Talk World Radio

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about how the winter Olympics is melting the world's snow away. Our guest, Stuart Parkinson, joining us from England, is Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility which has a new report out called Olympics Torched. Here's the report: https://www.sgr.org.uk/publications/olympics-torched Feb 21-23 are Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about Honduras. Joining us from Honduras is Jared Olson. He is a writer and independent investigative journalist documenting the human fallout from the so-called "war on drugs," state links to organized crime, and the targeting of land and water defenders in Mexico and Honduras. His work has appeared in the Intercept, the Los Angeles Times, the Baffler, the Nation, Foreign Policy, and more. See: https://jaredoperiodista.substack.com/p/my-latest-investigation-translated https://thebaffler.com/latest/spectacle-of-justice-olson https://theintercept.com/staff/jared-olson Feb 21-23 are Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking about Western Asia with Mouin Rabbani. He is a Middle East analyst specializing in the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian affairs. He is the co-editor of the book Aborted State? The UN Initiative and New Palestinian Junctures. He has written for numerous publications and regularly posts writing and videos on Substack. See: https://mouinrabbani.substack.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking with Vijay Prashad, an Indian historian and journalist. Prashad is the author of forty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, and The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power. His most recent book, with Grieve Chelwa, is How the International Monetary Fund Suffocates Africa (Johannesburg: Inkani Books, 2026). Upcoming General Strike: https://x.com/BTnewsroom/status/2015651683477369098 Upcoming Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking with Hartzell Gray from Kansas City, Missouri, who is running as a Democrat in Missouri's fourth Congressional district. His website is hartzellforcongress.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about media and violence. Our guest, Rose A. Dyson, is a media education consultant, scholar, writer, journal editor, public speaker, and activist living in Toronto. She is the author of Mind Abuse: Media Violence and Its Threat to Democracy and will be doing an online book club in February about it at worldbeyondwar.org for those who want to read the book and ask her questions.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with Rose Penelope Yee who is a congressional candidate in California's newly redrawn Second District. Rose is Chair of the Shasta County Democratic Central Committee and a longtime advocate for healthcare, housing, climate justice, and peace. She was also the endorsed candidate of the California Democratic Party in the 2024 congressional race in District 1. She supports Medicare for All, affordable housing, climate resilience, and an end to U.S. funding for endless war. Her website is RoseForCongress.com

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about U.S. threats and acts of war against Venezuela. Speaking with us from Venezuela is Gabriel Aguirre, Latin America Organizer for World BEYOND War, where I also work. Gabriel is from Venezuela, but is often in Colombia. He has long been an activist and advocate for peace, social justice, international solidarity, and human rights. World BEYOND War is working to pass local resolutions and host a webinar on January 7 and deliver this petition to the U.S. Congress on January 14 — as well as to hold a global day of actions against war on Venezuela on January 17. You can help share useful information on Bluesky, Instagram, and Twitter.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking with Norman Solomon about his brand new book, The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy. The book is free online at BlueRoad.info. It includes wonderful cartoons by Matt Wuerker. Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction, where I also work, and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of more than a dozen books, many of them previously discussed on this program, including War Made Invisible, and War Made Easy.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about a book from New Zealand called Hidden Stories of Heroism for a Peaceful Planet. Our guest is the book's author Linda Hansen, a New Zealand based author of books for both adults and children, whose website is lphansen.com.

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about Native Nations: A Millenium in North America with its author Kathleen DuVal who is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she specializes in early American and Native American history. DuVal is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her website is at kathleenduval.net.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about a jarring new book called The Devil's Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today. The author Susanne Antonetta is our guest.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the damage that's done when Donald Trump opens his mouth or uses social media, in this case to make confused and ignorant utterances about nuclear testing. Our guest, Greg Mello, is executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the collapse of societies with the author of one of the best books I've read in a long time. The book is called Goliath's Curse. The author is Luke Kemp, who is also a Research Affiliate & Former Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking with Guy Feugap who is Africa Organizer for World BEYOND War. He is a secondary school teacher, writer, and peace activist, based in Cameroon. He has long worked to educate youths for peace and non-violence. His work has put young girls in particular at the heart of crisis resolution and awareness raising on several issues in their communities. He joined WILPF (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom) in 2014 and founded the Cameroon Chapter of World BEYOND War in 2020. The upcoming Imagine Africa Beyond War conference is here https://worldbeyondwar.org/africa2025

