Breaking Boundaries: A podcast from Northwestern University’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

The season of the podcast focused on the role of technology in global affairs. In this episode, Professor Jacqueline Stevens, Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and Founding Faculty Director of the Deportation Research Clinic at the Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs shares her expertise  on the use of big data technology at the border and its impact on migration, deportation, and human rights. 

Democracies around the world are grappling with the best uses of artificial intelligence (AI), the ethical and legal challenges it can pose as well as the benefits it can bring to citizens. In this episode, Catherine Régis, expert in AI governance and regulation talks about the importance of involving experts and citizens to address AI's ethical challenges, the need for international collaboration and initiatives to address AI-related issues and the potential of AI to accelerate progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

As more consumer-focused companies harness the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, research on human-machine interactions is becoming increasingly important. In this episode, Venus Jin, PhD, Director of the Communication Program at Northwestern in Qatar, talks with Annelise Riles about her research in this area and examines how AI influences and shapes individuals' choices across various industries.

As the 24th President of France, François Hollande was leading the country at the launch of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals—calling them one of the UN's “most decisive steps toward ensuring the collective well-being of people and the planet.” In this episode, Hollande reflects on progress towards the goals and addresses the need for international reform, the importance of intergenerational collaboration and the potential for democracy to address global crises.

Health and environmental risks surrounding disasters at nuclear power plants have become all the more urgent over the past year as Russia's war in Ukraine persists and the threat of nuclear disaster looms at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in southeastern Ukraine. In this episode, radiation expert Gayle Woloschak, PhD, shares insight on the impact of past nuclear disasters, how Russia's war on Ukraine brings to the surface the threat of more nuclear disasters, and how emerging technologies can help us combat these threats.

This season on the podcast, we are exploring the intersections between emerging technology, global affairs and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In this episode, Annelise Riles dives into a topic she is personally passionate about: the power of multilingual engagement. Multilingualism has been identified as key to achieving the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Guests Morten Christiansen and Viorica Marian join Riles to discuss multilingualism research and shed light on how the use of large language models, such as ChatGPT, might impact the way we think, speak and interact with people around the world. 

In this episode, Annelise Riles talks  Beatrice Fihn, the Former Executive Director of ICAN - the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. Under her leadership, ICAN was awarded the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize and played a key role in the adoption of the landmark UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. 

Many deepfakes are designed to spread disinformation or cause confusion and mistrust, and therefore are a threat to UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions. How do we combat deepfakes, and can technology help us in any way to address this global challenge? Annelise Riles talks about this topic with V.S. Subrahmanian, one of the world's leading experts on the role of AI in national and global security.

Combating climate change, and its impacts, is at the heart of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. More specifically, public education is key to addressing UNSDG number 13, which is climate action. In this episode, Spencer Glendon PhD. talks about his efforts to create a public utility for climate change through his nonprofit climate literacy initiative, Probable Futures.

The impact of Russia's war in Ukraine is far-reaching with some scholars arguing that the conflict threatens progress on all of the UNSDGs, especially UNSDG 16: peace, justice and strong institutions. In this episode, international law expert Oona A. Hathaway, discusses legal recourse to prosecute Vladimir Putin and other top Russian leaders for the crime of aggression, a move that many say is essential to restore international world order. 

Three members of Northwestern University's delegation to the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) reflect on their experiences at the event, which was held November 2022 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.Niloufar Sarvian is a PhD candidate in Earth and planetary sciences at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Regan Seckel is a JD candidate in the Pritzker School of Law and Reynaldo Morales, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Northwestern University with a joint faculty appointment with the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and the Buffett institute for Global Affairs.

In this episode, two foreign career diplomats explain why facilitating communication and cooperation between their homelands and the communities of Chicago is essential, and the role of local diplomacy in addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 17, which is partnership for the goals. The current Consulate General of the Republic of Argentina in Chicago, Beatriz Vivas, and former Deputy Consul General of the Korean Consulate in Chicago, Woong-ghee Cha, share their insights.

Former Ambassador Susan Jacobs spent much of her career in diplomacy focused on international children's issues, including a position as the United State's first Special Advisor for International Children's Issues, helping to uphold The Hague Conventions on adoptions and abductions. In this episode, Jabobs joins Annelise Riles to talk about her career in the foreign service, as one of the first married women to become a foreign service officer, and her work as it relates to United Nations Sustainable Development goal number 16, which includes targets related to protecting children. 

Collaboration is a skill set that requires training and practice and it is an essential part of UNSDG 17, which focuses on partnerships between governments, the private sector and civil society. In this episode, guest Blythe McGarvie, shares expert advice on how to collaborate across global spaces and be a better global citizen. McGarvie is an expert in building successful global relationships as a former chief financial officer and chief executive officer and now a board member of many multinational companies.

