Podcasts about Global South

The geopolitical checkerboard has seen, in recent years, a major shift. China, once a poor and ravaged country, is now challenging the U.S. for supremacy, and Washington doesn't like it. The Pentagon is flexing its muscle. The U.S. military budget is over a trillion dollars and climbing. It's triple what China spends. The Pentagon is planning for war. U.S. military bases surround China, yet Washington says that China is a threat. The U.S. is used to getting its way, but China won't be easily bullied or pushed around. China has a global economic strategy. It is expanding its influence by investing in the Global South, particularly in Africa and Latin America. It is taking the lead in sustainable energy, manufacturing 80% of the world's solar panels. While the U.S. is a military powerhouse, China is increasingly an economic one and most likely will supplant the U.S. as the global hegemon in the coming decades.

In this episode of Beyond the Indus, Carlos Frederico Pereira da Silva Gama, founder of Brazil's BRICS Policy Center and an international relations scholar at the Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, joins host Tushar Shetty to examine the future of BRICS as the postwar order fractures in the wake of the Iran war. They discuss the priorities and divergences of India's BRICS presidency ahead of the September leaders' summit in Delhi, the expansion to BRICS Plus and its toll on the group's cohesion, why BRICS functions as one club in a wider Global South portfolio rather than a unified bloc, the New Development Bank and BRICS Pay as a challenge to the Bretton Woods system, the effect of Trump's tariffs and rhetoric on close US partners like Brazil and India, and the best- and worst-case scenarios for the group in a fracturing world order.

From Responsible Business to Responsible AI: what you need to know and do. In this episode of Frankly Speaking, Richard Howitt is joined by two leading voices on AI and responsibility to cut through the hype and the fear around artificial intelligence and its environmental impact. From staggering data centre energy figures to algorithmic bias in HR tools, this conversation is essential listening for anyone in a sustainability or responsible business role who is trying to make sense of AI, and what their company should actually be doing about it.Kathryn Dovey is founder of Recalibrate, working on responsible AI issues. She spent ten years at the OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct, including the period in which the OECD AI Principles were agreed.Alex de Vries-Gao is a data scientist and researcher at the Institute for Environmental Studies at VU Amsterdam, where he has undertaken extensive research on the environmental impact of AI.You will also hear about:How major US tech companies successfully lobbied the European Commission to keep environmental data from individual data centres out of the public domainThe significant positive use cases for AI in sustainability from satellite data analysis tracking climate change and biodiversity, to breakthroughs in healthcareWhy the Global South risks bearing the environmental costs of data centres while the benefits flow predominantly to the Global North, and how this echoes patterns seen with large infrastructure projects throughout historyThe key frameworks companies need to understand: the OECD AI Principles, the OECD Due Diligence Guidance, and the EU AI Act, and why the EU AI Act is a practical benchmark to start working towards now, even as it undergoes its simplification processListen in and follow us on LinkedIn and Youtube!

Engineering Global Socialism: Ownership, Non-Alignment, and Corporate Culture in a Bosnian Company (Indiana UP, 2026) chronicles the journey of the Bosnian global corporation Energoinvest and its workers from its Yugoslav socialist ideals through decades of dissolution, reconstruction, and post-socialist transformation. Author Anna Calori provides a company-centric window into the business history of socialist globalization during periods of national development, destruction, and rebuilding. Contrary to popular perceptions of "centralized" socialist states, Energoinvest actively shaped trade relations with the Global South, driven by a socialist corporate culture that encouraged competition as well as collective decision-making. Even after Yugoslavia's disintegration in 1992 ended its dreams of a socialist path to globalization, these core characteristics shaped Energoinvest's adaptation to capitalist transformations and made it a key player in the struggle for Bosnia's post-war economic reconstruction. Through oral histories and archival research, Calori reveals how Energoinvest's workers paired the promise of a new model of global integration with their own visions of a working world in which they set the rules of engagement—and how, upon its sale to mostly foreign owners, the marginalization and ethnic homogenization of employee shareholders mirrored changes around citizenship in Bosnia. Now, in the twenty-first century, Energoinvest offers new promises of a post-industrial future, but its often hazy parameters leave workers to rely on the memory of "what could have been" to make sense of change. Tracing the long trajectory of a Yugoslav enterprise through decades of large-scale social change, Engineering Global Socialism presents a historical and sociological moment in which workers' ideas about social and corporate enterprise offered the possibility of a more democratic path to globalization. Anna Calori is Lecturer in Contemporary Economic History at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow. Filippo De Chirico is a Ph.D. Candidate in Energy History at Roma Tre University. His research focuses on the history of the Italian natural gas sector. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

