About the Podcast

WorldAffairs is a nationally syndicated program broadcast on NPR affiliates across the country as well as a digital podcast streamed on multiple platforms. Our program is dedicated to curating conversations across difference, on both global challenges and solutions. We feature the world’s most knowledgeable voices in politics, academia, media and technology. Each episode highlights thought-provoking analysis from multiple perspectives to make complex issues relatable. Our expert hosts, renowned journalists Ray Suarez and Markos Kounalakis, and World Affairs President and CEO Philip Yun have one goal: to inform and inspire listeners so they can become active participants in this great experiment of democracy.

This Week's Podcast

Universal Basic Income: Does it Work? Pt. 1: Kenya

Staying home can be a choice between hunger and exposure to the coronavirus for some people, and the consequences of their decisions affect us all. What if we paid people to shelter in place when they are at risk of spreading the coronavirus? This week on the podcast, we explore how basic Income projects, from Kenya’s Lake Victoria region to California’s Central Valley, have helped people survive during the pandemic.

Universal Basic Income Pt 2: From Stockton to Juneau

Ray Suarez talks with Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs about the most recent study of UBI in his city and Nobel prize-winning economist Abhijit Banerjee about the viability of a Universal Basic Income. Then, Teresa Cotsirilos takes us to Alaska, where every resident gets an annual dividend from the government. Does it work?

Last Week's Podcast

From Oakland to Johannesburg: Can We Reform the Police?

The United States is in the midst of a national conversation about the role systemic racism plays in law enforcement, but police brutality is not just an American problem. This week, we revisit an episode about how South Africa has grappled with its legacy of white supremacy and police violence. Then, Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira discusses his childhood in Oakland, his time working in law enforcement and what it means to be an artist in times of radical change.

August 31, 2020

Will Democratic Capitalism Survive?

Protesters from Paris to Santiago are speaking out against what they see as unfair economic policies that are leaving too many people behind. Are societies losing faith in free market democracy? As a new world order is taking shape, which form of government and governance will thrive? Stanford University’s Larry Diamond and Francis Fukuyama join WorldAffairs co-host Ray Suarez to discuss what’s at stake for democracy worldwide.

August 24, 2020

Why We Still Need to Talk About White Supremacy

This week on the podcast, we’re looking at what white supremacy means and the role it plays in policing in the Western Hemisphere. Anthropologist Christen Smith talks about how the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired protests in Brazil, a country that also faces an epidemic of police violence. And historian Nell Irvin Painter breaks down what white supremacy actually means and how powerful this protest movement really is.

August 17, 2020

Why Women Are The Secret To International Development

After the genocide in Rwanda, the women of Rwanda propelled the country’s reconciliation process and fostered its economic development. Karen Sherman, president of the Akilah Institute, a college in Rwanda that provides affordable higher education for women, has interviewed thousands of women in war-torn and transitional countries. She joins Linda Calhoun, executive producer of Career Girls, on the podcast to talk about Sherman’s memoir Brick by Brick: Building Hope and Opportunity for Women Survivors Everywhere.

When It Comes To COVID-19, Rwanda and Uganda Succeeded Where the US Failed

In the US, the pandemic is getting worse than we ever could have imagined while some developing nations with fewer resources managed to avoid the worst. On this week’s podcast, we’re looking at Uganda and Rwanda, two countries who have fought pandemics before and were ready for this one.

August 10, 2020

Communism vs. COVID-19

Even in the midst of a new outbreak of COVID-19, Vietnam is containing the virus more effectively than most Western countries. Vietnam has made up for its limited resources with proactive policies and collective action. But this is in an authoritarian country and there are plenty of Vietnamese people with good reason to distrust their government, like Nguyen Qui Duc. A well-known writer, social critic and whiskey connoisseur, Duc explains why he’s supporting the country’s ruling Communist Party this time.

How Southeast Asia Flattened the COVID-19 Curve

Five Southeast Asia countries, with a combined population of 243 million people, have had fewer than 5,000 cases of COVID-19 and 72 deaths. Compare that with the United States, with 5 million cases and more than 160 thousand deaths, and it makes you wonder what are these developing nations doing that the richest, most powerful nation in the world has been unable to do? Listen to our latest episode of WorldAffairs to find out how they did it.