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking with Sam Husseini who writes at husseini.substack.com and one of whose recent articles was titled "They Have Torn Down the East Wing of the White House. They Should Keep Going." See https://husseini.substack.com/p/they-have-torn-down-the-east-wing You can find all kinds of projects Sam is working on at http://husseini.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about military bases and the law with Martha Schmidt who is a co-chair of the Human Rights Framework Project and member of the Anti-Militarism Working Group of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). Martha Schmidt holds law degrees from the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin. She wrote a thesis was on the illegality of nuclear weapons in the oceans. Before “retirement”, she practiced labor rights, equal employment and juvenile law in Washington and Illinois. She chaired the World Peace Through Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association several times and led a successful effort for a Bar resolution supporting US ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. She also co-chaired NLG subcommittees on Peace and Disarmament, the Hawaiian Kingdom (illegally occupied by the US), and the Task Force on the Americas. She is also part of the Task Force of the People's Academy of International Law, which was created by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which is the NLG's affiliate organization. They have been providing free courses on various topics of international peace and humanitarian and human rights law. She also serves as a board member of the Center for World Indigenous Studies.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about so-called authorizations to use force. Brett Heinz is a policy researcher and freelance writer based in Washington, DC, where his work focuses on economic justice, political inequality, corruption, and U.S. foreign policy. He is currently the Global Policy Coordinator for Economic and Climate Justice at the American Friends Service Committee. You can find his writings at brettheinz.com.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about opening borders with John Washington, author of a terrific book called The Case for Open Borders. John Washington is a staff writer at Arizona Luminaria, a community-focused media outlet where he writes about the border, climate change, democracy, and more. He has written for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Nation, and The Intercept.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with Abby Martin about her new film, Earth's Greatest Enemy. Earth's Greatest Enemy, the second feature film project by Abby Martin, is a groundbreaking anti-imperialist environmental documentary. Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is the world's single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, this film challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences. Provocative, urgent, and eye-opening, this is a documentary that will change how you see both the military and environmentalism. See: https://earthsgreatestenemy.com

This week on Talk World Radio, we are welcoming back Alfred de Zayas, who is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a United Nations Independent Expert on International Order from 2012 to 2018. He is the author of twelve books including “Building a Just World Order”, “Countering Mainstream Narratives”, and “The Human Rights Industry”. You can find his columns at CounterPunch.org. See also: https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/09/09/action-by-the-80th-session-of-the-un-general-assembly-to-stop-the-genocide-of-palestinians https://worldbeyondwar.org/one-year-after-icj-ruling-un-experts-urge-states-to-confront-inaction-over-israels-unlawful-occupation https://worldbeyondwar.org/14-badly-needed-and-1-catastrophically-dumb-things-your-country-can-do-for-gaza https://worldbeyondwar.org/the-case-against-a-military-intervention-to-stop-the-gaza-genocide

Kathy Kelly on Frontline Voices on WBAI Pacifica Radio by David Swanson

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about war, peace, and politics with RootsAction's Political Director Sam Rosenthal. Sam is an organizer and researcher based in Washington, DC. He recently served three years on the steering committee of the Democratic Socialists of America's National Electoral Commission.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about abolition -- of all things in need of it. Our guest, Ray Acheson is an organizer, activist, and writer. They are Director of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament program of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). They served from 2008–2024 on the steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, which won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize. Ray Acheson is the author of Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy and of Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages. Ray Acheson will be speaking at the online annual conference of World BEYOND War on October 24-26 which will explore various abolition movements. See: https://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2025

