CEO Philip Yun to discuss why now is the time to steer the ship back to calmer waters, and why it’s important to bring the American people into the conversation.
Guest:
Democratic Congressman Andy Kim, New Jersey’s Third District
Host:
Philip Yun, World Affairs CEO
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When President Trump incited his followers to storm the US Capitol, he punctured a 220-year-old tradition in the United States of America. Two years later, we’re still reckoning with the consequences.
Rising political violence is no surprise to Ruth Ben-Ghiat, scholar of fascism and advisor to the House Select Committee on January 6th. Ben-Ghiat and Ray Suarez discuss the stakes of the committee, and how to prevent another riot in the United States. Then, Ray is joined by Julia Ebner, a journalist who went undercover in the world of political extremists. Ebner reveals how conspiracy theories like QAnon have taken hold in Germany.
Guests:
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present
Julia Ebner, author of Going Dark: The Secret Lives of Extremists
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.
This year’s protests in Iran, sparked by the death of Mahsa Jina Amini, are not the first time Iranians have united in the struggle for freedom. Writer, scholar and television star Reza Aslan tells Ray the epic story of an American named Howard Baskerville, who joined Iran’s first fight for democracy nearly 100 years ago.
Guest:
Reza Aslan, writer, religious scholar, and author of a new book, “An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville.”
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
Iran continues to be shaken up by nationwide protests and general strikes. With no real independent press in the country, Iranians covering the story from around the world continue to provide critical insight into the protests and political turmoil. Golnaz Esfandiari, a senior correspondent for Radio Farda, joins the show to explain how breaking news escapes the country, despite threats and censorship from the regime.
Guest:
Golnaz Esfandiari, Senior correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty focusing on Iran
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.
When journalist Lisa Phu’s mother escaped genocide in Cambodia in 1980, she had no idea what would happen to her. It wasn’t until Lisa had a baby of her own that she had a long overdue conversation with her mother, Lan, about their family’s history—through war and violence, separation and loss, endings and beginnings.
In this special episode, we share “Before Me”, a five-part podcast series following one woman’s life—from Cambodia to America—over the course of decades. The story was created, written, and produced by Lisa Phu, deputy editor of the Alaska Beacon, with support from Self Evident Media.
Guest:
Lisa Phu, justice, education, and culture reporter for the Alaska Beacon
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.
A half-century ago, almost two million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge, a radical communist authoritarian regime in Cambodia. In 2006 – with the assistance from the United Nations – the Cambodian government set up a genocide tribunal. Sixteen years and over $300 million later, only three men were convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Why did it take decades to prosecute, and why was the decision so weak – and costly?
Ray Suarez speaks with David Scheffer, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, who played a central role in the genocide tribunal. Then, Ray is joined by investigative journalist Lindsey Kennedy to talk about how Cambodia has changed in the decades since Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.
Guests:
David Scheffer, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations
Lindsey Kennedy, investigative journalist, documentary filmmaker, and the director of TePonui
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.
As Americans continue to grapple with a post-Roe future, how should those seeking reproductive healthcare navigate rampant misinformation online?
Ray Suarez speaks with Alaa Mostafa from Reveal and Anabel Sosa, a journalist with the Human Rights Center investigations lab at the UC Berkeley School of Law, to untangle the spread of abortion misinformation on TikTok and YouTube.
Guests:
Alaa Mostafa, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting
Anabel Sosa, Human Rights Center investigations lab at the UC Berkeley School of 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.
When the United States Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, one group wasn’t surprised: Polish abortion activists. Poland has also restricted access to abortions, and feminist Agnieszka Graff observed, “ This is a cultural battle that has been ongoing for half a century, and I think we were wrong to assume that we won it.” Can Poland’s fight over abortion offer lessons for an uncertain future?
Ray Suarez speaks with Agnieszka Graff about Poland’s war on abortion – and how a historic protest movement is fighting back.
Guests:
Agnieszka Graff, Polish feminist and co-author of Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Movement
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 2022 FIFA World Cup, the world’s most popular sporting event, is hosted by Qatar, and over 5 billion viewers are expected to tune in. Even if you’re not a diehard soccer fan, you might be familiar with some of the serious controversies surrounding this year’s games. From allegations of corruption and bribery around Qatar’s bid to the host’s flagrant human rights abuses, the World Cup has already had a heavy financial and human cost.
Ray Suarez teases the tournament’s most interesting storylines with Alex Kay-Jelski, the editor-in-chief of the Athletic UK. Kay-Jelski is England’s first openly gay sports editor, and he shares what it’s like covering the games in Qatar – where homosexuality is a crime. Then, economist Andrew Zimbalist tries to untangle FIFA’s complicated ledger to explain why the games are so expensive.
Guests:
Alex Kay-Jelski, the editor-in-chief of The Athletic UK
Andrew Zimbalist, American economist, Robert A. Woods professor of economics at Smith College
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.
Tribal rights are guaranteed by the US Constitution, but modern court cases – including the Brackeen case currently before the US Supreme Court – are reminders that Indigenous sovereignty and Native lands are still at risk in the United States. And in Canada, Indigenous activists are still fighting back against generations of hardship and forced separation of families.
Ray Suarez is joined by Tammerlin Drummond, creator and host of the “Gold Chains” from the Northern California chapter of the ACLU. Then, Jenn Williams, host of Foreign Policy’s show, The Negotiators, talks with Cindy Blackstock, the plaintiff in the largest-ever class action settlement in Canada’s history – $32 billion dollars set aside for Native victims and families harmed by the child welfare system.
Guests:
Tammerlin Drummond, communications strategist, ACLU of Northern California; creator, host and writer, Gold Chains podcast
Cindy Blackstock, executive director, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
Hosts:
Ray Suarez
Jenn Williams, host of The Negotiators
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.
Tribal rights are guaranteed by the US Constitution, but modern court cases – including the Brackeen case currently before the US Supreme Court – are reminders that Indigenous sovereignty and Native lands are still at risk in the United States. And in Canada, Indigenous activists are still fighting back against generations of hardship and forced separation of families.
Ray Suarez is joined by Tammerlin Drummond, creator and host of the “Gold Chains” from the Northern California chapter of the ACLU. Then, Jenn Williams, host of Foreign Policy’s show, The Negotiators, talks with Cindy Blackstock, the plaintiff in the largest-ever class action settlement in Canada’s history – $32 billion dollars set aside for Native victims and families harmed by the child welfare system.
Guests:
Tammerlin Drummond, communications strategist, ACLU of Northern California; creator, host and writer, Gold Chains podcast
Cindy Blackstock, executive director, First Nations Child and Family Caring Society
Hosts:
Ray Suarez
Jenn Williams, host of The Negotiators
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 midterms may be over, but the web of misinformation shaping global politics is everywhere…disrupting elections, destabilizing currencies, and dividing communities around the world. Identifying false information, like deep fakes and conspiracy theories, can be hard – and sites like Facebook and Twitter aren’t making things any easier.
In this week’s episode of On Shifting Ground, we look at the global relationship between misinformation, war, and peace. CEO of PeaceTech Lab, Sheldon Himelfarb, sits down with Ray to discuss what makes our present-day information crisis so unique – and dangerous. Then Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, breaks down “The Berkeley Protocol,” a new international standard for verifying online images in war zones, from Myanmar to Ukraine.
Guests:
Sheldon Himelfarb, CEO of PeaceTech Lab
Alexa Koenig, Executive Director of the Human Rights Center at UC Berkeley
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.
It’s been three years since the Sudanese Revolution, a massive grassroots campaign that ousted the country’s longtime dictator Omar Al-Bashir. Now, Sudan is back under military control … but calls for change from the country’s pro-democracy movement are only getting louder.
On this week’s episode, Ray brings us to the frontlines of Sudan’s daily street protests, guided by activist and researcher Muzan Alneel. Then, guest host Hana Baba speaks with Declan Walsh, Chief Africa Correspondent for the New York Times, about Russia’s shadow investments in Sudan and how Putin’s aggressive policy in Africa may have predicted his invasion of Ukraine. Hana sits down with Kholood Khair, a Khartoum-based political strategist, and Bakri Ali, a diaspora organizer, to discuss the failings of US policy in Sudan and the revolution’s importance to democracy movements everywhere.
Guests:
Muzan Alneel, pro-democracy activist and nonresident fellow at The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
Declan Walsh, Chief Africa correspondent at The New York Times
Bakri Ali, Sudanese diaspora activist and aerospace engineer
Kholood Khair, political strategist and founder of Confluence Advisory
Hosts:
Ray Suarez
Hana Baba, guest host of On Shifting Ground, host of KALW’s Crosscurrents
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.
It’s been three years since the Sudanese Revolution, a massive grassroots campaign that ousted the country’s longtime dictator Omar Al-Bashir. Now, Sudan is back under military control … but calls for change from the country’s pro-democracy movement are only getting louder.
On this week’s episode, Ray brings us to the frontlines of Sudan’s daily street protests, guided by activist and researcher Muzan Alneel. Then, guest host Hana Baba speaks with Declan Walsh, Chief Africa Correspondent for the New York Times, about Russia’s shadow investments in Sudan and how Putin’s aggressive policy in Africa may have predicted his invasion of Ukraine. Hana sits down with Kholood Khair, a Khartoum-based political strategist, and Bakri Ali, a diaspora organizer, to discuss the failings of US policy in Sudan and the revolution’s importance to democracy movements everywhere.
Guests:
Muzan Alneel, pro-democracy activist and nonresident fellow at The Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy
Declan Walsh, Chief Africa correspondent at The New York Times
Bakri Ali, Sudanese diaspora activist and aerospace engineer
Kholood Khair, political strategist and founder of Confluence Advisory
Hosts:
Ray Suarez
Hana Baba, guest host of On Shifting Ground, host of KALW’s Crosscurrents
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.
COVID-19 and monkeypox cases may be down for now … but we’re not out of the woods yet. And according to famed epidemiologist and CEO of Pandefense Advisory, Larry Brilliant, these aren’t the last – or even the most destructive – mass outbreaks we could see in our lifetimes. Climate change, population growth, and rampant disinformation will exponentially increase the risks of disease.
On this week’s episode of On Shifting Ground, Brilliant joins Ray Suarez to break down what the global pandemic response community got wrong (and right), the enduring geopolitics of vaccination, and the urgent need to build a more pandemic-resilient society.
Guest:
Larry Brilliant, physician, epidemiologist, and CEO of Pandefense Advisory
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.
COVID-19 and monkeypox cases may be down for now … but we’re not out of the woods yet. And according to famed epidemiologist and CEO of Pandefense Advisory, Larry Brilliant, these aren’t the last – or even the most destructive – mass outbreaks we could see in our lifetimes. Climate change, population growth, and rampant disinformation will exponentially increase the risks of disease.
On this week’s episode of On Shifting Ground, Brilliant joins Ray Suarez to break down what the global pandemic response community got wrong (and right), the enduring geopolitics of vaccination, and the urgent need to build a more pandemic-resilient society.
Guest:
Larry Brilliant, physician, epidemiologist, and CEO of Pandefense Advisory
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.
In August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taipei and stood shoulder-to-shoulder to Taiwanese officials. She said her visit was to honor the US’s unwavering support for Taiwanese sovereignty. Leaders in mainland China – who have made the annexation of Taiwan a key political priority – were furious.
This week, Ray takes a close look at Taiwan: its colonial past, vibrant democratic tradition, and what recent disputes over independence could mean for its people — and national security – today. We hear directly from a range of Taiwanese voices on the ground, including speakers from the two major political parties vying for influence in the country’s domestic sphere.
Guests:
Jeremy Huai-Che Chiang, Taiwanese student and research assistant with Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
Syaru Shirley Lin, professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia
Guan Fu, research associate at Taiwan Democracy Progressive Party (DPP)
Steven Wang, former staffer the Kuomintang (KMT) Party
Host:
Ray Suarez, host of On Shifting Ground with 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.
In August, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taipei and stood shoulder-to-shoulder to Taiwanese officials. She said her visit was to honor the US’s unwavering support for Taiwanese sovereignty. Leaders in mainland China – who have made the annexation of Taiwan a key political priority – were furious.
This week, Ray takes a close look at Taiwan: its colonial past, vibrant democratic tradition, and what recent disputes over independence could mean for its people — and national security – today. We hear directly from a range of Taiwanese voices on the ground, including speakers from the two major political parties vying for influence in the country’s domestic sphere.
Guests:
Jeremy Huai-Che Chiang, Taiwanese student and research assistant with Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation
Syaru Shirley Lin, professor at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia
Guan Fu, research associate at Taiwan Democracy Progressive Party (DPP)
Steven Wang, former staffer the Kuomintang (KMT) Party
Host:
Ray Suarez, host of On Shifting Ground with 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.
New name...same award-winning insights.
"On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez" drops on October 31st.
New name...same award-winning insights.
"On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez" drops on October 31st.
When Joe Biden took office, he promised to pull the US out of costly wars in the Middle East and take a harsher stance toward human rights violations in the region. But this past year, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – and the ensuing energy crisis – have thrown a wrench in Biden’s strategy. And longtime ally Saudi Arabia is giving the US the cold shoulder, cutting oil production weeks before midterm elections.
This week, Ray Suarez sits down with two Middle East policy experts to debate the best path forward for US engagement in the region. Quincy Institute Executive Vice President Trita Parsi and Brookings Institution senior fellow Shadi Hamid break down their new books, that OPEC news, and the uneasy policy balance between oil, guns, and human rights.
