On Shifting Ground
975 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 days ago - ★★★★ - 163 ratingsGeopolitical turmoil. A warming planet. Authoritarians on the rise. We live in a chaotic world that’s rapidly shifting around us.
“On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez” explores international fault lines and how they impact us all.
Each week, NPR veteran Ray Suarez hosts conversations with journalists, leaders and policy experts to help us read between the headlines – and give us hope for human resilience.
A co-production of World Affairs and KQED.
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Episodes
“The Code of the Warrior” and Ethics on the Modern Battlefield
August 18, 2022 09:00 - 26 minutes - 36.7 MBWarrior 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 Profess...
A Blurred Civilian/Soldier Line? Accountability in the Age of Drones
August 15, 2022 09:00 - 33 minutes - 46.2 MBThe 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 ISI...
Forging Identity After War: Activism and Storytelling
August 11, 2022 09:00 - 28 minutes - 39.1 MBAminatta 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 Motio...
Are Women the Future of Sierra Leone?
August 08, 2022 09:00 - 31 minutes - 43.3 MBWar 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 organiz...
Dr. Atul Gawande’s Prescription for COVID and Aging: What Can We Learn?
August 04, 2022 09:00 - 30 minutes - 42 MBDr. 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 ab...
The New Story of Old Age: What Japan and the Pandemic Can Teach Us About Living Longer
August 01, 2022 09:00 - 29 minutes - 40 MBBy 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 Ri...
Forty Years After Vincent Chin, Asian Americans Continue to Fight Hate
July 28, 2022 09:00 - 22 minutes - 31.4 MBForty 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...
The Story of Vincent Chin, and How It Became A Rallying Cry for Asian Americans
July 25, 2022 09:00 - 36 minutes - 50.4 MBOn 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 mor...
Bill Browder on Exposing Russia’s Web of Corruption, and Surviving Putin’s Wrath
July 18, 2022 09:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBBill 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 exce...
Scaling Up: Local Solutions to End Global Homelessness
July 11, 2022 09:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBFinancial 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 urb...
“Nixing” the Gold Standard: The Secret Meeting Behind Today’s Inflation
July 04, 2022 09:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBIn 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 abando...
Price Shock: The World Economy, Upside Down
June 27, 2022 09:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBInflation 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 betwe...
How To Save Diverse Democracies
June 20, 2022 09:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBDiversity 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 An...
"Becoming American” with Wajahat Ali, Pt. 2
June 16, 2022 09:00 - 31 minutes - 43 MBIn 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 Recommendatio...
"Becoming American” with Wajahat Ali, Part 1
June 13, 2022 09:00 - 28 minutes - 39.7 MBEven 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 intervie...
The Age of Disasters and the Future of Crisis Management
June 09, 2022 09:00 - 25 minutes - 35 MBFrom 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 a...
NATO's Past, Present & Future
June 06, 2022 09:00 - 35 minutes - 49.1 MBRay 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
The Politics of Abortion in Canada
June 02, 2022 09:00 - 18 minutes - 26 MBApart from a distinct history and culture, Canadians have a vastly different political, legal and medical system from the United States. 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 a...
What is the Future of Abortion in the Americas?
May 30, 2022 09:00 - 41 minutes - 57.4 MBWhen 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 t...
White Supremacist Terrorism: From Christchurch to Buffalo
May 20, 2022 18:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBWe'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 ...
Ukrainian Refugees at the US-Mexico Border
May 19, 2022 09:00 - 25 minutes - 35.6 MBWhen 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 ...
Biden’s Ukraine Strategy, At Home and Abroad
May 16, 2022 09:00 - 33 minutes - 46.5 MBAs 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...
From Engineer to Ambassador: Chantale Wong - AAPI Heritage
May 12, 2022 09:00 - 29 minutes - 41.2 MBOn 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,...
Can the War in Ukraine Push an Asian Economy Over the Edge?
May 09, 2022 09:00 - 29 minutes - 39.8 MBAfter 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....
Navalny
May 05, 2022 09:00 - 35 minutes - 48.9 MB"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...
A Reason to Return to Russian Prison
May 05, 2022 09:00 - 35 minutes - 48.9 MB"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...
The End of Neutrality? Finland's NATO Bid
May 02, 2022 09:00 - 25 minutes - 35.3 MBFor 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. ...
One Country, One Press
April 28, 2022 09:00 - 14 minutes - 20.1 MBWhen 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 ...
Can China Erase Hong Kong’s History of Free Speech?
April 25, 2022 06:29 - 45 minutes - 62.6 MBDanish 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 attem...
Can Social Media Posts Prove War Crimes?
April 21, 2022 10:50 - 25 minutes - 34.7 MBSince 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 violation...
Prosecuting War Crimes: From Belgrade to Moscow
April 18, 2022 08:59 - 36 minutes - 50.6 MBWhen 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 ...
The Mystery of Putin's Wealth
April 14, 2022 09:00 - 22 minutes - 31 MBEven 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 Presiden...
Seizing Russian Assets
April 11, 2022 09:00 - 27 minutes - 37.2 MBA 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 war in Ukraine, a new nonprofit reporting network, called the Russian Asset Tracker, created the most comprehensive database to track the assets of Russians with links to Putin. On this episode of the podcast, we follow the money trail to better un...
Seizing Russian Assets
April 11, 2022 09:00 - 27 minutes - 37.2 MBA 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 Rus...
A Shadow Immigration System to Keep Migrants Out of Europe
April 07, 2022 09:00 - 27 minutes - 37.9 MBTeklia 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 f...
Should I Stay or Should I Go? Diaries from Ukraine
April 04, 2022 09:00 - 31 minutes - 43.2 MBIn 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...
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and the Phone Call That Changed His Life
March 31, 2022 09:00 - 32 minutes - 44.5 MBLast 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 Do...
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and the New Cold War
March 28, 2022 09:00 - 26 minutes - 36.1 MBWhen 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...
If Putin Succeeds In Ukraine, Is Georgia Next?
March 21, 2022 12:05 - 16 minutes - 22.5 MBThis 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 – a...
A War Between Dictators and the Free World
March 19, 2022 12:19 - 27 minutes - 37.4 MBBelarus, 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 ...
Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: A War Between Dictators and the Free World
March 19, 2022 12:19 - 27 minutes - 37.4 MBBelarus, 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 ...
Hostage Diplomacy
March 14, 2022 11:22 - 58 minutes - 108 MBAs 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 ...
Putin's Fear of a Democratic Ukraine
March 07, 2022 11:05 - 37 minutes - 52.2 MBWhat 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 Russ...
Putin’s War, Xi’s Headache
March 05, 2022 10:13 - 21 minutes - 29 MBWhen 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 discu...
Ami Bera’s America
February 28, 2022 10:00 - 44 minutes - 61.4 MB“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, ...
Remembering Dr. Paul Farmer
February 26, 2022 11:00 - 14 minutes - 19.5 MBWorldAffairs 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...
How Commodity Traders Cause Global Chaos
February 21, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBAccording 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 ...
How to Stop a Civil War (Before It Starts)
February 14, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBIs 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 ar...
Framing the Games: China’s Human Rights Problem
February 07, 2022 10:00 - 59 minutes - 81 MBThe 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 t...
Ukraine, Pt. 2: What About The Ukrainians?
February 03, 2022 11:00 - 31 minutes - 42.8 MBImagine 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 w...