Racism is a human rights issue and eliminating racism is essential to UN Sustainable Development Goal 16: just, peaceful and inclusive societies and Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reducing inequalities. But what is done globally to combat this problem?  Vilna Bashi, PhD,  aims to blend her work as an artist and sociologist to explore answers to this question. Bashi is a sociologist and the Osborn Professor of Race, Ethnicity, and Global Diversity in the Department of Sociology at Northwestern University. She was also a Faculty Fellow at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, developing new forms of global networks and collaborative research initiatives at Northwestern Buffett.

This episode focuses on United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16: peace, justice and strong institutions and the role data and information can play in helping developing countries achieve sustainable development. Jean-Louis Sarbib has built a career working across boundaries of public and private international organizations and national governments to address this important challenge. He shares insights into the current challenges facing the field of international development today and how open access to data and information may help solve some of these challenges. 

The world – and human species – will reach a new milestone. Scientists estimate that the global population will cross the 8 billion mark on November 15th, 2022, ushering in a new age of potential challenges for countries across the globe. What does this population growth mean for achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals? To discuss this issue is John Wilmoth, PhD, director of the United Nations Population Division. 

Combating climate change was at the forefront of the historic U.S.-Pacific Island Country Summit, which was recently held in Washington. It resulted in an important new declaration signed by leaders of 14 Pacific Island countries and the United States. Steven McGann, former U.S. ambassador to Fiji, Nauru, Kiribati, Tonga and Tuvalu, joins Annelise Riles to talk about the summit, the human security concerns facing these countries and United Nations sustainable development goal number 13: climate action.

Education is a basic human right and the foundation for peace and sustainable development according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).  UNSECO recently released the Futures of Education report: "Reimagining our futures together: a new social contract for education." Noah Sobe, PhD, worked on the creation of the report for more than two years as Senior Project Officer for UNESCO's Futures of Education Initiative. In this episode,  Sobe explains what is in the report and how education must be reformed to create the futures we all want.

Building scientific capacity is essential to strong institutions and supporting problem-solving and innovation, especially in the Global South. Romain Murenzi, PhD,  Executive Director of The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) joins Annelise Riles to talk about United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16, peace, justice and strong institutions, and how TWAS is working to meet this goal. 

Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine is no longer a short-term event and its impact is going to shape global affairs for a long time to come, according to Fiona Hill, a leading expert on Russia and Vladimir Putin's regime. In this episode, Hill shares insight on Putin's actions, what could happen next, and how the war may impact our world for decades to come. She shares these insights from her vantage point as a Russia adviser to two U.S. presidents and co-author of the book “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin.” She is now a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at The Brookings Institution. 

Solving the world's most complex problems, such as those the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals aim to tackle, requires new ways of thinking. In this episode, Julio M. Ottino, Dean of the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Northwestern University, discusses his new book “The Nexus,” which is a call to “augmenting” our knowledge in the face of complex global challenges, by bringing together the insights, and the conceptual moves, of art, technology, and science.

Today's guest is working towards UN Sustainable Development Goal 16:  peace, justice and strong institutions. Alison E. Dilworth is a Foreign Service Officer with more than 20 years of experience, serving in countries such as Paraguay, Israel, Egypt, Poland and the United Arab Emirates.  She is currently the Director of the Office of Children's Issues at the U.S. Department of State and President of Executive Women at State. In this episode, she talks about her career  and what needs to be done to address gender and diversity issues at the highest levels of government.   

Good cybersecurity is critical to protecting people's rights to privacy and also the security of our economic markets. The companies behind popular digital platforms are critical players in this effort that is central to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16, which is peace, justice and strong institutions. Roland Cloutier is the global chief information security officer at TikTok. He has more than 30 years of experience in cybersecurity and law enforcement. In this episode of Breaking Boundaries, he talks about his approach to building a safe and vibrant global online community.

 Marwan M. Kraidy is a scholar of global communication, a leading authority on Arab media, and the CEO and Dean of Northwestern University in Qatar. One of his first major initiatives as Dean was the creation of the Institute for Advanced Study in the Global South. The Institute will produce and promote evidence-based storytelling focused on the histories, cultures, societies, and media of the Global South and much more. He discusses the goals of this institute and how it relates to United Nations sustainable development goal number 16, peace, justice and strong institutions. 

Maria Hadden brings a global point of view to her position on the Chicago City Council as the alderwoman of the 49th Ward. Since being elected in May 2019, she has pushed forward issues of local, national and international importance, such as recognizing Juneteenth as a city holiday, exploring reparations to Black people and supporting a treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. Hadden shares background about her life before the elected office, that included undergraduate and graduate work in international relations, and how the housing crisis of 2008 led her to community activism in Chicago and eventually to becoming an alderwoman.