Guests:
Shadi Hamid, senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institution
Trita Parsi, co-founder and 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.
When Joe Biden took office, he promised to pull the US out of costly wars in the Middle East and take a harsher stance toward human rights violations in the region. But this past year, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine – and the ensuing energy crisis – have thrown a wrench in Biden’s strategy. And longtime ally Saudi Arabia is giving the US the cold shoulder, cutting oil production weeks before midterm elections.
This week, Ray Suarez sits down with two Middle East policy experts to debate the best path forward for US engagement in the region. Quincy Institute Executive Vice President Trita Parsi and Brookings Institution senior fellow Shadi Hamid break down their new books, that OPEC news, and the uneasy policy balance between oil, guns, and human rights.
Guests:
Shadi Hamid, senior fellow in the Center for Middle East Policy at Brookings Institution
Trita Parsi, co-founder and 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.
In the past few years, there’s been a growing number of high-profile acts of violence inspired by the “great replacement theory,” an extremist doctrine based on the unsubstantiated belief that non-white populations will “replace” and subjugate white majorities across the globe. Once confined to the radical fringe, replacement theory has now entered mainstream conservative rhetoric.
On this week’s episode, Ray Suarez sits down with Daniel Byman, a counterterrorism expert and author of Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism, to discuss the roots of the global white power movement, how extremism spreads, and what the mainstreaming of violence as a political tactic means for targeted communities–and democracy–in the world today.
Guest:
Daniel Byman, Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution and professor at Georgetown 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.
In the past few years, there’s been a growing number of high-profile acts of violence inspired by the “great replacement theory,” an extremist doctrine based on the unsubstantiated belief that non-white populations will “replace” and subjugate white majorities across the globe. Once confined to the radical fringe, replacement theory has now entered mainstream conservative rhetoric.
On this week’s episode, Ray Suarez sits down with Daniel Byman, a counterterrorism expert and author of Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism, to discuss the roots of the global white power movement, how extremism spreads, and what the mainstreaming of violence as a political tactic means for targeted communities–and democracy–in the world today.
Guest:
Daniel Byman, Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution and professor at Georgetown 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.
President Barack Obama delivered over 450 speeches during his tenure, but one of his most famous was entirely unscripted. Back in 2015, as the country mourned the victims of Charleston church shooting, the president spontaneously began to sing. And for longtime staff speechwriter Cody Keenan, Obama’s famous “Amazing Grace” speech epitomized the power of oration to guide Americans in times of immense national crisis.
This week, Keenan joins Ray to discuss his new book, “Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America.” In it, he pulls back the curtain on the presidential writers’ room, and how the administration strove to bring a country together.
Guest:
Cody Keenan, partner at Fenway Strategies and former White House Director of Speechwriting
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.
President Barack Obama delivered over 450 speeches during his tenure, but one of his most famous was entirely unscripted. Back in 2015, as the country mourned the victims of Charleston church shooting, the president spontaneously began to sing. And for longtime staff speechwriter Cody Keenan, Obama’s famous “Amazing Grace” speech epitomized the power of oration to guide Americans in times of immense national crisis.
This week, Keenan joins Ray to discuss his new book, “Grace: President Obama and Ten Days in the Battle for America.” In it, he pulls back the curtain on the presidential writers’ room, and how the administration strove to bring a country together.
Guest:
Cody Keenan, partner at Fenway Strategies and former White House Director of Speechwriting
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.
Cuba is a small island nation of 11.3 million people, but the country has long loomed large in the American political imagination. Viewed as both a hostile pro-Soviet neighbor and an anti-imperialist revolutionary, Cuba has held a contentious relationship with the US. The Obama administration began to repair the strained diplomatic relationship, but the invasion of Ukraine and enduring Trump-era sanctions are once again inflaming deep-rooted Cold War tensions.
In this week’s episode, we explore the deep roots of Cuban internationalism…and its impact on everyday Cubans. We begin with historian William Kelly, who charts Cuba’s little-known history of solidarity with Ukraine—and how Cuba’s pro-Putin stance is turning this history on its head. Then, Ray is joined by Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Ada Ferrer, whose new book Cuba: An American History offers a new take on US-Cuba relations.
Guests:
William Kelly, lecturer in Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University
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:
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 a small island nation of 11.3 million people, but the country has long loomed large in the American political imagination. Viewed as both a hostile pro-Soviet neighbor and an anti-imperialist revolutionary, Cuba has held a contentious relationship with the US. The Obama administration began to repair the strained diplomatic relationship, but the invasion of Ukraine and enduring Trump-era sanctions are once again inflaming deep-rooted Cold War tensions.
In this week’s episode, we explore the deep roots of Cuban internationalism…and its impact on everyday Cubans. We begin with historian William Kelly, who charts Cuba’s little-known history of solidarity with Ukraine—and how Cuba’s pro-Putin stance is turning this history on its head. Then, Ray is joined by Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Ada Ferrer, whose new book Cuba: An American History offers a new take on US-Cuba relations.
Guests:
William Kelly, lecturer in Caribbean Studies at Rutgers University
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:
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.
In 2008, Jason Rezaian made a life changing decision to move to Iran and follow his dream of being a foreign correspondent. He fell in love, became a reporter for the Washington Post, and even played host to Anthony Bourdain in the Iran episode of “Parts Unknown.” Then, Jason’s life was turned upside down when he was arrested and held hostage in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for 544 days.
At least 40 Americans are currently held captive around the world–not by terrorist groups, but by foreign governments. On today’s episode, we hear Jason’s story and why he thinks it’s essential that the US government and media change the way they talk about American hostages abroad so we can finally bring them home.
Guests:
Jason Rezaian, Washington Post global opinions writer, host of 544 Days and author of Prisoner
Yeganeh Rezaian, senior researcher at the Committee to Protect Journalists
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.
In 2008, Jason Rezaian made a life changing decision to move to Iran and follow his dream of being a foreign correspondent. He fell in love, became a reporter for the Washington Post, and even played host to Anthony Bourdain in the Iran episode of “Parts Unknown.” Then, Jason’s life was turned upside down when he was arrested and held hostage in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for 544 days.
At least 40 Americans are currently held captive around the world–not by terrorist groups, but by foreign governments. On today’s episode, we hear Jason’s story and why he thinks it’s essential that the US government and media change the way they talk about American hostages abroad so we can finally bring them home.
Guests:
Jason Rezaian, Washington Post global opinions writer, host of 544 Days and author of Prisoner
Yeganeh Rezaian, senior researcher at the Committee to Protect Journalists
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.
Just days before Putin invaded Ukraine, Russian authorities detained U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner on reported minor drug charges. Seven months later, Putin’s war rages on … and Griner—a Black lesbian athlete—remains in Russian custody, facing a brutal nine-year sentence that experts say may be politically motivated.
With her sentencing, Griner joins a growing list of US citizens detained abroad—not by rogue terrorist groups, but by established foreign governments. This week, ESPN investigative reporter TJ Quinn and hostage expert Dani Gilbert join Ray to discuss how state-endorsed hostage-taking creates leverage for autocrats—like Putin—upends American diplomatic norms, and places civilians in the crossfire.
Guests:
TJ Quinn, investigator reporter and senior writer at ESPN
Dani Gilbert, hostage expert and Rosenwald Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security at Dartmouth College
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.
Just days before Putin invaded Ukraine, Russian authorities detained U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner on reported minor drug charges. Seven months later, Putin’s war rages on … and Griner—a Black lesbian athlete—remains in Russian custody, facing a brutal nine-year sentence that experts say may be politically motivated.
With her sentencing, Griner joins a growing list of US citizens detained abroad—not by rogue terrorist groups, but by established foreign governments. This week, ESPN investigative reporter TJ Quinn and hostage expert Dani Gilbert join Ray to discuss how state-endorsed hostage-taking creates leverage for autocrats—like Putin—upends American diplomatic norms, and places civilians in the crossfire.
Guests:
TJ Quinn, investigator reporter and senior writer at ESPN
Dani Gilbert, hostage expert and Rosenwald Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy and International Security at Dartmouth College
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 September 21, 2022, Vladimir Putin ordered a draft of Russian reservists, mobilizing up to 300,000 troops – the first such draft since World War II.
Just before Putin's military order, former US Ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, spoke with Ray Suarez to give a sense of what we can expect from the war in Ukraine in the coming weeks and – perhaps – months, and how it’s impacting Russia’s international standing.
Guest:
Michael McFaul, Professor of Political Science and Director of Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and author of From Cold War to Hot Peace
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.
Whether you’re a trader, techie, or average joe, you’ve probably heard the words “crypto” or “bitcoin” swirling around the web. In the past year, digital coins – once viewed as the exclusive domain of tech millionaires – have shot to global prominence as the preferred currency of Russian oligarchs, Ukrainian resistance fighters, Salvadoran politicians, and everyone in between.
Despite the explosion of “cryptomania,” most people still know little about how the digital currency actually works. This week, we take a deep dive into the global world of cryptocurrency.
We start in Kazakhstan, where crypto miners are converting frigid winters into digital cash – and straining the country’s energy grid. Then, Ray Suarez sits down with Ukrainian crypto champion Michael Chobanian and skeptic Molly White to discuss the ways crypto may help or hurt a country in crisis.
Guests:
Denis Rusinovich, co-founder of Maveric Group AG
Joanna Lillis, author of Dark Shadows: Inside the Secret World of Kazakhstan
Jonathan Levin, co-founder and CSO of Chainalysis Inc.
Michael Chobanian, founder of KUNA exchange and president of the Blockchain Association of Ukraine
Molly White, software engineer and author of “Web3 is Going Just Great”
Host:
Ray Suarez
This program was produced with additional reporting from Levi Bridges. You can check out more of Levi's work here.
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.
Between the passing of Queen Elizabeth and the election of a new leader, the world’s eyes are on the United Kingdom.
Until recently, British politician Liz Truss was a relative unknown outside of the UK. Now, as prime minister, she faces the country’s worst economic crisis in decades, the first monarchy changeover in seventy years, and a host of pressing foreign policy matters – notably, Ukraine, Brexit, and Northern Ireland.
On this week’s episode, we break down the global implications of new British leadership with Ronan McCrea, professor of law at University College London. He joins Ray to discuss the country’s changing voting laws, party politics, and how Truss’s governing approach may differ from past Tory leaders. Then, we travel to Northern Ireland, where the fate of a Brexit protocol – and the precarious peace between north and south – is back up for debate.
Guests:
Ronan McCrea, professor of law, University College London
Noel Large, tour guide, Ex-Prisoners Interpretive 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.
In today’s global economy, a single event – like a storm or virus outbreak – can impact access to basic necessities, like food for millions of people. Add to that a rapidly growing world population and many experts are wondering… how will we keep everyone fed? In what ways will our lifestyles, and our international supply chains, adapt to meet the needs of a warming and increasingly crowded planet?
On this week’s episode, we hear from two experts with competing visions of how we can sustainably feed a growing planet. Ray Suarez is joined by Raj Patel and Robert Paarlberg on a journey through the inequities and promise of our global 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
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.
In collaboration with Foreign Policy, we bring you a story from “The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women,” to look at how reforming marital rights could be the biggest first step toward gender equality.
Host Reena Ninan uncovers the lesser-known role of women’s rights in the fight to end apartheid, and how the current struggle to reform sexist property laws in South African courts is keeping this legacy alive.
Guests:
Agnes Sithole, South African marital law reformist
Sharita Samuel, South African lawyer
Host:
Reena Ninan, host, Foreign Policy’s “The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women”
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.
It’s been nearly thirty years since the fall of apartheid in South Africa. But what happens when the celebrations cease, the news cameras turn away, and the real work of democracy begins?
In this episode, a co-production with Foreign Policy, we take a look at South Africa’s path to political and economic equality.
First, political scientist Evan Lieberman joins Voice of America’s “Straight Africa Talk” host, Haydé Adams, to discuss the lingering “ghost of apartheid,” and why South Africa’s electoral future gives him hope. Then, we turn to a recent episode of Foreign Policy’s “The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women.” Host Reena Ninan uncovers the lesser-known role of women’s rights in the fight to end apartheid, and how the current struggle to reform sexist marital and property laws in South African courts is keeping this legacy alive.
Guests:
Evan Lieberman, professor of political science at MIT
Haydé Adams, host, Voice of America’s “Straight Talk Africa”
Reena Ninan, host, Foreign Policy’s “The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women”
Agnes Sithole, South African marital law reformist
Sharita Samuel, South African lawyer
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.
In 1804, Haiti became the first nation to free itself from slavery, much to the disdain of the U.S. and the world’s leading European powers. Scars of colonialism and generations of racism have set Haiti back, and the country has been paying the economic price for freedom for over 200 years.
Ray sits down with Haitian author Évelyne Trouillot and historian Leslie Alexander for a conversation about Haiti’s turbulent history since its revolution.
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
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.
In the US, polls show that more and more Americans say they want and need public goods like education, infrastructure, and healthcare. So why do we struggle to implement them?
Policy expert Heather McGhee says this tension is a centuries-old, racialized system of zero-sum economics and politics, which dictates that progress for some must come at the expense of others. McGhee joins Ray to discuss her new book and podcast, The Sum of Us, and the burgeoning cross-racial alliances pushing for real change.
Guest:
Heather McGhee, economic policy expert and author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together
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.