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about a new film called Neelan: Unsilenced. Our guest, Pitasanna Shanmugathas, is the director, writer, and producer. Shanmugathas was previously a guest on this program regarding his co-directed six-part documentary series titled "Truth to the Powerless: An Investigation into Canada's Foreign Policy," which interviewed Canadian politicians, academics, and activists to examine Canada's colonial history, its role in international conflicts, and the impact of its foreign policy on global communities. See: https://neelanunsilenced.com

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about working to stop weapons shipments, in particular to Israel, and in particular from Canada. Our guest, Rachel Small, is the Canada Organizer for World BEYOND War, where I am the Executive Director. See also: https://armsembargonow.ca/report https://worldbeyondwar.org/canada

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about what actually killed the dinosaurs. Our guest, Gerta Keller, is Professor of Paleontology and Geology Emeritus in the Geosciences Department of Princeton University. Her new book is called The Last Extinction: The Real Science Behind the Death of the Dinosaurs.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about a successful lawsuit and impactful campus activism against genocide. Daniela Colombi is with Students for Justice in Palestine, an organization at the University of Maryland that views itself as part of the international movement for a free Palestine, working for collective liberation, justice, and equality. Daniela was delegated by the board to work on outreach and to testify on behalf of the organization in court. On August 6, civil rights groups Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) announced a historic $100,000 settlement agreement for their clients, University of Maryland Students for Justice in Palestine (UMD SJP), paid by the University of Maryland. Further reading: https://www.instagram.com/p/DNBVeFpOinv https://palestinelegal.org/news/umd-settlement https://x.com/AnasAlSharif0/status/1954670507128914219

This week on Talk World Radio we welcome back RootsAction Co-Founder / National Director Norman Solomon, who founded the Institute for Public Accuracy in 1997 and is its executive director. Immersed in anti-war, social justice and environmental movements since the late 1960s, he is the author of a dozen books including "War Made Invisible," "War Made Easy" and "Made Love, Got War."

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking with Kathy Kelly, President of World BEYOND War, about a new book and an upcoming online book club, and about the latest developments in Gaza and what to do about it. The book is called Our Journey from Afghanistan: A Story of Survival and Hope. See book club: https://worldbeyondwar.org/book-club-our-journey-from-afghanistan-a-story-of-survival-and-hope/?clear_id=true See information on Unarmed Civilian Defense: https://worldbeyondwar.org/UCD

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about Paramount cancelling Stephen Colbert's show, and the corporate media cartel generally bowing to Trump. Our guest, media critic Jeff Cohen was founding director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, where he was an associate professor of journalism. He founded the media watch group FAIR in 1986, and cofounded the online activist group RootsAction.org in 2011. His recent column is called "Colbert's Termination Is a Corporate Assault on Dissent and a Victory for Trump," and RootsAction has a petition to media owners telling them to stop paying Trump's bribes. See https://rootsaction.org/news-a-views/3707-colberts-termination-is-a-corporate-assault-on-dissent-and-a-victory-for-trump- And https://rootsaction.org/protest-colbert-cancellation-big-medias-complicity

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about NATO invading classrooms. Our guest Nolan Higdon is a political analyst, author, host of The Disinfo Detox Podcast, lecturer at Merrill College and the Education Department at University of California, Santa Cruz, and Project Censored Judge. Higdon's popular Substack includes the bi-weekly Gaslight Gazette, which chronicles important and well-researched examples of disinformation, character assassination, and censorship in the United States. He recently co-wrote an article called "The Militarization and Weaponization of Media Literacy."

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about Zohran Mamdani and other topics with India Walton, a longtime community activist who emerged in 2021 as a powerful presence in the progressive movement after a stunning Democratic primary victory over a 16-year incumbent mayor of Buffalo, New York. Now a senior advisor at RootsAction, she has continued to advocate for increased civic participation and policies that prioritize the poor and working class.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the climate destruction done by wars and militaries. Stuart Parkinson is Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility, which you can find at sgr.org.uk. He is the author of numerous reports related to the connection between militarism and environmental destruction. He is also co-author of a book on the Kyoto Protocol, and an editor of the Responsible Science journal. See: https://www.sgr.org.uk/publications/responsible-science