On this episode of Breaking Boundaries we welcome Juliet Sorensen, a Clinical Professor of Law at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law and the director and founder of the Northwestern Access to Health Project. Sorenson is an international human rights champion whose work is changing the lives of women and girls around the world.  Gender justice is  a foundation of all the UN's sustainable development goals. It figures as SDG #5, Gender Equality, but is also a critical part of how we think about every goal, from health to poverty, to education, to inequality, to climate action because sustainability is impossible without gender justice. Sorensen talks about her career and her recent work with the Clooney Foundation for Justice to bring international attention to women in El Salvador who were convicted and imprisoned after suffering an obstetric emergency related to pregnancy.

In recent weeks, Russia has assembled tens of thousands of troops on its border with Ukraine, actions that led to a phone call on Dec. 7, 2021, between President Biden and Vladimir Putin about consequences should Russia plan any attack. On this episode of the Breaking Boundaries podcast, two former U.S. ambassadors weigh in on the current tensions and provide context and opinions on the current situation. Guests: Steven Pifer, a William J. Perry Research Fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Previously, he was U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs and special assistant to President Clinton and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia on the National Security Council.Ian Kelly is the Ambassador in Residence at Northwestern University. Previously, he was U.S. Ambassador to Georgia, ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, State Department spokesperson, and director of the Office of Russian Affairs in Washington,D.C.

Using the power of narrative film to explore a current global crisis is not only a delicate art, but a personal passion for Rana Kazkaz. She is an award-winning filmmaker and Assistant Professor of Communication at Northwestern University in Qatar where she teaches narrative filmmaking. Her work focuses on Syrian stories with many of her short films recognized at the world's leading film festivals including Cannes, Sundance and Tribeca. She recently screened and discussed her first feature film, The Translator,  at Northwestern as part of her appointment as the Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies in the Program of Middle Eastern and North African Studies. In this episode she talks about her path to filmmaking and the ten year journey to making The Translator.

Breaking down silos, trying to help people to work together across boundaries of discipline, profession and culture, is a difficult job and one that Christian Madsbjerg has spent much of his career trying to accomplish with much success. Madsbjerg is the co-founder of the consulting company, ReD Associates, Professor of Applied Humanities at The New School and has just launched a new venture called Lateral Data.On this episode, Madsbjerg talks with Annelise Riles about diagnosing silo problems and removing them in business, health care and other industries. He also discusses the silos that exist at research universities, which he calls the “mother of all silos.” Madsbjerg, author of Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm, also talks about artificial intelligence, algorithms and the need for an infusion of humanistic approaches into algorithms or as an alternative to algorithms.

The Northwestern delegation that attended COP26 in Glasgow is back on campus. Of the many topics discussed at COP26, climate change and the roles and rights of Indigenous peoples was top of mind for our delegation.Here to discuss this topic is Reynaldo Morales. He's a member of our delegation and an assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. He is also a faculty fellow here at Northwestern Buffett. 

Righting injustices in energy and climate change regulation is an important part of addressing the global climate crisis. Hari Osofsky, Dean of Northwestern University's Pritzker School of Law, talks about working with business, government and nonprofit leaders to make bipartisan progress on climate, energy and equity issues.

Universities are uniquely positioned to take action on climate change. Experts John Robinson of the University of Toronto, and Jennifer Dunn of Northwestern University, discuss how to change the institutional culture of universities to make sustainability an essential component of operations as well as research and education missions.

Economic growth at expense of the environment is no longer an option. Chris Canavan, a Partner at Lion's Head Global Partners and Chairman of the Governing Board of the Institute for New Economic Thinking talks about how an outdated economic structure is endangering our planet and new approaches that could save it.

Building new and necessary infrastructure while complying with sustainability agendas and agreements is a challenge that must be met in the next decade. Kate Newman, Vice President for Sustainable Infrastructure and Public Sector Initiatives at the World Wildlife Fund, and Jim Hambleton, of Northwestern University, discuss the paths forward to make sustainable infrastructure a priority. 

Innovators. Trail Blazers. Boundary Breakers. These are the people you will meet on the Breaking Boundaries podcast. Annelise Riles is the host of the show and Executive Director of Northwestern University's Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.This podcast series illuminates how leaders and experts across sectors, national borders and cultural identities are joining forces to tackle our greatest global challenges and achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.Find out about the boundary breakers developing creative solutions to our greatest global challenges and learn more about the Buffett Institute at buffett.northwestern.edu