Warrior cultures throughout history have developed unique codes. These codes have shifted over the centuries, so what does “the code of the warrior” mean in the 21st century, and what are the ethics on the modern battlefield
Shannon French, Inamori Professor in Ethics at Case Western Reserve University, joins Ray Suarez to chart the ever-evolving field of military ethics and its central role in keeping both civilians and soldiers safe.
Guest:
Shannon French, Inamori Professor of Ethics at Case Western 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.
The so-called “War on Terror” has defined US foreign policy for the past twenty years. The dense web of overseas conflicts and the growing use of remote weaponry, like drones, has left many average Americans feeling disengaged from the human toll of war.
Journalist Azmat Khan says our ignorance isn’t an accident. She was recently awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her work uncovering the US military’s systematic failure to investigate civilian casualties in the ongoing US fight against ISIS. Khan sits down with Ray Suarez to discuss what accountability looks like in the age of remote warfare, and the importance of civilian oversight in US military action.
Guest:
Azmat Khan, investigative reporter for the New York Times Magazine
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.
Aminatta Forna was a child when Sierra Leone fell into a brutal, ten-year civil war. Now, 20 years later, she’s working to ensure that Sierra Leoneans shape the country’s postwar narrative.
Forna joins Ray to chat about legacy, trauma, and forging identity – and joy – in the aftermath of violence, in her recent essay collection, The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion.
Guest:
Aminatta Forna, award-winning writer and author of The Window Seat: Notes from a Life in Motion
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.
War captures headlines… but what happens when the rubble clears? How does a country – and its people – rebuild after tragedy?
Chernor Bah was a child when Sierra Leone fell into a brutal, ten-year civil war. Now, 20 years later, he’s working to ensure that Sierra Leoneans, especially women, are at the center of the country’s postwar narrative and development.
Bah shares how his early experiences with war and humanitarian aid inspired to create Purposeful, an Africa-rooted organization that challenges the long held assumption that men – and white donors – should dictate redevelopment in the Global South.
Guest:
Chernor Bah, co-founder and CEO of Purposeful
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.
Dr. Atul Gawande has had a varied, celebrated career in medicine. He’s been a physician, a writer, and now he’s the Global Health Assistant Administrator at USAID. Dr. Gawande has always said the task of sharing medical progress with every corner of the planet is “the most ambitious thing we’ve ever attempted.” From facing a global public health system weakened by COVID-19, to families seeking support caring for aging loved ones, Dr. Gawande is focused on “generational work” at USAID, and about how society can step up.
In this episode, Dr. Gawande and Ray Suarez discuss taking public health work to the global stage, and the immense challenges that lie ahead.
Support for this podcast episode was provided in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
Guest(s):
Dr. Atul Gawande, writer, physician, and Assistant Administrator for Global Health for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
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.
By 2030, it’s estimated one out of every six people on Planet Earth will be over 60. In Japan, nearly 30% of the population is already over 65. But Poland, Romania, Cuba, Serbia, and South Korea? They’re some of the fastest-aging societies on the planet, as well.
Ray Suarez chats with Joseph F. Coughlin, founder and director of the MIT AgeLab, about how leaps in technology have led to longer life spans — and why it may be the key to making the most out of borrowed time. Then, Motoko Rich, Tokyo bureau chief for The New York Times, shares how this demographic force is already being felt in Japan, the poster “grandparent” for aging societies worldwide.
Support for this podcast episode was provided in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Foundation.
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.
Forty years later, the anniversary of Vincent Chin’s death reminds us Anti-Asian hate crimes haven't gone away. Filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña, who co-directed the documentary, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” and activist Helen Zia talk with Ray Suarez about the ongoing fight to recognize diverse Asian-American histories, challenging stereotypes and what justice means today.
For more information, check out Renee Tajima-Pena’s documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin?, and Tajima-Pena’s docuseries, Asian Americans.
Guests:
Renee Tajima-Peña, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and Professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA
Helen Zia, activist, executor of the Vincent and Lily Chin estate, and author of books including Last Boat out of Shanghai and My Country vs. Me
Host:
Ray Suarez
On a summer night in 1982, a Chinese-American man named Vincent Chin was brutally murdered by two white men in a racially-motivated attack in Detroit. His death, and the failure of the courts to hold his killers accountable, sparked a civil rights outcry and marked a turning point for the Asian-American community.
We revisit an interview with filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña about her documentary, “Who Killed Vincent Chin?” to learn about the movement sparked by Chin’s story.
For more information, check out Renee Tajima-Pena’s documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin?, and Tajima-Pena’s docuseries, Asian Americans.
Guests:
Renee Tajima-Peña, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and Professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA
Host:
Ray Suarez
Bill Browder was a prominent foreign investor in Russia until he was banned by President Vladimir Putin. In a gripping interview with Ray Suarez, Browder recounts a hunt for missing money that led him to discover a corruption and conspiracy plot involving Putin’s inner circle. Browder breaks down the Russian government’s lethal response, the landmark Magnitsky Act, and what Putin’s past can teach us about what he might do next - in Ukraine and beyond.
But first, we revisit a brief excerpt from Ray's 2021 interview with prominent Putin critic, Fiona Hill. In it, she warns us that the big mistake people often make is, "underestimating Russia and underestimating somebody like Vladimir Putin."
Ray's interview with Bill Browder was recorded as part of a live event at the Aspen Institute on July 12, 2022.
Guests:
Bill Browder, financier and author of Freezing Order: A True Story of Money Laundering, Murder, and Surviving Vladimir Putin’s Wrath
Host(s):
Ray Suarez
Financial experts are warning that the global economy could be headed toward recession. At the same time, the pandemic, war and displacement, and the climate crisis have left many people concerned about keeping a roof over their heads.
In this week’s episode, sponsored in part by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, we take on the global housing crisis – its roots, its demands, and how we can solve it. Ray Suarez digs deeper into two homegrown, people-powered housing initiatives for urban and rural communities across South Asia. Then, Ray is joined by Lydia Stazen, the executive director of the Ruff Institute of Global Homelesssness, to discuss how small-scale local programs can be scaled internationally to eliminate street homelessness on every continent.
Guests:
Adithya Jain, co-founder and CEO of Tvasta Construction
Yasmeen Lari, Karachi-based architect
David Ireland, CEO of World Habitat
Lydia Stazen, executive director of the Ruff Institute of Global Homelessness
Host:
Ray Suarez
In 1971, the United States was at a crossroads: The economy was stagnating, inflation was high and Americans were starting to feel like they were losing their competitive edge. Sound familiar?
In the second episode of our two-part series on inflation, we return to a conversation between NPR’s Chief Economics Correspondent Scott Horsley and Jeffrey Garten, an influential economist who served in multiple presidential administrations. They explore Nixon’s consequential decision to abandon the gold standard, how this move created the modern global economy, and what this can tell us about inflation and fears of a recession.
Guest:
Jeffrey E Garten, Dean Emeritus, Yale School of Management, former Undersecretary of Commerce, and author of Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy
Hosts:
Philip Yun, host of World Affairs
Scott Horsley, NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent
Inflation in the U.S. has reached its highest point since 1981. In developing nations, the problem is even worse. The UN says thirty-seven nations are in need of food, but can't afford it, triggering fears of food riots. So what makes prices for necessary things – like food and fuel – so volatile?
This week, we revisit a conversation with filmmaker Rupert Russell about his book and film, “Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World.” Russell connects the dots between the cost of bread and oil to political upheaval around the world, and he explains why price swings by market players cause famine, conflict and crisis.
Guests:
Rupert Russell, author and director of Price Wars: How The Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World
Hosts:
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.
Diversity has often been seen as the United States’ defining strength, but today some Americans see it as a threat. And this isn’t new. Throughout history, differences of religion, ethnicity, and origin have driven states around the world to war, violence, and extreme division. However, German-American political scientist Yascha Mounk says this isn’t the only path.
On this week’s episode, Mounk joins Ray to discuss his new book, “The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart And How They Can Endure,” which challenges the assumptions of a modern pluralist society and imagines how diverse democracies might succeed in an increasingly polarized political landscape.
Guest:
Yascha Mounk, associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, contributing editor at The Atlantic and author of The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure
Host:
Ray Suarez
In the second part of his interview with Ray, author Wajahat Ali discusses how the war on terror shaped attitudes towards Muslims in the United States, and how the Muslim-American political identity evolved in its aftermath. And despite his family’s American Dream being destroyed by US law enforcement, Ali manages to find optimism in a story of our country that is still being written.
Guest:
Wajahat Ali, author of Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
Host:
Ray Suarez, host of World Affairs
Even though writer and humorist Wajahat Ali was born and raised in Northern California to Pakistani parents, he gets told every day to "go back to where you came from.” Today, more than half of US citizens under 18 can trace their ancestry to Africa, Asia, and Latin America, yet many feel unwelcome in their own country. “The tragic history of America is that the rest of us have fought for a country and love a country when it doesn’t love us back,” Wajahat told Ray Suarez in a recent interview about his new memoir, Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American. Wajahat takes readers on a journey to his childhood, figuring out the lines and boundaries of race and ethnicity on the fly, to an adulthood punctuated by the September 11 terrorist attacks, and an era of rising anxiety and suspicion of brown people of various origins in the years after. Through his personal stories, Ali manages to tackle the dangers of Islamophobia and white supremacy, with humor and insights into national security, immigration, and pop culture.
Guest: Wajahat Ali, author of Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American
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.
From mass shootings in the United States to Vladimir Putin’s brazen invasion of Ukraine, it can feel like the world is in a constant state of turmoil. Homeland security expert Juliette Kayyem has a prescription for learning to live in an “Age of Disasters.” In her new book, The Devil Never Sleeps, she explains how an international “architecture of preparedness” can help communities anticipate, assess, and manage urgent crises like gun violence and climate change. She talks with Ray Suarez about what global communities–and their leaders–can do to prepare before disaster strikes close to home.
Guest:
Juliette Kayyem, faculty chair of the Homeland Security Project and the Security and Global Health Project at Harvard University and author of The Devil Never Sleeps, Learning to Live in An Age of Disasters.
Host:
Ray Suarez
Additional Reading:
The Problem With 'Lone Wolf' Shooters
Design Your Organization to Withstand Future Disasters
How Leaders Prepare to Communicate in a Crisis
Ray Suarez sits down with Ivo Daalder, President of the Chicago Institute on Global Affairs and former US Ambassador to NATO, to discuss the alliance’s evolution, the Russian “wake-up call” that placed it back in the news, and the future–and feasibility–of trans-atlantic defense.
To hear more from Ambassador Daalder, check out his weekly World Review podcast.
Guests:
Ivo Daalder, President of the Chicago Institute of Global Affairs
Host:
Ray Suarez
Canada is not the US. Apart from a distinct history and culture, Canadians have a vastly different political, legal and medical system from ours. Yet there are times when the politics of the two North American neighbors move in rhythm. On today’s episode, Ray Suarez talks to Kelly Gordon, assistant professor of political science at McGill University in Montreal, about the nuances of abortion access and abortion politics across our northern border.
Guests:
Kelly Gordon, assistant professor at McGill University
Host:
Ray Suarez
When a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion revealed plans to overturn Roe v. Wade, Amnesty International labelled it a victory of an emboldened global anti-abortion movement. The court’s decision, however, could place the United States at odds with regional trends across Latin America – where a transnational pro-choice “Green Wave” movement is growing, despite historic cultural and religious opposition.
What is the future of abortion in the Americas? We tackle that question–and where the U.S. fits into a changing reproductive health landscape–this week on World Affairs. We begin with a Mexican physician, who provided clandestine abortions in the country for over twenty years. Then, Ray is joined by Colombian attorney, Ximena Casas, to discuss the legal frameworks dictating abortion rights north and south of the U.S. border.
Guests:
Gregory Berger, documentary filmmaker
Estela Kempis, Mexican physician
Ximena Casas, women’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch
Host:
Ray Suarez
We're releasing our latest episode early this week in light of the recent tragedy in Buffalo. Please take care of yourselves. The recent mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York left ten dead, three injured, and a city–and country–reeling. Within hours of the deadly attack, evidence emerged that the 18-year-old gunman’s crimes were racially motivated, explicitly targeting the area’s Black community.
Buffalo is the most recent in a string of high-profile acts of violence inspired by the “great replacement theory,” an extremist doctrine based on the unsubstantiated belief that non-white populations will “replace” and subjugate white majorities across the globe.
Once confined to the radical fringe, replacement theory has now entered mainstream conservative rhetoric, peddled by prominent right-wing figures like Tucker Carlson and J.D. Vance, and shared in online networks from El Paso to Christchurch. On this week’s episode, Ray Suarez sits down with Daniel Byman, a counterterrorism expert and author of Spreading Hate: The Global Rise of White Supremacist Terrorism, to discuss the roots of the global white power movement, how extremism spreads, and what the mainstreaming of violence as a political tactic means for targeted communities–and democracy–in the world today.
Guests:
Daniel Byman, Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution and professor at Georgetown University
Host(s):
Ray Suarez, co-host of World Affairs
When the Biden administration announced that the United States would accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees, hundreds began to show up daily at the US-Mexico border. With a scarcity of appointments at US consulates in Europe, for those who could afford airfare, this circuitous route was their best option. “At the peak of it, there were over a thousand Ukrainian nationals, enough to fill a shelter in Tijuana,” KPBS immigration reporter Gustavo Solis explained to Ray Suarez. “They would get picked up at the airport and volunteers would be ready. There was even a guy playing music for them – like a welcome party in Tijuana.” Then they would be processed the next day. As you might imagine, that streamlined process isn't the same for most other refugees seeking asylum in the United States. Depending on your country of origin, entering the US at the San Ysidro crossing between Tijuana and San Diego can be quite a bit more complicated...or even impossible.