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about peace activism and Gaza, and the recent global march to Gaza. Our Guest, Cymry Gomery, is a community organizer and activist who founded Montréal for a World BEYOND War in November 2021, after attending the inspiring WBW NoWar101 training. This fledgling Canadian chapter came into being just on the cusp of the Russia-Ukraine war, Canadian government decision to purchase bombers and so much more—our members have had no shortage of actions in which to participate! Cymry is passionate about nature and the rights of nature, the environment, anti-speciesism, anti-racism and social justice. She cares deeply about the cause of peace because our ability to live in peace is the barometer by which we can judge the success of all human endeavor, and without peace it is impossible for humans or other species to flourish. Email Cymry at montreal@worldbeyondwar.org

This week on Talk World Radio we are hearing and discussing poetry about Gaza. Our guest, Anita Barrows, is a poet, novelist, and translator from French, German and Italian. She has eighteen published books and a nineteenth on its way. She and Joanna Macy have translated four volumes of the work of Rainer Maria Rilke, and many of their translated poems have been used in weddings and other ceremonies, and set to music. Anita is a clinical psychologist and teaches in a psychology doctoral program, The Wright Institute, Berkeley, where she is a tenured Institute Professor. She maintains a clinical practice where she sees children and adults with a history of trauma or neurodivergence. Anita Barrows worked for five summers at The Palestinian Counseling Center in Ramallah (in the Occupied West Bank) and she has had a longstanding commitment to the liberation of Palestine. See https://poemsforgaza.com

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about the Gaza Flotilla with Ann Wright who has spent 22 years as a leader in the peace movement.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about people in the United States who are fasting in solidarity with the people of Gaza who are being starved by the government of Israel and its supporters in the U.S. and other governments. We're talking with one person who is fasting, Mike Ferner, longtime member of and former President of Veterans For Peace, a former City Council Member in Toledo, Ohio, author of Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq. See: https://veteransforpeace.org

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about the past and future and design of Europe. Our guest Ulrike Guérot is Professor of Political Science and Co-Director of the European Center Ernst Robert Curtius at the University of Bonn. Prior to 2021, she was a professor and head of the Department of European Politics and Democracy Studies at Danube University in Krems, Austria. Prior to 2016, she worked for around 25 years in European think tanks and at various universities in Paris, Brussels, London, Washington, New York, and Berlin. She has been a recipient of the French L'Ordre pour le Mérite and of the Paul Watzlawick Ring of Honor and of the Salzburg State Prize for Future Studies. Ulrike Guérot is the author of at least 18 books, including Why Europe Should Become a Republic, and including two new books in German, one called ZeitenWenden and one called Ulrike Guérot on Halford J. Mackinder's Heartland Theory. See also: https://www.thomasfazi.com/p/enemy-of-the-state-the-political https://europeanpeaceproject.eu https://www.europeandemocracylab.org https://ulrike-guerot.de

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about the single biggest and least mentioned place that U.S. tax dollars are going. Our guest Stephen Semler is a senior fellow at Center for International Policy and author of Polygraph, a newsletter on Substack, which you can find at stephensemler.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about Palestine with Kathy Kelly who is board president of World BEYOND War. From 2022 to 2024, she co-coordinated the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal. Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, she has co-coordinated an international network to assist young Afghans forced to flee their country. She made over two dozen trips to Afghanistan from 2010 – 2019, living with young Afghan Peace Volunteers in a working-class neighborhood in Kabul. With Voices in the Wilderness companions, from 1996 – 2003, she traveled twenty-seven times to Iraq, defying the economic sanctions and remaining in Iraq throughout the Shock and Awe bombing and the initial weeks of the invasion. She joined subsequent delegations to the West Bank's Jenin Camp in 2002 during and after Israeli attacks, to Lebanon during the 2006 summer war between Israel and Hezbollah and to Gaza, in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead and following the 2013 Operation Pillar of Defense. Kathy has been an educator for most of her life, but she believes children of war and those who are victims of violence have been her most important teachers. We Were So Close: Life After Conscience and the Abraham Accords https://worldbeyondwar.org/we-were-so-close-life-after-conscience-and-the-abraham-accords