August 3, 2020

MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence

What role did the United States play in creating the notorious MS-13 gang? This week, we revisit and update a program we recorded in January about the origins of El Salvador’s gang war with journalist William Wheeler. Wheeler spoke with gang members, crime investigators and government officials to better understand what is driving El Salvadorans northward.

July 27, 2020

America’s Longest War

United States forces have been fighting in Afghanistan for almost twenty years, making it the longest war in American history. In this episode, we take a closer look at how the war in Afghanistan has served as a proxy conflict between the US and Russia and how it fits into Russia’s global agenda.

Putin’s Russia and the War in Afghanistan

This year, the United States is, once again, attempting to extricate itself from Afghanistan. But for the time being, the peace process remains tenuous, and Afghanistan is still being used by Russia and the US as proxy war. In this episode, Markos Kounalakis discusses Russia's delicate political moment with Steven Pifer, former ambassador to Ukraine and senior director for Russia and Eurasia at the National Security Council.

July 20, 2020

Why Hong Kong is Protesting Again

Hong Kong protesters are back in the streets to fight against the new security law. On this week’s podcast, we hear from historians, journalists and advocates about what this new law could mean for the city and US-China relations.

July 13, 2020

Jinho’s Journey: Fighting Police Violence From the Inside

Black Lives Matter might be the largest social movement in American history. In this episode, producer Teresa Cotsirilos shares an audio documentary about a man whose past experience with the police drove him to fight the system from the inside. Jinho “The Piper” Ferriera discusses his childhood in Oakland, his time working in law enforcement and what it means to be an artist in times of radical change.

Policing After Aparthied: Lessons From South Africa

The United States is in the midst of a national conversation about the role systemic racism plays in law enforcement, but police brutality is not just an American problem. This week, we look at how South Africa has grappled with its legacy of white supremacy and police violence. After Apartheid, the police were supposed to be reformed. Now, a quarter-century later, has anything changed?

July 6, 2020

The Global Economy After COVID-19

Many trends already underway in the global economy are being accelerated by COVID-19, and even after the pandemic, we may never fully return to previous trajectories. Allianz’s Mohamed El-Erian, McKinsey Global Institute’s James Manyika and the Financial Times’ Gillian Tett discuss these trends and how the economy may be reconfigured on this week’s podcast.

June 29, 2020

Is the United Nations Still Relevant at 75?

Seventy-five years ago, delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco to sign the UN Charter. Initially, the purpose of the United Nations was to maintain peace and security through international cooperation and to essentially prevent another world war. Today’s UN has 193 member countries and is facing a time of uncertainty and open disdain from US President Donald Trump, who has cut funding to the world body and declared, “The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots.” On this week’s episode, we look at the UN’s achievements, its shortcomings and what the future holds for international cooperation with journalist James Traub. Then Ray Suarez talks with former Prime Minister of Canada The Rt. Hon Kim Campbell and former Foreign Minister of Mexico Jorge Castañeda about how the United States is viewed by its neighbors.

June 22, 2020

National COVID-19 Testing: A Roadmap to Reopening?

Can we contain COVID-19 without a vaccine? Congress allocated $25 Billion for COVID-19 testing this year, but Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul M. Romer, says that’s a fraction of what we need. On this week’s podcast, he and epidemiologist Dr. Jonathan Quick join co-host Ray Suarez to talk about what it would take to use testing and tracing to contain the virus safely reopen the US.

June 15, 2020:

White Supremacy, at Home and Abroad

The outrage of the last two weeks has made it clear that we are at a moment of national reckoning. The Black Lives Matter movement is calling to abolish the police and redirect police funding toward education and public services. Ideas that once seemed radical are now being discussed by politicians both on the local and federal levels. On this week’s episode, historian Nell Irvin Painter and anthropologist Christen Smith join Ray Suarez to talk about the global Black Lives Matter movement, policing in the Western Hemisphere and why it’s important to understand the role white supremacy has played in building our institutions.

June 8, 2020:

Fiona Hill and Putin’s People

The United States presidential election is only months away and intelligence officials warn that the risk of Russian interference in our political system is high. On this week’s episode, Fiona Hill, who was a top Russia advisor under three presidents, talks with KQED’s Mina Kim about how Vladimir Putin uses our internal divisions to his advantage. And co-host Ray Suarez discusses Putin’s rise to power and the nationwide vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow him to rule Russia for another 16 years with Reuters correspondent Catherine Belton. They also discuss her new book, Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West.