Guest: Gustavo Solis, Investigative Border Reporter for KPBS
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.
As early as November 2021, the Biden administration began to declassify military intelligence about a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine and share it with the public. As declassified material poured in, the world watched the massive grinding gears of Russia's war machine creep towards Kyiv. Despite what seemed imminent—almost obvious—the White House and the State Department were under intense scrutiny. It wasn’t clear whether the strategy of opening the information floodgates would disrupt Moscow’s actions or provoke Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. On this week’s episode, Ray Suarez discusses President Biden’s Ukraine strategy with US State Department Counselor Derek Chollet. Guests: Derek Chollet, Counselor of the United States Department of State
Host: Ray Suarez, co-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 produce this program without your help. Thank you.
On February 9th, the U.S. Senate confirmed Chantale Wong as the U.S. Executive Director of the Asian Development Bank. On that day, she became the first LGBTQ person of color and the first "out" lesbian, to hold the rank of ambassador in the U.S. For the past 30 years, Ambassador Wong has spurned tradition and overcome challenges to forge her own trailblazing path, breaking barriers along the way. Her journey began in 1960, when at the age of six, her grandmother smuggled her out of Shanghai, and has included a thirty year career in public service, including stops at San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission, NASA, the Treasury Department and a brief stint as photographer for the late Congressman John Lewis. During this Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we celebrated the life and career of Chantale Wong at a live event on May 3, 2022. This is an excerpt of her conversation with Dean Fealk.
Guest: Ambassador Chantale Wong, U.S. Executive Director, Asia Development Bank
Host: Dean Fealk, World Affairs trustee and co-managing partner at DLA Piper.
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.
After a thirty year civil war, Sri Lanka rebuilt its economy, with the help of foreign investment. But when the pandemic forced the small island nation to shut its borders, things began to unravel. Now, the war in Ukraine and skyrocketing food and fuel prices are pushing the country into deeper economic turmoil, political unrest, and violence.
Today, Sri Lanka owes a staggering $50 billion to regional neighbors, like China, and international lending institutions, like the World Bank. And it isn’t the only country in this situation. Ray Suarez talks with Washington Post’s Gerry Shih, and Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, a Sri Lankan geopolitical analyst, to understand why–and how–nations like Sri Lanka accumulate foreign debt, what it means for everyday citizens …and why it can be so hard to pay back.
Guests:
Gerry Shih, India bureau chief, Washington Post
Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, senior fellow at the Millenium Project
Host:
Ray Suarez, co-host of WorldAffairs
"At the end of the day, he believed it would be too great a gift to the regime—too great a gift to Putin—if he stayed away."
Daniel Roher is the award-winning director behind "Navalny," a film that documents Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's journey from Germany to a Russian jail. Roher was given unprecedented access to Alexei Navalny while he was in Berlin recovering from an attempted assasination, searching for the Russian agents who tried to poison him, and eventually returning to Russia where he was inevitably imprisoned.
"Navalny" offers an intimate portrait of the man intent on undoing Vladimir Putin and his ongoing search for justice. The film premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and is now streaming on HBO Max.
Guest:
Daniel Roher, documentary filmmaker and director of "Navalny"
Host:
Ray Suarez, co-host of WorldAffairs
For the last century, Finland has walked a diplomatic tightrope between East and West. A former Russian imperial holding and Soviet target, the independent nordic nation boasts a free market economy, EU membership, and regional defense partnerships. Yet, Finland has previously stopped short of formally joining NATO, the West’s major military alliance–maintaining a pragmatic policy of forced neutrality along its 800-mile border with Russia. That is, until Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
How does a country survive the threat of Russian aggression? Ray Suarez talks with Henri Vanhanen, advisor to the Finnish National Coalition Party, about his country’s recent pivot toward NATO membership–both in parliament and the polls–and what it could mean for the future of international security.
Featuring:
Henri Vanhanen, foreign policy and EU advisor for the Finland National Coalition Party
Ray Suarez, co-host of WorldAffairs
Finland 101, by Ray Suarez
Maybe you’ve noticed how often Finland comes up during the Ukraine coverage, and wondered why? Here’s a quick little history…a thousand pages in a few seconds.
For centuries, the Finns have had to thread their way, as a people, through the conflicts of other big powers in their part of the world. Ethnically and linguistically distinct…they’re not their Swedish neighbors to the west or their Russian neighbors to the east…but they had to fend off both to remain themselves.
For centuries Finland was fought for, or fought over, by Russians and Swedes. As the 20thcentury began, Finland was part of Czarist Russia…then the Czar abdicated and the Empire collapsed. The Finns flirted with Communism, and with monarchy, before becoming a republic with a new president in 1919.
Josef Stalin wanted Finland back for the USSR. The Soviets invaded, shortly after the Nazis bulldozed Poland in 1939. The Finns fought back ferociously. They inflicted heavy casualties. The Soviets eventually recognized Finland’s independence, signed a peace treaty, and permanently seized about a tenth of Finland’s territory, incorporating it into the USSR.
The Finns would remain independent, somewhat free of Soviet domination after the Second World War, but that freedom came at a cost. Finland gave up more territory, and population, and diplomatic freedom of movement. The country lived in a gray area between east and west during the Cold War. Its status even got a dismissive name…Finlandization, used to describe a forced neutrality, an expensive freedom.
Finland had a market economy, democratically elected governments, freedom of speech, and growing prosperity….all the while staying aloof from the expanding European Union, and certainly NATO, the western military alliance.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, much as Czarist Russia did, Finland had an escape hatch… denounced its earlier treaties, joined the EU, adopted the Euro, but remained outside NATO, sharing an eight hundred mile border with the Russian Federation.
When the British government handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997, it was with China’s promise that Hong Kong’s relative autonomy would be preserved, under the framework known as “one country, two systems.” But in recent years, China has cracked down on the region’s freedoms, especially freedom of press. One example is the 2020 arrest of media mogul Jimmy Lai, founder of the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, who helped catalyze an opposition movement. In 2021 Lai was arrested again, and sentenced to 13 months in jail for participating in a vigil marking the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
On this week’s episode of WorldAffairs, World Affairs CEO Philip Yun talks with Mark Clifford, who was the director of Apple Daily’s parent company at the time of Lai’s arrest. Clifford, a journalist, activist, and president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, has a new book, Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow the World: What China’s Crackdown Reveals About its Plans to End Freedom Everywhere.
Guests:
Mark Clifford, president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong, journalist, activist
Host:
Philip W. Yun, President and CEO, WorldAffairs
Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt’s “Pillar of Shame,” a 26-foot copper-cased monument to the victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, stood for nearly a quarter century outside the student union at Hong Kong University. The tower-like statue of human faces contorted by suffering was installed in 1997, just before the handover of Hong Kong to the People’s Republic of China. In December 2021, under cover of darkness, the university removed the statue. It’s a move many say is an overt attempt to suppress the memory of the brutal crackdown—and part of a broader effort by China to erase Hong Kong’s history of independence. On this week’s episode, we hear from Galschiøt, the sculptor who built the “Pillar of Shame.” Then, 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 new book Indelible City, an emotional eyewitness account of the pro-democracy protests and a reflection on Hong Kong’s identity.
Guests:
Jens Galschiøt, Danish sculptor
Louisa Lim, author of “Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong”
Host:
Ray Suarez, co-host WorldAffairs
Since Russia invaded Ukraine, we are confronted daily with images of atrocities. But what constitutes proof of a war crime in the digital age? It’s a question a new generation of experts is answering. In December, the United Nations Human Rights Office teamed up with lawyers at UC Berkeley to release a new set of legal guidelines for gathering and verifying war crimes. The “Berkeley Protocol” establishes norms for authenticating open source and social media evidence of human rights violations, and it stands to usher in a new era for punishing those who commit these horrors. In the past, war crimes were proven with extensive witness testimony and conventional forensic evidence, often gathered slowly and well after the fact by government agencies. Now, researchers can use an array of digital tools, including social media videos, satellite imagery, and geolocation, in real time. By codifying professional standards in the field, the Berkeley Protocol aims to shore up the admissibility of digital evidence in court and could change the future of prosecuting these heinous crimes.
On this week’s episode of WorldAffairs, Ray Suarez talks with Alexa Koenig, executive director of the Human Rights Center and Investigations Lab at Berkeley Law, which has been at the forefront of this new legal frontier in human rights.
When President Biden calls Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and says that Russia’s war in Ukraine amounts to “genocide,” what does it mean? Do such prounouncements place obligations on the United States? Does it threaten some sort of legal jeopardy for the Russian president? When an artilleryman a thousand yards away sends a projectile slamming into an apartment building full of civilians, is that a war crime? Is the soldier who released the shell more or less responsible than the politician a thousand miles away who ordered the assault on a city? Ray Suarez tackles these questions with a war-crimes prosecutor and a former student organizer who played a critical role in the downfall of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was the first sitting head of state indicted for war crimes.
Guests:
Ivan Marovic, International Center on Nonviolent Conflict
Alex Whiting, war-crimes prosecutor and visiting professor at Harvard Law School
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
Even with the heat turned up on Russian oligarchs—and more recently, his own family—Vladimir Putin’s wealth remains one of the biggest mysteries for law enforcement, investigative journalists, and anti-corruption activists.
New York Times investigative journalist Mike McIntire explains to us what his reporting has uncovered about Putin’s strategy for avoiding sanctions, the Western advisors who shield his inner circle from financial scrutiny, and maybe, perhaps, where the Russian President is ultimately hiding his riches.
Guests:
Mike McIntire, investigative reporter The New York Times
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
A complex web of shell companies, offshore banks and hidden transactions has concealed the wealth of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs for years. With international sanctions aimed at staunching the flow of money that funds Russia's war in Ukraine, a new nonprofit reporting collaboration led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and the Guardian, launched the Russian Asset Tracker. It's the most comprehensive database to date that catalogs the assets of Russians with links to Putin. On this episode of the podcast, we follow the money trail to better understand the connection between Putin’s power and his oligarchs. Then we explore the legal mechanisms for seizing these assets.
Guests:
Drew Sullivan, co-founder of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Karen Greenaway, former special agent in the FBI's International Corruption Unit
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
Teklia Zumuy fled Eritrea, a small and autocratic nation in the Horn of Africa, in 2016. He sought out for a new life in Europe, and hoped to eventually bring his wife and three young daughters with him. But as he attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea on a small wooden boat, Teklia and his companions were apprehended by the Italian Coast Guard and handed over to Libyan militias. He was held there for over two years, with inadequate food or health services, and with no way to contact his family. Teklia is one of hundreds of migrants whose stories are told in a new book by investigative journalist Sally Hayden. In My Fourth Time, We Drowned, Hayden reports on a shadowy immigration system, created by the European Union, which captures and imprisons African migrants in Libya, keeping them from reaching European soil. In Libya, they endure starvation, scorching temperatures, beatings and rape -- and are sold to human traffickers. In an interview with Senior KQED editor Rachael Myrow, Hayden also explains the role that western institutions have played 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
Teklia Zumuy, teacher and refugee
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.
In times of crisis, one of the most painful decisions people face is whether to stay or leave: to risk abandoning their homes, personal belongings, and sometimes, loved ones. 10 million Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes this month. Many have been displaced within their country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has called this exodus Europe’s fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II. In this episode, we hear audio diaries from two people on opposite sides of the crisis. First, filmmaker Iryna Tsilk, who we first met in the weeks before the invasion, takes us through her decision to leave Kyiv where her husband is fighting as a soldier in Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Forces. Then, a Russian-Ukrainian student living in Germany named Alex records his story from the road. The week after Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, Alex traveled to a border crossing with Poland, joining a ragtag army of volunteers providing humanitarian assistance and safe passage to those fleeing Ukraine.
Guest Contributors:
Iryna Tsilyk, filmmaker and director of “The Earth is Blue as an Orange”
Alex Gerz, Russian-Ukrainian student based in Kassel, Germany
Host(s):
Ray Suarez, WorldAffairs co-host
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.
Last week, President Biden announced the U.S. is accepting 100,000 Ukrainian refugees.
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman was three years old when he and his family fled Odessa for a better life in the U.S. He, along with his twin brother Yevgeny, rose through the ranks of military service, to the role of Eastern European affairs expert on the National Security Council. Vindman’s past and present converged on the stand when he appeared as a lead witness in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, which dealt with the U.S. relationship to Ukraine.
In the second part of our interview with Lt. Col. Vindman, he speaks with Ray Suarez about the phone call that changed everything, how his immigrant experience inspired his courageous testimony, and why he says President Trump and figures within the GOP have “blood on their hands,” and set the stage for Vladimir Putin’s inevitable invasion of Ukraine.
And World Affairs CEO, Philip Yun, pays tribute to the late Madeleine Albright.
Guest(s):
(Ret.) Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council from 2018 to 2020
Host:
Ray Suarez, World Affairs co-host
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.
When Alexander Vindman warned the world about President Donald Trump's July 2019 phone call with Ukranian President Volodymr Zelensky, he says he was thinking about the U.S. Constitution and his duty as an American. But as a retired army Lieutenant Colonel and former director of European affairs for the National Security Council, Vindman was also thinking about the role that a sovereign and democratic Ukraine plays in U.S. national security interests.