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about a new book by Noam Chomsky and our guest Nathan J. Robinson titled The Myth of American Idealism: How U.S. Foreign Policy Endangers the World.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the Revolving Door Project with Assistant Director Andrea Beaty. The Revolving Door Project tracks corporate influence in politics with a focus on the executive branch. Its website is https://therevolvingdoorproject.org

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about Cop City with two organizers of the movement to prevent it and co-editors of the new book No Cop City, No Cop World: Lessons from the Movement. You can pre-order the book, and we'll have a link to it at TalkWorldRadio.org. Our guests are Micah Herskind and Mariah Parker. Pre-order the book: https://bookshop.org/p/books/no-cop-city-no-cop-world-lessons-from-the-movement-kamau-franklin/21645107?ean=9798888903742&next=t

This week on Talk World Radio, we're discussing efforts to prevent the United States from putting military bases back into Ecuador. Our guest Bosco Vera Delgado, speaking to us from Ecuador, was representative to the Cantonal Council of Manta until 2023 and deputy director of Heritage and Culture Management of the same city government. He chairs the Tribu Azul Foundation and is Deputy Coordinator of Iskra, Multipolar Integration & Strategic Cooperation Latin America.

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking with Andy Shallal about his new book, A Seat at the Table: The Making of Busboys and Poets. See https://orbooks.com/catalog/A-seat-at-the-table

This week on Talk World Radio, we are speaking with one of the greatest chess players ever and the author of the new book Rebel Queen: The Cold War, Misogyny, and the Making of a Grandmaster. Our guest, Susan Polgar, started winning chess tournaments at age 4 in Hungary, won the top female player in the world ranking at age 15, was the first woman to earn the men's Grandmaster title by norms and rating, is the only player ever to earn all six of the world's most prestigious chess crowns, holds a world record for playing 326 simultaneous games and winning 309 of them. I could go on. She is also the only woman to coach a men's Division 1 collegiate team (Texas Tech 2007–2012 and Webster University 2012–2021). Her teams in the past 10 years have won more world championships, national championships, major titles, and Olympiad medals than all other collegiate chess programs in the United States combined. She is also founder of the Susan Polgar Foundation, a nonprofit that promotes chess.

This week on Talk Word Radio we are speaking with Dmitry Babich in Russia about U.S.-Russian relations. Dmitry Babich is a journalist who has focused on Russian politics. He has been a senior correspondent at the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily, RIA Novosti, and Russia Profile magazine. Between 1999 and 2003 Babich was foreign editor at The Moscow News before returning to Russia Profile in 2009 as acting editor-in-chief. His core areas of focus include Russia's modern political history, international relations.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about how popular culture fuels war. Our guest Mimi Healy is an Associate with the Costs of War project where she provides research assistance and editing. Most recently, she is one of the co-editors on Costs of War's latest research series "Consuming War." Costs of War's Consuming War research series showcases how, every day, Americans are inundated with cultural products promoting militarism. The first report in the series is titled, "The Militarization of Movies and Television." See: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/papers/2025/consumingwar https://www.instagram.com/costsofwar

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the corporate media with Jeff Cohen who was an associate professor of journalism at Ithaca College. He founded the media watch group FAIR in 1986, and cofounded the online activist group RootsAction.org -- where I work -- in 2011. He is the author of Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media. He has been a TV commentator at CNN, Fox News and MSNBC, and was senior producer of MSNBC's Phil Donahue primetime show until it was terminated for political reasons three weeks before a U.S. invasion of Iraq. His website is jeffcohen.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking with Harley Lippman, an Executive Committee member on the American Israel Public Affairs Committee or AIPAC. He serves by Presidential appointment and Senate confirmation as a member of the U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. He is a board member of the Yale School of Management Board of Advisors and is a member of the Dean's Advisory Board at Columbia University's Graduate School of International and Public Affairs.