This episode is part of our special series on the India AI Impact Summit, examining the conversations, decisions, and debates that are shaping global AI governance. Professor Ravindran addresses early on the perception that the India summit sidelined safety. More than 60% of the summit's events and discussions were focused on safety, trust, and cross-border collaboration. The framing shifted, and deliberately so. When the summit came to the Global South, leading with existential risk, rather than the very real opportunity AI presents to improve healthcare, education, and public services for hundreds of millions of people, would have been the wrong entry point. The two key deliverables from his working group reflect that balance: the Trusted AI Commons, a repository of benchmarks, testing protocols, and best practices designed for AI deployment in resource-constrained settings, and a high-level governance guidance note endorsed by 22 countries, that calls out the issues every national AI policy should address without being prescriptive enough to limit how different countries approach it. On frontier risks, Professor Ravindran notes that the landscape has shifted in ways that would have seemed speculative even a year ago, and that the frameworks being built to manage these risks will need to keep pace with that change. He also reflects on what the growing concentration of the most capable AI models means for countries like India, and why that conversation may need to move from being a company-to-country dialogue to a country-to-country one. His overall view is one of cautious optimism: there will be disruption in the short term, but there will also be a new equilibrium, and the work is to make sure the transition is managed well.Episode Contributors Professor Balaraman Ravindran heads the Department of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras. He is also the Founding Head of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI (WSAI), Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI (RBCDSAI), and Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI) at IIT Madras. He has more than three decades of experience working in reinforcement learning, and his research interest spans responsible AI and deep RL.  Nidhi Singh is an associate fellow at Carnegie India. Her current research interests include data governance, artificial intelligence and emerging technologies. Her work focuses on the implications of information technology law and policy from a Global Majority and Asian perspective. She has previously contributed to the Indian Express, The Secretariat, Medianama and HinduBusiness Line. Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Six years ago, Christopher Marquis wrote that the B Corp movement was remaking capitalism. Today the movement is twenty years old, ten thousand companies strong, and in the middle of a reckoning. Marquis, Sinyi Professor at Cambridge Judge Business School and author of Better Business, Mao and Markets and The Profiteers, joins the show to talk straight. Why the Dr. Bronner's exit and the Nespresso certification forced B Lab to tighten its standards. Why a company's positives can no longer outweigh its negatives. Why regulation catching up is not a threat to B Corp but the highest form of success. We also go where few sustainability conversations dare: China's dominance in clean energy despite its authoritarianism, the risk of a K-shaped world that leaves the Global South behind, and where Africa really stands.

Engineering Global Socialism: Ownership, Non-Alignment, and Corporate Culture in a Bosnian Company (Indiana UP, 2026) chronicles the journey of the Bosnian global corporation Energoinvest and its workers from its Yugoslav socialist ideals through decades of dissolution, reconstruction, and post-socialist transformation. Author Anna Calori provides a company-centric window into the business history of socialist globalization during periods of national development, destruction, and rebuilding. Contrary to popular perceptions of "centralized" socialist states, Energoinvest actively shaped trade relations with the Global South, driven by a socialist corporate culture that encouraged competition as well as collective decision-making. Even after Yugoslavia's disintegration in 1992 ended its dreams of a socialist path to globalization, these core characteristics shaped Energoinvest's adaptation to capitalist transformations and made it a key player in the struggle for Bosnia's post-war economic reconstruction. Through oral histories and archival research, Calori reveals how Energoinvest's workers paired the promise of a new model of global integration with their own visions of a working world in which they set the rules of engagement—and how, upon its sale to mostly foreign owners, the marginalization and ethnic homogenization of employee shareholders mirrored changes around citizenship in Bosnia. Now, in the twenty-first century, Energoinvest offers new promises of a post-industrial future, but its often hazy parameters leave workers to rely on the memory of "what could have been" to make sense of change. Tracing the long trajectory of a Yugoslav enterprise through decades of large-scale social change, Engineering Global Socialism presents a historical and sociological moment in which workers' ideas about social and corporate enterprise offered the possibility of a more democratic path to globalization. Anna Calori is Lecturer in Contemporary Economic History at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow. Filippo De Chirico is a Ph.D. Candidate in Energy History at Roma Tre University. His research focuses on the history of the Italian natural gas sector. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/eastern-european-studies