In part one of Alexander Vindman’s conversation with Ray Suarez, they discuss how Ukraine, Russia, and the world have been changed by Putin’s war.
On the hesitancy of Western powers to get involved, Vindman says, “There is wishful thinking about the fact that we could return to a world before this war. And that's impossible for me. To me, it's clear that we're in a cold war.”
Guest:
(Ret.) Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council from 2018 to 2020
Host:
Ray Suarez, WorldAffairs co-host
What do you think about the war in Ukraine? What coverage on the war would you like to hear from us? We’d love to hear from you. Send us a message at feedback@worldaffairs.org.
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.
This is not the first time Russia invaded a neighboring country that was being considered for entry into NATO. In 2008, Moscow took advantage of a conflict in Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia as a justification to invade. A brutal five day war followed and today, 20% of Georgia’s internationally recognized territory remains under Russian military occupation. Journalist Levi Bridges traveled to the former Soviet republic of Georgia to see the remnants of its 2008 war with Russia – and what the conflict can or can’t tell us about Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. This is part 2 of a three-part series looking at how Vladimir's Putin consolidates power in former Soviet republics. Please be sure to listen to part 1: A War Between Dictators and the Free World with Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and watch the podcast feed for part 3 to drop on Thursday. Guests:
Liana Chlachidze, Ergneti village resident
Galina Kelekhsaeva, German language teacher
Gerard Toal, professor of government and international affairs at Virginia Tech
Shalva Dzebisashvili, head of political science at the University of Georgia in Tbilisi
Nino Tsagareishvili, legal advisor to German development agency GIZ
Host: Ray Suarez
Reporter: Levi Bridges
Belarus, a former Soviet republic which shares a 700 mile border with Ukraine, has been used as a staging ground for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has long had strong ties to the Kremlin, but he has become increasingly dependent on Putin since he retained power after a contested election in 2020. International observers recognized the true victor as Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who is now leading her country’s democratic movement in exile. An English teacher and mother, she rose to prominence when her husband was jailed for publicly speaking out against the regime. In a conversation with Ray Suarez, Tsikhanouskaya warned, “This is not a war between Russia and Ukraine. It's a war between dictators and the free world. And there’s a moral obligation of every person in this free world to be with those who are fighting.” Guest: Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, exiled leader of the Belarusian democratic movement
Host: Ray Suarez, co-host of World Affairs
This is part 1 of a three-part series looking at how Vladimir's Putin consolidates power in former Soviet republics. Please be sure to listen to part 2 If Putin Succeeds in Ukraine, Is Georgia Next? and watch the podcast feed for part 3 to drop on Thursday.
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.
As the war in Ukraine drags on, global alliances are shifting, sometimes in surprising ways. A delegation from the White House recently made a secret trip to Caracas to discuss the possibility of easing sanctions on Venezuelan oil just as the Biden administration is planning to ban Russian oil imports. A few days later, Venezuela freed two jailed Americans in an apparent goodwill gesture. One of the freed prisoners was among six Citgo oil executives arrested in 2017 and convicted on charges the U.S. government says were fabricated. Five of the men still remain in prison. Venezuela is not alone in its use of hostage diplomacy. Russia recently announced the arrest of WNBA player Brittney Griner. She is one of at least three Americans held unjustly by Russian authorities. On this week’s episode, we meet the State Department’s lead hostage negotiator, an innocent man who was held hostage for 544 days in an Iranian prison and his brother who led the campaign to free him. Their conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at the World Affairs Center in San Francisco.
Guests:
Ambassador Roger Carstens, Special Envoy to Hostage Affairs at the US Department of State
Jason Rezaian, Washington Post global opinions writer, host of 544 Days and author of Prisoner
Ali Rezaian, consultant and leader of the “Free Jason and Yegi” campaign
Hosts:
Philip Yun, President and CEO of World Affairs
Lily Jamali, senior reporter at American Public Media’s Marketplace
What motivated Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine and how is his war changing the balance of power between Russia, the US, Europe and China? First, a voice from the ground: Katia Iakovlenko, a writer who lives in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, shares how extreme hardship has unified her country. Then, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul tells Ray Suarez how it feels to be scolded by Vladimir Putin and explains how the US missed critical opportunities to spread democracy in post-Soviet Russia.
Guests:
Katia Iakovlenko, writer and curator based in Kyiv
Michael McFaul, US ambassador to Russia (2012-2014), director at Stanford’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Host: Ray Suarez, WorldAffairs co-host
Additional Reading:
"Eat Me, Drink Me--This is a War," by Kateryna Iakovlenko
“From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia,” by Michael McFaul
Editor's note: Since we recorded this episode, Katia Iakovlenko safely escaped Irpin, which has sustained heavy shelling from Russian forces.
This episode was produced in partnership with Stanford Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies podcast WorldClass.
If you appreciate this program 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.
When Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, it was the Chinese head of state’s first in person meeting with another world leader in two years. Declaring that China and Russia’s friendship had “no limits,” the two authoritarian leaders signaled they were more aligned than ever and determined to present a united front against the US. Then, Russia invaded Ukraine. Wall Street Journal chief China correspondent Lingling Wei joins Ray Suarez to discuss the diplomatic tightrope Beijing is walking as Moscow’s global isolation grows.
Guest: Lingling Wei, chief China correspondent at the Wall Street Journal
Host: Ray Suarez, WorldAffairs co-host
Recommended reading:
“China Declared Its Russia Friendship Had ‘No Limits.’ It’s Having Second Thoughts,” by Lingling Wei
“Superpower Showdown,” by Bob Davis and Lingling Wei
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.
“It's not a given that the democratic values will rule the 21st century. This is the first real test of what those values will be.” Congressman Ami Bera, a Democrat from California, joined Ray Suarez to talk about countering aggression from Russia and China, why immigration is such an important part of American history, and overcoming political disunity in foreign policy.
Guest: Rep. Ami Bera (D CA-7), physician and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation.
Host: Ray Suarez,co-host of 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.
WorldAffairs host Ray Suarez remembers Paul Farmer, the late physician and champion of global public health who inspired many by example. Beyond opening clinics and distributing life saving medications in Haiti and other developing nations, Dr. Farmer worked to change the way healthcare is delivered to the world’s most vulnerable–through compassion and genuine partnership.
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 USDA, shoppers are paying more than seven percent more than they were last year for their groceries. In developing countries, it’s even worse. The UN says thirty-seven nations are in urgent need of food, but can't afford it. But while food prices soar, so do Wall Street’s profits.
WorldAffairs host Ray Suarez talks with Rupert Russell about his new book and film, “Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World.” He introduces us to people whose lives have been upended by skyrocketing food and gas prices around the world and explains how the global financial system drives famine, conflict, and crisis.
Guest:
Rupert Russell, author and director of Price Wars: "How Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World"
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
Is the US on the verge of a second Civil War? Acclaimed author Barbara Walter suggests that American exceptionalism, the belief that things are different here, may have blinded us to patterns we’ve seen previously around the world.
From the former Yugoslavia to South Africa to Brazil, Walter and WorldAffairs host Ray Suarez examine risk factors that can contribute to the outbreak of violence, and how social media adds fuel to the fire. If bipartisan discord and events like January 6 are signs of instability within American democracy, what can we do to turn it around?
Guest:
Barbara Walter, author of “How Civil Wars Start”
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
The Winter Olympics have begun. China wants the Beijing Games to showcase the country’s meteoric rise, but American legislators and an international coalition of activists see the Games as an opportunity to spotlight China’s human rights record.
First, we hear from U.S. track and field star Raven “Hulk” Saunders about the Olympic podium protest ban. Then, WorldAffairs host Philip Yun talks with a former State Department colleague, Bennett Freeman, about the campaign to pressure China to change. Finally, journalist Mary Kay Magistad speaks with two leaders from China’s persecuted Uyghur minority about surveillance, repression, and state violence in the shadow of the Winter Olympics.
Guests:
Raven Saunders, 2021 silver medalist for U.S. Olympic Track and Field team
Bennett Freeman, former deputy assistant secretary of state, democracy, human rights and labor
Zumretay Arkin, program manager at World Uyghur Congress
Nury Turkel, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute
Hosts:
Philip Yun, co-host, WorldAffairs
Mary Kay Magistad, associate director at Center on U.S.-China Relations at Asia Society
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.
Imagine yourself explaining to your child how to stay safe during a military attack while you try to remain focused on your job and enjoy life in the face of impending war. These seemingly incompatible and contradictory goals have become a daily routine in Ukraine and they're at the heart of Iryna Tsylik's award winning film, The Earth is as Blue as an Orange. Tsylik takes us inside the lives of a family living in Eastern Ukraine, in the declining coal region of Donbass, where a low-grade war has been going on since 2014. The war has outlasted more than two dozen ceasefires between Ukraine, Russia, and Russian-backed armed separatists. With more than 13,000 casualties to date and troops already in the region, Donbass is one of the many routes by which Russia could launch a larger scale invasion in the near future. WorldAffairs producer Andrew Stelzer spoke with Iryna Tsylik about her film and how her identity as a Ukrainian has been shaped by art, politics and a war that’s now been going on for almost 8 years.
If you have not already done so, please be sure to listen to Ukraine Part 1: A Young Country with an Old History, where you’ll learn about Ukraine’s Maidan revolution, which precipitated war in the Donbass.
Guests:
Iryna Tsilyk, filmmaker and director of The Earth is Blue as an Orange
Hosts:
Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs
Andrew Stelzer, producer, WorldAffairs
The Russian military is on the move toward the border with Ukraine. President Biden and European leaders have warned Russia against an invasion, suggesting military action will trigger a response. Caught in the middle, and almost completely drowned out in the din, are the voices of more than 40 million Ukrainian people living in one of the biggest countries in Europe. In part one of a two-part story about Ukraine, we fill in some of the blanks on the backstory of Ukraine. Historians Katherine Younger and Emily Channell-Justice tell Ray Suarez the story of modern Ukraine, and why embracing Western values has made Ukraine a threat to Vladimir Putin.
Guests:
Katherine Younger, research director, Ukraine in European Dialogue at The Institute for Human Sciences
Emily Channell-Justice, director, Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at Harvard University.
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
In 2008, Jason Rezaian made a life changing decision to move to Iran and follow his dream of being a foreign correspondent. He fell in love, became a reporter for the Washington Post, and even played host to Anthony Bourdain in the Iran episode of Parts Unknown. Then, Jason’s life was turned upside down when he was arrested and held hostage in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison for 544 days. At least forty Americans are currently held captive around the world–not by terrorist groups but by foreign governments.
On this week’s episode, we hear Jason’s story and why he thinks it’s essential that the US government and media change the way they talk about American hostages abroad so we can finally bring them home.
Guests:
Jason Rezaian, Washington Post global opinions writer, host of 544 Days and author of Prisoner
Yeganeh Rezaian, senior researcher at the Committee to Protect Journalists
Kate Woodsome, documentary filmmaker at the Washington Post
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
With the rapid spread of Omicron and CDC guidelines changing on a near-daily basis, the pandemic can feel more confusing than ever. To help make sense of it all, we bring you this week’s episode two days ahead of schedule.
Even in the face of a highly infectious variant, COVID vaccines still offer the best protection from severe illness and death, but 40% of the world’s population, mostly in low income countries, have yet to receive a first dose. With so many people unvaccinated, new variants will continue to emerge. So, what can be done to break vaccine gridlock and bring this pandemic to an end?
On this week’s episode, Dr. Luciano Cesar Azevado, an ICU doctor in São Paulo, explains how Brazil went from being a COVID hotspot to a world leader in vaccinations. Then, Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, talks with Ray Suarez about overcoming the challenges of vaccine distribution in hard to reach areas.
Guests:
Dr. Luciano Cesar Azevado, ICU physician and professor of critical care and emergency medicine, Sírio-Libanês Hospital in São Paulo, Brazil
Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO, GAVI, The Vaccine Alliance
Hosts:
Philip Yun, CEO, World Affairs
Ray Suarez, co-host, World Affairs
When footage of rioters storming the US Capitol streamed live in 2021, some far-right extremists in Germany watched it like a soccer game. The European nation has spent decades confronting its dark history, but neo-Nazi and conspiracy theorist movements continue to rise in Germany, and around the world.
In this rebroadcast from last year, Ray Suarez talks with two domestic intelligence agents: one in Germany and the other in the United States. What have they learned in their fight against violent extremism?
Guests:
Stephan Kramer, chief of intelligence for the German state of Thuringia
Michael German, Brennan Center for Justice at NYC Law School and former FBI agent
Host:
Ray Suarez, co-host of 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.
One year after supporters of former President Donald Trump violently stormed the Capitol, how do we make sense of the January 6 insurrection? Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat returns to WorldAffairs to discuss modern authoritarians and the “leader cult” created around former president Donald Trump. With a majority of Republicans believing the false claim that voter fraud helped Joe Biden win the 2020 election, could Donald Trump be reelected in 2024? If weaknesses in our democratic institutions aren’t addressed, Ben-Ghiat warns, the real danger lies in the blueprint left for future leaders.
Guest: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and author of Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present
Host: Ray Suarez, co-host of 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.
H.R. McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general and former national security advisor, says the last twenty years of US foreign policy have been characterized by a belief that the world revolves around us. The result? A series of strategic blunders, from interminable wars in the Middle East to missing out on crucial opportunities to build peace. But author and peacebuilding expert Severine Autesserre says the US isn’t the only political power player guilty of what the retired general would call “strategic narcissism.”
