Talk World Radio

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.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about U.S. foreign policy and starting with a little test the so-called Space Force recently did that you probably heard nothing about, preparing for a nuclear war. Our guest, returning to the program, is our friend the terrific peace activist Elizabeth Murray who was once the U.S. Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East in the National Intelligence Council. She specialized in Middle Eastern political and media analysis, and has lived and traveled extensively in the region. Elizabeth Murray is a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity  and the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. In 2018 and 2024 she was an activist aboard the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. She has been a Member-in-Residence at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Washington State.

This week on Talk World Radio we are speaking with Craig Unger. He is the New York Times bestselling author of six books on the Republican Party's assault on democracy, including House of Bush, House of Saud; House of Trump, House of Putin; and now Den of Spies, a real life political thriller about how master spy William Casey put together a treasonous covert operation in 1980 that hijacked American foreign policy and stole the election for Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

This week on Talk World Radio we are speaking with Natasha Hakimi Zapata, the author of the new book Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe. Natasha Hakimi Zapata, who is joining us from London, is an award-winning journalist, university lecturer, and literary translator. Her work has appeared in The Nation, Los Angeles Review of Books, In These Times, and elsewhere. She is former foreign editor of Truthdig.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with Annelle Sheline, a research fellow in the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute who was previously a Foreign Affairs Officer at the U.S. State Department, where she worked on human rights in the Middle East but resigned over the genocide in Gaza. Her most recent work for Quincy has focused on how Israel's ambition to annex the West Bank would not only render a future state of Palestine impossible, but would destabilize Jordan, a key U.S. ally: For Responsible Statecraft: "Jordan braces as Israeli annexation of West Bank looms Jordan braces as Israeli annexation of West Bank looms" Longer report on this for Quincy: "Jordan on the Edge" See also: "Joe Biden Gaza ceasefire Biden & Trump take credit for Gaza ceasefire"

This week on Talk World Radio we welcome back Scott Horton, whose new book is called PROVOKED: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine. Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from ScottHorton.org. His books include Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism, and Fool's Errand:Time to End the War in Afghanistan.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with John Paul Lederach, author of The Pocket Guide for Facing Down a Civil War: Surprising ideas from everyday people who shifted the cycles of violence.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about shutting down military air shows. We have two guests who are working together on this project. Taylor Smith-Hams is U.S. Senior Organizer with 350.org, a global climate justice organization, and Gary Butterfield is Treasurer with San Diego Veterans For Peace. He is a Vietnam-era draftee veteran, a lifetime member of Veterans for Peace, and a member of San Diego 350.org. https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/climatecrisis/no-mas https://act.350.org/signup/no-mas/?source=get_involved_dynamic https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/climatecrisis

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about Guantanamo with Andy Worthington, author of The Guantanamo Files. Worthington has worked with the United Nations and WikiLeaks, runs two websites, andyworthington.co.uk and closeguantanamo.org and also has a band, The Four Fathers, playing protest music: https://thefourfathers.bandcamp.com What's happening this week: https://www.andyworthington.co.uk/2025/01/06/guantanamo-at-23-global-vigils-on-january-11-and-an-ongoing-photo-campaign-marking-8400-days-on-january-9

This week on Talk World Radio, a new analysis finds that over the past decade the U.S. government has given to foreign nations' militaries 40 times the money it has paid into the Green Climate Fund. We have two guests from the Institute for Policy Studies. Aspen Coriz-Romero is the 2024-25 IPS New Mexico Fellow. And Hanna Homestead is a Research Analyst with the National Priorities Project at the Institute for Policy Studies.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about peace activism in the United States with Al Mytty who has been involved in a variety of social justice and peace programs including Pax Christi, Just Faith, Veterans For Peace, and World BEYOND War. He has been an active supporter of World BEYOND War since 2015 and now serves as the Co-Coordinator for the Illinois chapter. Previously, when he resided in Florida, he served as Co-Coordinator for the WBW Florida chapter. Upcoming Zoom on starting a World BEYOND War chapter: https://actionnetwork.org/events/online-info-session-starting-a-world-beyond-war-chapter?clear_id=true

This week on Talk World Radio, we welcome back Jeremy Brecher whose latest book is called The Green New Deal From Below.

Kathy Kelly is board president of World BEYOND War. From 2022 to the present, she has 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.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the 70,000 Korean victims of the U.S. nuclear bombings of Japan. Our guest Brad Wolf is a lawyer and former prosecutor, director of Peace Action Network of Lancaster, PA, and co-coordinator of the Merchants Of Death War Crimes Tribunal. He is also co-coordinator of the International People's Tribunal on the 1945 Atomic Bombings for the Redress of Korean Victims. His new book on the writings of Philip Berrigan was published by Fordham University Press and is entitled “A Ministry Of Risk.” http://abombtribunal.org https://philipberrigan.com

This week on Talk World Radio we are speaking with Emiliana Vegas, author of the new book Let's Change the World: How to Work within International Development Organizations to Make a Difference. Emiliana Vegas has been highly recognized for her career working to inform education policy in the so-called Global South. She has been a leading economist at the World Bank, division chief of education at the Inter-American Bank, and codirector of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. She is currently a professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about the crime of war in Palestine with Raed Jarrar, advocacy director for DAWN -- the organization founded by slain writer Jamal Khashoggi and found at dawnmena.org.

This week on Talk World Radio we are speaking with Tore Naerland who is the founder and since 1977 has been the president of Bike For Peace, a Norwegian-based peace organization that works to organize peace rides on bicycles all over the world. They collaborate with various peace organizations, schools, and universities to promote and focus on the work in the struggle against nuclear weapons. See https://bikeforpeace.no