In an episode originally aired in April, we look at what happens when you think you know what you’re doing… and don’t listen to the people you are trying to help.
Guests:
H.R. McMaster, Retired lieutenant general, former national security advisor and author of BattleGrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World
Séverine Autesserre, Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University and author of The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
The world is changing quickly around us. So, how can we help lead the change? Former Obama campaign Chief Operating Officer, Henry De Sio, Jr., shares his insights on how to approach the unique challenges and opportunities of our time. With an approach rooted in empathy, ethics, and co-creative teamwork, De Sio offers tools for navigating a post-pandemic landscape in which change may be one of the only things we can count on.
In a discussion with KQED’s Silicon Valley senior editor Rachael Myrow, De Sio shares lessons learned from leading change makers in business, social entrepreneurship, education and politics.
Guests:
Henry F. De Sio, Jr., Author and former Deputy Assistant to the President in the Obama White House
Hosts:
Rachael Myrow, Senior Editor of KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk
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.
This week, we’re looking back at 2021’s biggest stories from around the world. As we turn another corner, we ask: what’s happening with the Iran nuclear negotiations? Where does the European Union come down on defending Ukraine against Russian incursion? And as China’s economic leadership grows in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, can the rising superpower stay out of regional entanglements?
Ray Suarez speaks with Trita Parsi, the executive vice-president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, Joanna Kakissis, international correspondent based in Athens, Greece, and Bob Davis, a veteran Wall Street Journal editor and China reporter about why these stories matter for the road ahead.
Guests:
Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
Joanna Kakissis, contributing international correspondent for NPR
Bob Davis, author, reporter and former editor at the Wall Street Journal
Hosts:
Ray Suarez, co-host, 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.
Noel Large was a cold-blooded gunman for a Protestant paramilitary group during “The Troubles,” a period of bombings, shootings, and political turbulence that rocked Northern Ireland in the 20th century. Today, he’s a reconciliation activist, working alongside Catholics to keep the peace. Although the situation is more stable today, Catholic and Protestant communities remain divided in cities across Northern Ireland, by physical barriers known as “Peace Walls.”
On the centenary of Northern Ireland’s birth, we look at the lines and borders that define it. We tag along with Noel on a tour of Belfast’s “Peace Walls.” Then, Ray Suarez speaks with historian Margaret O’Callaghan and journalist Susan McKay about Northern Ireland’s past, and what changes the future may hold in a post-Brexit world.
Guests:
Noel Large, tour guide, Ex-Prisoners Interpretive Center
Susan McKay, journalist and author of “Northern Protestants: On Shifting Ground”
Margaret O’Callaghan, historian, Queen’s University, Belfast
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 World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
It's holiday season. And for many of us, that means spending more time—whether in person or virtually—with our loved ones. This week, we revisit an episode from earlier this year that helps us make sense of the isolation brought on by the pandemic, and mistrust sown by our political differences.
Drawing from an ancient Sanskrit phrase, “the world is one family,” author Vishakha Desai challenges us to consider a different way of looking at each other and the world we share. Desai joins co-host Ray Suarez on the podcast to talk about her new book World as Family: A Journey of Multi-rooted Belongings.
Guest:
Vishakha Desai, Author and Scholar at Columbia 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.
In the third and final episode of our series on Putin’s Russia, we feature an interview with Fiona Hill. Long before she testified in the first Senate impeachment trial of Donald Trump, her life experiences opened her eyes to the conditions which give rise to populist leaders. Coming of age in a coal-mining town during Thatcher-era austerity, Hill observed how a lack of opportunity in working class communities can manifest at the ballot box, with serious consequences for democracy. As the lead Russia expert in Trump’s White House, she watched Vladimir Putin manipulate Trump’s weaknesses and observed in the former president “autocrat envy.” “He was always talking about people like Putin being strong and powerful and making it very clear that's how he saw himself.”
In an interview with Ray Suarez, she spoke about her new memoir, There’s Nothing For You Here, the impact of economic despair on politics, and what needs to change to save democracy.
Guests:
Fiona Hill, former Russia advisor in the National Security Council and senior fellow at The Brookings Institution
Hosts:
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.
Carmen Carcelén lives in a small town on the Colombia-Ecuador border. One night in 2017, she invited 11 beleaguered Venezuelan migrants into her home for a meal and a decent night's sleep. From there, word of Carmen's shelter spread all the way back to Venezuela. In the past four years, Carmen has fed and sheltered over 10,000 migrants.
After we ran a story about Carmen in August, listeners reached out and asked how they could help. Thanks to their generous donations, a GoFundMe campaign to support Carmen's "Casa De Paz," has raised more than $2,000.
In case you missed the original story, "In Carmen's Hands," you can listen here, with a special update from Carmen explaining how she is using the funds to expand her work.
If you want to support Carmen’s shelter, it's not too late to donate to her GoFundMe campaign.
The Pandora Papers, a massive data leak connecting individuals to offshore accounts and tax havens, shined a light on the shadow world where celebrities, politicians, dictators and drug traffickers hide their money. In the second installment of our three-part series on Putin’s Russia, investigative journalist Luke Harding explores a trail of documents and properties linked to Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, which show how “Putin and the people around him became fantastically rich, even more rich once he became president.”
Then, we go inside “Putin’s Palace,” a secretive and sprawling luxury complex on the Black Sea allegedly owned by the Russian president. Images of the palace were exposed in a documentary released by Alexei Navalny’s organization, the Anti-Corruption Foundation. But who is Navalny really, and what politics does he embody? For that, we turn to Jan Matti Dollbaum, Morvan Lallouet, and Ben Noble, co-authors of “Navalny: Putin's Nemesis, Russia's Future?”
Guests:
Luke Harding, author and journalist, The Guardian
Jan Matti Dollbaum, postdoctoral researcher, Bremen University
Morvan Lallouet, PhD candidate, University of Kent
Ben Noble, associate professor, University College London
Hosts:
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.
It’s been about 30 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, and in many post-Soviet countries, people are still fighting for basic rights. From Belarus to Central Asia, to the Caucasus, to Russia itself, people still struggle under regimes that flout democratic norms. Unresolved border disputes sometimes lead to devastating wars.
In this episode, we look at democracy movements fighting to survive in the shadow of a Russian government that’s determined to consolidate power. We start in Armenia. This is part of a 3-part series on Putin’s Russia.
Guests:
Harout Manougian, elections expert, EVN Report
Elize Manoukian, associate producer, World Affairs
Simon Ostrovsky, PBS NewsHour special correspondent
Arzu Geybulla, journalist and founder of Azerbaijan Internet Watch
Hosts:
Teresa Cotsirilos, senior producer and co-host, 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.
When delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco to sign the UN Charter in 1945, the goal was to maintain peace and security through international cooperation and to prevent another world war. Today’s UN has 193 member countries and is facing a new era of uncertainty.
As world leaders gather in Glasgow for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, we revisit an episode we produced last year as the United Nations turned seventy-five. We look at the UN’s achievements, its shortcomings and what the future holds for international cooperation. Ray Suarez talks with author James Traub, Rt. Hon Kim Campbell, former prime minister of Canada, and Jorge Castañeda, former foreign minister of Mexico.
Guests:
Jorge Castañeda, former foreign minister of Mexico
Rt. Hon. Kim Campbell, Canada's 19th prime minister
James Traub, fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation
Hosts:
Ray Suarez, co-host, 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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The majority of murders in Mexico have one thing in common: the victims were killed with American guns. Now, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador is suing a slew of American gun manufacturers for their “destabilizing effect on Mexican society”—and they’re seeking $10 billion in damages. This week, we take a look at the “Iron River,” a stream of American guns that wreak havoc south of the border. Journalist Ioan Grillo, and author of Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels, helps us analyze Mexico’s unprecedented lawsuit, and the complex world of arms trafficking.
Guests: Ioan Grillo, journalist and author of Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels
Hosts: 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.
How did Afghanistan fall to the Taliban so fast? Civilians are fleeing, journalists are hiding as the Taliban goes door to door to find them, and women are being forced out of workplaces. In this episode, we do our best to unpack the war in Afghanistan, the misguided way it began and the catastrophic way it ended.
We hear from former US ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, and Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist, Massoud Hossaini, who witnessed it all.
Guests: Karl Eikenberry, former US ambassador to Afghanistan and retired US Army lieutenant general; Massoud Hossaini, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist from Afghanistan
Hosts: Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs; Teresa Cotsirilos, producer, WorldAffairs; Philip Yun, CEO, 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.
On a Sunday night in 1971, many Americans were at home watching “Bonanza” when President Nixon interrupted the broadcast to share some urgent news. He was taking the US off the gold standard, a move that completely upended the world’s economic order and became part of a series of policy changes that became known as “the Nixon Shock.” In this episode, NPR’s Chief Economics Correspondent Scott Horsley talks with Jeffrey Garten, former Undersecretary of Commerce in the Clinton Administration, about what this move meant for the US economy and its implications today.
Guests: Scott Horsley, NPR's Chief Economics Correspondent;
Jeffrey E Garten, Dean Emeritus, Yale School of Management, former Undersecretary of Commerce, and author of Three Days at Camp David: How a Secret Meeting in 1971 Transformed the Global Economy
Host: Philip Yun, President and 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.
It’s been a few weeks since the president of Haiti was brazenly murdered in Port Au Prince. Though we’re not sure who ordered the assassination, we do know who carried it out. Eighteen Colombians, most former soldiers, were arrested in connection with the July 7 assassination. Seven received training in the United States. So how did this happen?
This week, we’re looking at Colombia, its increasingly tenuous peace process, and how US intervention has shaped the country, for better or for worse. We also take a deep dive into the protests that have resurged in recent weeks, why they started in the first place, and what the Colombian people hope to see change.
Guests: Adam Isacson, Director of Defense Oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America; Laura Duarte Bateman, organizer and Communications Manager at California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice; Alexander Fattal, documentarian, author and Associate Professor at UC San Diego; and Juanita León, Founder and Director of La Silla Vacía
Hosts: Teresa Cotsirilos, 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.
Carmen Carcelén lives in a small town on the Colombia-Ecuador border. One night in 2017, she invited 11 beleaguered Venezuelan migrants into her home for a meal and a decent night's sleep. From there, word of Carmen's shelter spread on hand-written notes along the migrant route all the way back to Venezuela.
In this episode, journalist Kimberley Brown takes us to that small town in Ecuador, where Carmen has now housed more than 10,000 migrants.
If you'd like to make a donation to Carmen, we can help make that happen. Please send us an email at feedback@worldaffairs.org.
When a wave of citizen-led uprisings swept the planet last summer, the Black Lives Matter movement forced a moment of reckoning at many international institutions. The word “racism” used to be taboo in many donor circles, but now people are talking openly about the role that race and colonialism have played in making foreign aid ineffective. Will this momentum affect meaningful, systemic change or is it just rhetoric?
Degan Ali, a Somali-American who heads the Nairobi based NGO ADESO, talks about the future of aid with Eileen O'Connor, Senior Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Guests: Degan Ali, Somali-American director of aid organization ADESO; Eileen O'Connor, Senior Vice President of the Rockefeller Foundation and former official in the Obama Administration
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.
Last March, six Asian-American women were killed by a gunman in Atlanta. The murders focused the public, as never before, on violence against America’s Asian communities—but a lot of Asian Americans saw this spike in hate crimes coming.
In this collaboration with the podcast Self Evident, we look at what happens when we ignore anti-Asian hate—and what happens when we mobilize against it instead. Self Evident co-founder James Boo takes us to New York City at the height of the pandemic and explains how he anticipated the latest wave in hate crimes. Then, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Renee Tajima-Peña takes us to 1980’s Detroit, where anti-Japanese rhetoric fueled another burst of shocking violence.
To learn more, check out Self Evident’s original series on anti-Asian hate, Renee Tajima-Peña’s documentary, Who Killed Vincent Chin?, and Tajima-Pena’s docuseries, Asian Americans.
WARNING: There are curse words in this week's episode.
Guests: James Boo, audio producer and co-founder of Self-Evident; Charlie Wang, photographer; Renee Tajima-Peña, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and Professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA
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 WorldAffairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
In the past year, reports of anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked in major cities, and a third of Asian Americans say they live in fear of racially-motivated attacks. A lot of this is attributed to anti-Asian rhetoric about the pandemic. But the hard truth is that whenever tensions escalate between the United States and Asian nations overseas, Asian-Americans bear the brunt of that anger at home.
This week, we’re revisiting an episode we first released in May that explores the structural racism Asian Americans face within our government. We hear from US Congressman Andy Kim about how the power competition between China and the US creates fear and anxiety on the homefront, which often escalates to anti-Asian rhetoric. Then, we hear the stories of two scientists, Wen Ho Lee and Xiaoxing Xi. Both were racially profiled by the FBI—and falsely accused of spying for the Chinese government.
Guests: Rep. Andy Kim, (D-NJ); Helen Zia, journalist, activist and author of many books including Last Boat out of Shanghai and My Country vs. Me; George Koo, retired business consultant and writer; Joyce Xi, community advocate
Hosts: Philip Yun, CEO, WorldAffairs; Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs; Teresa Cotsirilos, 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.
Ready or not, the Tokyo 2020 Games are happening...in 2021. Since the Olympics as we know them started in 1896, they have only been canceled or postponed for drastic events like World Wars… and now, a pandemic. Japan is entering a state of emergency as COVID-19 cases are on the rise, so why do they insist on hosting the Olympics? In this week’s episode, we take a look at what it takes (and costs) to host the world’s largest sporting event during a global crisis. We hear from an athlete, a journalist based in Tokyo, and an Olympic historian.
Guests: John MacAloon, Olympic Historian and retired Professor of Anthropology at the University of Chicago; Keturah Orji, Olympic Athlete, Track and Field; Motoko Rich, Tokyo bureau chief for the New York times
Hosts: Ray Suarez, Co-host, WorldAffairs; Philip Yun, President & CEO, 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.
On August 3, Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline judge with close ties to Ayatollah Khameini, will replace Hassan Rouhani as President of Iran. And now, the fragile Nuclear Deal negotiated under former President Obama, hangs in the balance. As a candidate, President Biden promised to return to the Iran Nuclear Deal, and relieve crippling economic sanctions imposed under Trump’s policy of maximum pressure. But in the recent aftermath of his landslide victory, Ebrahim Raisi has already rejected a meeting with President Biden and said that he will not negotiate over Tehran’s ballistic missile program, nor its support of regional militias.
In this week’s episode, we talk with US-Iranian relations expert, Trita Parsi, and journalist Negar Mortazavi, about the recent elections in Iran, and whether the Iran Nuclear Deal can get back on track. Plus, we host a conversation between Barbara Slavin and former US Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel.
Guests: Chuck Hagel, Former US Secretary of Defense & US Senator; Barbara Slavin, Future of Iran Initiative, Atlantic Council & author; Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft & author; Negar Mortazavi, journalist & host of the Iran Podcast
Hosts: Teresa Cotsirilos, Senior Producer, 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
In May, the Israeli-Palestinian crisis erupted into all-our war… again. Over 260 people were killed, the vast majority of them Palestinians in Gaza. Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas have agreed to a ceasefire, and as of this reporting, it seems to be holding. They’ve also both declared victory, but neither party has much to show for it—and both have been accused of war crimes. So, where does the conflict go from here? And what role will the US play in future peace prospects? In this episode, we look at this seemingly never-ending conflict, Biden and Netanyahu’s approaches to the conflict, and emerging models of Palestinian governance.
Guests:
Anshel Pfeffer, columnist for Haaretz who covers Israel for The Economist, author of Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu
Khaled Elgindy, former advisor to Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and senior fellow at the Middle East Institute
Aaron David Miller, former historian and advisor at the US State Department and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Hosts:
Philip Yun, CEO, World Affairs
Ray Suarez,Co-Host, 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.
Even before COVID-19, the world’s people were pulling apart from each other. Now, as the pandemic rages on, our differences are even more obvious as people focus on taking care of their own and feel estranged, fearful and suspicious. Turning inward is an understandable response to the heartaches of 21st century life, but is more isolation really what the world needs right now? Drawing from an ancient Sanskrit phrase, “the world is one family,” author Vishaka Desai challenges us to consider a different way of looking at each other and the world we share. She joins co-host Ray Suarez on the podcast to talk about her new book World as Family: A Journey of Multi-rooted Belongings.
Guests:
Vishakha Desai, Author and Scholar at Columbia University
Hosts:
Philip Yun, CEO, World Affairs
Ray Suarez,Co-Host, 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.
The world’s refugee population is the highest it’s been since World War II. After fleeing violence, poverty and climate change in their home countries, many displaced people seek asylum in the United States. But coming to the US as a refugee is not easy. Our resettlement system is hopelessly bureaucratic, and four years of President Trump’s nativist immigration policies just made things harder. On the campaign trail, Joe Biden promised to raise a cap on the number of refugees admitted to the US per year, but he’s wavered in recent months. In this episode, journalist Hana Baba talks with former refugee Maryan Hassan and author Ty McCormick, whose new 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. Then we hear from Nazanin Ash, Vice President of Global Policy and Advocacy at the International Rescue Committee, who walks us through the state of displaced people worldwide.
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
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.
In the past year, reports of anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked in major cities. A lot of this is attributed to anti-Asian rhetoric about the pandemic. But the hard truth is that whenever tensions escalate between the United States and Asian nations overseas, Asian-Americans bear the brunt of that anger at home. In this episode, we hear from US Congressman Andy Kim about how the power competition between China and the US creates fear and anxiety on the home front, which often escalates to anti-Asian rhetoric. Then, we hear the stories of two scientists, Wen Ho Lee and Xiaoxing Xi. Both were racially profiled by the FBI—and falsely accused of spying for the Chinese government.
Read Joyce Xi’s op-ed in USA Today.
Guests:
Rep. Andy Kim, (D-NJ)
Helen Zia, journalist, activist and author of many books including Last Boat out of Shanghai and My Country vs. Me
George Koo, retired business consultant and writer
Joyce Xi, community advocate
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.
When Joe Biden ran for president, he pledged to make climate change a major priority. During his first 100 days in office, he rejoined the Paris Agreement, pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, and his administration hosted a global climate summit. Now comes the hard part; convincing Congress to pass a $2 trillion infrastructure and climate plan. This week on the podcast, we talk about climate policy with former California Governor Jerry Brown, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, 2016 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, we visit Paradise, California, the site of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California's history.
Guests:
Jerry Brown, Governor of California (1975-1983 and 2011-2019)
Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer and President & Chair of Mission Blue Sylvia Earle Alliance
Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia & recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize
Emily Thomas, documentary filmmaker
Harmony VonStockhausen, student
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.
US military forces have occupied Afghanistan for almost 20 years and now, President Biden says it’s time to end the war. But Afghanistan is still fragile, and the Taliban is more powerful now than it has been in years. In February of 2020, the Trump Administration signed a historic peace agreement with the Taliban, requiring them to renounce attacks on American forces and allies, and the US agreed to withdraw its troops, but the Afghan government wasn’t included in the negotiation -- and Afghan civilians continue to be targeted by the Taliban. Biden says that the US accomplished its goal of degrading Al Qaeda to the point that it cannot not use the country as an operations base again. But it’s possible Afghanistan could devolve into a civil war if the right decisions aren’t made -- and that could destabilize the region. In this episode, we look at the legacy of America’s longest war -- and what’s at stake as the US brings its troops home. Guests:
Karl Eikenberry, former US ambassador to Afghanistan and retired US Army lieutenant general
Annie Pforzheimer, former deputy assistant secretary of state for Afghanistan
Rina Amiri, senior fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs & United Nations senior mediation advisor
Robin Wright, columnist for The New Yorker and author of “Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion across the Islamic World”
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.
Vaccine hesitancy is actually nothing new, and Pakistani Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq has been working to address the problem for a long time. In this episode, she talks with Ray Suarez about what we can learn from Pakistan’s experience distributing the polio vaccine. Even after CIA agents staged a fake vaccine campaign to collect intelligence on Osama bin Laden, stoking vaccine skepticism, health workers managed to brave death threats and convince people to vaccinate their children. They talked with families about the effects of polio, introduced them to victims of the disease and vaccinated the Prime Minister on live TV. Can we use the same strategies with COVID-19?
Guest:
Ayesha Raza Farooq, Senator in Pakistan and former focal point for Polio eradication
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As vaccine roll-outs bring the end of the pandemic closer in wealthier countries, many poorer nations are enduring a surge in coronavirus cases without access to life-saving vaccines. COVAX, a global initiative aimed at equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines, is working hard to bridge the divide. Anuradha Gupta, deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, talks with Ray Suarez about why vaccinating the whole world is not only the right thing to do, but it will keep the disease from mutating into a more dangerous one. Can we vaccinate a planet of 7.9 billion before the virus gets the best of us?
Guest:
Anuradha Gupta, Deputy CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance
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H.R. McMaster, a retired Army lieutenant general and former national security advisor, says the last twenty years of US foreign policy have been characterized by a belief that the world revolves around us. The result? A series of strategic blunders, from the war in Iraq to our missteps in Syria. And we’re not the only political power players who are guilty of “overconfidence” and “strategic narcism.” In this episode, we look at what happens when you think you know what you’re doing and don’t listen to the people you are trying to help.
Guest:
H.R. McMaster, Retired lieutenant general, former national security advisor and author of BattleGrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World
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What Séverine Autesserre has learned from two decades working on the ground in war torn countries, from Afghanistan to The Republic of Congo, is that the top-down approach to international peacekeeping, practiced by what she refers to as “Peace, Inc,” doesn’t work. With examples drawn from across the globe, she shows how peace can grow in the most unlikely circumstances. Contrary to what most politicians preach, building peace doesn't require billions in aid or massive international interventions. Real, lasting peace requires giving power to local citizens.
Host: Ray Suarez
Guest: Séverine Autesserre, Professor of Political Science at Barnard College, Columbia University and author of The Frontlines of Peace: An Insider’s Guide to Changing the World
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After more than five years of civil war, Yemenis are bracing for what could be the worst famine the world has seen in decades. Hunger Ward, a new documentary film, follows two healthcare professionals, on opposite sides of the war, who are fighting to save the children of Yemen from starvation. Oscar-nominated director Skye Fitzgerald and Dr. Aida Al-Sadeeq talk with WorldAffairs producer Teresa Cotsirilos about how hunger is being used as a weapon of war -- and what can be done to stop it.
Guests:
Dr. Aida Al-Sadeeq, assistant professor at the University of Aden and former supervisor at the pediatric malnutrition ward at Aden's Al-Sadaqa Hospital
Skye Fitzgerald, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and director of “The Hunger Ward”
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In 2018, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was elected with a promise to transform the country into a fully-fledged democracy after its people faced decades of oppressive rule. In 2019, he won a Nobel Peace Prize for peacemaking efforts with neighboring Eritrea. Last fall, however, Ethiopia’s democratic experiment seemingly fell apart. Now, the country is at the center of a humanitarian disaster. If Ethiopia erupts into an all-out civil war, it could trigger a regional conflict throughout the Horn of Africa, the continent’s ethnically diverse eastern peninsula.
Guests:
Michelle Gavin, Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former Ambassador to Botswana
Adotei Akwei, Deputy Director for Advocacy and Government Relations for Amnesty International
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Last week, there were seven mass shootings in seven days. And though other nations with better gun control see this as an American problem, the US has been exporting its gun problem abroad for years. Arms traffickers thrive on the country’s inconsistent gun laws. And while President Biden is urging Congress to create stronger gun regulations, it’s unclear whether they will take any meaningful action beyond the usual “thoughts and prayers.” In this episode, journalists J Brian Charles and Ioan Grillo join us to talk about how complicated gun violence is, and how tighter gun laws could help reduce it.
Guests:
J Brian Charles, journalist covering guns, race and inequality for The Trace
Ioan Grillo, journalist and author of Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels
Produced by Madeleine Wood, Teresa Cotsirilos, and Jarrod Sport
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Ten years since the war in Syria began and one month in office, President Biden launched his first airstrikes in Syria. The targets were Iranian backed militia groups in response to attacks on American personnel in Iraq. This is just one manifestation of the dangerous proxy wars at play in Syria, involving Russia, Iran, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The Syrian people are caught in the crossfire and have essentially lost their country. An estimated six hundred thousand people have been killed and twelve million people have been displaced. So what’s happened to the people who were forced to flee? And What does justice for Syria’s people look like? What happened with Syria's chemical weapon stockpile? What can the international community do to bring justice for the Syrian people? In this episode, a Syrian filmmaker, an author and refugee, and a journalist who covers national security explain how we got here.
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
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When Israelis head to the polls on March 23, it will be the fourth time in just two years. The most recent coalition government fell apart last December, when the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) failed to pass a budget, automatically triggering new elections. The vote is regarded as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is facing corruption charges. At the same time, Israel leads the world in COVID-19 vaccinations and is normalizing relations with some of its Arab neighbors. The Palestinians have been sidelined and will likely hold their own elections in May. In this week’s episode, we get two perspectives on the region’s political transitions, one Israeli and one Palestinian.
Guests:
Shlomi Kofman, Israel’s Consul General to the Pacific Northwest
Khaled Elgindy, Director of Middle East Institute’s Program on Palestine and Israeli-Palestinian Affairs
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On February 1, Burma’s military stormed the country’s capital, arrested its elected leaders, and declared a military state of emergency. Since then, protesters throughout Burma (also known as Myanmar) have taken to the streets, even as the military threatens more violence. Dozens of people have been shot and killed by the military junta, and the crackdown has been compared to the 1989 protests and massacre in China’s Tiananmen Square. Burma was supposed to be a transitioning democracy, and the power-sharing agreement between its military and civilian leadership was regarded as one of the Obama Administration’s major foreign policy achievements. So, what went wrong? In this episode, we talk with former US Ambassador to Malaysia Joseph Yun and Thant Myint-U, a former diplomat, historian and author, about what fueled the coup and what’s different about this protest movement.
Editor’s note: You may be wondering why we are using “Burma” rather than “Myanmar." For decades, the country was called “Burma,” after the dominant Burman ethnic group. But in 1989, one year after the ruling junta brutally suppressed a pro-democracy uprising, military leaders changed the country’s name to “Myanmar.” Out of sympathy with Aung San Suu Kyi and other advocates for democracy many people, and the United States government, continue to use “Burma.” For further explanation, please see this Associated Press article.
Guests:
Joseph Yun, former US ambassador to Malaysia and former US Special Representative for North Korea Policy
Thant Myint-U, historian, conservationist, former diplomat, and author of many books including “The Hidden History of Burma: Race, Capitalism, and the Crisis of Democracy in the 21st Century”
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Computer security experts at the Department of Homeland Security sighed in relief after seeing minimal Russian interference in the 2020 elections. What they didn’t realize was that hackers were in the process of performing what might be the largest and most sophisticated cyberattack on the United States. SolarWinds is named after the software hackers used to breach computers throughout the federal government, including nuclear labs and the Department of Homeland Security, the agency charged with keeping us safe. Today, more than 35 countries have the technology to perform a major attack on the US while only nine have nuclear capabilities. In fact, cyberattacks are much easier to get away with because they’re hard to track and retaliate against. This week on WorldAffairs, New York Times reporters David Sanger and Nicole Perlroth join us to talk about the threat of cyberwarfare, how the United States is uniquely vulnerable, and whether or not there is something we can do to prevent it.
Guests:
Nicole Perlroth, Cybersecurity Reporter, The New York Times and author of This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends
David Sanger, National Security Correspondent, The New York Times and author of The Perfect Weapon
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When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a series of agricultural reforms last November, India’s farmers launched what might be the largest protest movement in modern history. An estimated 250 million Indians went on strike in solidarity, and today, tens of thousands of farmers are camped just outside the nation’s capital. Modi’s government has responded by silencing journalists and detaining activists, raising troubling questions about the state of the world’s largest democracy. Then pop star Rihanna tweeted about the protests, causing an international incident, and all hell broke loose. In this episode, we talk with experts and journalists about India’s new agricultural reforms, why farmers don’t like it, and how platforms like Facebook and Twitter are playing a pivotal role in this conflict.
Guests:
Ravi Agrawal, Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy Magazine
Milan Vaishnav, Director of the South Asia Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and host of Grand Tamasha
Pranav Dixit, Tech reporter for BuzzFeed News, based in New Delhi
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Michael McFaul and Kathryn Stoner take a closer look at Russia — a country whose economy has continued to grow despite international sanctions—as Vladimir Putin cracks down on protestors. The discuss her new book, Russia Resurrected.
In this episode, we partnered with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.
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In his inaugural address, president Biden declared, “Today we celebrate the triumph not of a candidate but of a cause -- the cause of democracy.” But is the United States still a beacon for aspiring democratic societies around the globe? In this episode, we’re partnering with the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University to look at the state of democracy with Francis Fukuyama and Michael McFaul.
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As the US reckons with the shock of the Capitol insurrection on January 6, the FBI has arrested dozens of alleged rioters, and we still don’t fully know why law enforcement was so unprepared for the attack.In this episode of the podcast, we talk with former FBI assistant director of counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi about the issues now facing authorities in the wake of the January 6 insurrection and reflect on the FBI’s history and culture. In his new book, The FBI Way: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence, Figliuzzi makes the case that the FBI, for all its recent and historic public controversies and transgressions, still sets a gold standard for excellence and ethics that should be followed more widely.
Guest:
Frank Figluizzi,FBI Assistant Director (ret) and author of THE FBI WAY: Inside the Bureau’s Code of Excellence
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When footage of rioters storming the US Capitol was broadcast live around the world, some far-right extremists in Germany were watching it like a soccer game. The country has spent decades confronting its dark history, but neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists remain a threat. In this episode, we hear from Stephan Kramer, the head of domestic intelligence in the eastern German state of Thuringia. He talks with Ray Suarez about what he’s learned trying to stop this movement.
Guest:
Stephan Kramer, head of domestic intelligence for the eastern German state of Thuringia
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After years of agonizing political and economic uncertainty, the United Kingdom has finally left the European Union. Brexit is the law of the land and UK voters are just as divided over it as they were five years ago. As the UK’s new trade deal with the EU rattles the country’s economy, Teresa Cotsirilos talks with two political activists on opposite sides of the Brexit divide.
Guests:
Lara Spirit, Our Future Our Choice
Hani Mustafa, Student and Brexit activist
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The United Kingdom has officially left the European Union, but Brexit is far from resolved. Both Scotland and Northern Ireland voted against leaving the EU in 2016, but they were powerless to stop it. Now, Scotland is talking about independence again and tensions are on the rise in Northern Ireland. With the Republic of Ireland still a member of the EU and Northern Ireland in the UK, how will Northern Irish people and commerce move freely between the two countries? Will Brexit divide or unite Ireland? Fintan O’Toole, a columnist for The Irish Times and author of Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain breaks it down with co-host Ray Suarez.
Guest:
Fintan O’Toole, Irish Times columnist and author of Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain
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Donald Trump is no longer in charge, and much of the world is hoping Joe Biden will rebuild America’s international reputation. President Biden got the ball rolling his first week by rejoining the World Health Organization and the Paris Accords, and stopping construction on a border wall with Mexico. How will his administration mend relationships with the rest of the world after four years of unpredictability? Michael McFaul, former US Ambassador to Russia, and Jorge Castañeda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico, join co-host Ray Suarez to talk about how to best address foreign policy moving forward.
Guests:
Michael McFaul, Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Former Special Assistant to the President at the National Security Council and US ambassador to Russia and author of From Cold War to Hot Peace
Jorge Castañeda, Former Secretary of Foreign Affairs for Mexico, professor and author of America Through Foreign Eyes
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For months, the domestic terrorist attack on the US Capitol was planned in plain sight on social media. So why weren’t we ready for it? This week, former FBI special agent Michael German explains why the bureau deprioritized the threat posed by white supremacists… and why the Department of Homeland Security says they pose “the most persistent and lethal threat to the homeland.” Then, historian Nell Irvin Painter breaks down how a legacy of racism in the United States brought us to this moment. Can we change our trajectory? She argues that the Black Lives Matter Movement of 2020 could bring lasting, positive change to this country.
Guests:
Nell Irvin Painter, American historian, artist, author of numerous books including The History of White People and Professor of American History Emerita at Princeton University
Michael German, Brennan Center for Justice at NYC Law School, former FBI agent and author of Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy
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Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat has spent her career documenting the stealth strategies authoritarian leaders use to gain power. In her new book,Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present, she outlines the “strongman playbook” used by authoritarian leaders including Donald Trump. She says that the January 6 insurgency by far-right extremists, meant to facilitate Trump’s self-coup, lays bare how much the 45th president has in common with autocrats like Benito Mussolini and Vladimir Putin. When President Trump incited his followers to storm the US Capitol, some were shocked, but Ben-Ghiat saw this coming. She joins Ray Suarez on the podcast to talk about last week’s events and warn us of what could come next.
Guest: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, professor of history and Italian studies at New York University
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As each country manages the pandemic differently, the already fragile global economy has been disrupted by broken supply chains and shifts in demand. Now we’re questioning the role of the government, the future of capitalism and changing our values. The choices we make now could change the world for decades. On this week’s episode, we revisit a conversation about the future of the global economy with James Manyika, Chairman and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute, Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, and Gillian Tett, Editor at Large at the Financial Times.
Guests:
James Manyika, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Chairman and Director, McKinsey Global Institute
Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor, Allianz
Gillian Tett, Chair of Editorial Board and Editor-at-Large, US, Financial 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.
With record unemployment, increasing income inequality and soaring poverty, it’s hard to escape the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but there is one group of people that have fared well. The world’s billionaires are 27% richer than they were last year. As of July, their wealth has soared to a record high of $10.2 trillion. In the absence of a strong social safety net -- these are the people our society turns to for help. But is this philanthropy model working? For his 2018 book, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World, Anand Giridharadas spent three years embedded with the donor class. He found that many of the same people who are trying to save the planet, are actually responsible for making it worse, but he’s hopeful that our society is poised to turn a corner after 2020. “And so I think about this year as being obviously just one of unendurable pain for so many people, of a tremendous amount of loss. You know, we're getting to the level of one in a thousand Americans no longer being with us at the end of this year because of COVID alone. And yet also I think there is a way in which we're going to look back on this moment as generating not 2020 hindsight, but 2020 foresight where we might look back on this year as the year that freed us of certain illusions and, and compelled us to, to choose a different way. And what I hope is we're going to come out of this time exuberant, joyful, ready to celebrate, ready to enjoy physical space together again, but also politically galvanized to build the next chapter of the American story, because this one, this story is done.This chapter is bankrupted itself. We have learned very clearly from this year. And from these years that we have not been living, right. We just have not been living right. Our society was designed wrong and the immense pain and the immense loss of this year only confirms that. And so my hope is that we come out of this with an appetite, well, to enjoy, to celebrate, to live again fully but also to transform this country.”
Guest:
Anand Giridharadas, Author and publisher of The.Ink
Host:
Markos Kounalakis, Visiting fellow, Hoover Institution
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When the World Food Program was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, executive director David Beasley warned that “famine is at humanity’s doorstep.” He said that a “hunger pandemic,” worse than COVID-19, is a real possibility if the world does not address the problem. Hunger is not new, but the coronavirus pandemic and global recession has thrown millions of people into poverty. The good news is that there is enough food to feed everyone on earth; it’s just not always distributed fairly and affordably. Famines are man-made political problems and we have the power to end them. This week we’re looking at how to solve food insecurity around the world and right here in the United States. We’ll hear from nonprofit leaders working on the frontlines and a doctor in Yemen who treats malnourished children.
Guests:
Dr. Aida Alsadeeq, assistant professor at the University of Aden and former supervisor at the pediatric malnutrition ward at Aden's Al-Sadaqa Hospital
Skye Fitzgerald, Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker and director of The Hunger Ward
Reverend Eugene Cho, President and CEO of Bread for the World and the Bread Institute
Laura Melo, Country Director at United Nations World Food Programme - WFP, Guatemala
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.
Now that the process is beginning for distribution of a vaccine for COVID-19 -- and another is close behind -- it seems as though ending the pandemic is finally in sight. But with the world’s wealthy countries hoarding billions of vaccine doses, the majority of people living in developing countries likely won’t get vaccinated in more than a year.
Dr. Larry Brilliant, best known for eradicating Smallpox, says that’s a problem because the virus “will continue to ping pong back and forth among nations.” “We cannot solve the COVID problem nationally. This is really a time for global cooperation.” He and Dr. Peter Hotez, who is part of a team developing a low-cost COVID vaccine for global distribution, join Ray Suarez to discuss how we will be able to vaccinate our way out of the pandemic.
Guests:
Dr. Larry Brilliant, MD, PhD, epidemiologist and CEO of Pandefense
Dr. Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, epidemiologist and author of Preventing the Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy in a Time of Anti-science
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.
At 60 million people and counting, Latinos are the largest minority group in the United States. But if the 2020 election taught us anything, it’s that our political establishment does not understand this community, which is undergoing a transformation. Young Latinos across the country are redefining their identities, pushing boundaries, and awakening politically in powerful and surprising ways. Many of them are coming together in solidarity under the term "Latinx." Join co-host Ray Suarez and VICE's Paola Ramos for a conversation on how communities from New York to Texas and California are defining the controversial term "Latinx," and what it means to be Latino and American.
Guests:
Paola Ramos, journalist and author of Finding Latinx: In search of The Voices Redefining Latino Identity
Ray Suarez, co-host of WorldAffairs and author of Latino Americans: The 500 Year Legacy That Shaped a Nation
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.
When Joe Biden ran for president, he pledged to make climate change a major priority. How will he make good on that promise and what are the consequences if he fails to act? On this week’s episode, we discuss climate policy with former California Governor Jerry Brown, oceanographer Sylvia Earle and former Colombian president Juan Manuel Santos, 2016 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, we visit Paradise, California, the site of the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history.
Guests:
Jerry Brown, Governor of California (1975-1983 and 2011-2019)
Sylvia Earle, Oceanographer and President & Chair of Mission Blue Sylvia Earle Alliance
Juan Manuel Santos, former President of Colombia & recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize
Emily Thomas, documentary filmmaker
Harmony VonStockhausen, student
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A recent Politico poll found that 70% of Republican voters don’t believe the presidential election was free and fair, even though there is no evidence to support this claim. Historian Claire Bond Potter talks with Rachael Myrow about the rise of alternative media and pseudo news sites that continue to spread misinformation and are helping Donald Trump convince his base that the election was fraudulent. It was not.
Guest:
Claire Bond Potter, Professor of History and co-Executive Editor of Public Seminar at the New School
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Joe Biden will be President in two months. In the meantime, Donald Trump is doing everything he can to make that transition as difficult as possible. He has prevented the president-elect from receiving top secret intelligence briefings and made a flurry of decisions that could jeopardize our national security. Career diplomat Nicholas Burns and Ray Suarez discuss the implications - and how to rebuild America’s foreign service.
Guest:
R. Nicholas Burns, Former US Ambassador to NATO and Professor of diplomacy at the Harvard Kennedy School
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When Joe Biden takes office, he’ll face challenges like no other president before him. From the pandemic, to our fragile democracy, a world in transition, and challenges exacerbated by climate change, the Biden Administration will have to approach foreign policy very carefully. On this episode, co-host Ray Suarez talks with Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor about these challenges and how the Biden Administration might tackle them.
Guests:
Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post Columnist
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Pulitzer Prize- winning historian Anne Applebaum is worried about authoritarianism in the US. Since the election, world leaders have congratulated President-Elect Biden on his decisive victory, and yet, President Trump has not conceded. He’s gone on a rampage to discredit the results and put his loyalists in charge. Applebaum joins producer Teresa Cotsirilos on the podcast to talk about the nature of authoritarianism and how fascist leaders come to power. Democracy is fragile and sometimes, she says, the best way to push back against populist authoritarianism is to not answer it directly.
Guest:
Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer-Prize winning historian, author of Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism and staff writer at The Atlantic
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.