Engineering Global Socialism: Ownership, Non-Alignment, and Corporate Culture in a Bosnian Company (Indiana UP, 2026) chronicles the journey of the Bosnian global corporation Energoinvest and its workers from its Yugoslav socialist ideals through decades of dissolution, reconstruction, and post-socialist transformation. Author Anna Calori provides a company-centric window into the business history of socialist globalization during periods of national development, destruction, and rebuilding. Contrary to popular perceptions of "centralized" socialist states, Energoinvest actively shaped trade relations with the Global South, driven by a socialist corporate culture that encouraged competition as well as collective decision-making. Even after Yugoslavia's disintegration in 1992 ended its dreams of a socialist path to globalization, these core characteristics shaped Energoinvest's adaptation to capitalist transformations and made it a key player in the struggle for Bosnia's post-war economic reconstruction. Through oral histories and archival research, Calori reveals how Energoinvest's workers paired the promise of a new model of global integration with their own visions of a working world in which they set the rules of engagement—and how, upon its sale to mostly foreign owners, the marginalization and ethnic homogenization of employee shareholders mirrored changes around citizenship in Bosnia. Now, in the twenty-first century, Energoinvest offers new promises of a post-industrial future, but its often hazy parameters leave workers to rely on the memory of "what could have been" to make sense of change. Tracing the long trajectory of a Yugoslav enterprise through decades of large-scale social change, Engineering Global Socialism presents a historical and sociological moment in which workers' ideas about social and corporate enterprise offered the possibility of a more democratic path to globalization. Anna Calori is Lecturer in Contemporary Economic History at the School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow. Filippo De Chirico is a Ph.D. Candidate in Energy History at Roma Tre University. His research focuses on the history of the Italian natural gas sector. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

China calls for stronger representation for the Global South. It warns that the international rules-based order is at a critical crossroads. Beijing says it has a solution to a more equitable system. But does it have the leverage and tools to enforce it? In this episode: Steve Tsang, Director of the SOAS China Institute Cobus van Staden, Head of Research at the China-Global South Project Allen Carlson, Associate Professor in the Government Department at Cornell University Host: Sami Zeidan Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube

The New Yorker staff writers Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Louisa Thomas join Tyler Foggatt to discuss three recent collisions of sports and politics. Cunningham and Foggatt talk about President Donald Trump's appearance at a Knicks game during the team's championship run, which evoked a mixed reception from New Yorkers and complicated an otherwise celebratory week in the city. Then Fry and Foggatt discuss the U.F.C. fight that Trump hosted on the White House lawn—in celebration of America's two-hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary, and his own birthday—and how it merged the aesthetics and politics of Trump's second term. Finally, Thomas joins Foggatt to discuss the World Cup and how the Administration's immigration policies, the Iran war, and America's precarious standing on the international stage are impacting one of the world's premier sports and cultural events.Listen to Critics at Large wherever you get your podcasts.This week's reading: “Fight Night at the White House,” by Naomi Fry “Will Americans Start to Care About the World Cup Now?,” by Louisa Thomas “Lessons in Fanhood from the Knicks,” by Vinson Cunningham “Can the World Cup Transcend Donald Trump?,” by Ishaan Tharoor “The World Cup and the Changing Psyche of the Haitian Diaspora,” by Doreen St. Félix “How the Moroccan World Cup Team Became a Symbol of the Global South,” by Dan Greene The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine's writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The usual way to measure women's power in politics is to count the seats they hold in parliament. But most women who take part in politics never stand for office. They vote, attend meetings, petition, protest, or try to get the water supply fixed. In this week's VoxDev Talk, Soledad Artiz Prillaman of Stanford talks to Tim Phillips about her new review of the research into non-elite women's participation in politics, written with Peace Medie (University of Bristol).They are not elite women with less money, she argues. They want different things and face different constraints. Social norms can prevent them from achieving the change they want. But in the Global South there is evidence that non-elite women are using collective action to gain access to politics, and using that access to renegotiate the norms that hold them back, rather than waiting for those norms to shift first.The research behind this episode:Medie, Peace A., and Soledad Artiz Prillaman. 2026. "Nonelite Women's Participation in Politics." Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 29.To cite this episode:Phillips, Tim, and Soledad Artiz Prillaman. 2026. "Nonelite Women's Participation in Politics." VoxDev Talks (podcast). Assign this as extra listening. The citation above is formatted and ready for a reading list or VLE.About the guestSoledad Artiz Prillaman is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and faculty director of the Inclusive Democracy and Development Lab. Her research spans comparative political economy, development, and gender, with a focus on South Asia and on how and when women gain access to politics, both as citizens and as representatives. She is the author of The Patriarchal Political Order: The Making and Unraveling of the Gendered Participation Gap in India (Cambridge University Press, 2023).The paper is co-authored with Peace A. Medie, Associate Professor in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. Her work covers gender, security, and politics in Africa, including the campaigns to end violence against women.Research cited in this episodeElite and nonelite women. The paper defines eliteness by access to political power, not by office held or income alone. Elites include elected representatives, but also academics and business executives whose position gives them access to power. Nonelites are those who lack that access. The distinction matters because policy aimed at getting more women into elite positions only helps everyone else if elite and nonelite women want the same things, and the evidence that they do is thin.The income puzzle. At the individual level, income is generally uncorrelated with women's turnout; at the national level, GDP predicts nonelite women's participation only in some places. Women in paid work do participate more, but the driver appears to be the networks and information that come with a job, not the wage.Vote agency. Showing up to vote is not the same as voting freely. Asked whether they would vote for their own preferred party or the one a male gatekeeper preferred, at least half of women in some South Asian settings say they would defer. Work by Sara Khan shows that the women with the least agency are those whose preferences differ most from the men who hold power over them.Varieties of patriarchy. All societies are patriarchal, but patriarchy operates differently across them. In parts of South Asia it takes the form of explicit, socially sanctioned control over where women go and how they vote. In the United States and Europe it shows up earlier, as socialisation, producing large gender gaps in stated political interest. Same underlying force, different mechanics, different policy conclusions.Quotas. More than 100 countries have adopted some form of electoral gender quota, making it the most widespread women's empowerment policy in the world. The evidence on whether quotas help nonelite women is mixed; they raise some women's participation in some places, but in others the effect is null or negative. In India, Prillaman notes campaign material for quota seats that pairs the woman candidate's name with a man's photograph.Collective action. Networks outside the home, through women's groups, microcredit groups, churches, unions or friendship circles, raise women's participation by widening their information and giving them cover against backlash. Prillaman argues that in the Global South women are increasingly using collective action to gain access to politics, and using that access to renegotiate norms, rather than waiting for norms to change first.More from VoxDevWhere are the Indian female politicians?, an interview with Lakshmi Iyer on why a woman winning office in India does not lead to more women standing next time.Related reading on VoxDevGrassroots party activism by women promotes equal political participation, in which Tanushree Goyal finds that women politicians in Delhi recruit women activists, narrowing gender gaps in political knowledge and participation.Women's microcredit groups empower women politically, in which Prillaman shows that microcredit groups raise women's political participation in India by building their networks, not their bank balances.

The US government has signed an agreement to end its war on Iran. It is now widely admitted that Washington lost, and Tehran won. Ben Norton explains why Donald Trump failed, and how this has massive geopolitical implications for the Global South. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NOUxBUSM64 Check out our related report on how Iran destroyed US military bases: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_wC4KuEcWI Topics 0:00 USA & Iran sign deal 0:53 US lost the war 2:21 US lifts oil sanctions 4:14 Details of US-Iran deal 7:25 Strait of Hormuz 8:56 US agrees to end sanctions 10:13 $300 billion investment fund 14:08 Frozen assets 14:36 Nuclear weapons 15:37 Previous nuclear deal, JCPOA 18:00 Why USA lost the war 21:33 Victory for Global South 25:35 Destroyed US military bases 26:43 Historic defeat of imperialism 27:46 Outro

In this third episode of our season-long exploration of Quakers and Money, Peterson Toscano and Diana Yañez turn toward one of the largest and most difficult questions of the series: How do Friends live with integrity inside capitalism? Last month, we explored relational finance and asked whether taking responsibility for our money and institutional assets can lead to deeper integrity and more equitable power-sharing. This month, Peterson names the friction many Friends feel: the sense of being trapped in a massive economic system built on extraction, inequity, colonialism, and environmental harm. Through conversations with Lisa Graustein, Nathan Kleban, David Watt, and Traci Hjelt Sullivan, this episode examines the spiritual dissonance between Quaker values and capitalist structures. We hear about stolen land, inherited wealth, paternalism in charitable giving, the legacy of slavery in Quaker history, and the denial made possible by class and racial privilege. Rather than offering easy answers, Peterson and Diana ask what it means to stay on a journey with truth. If capitalism harms people and the planet, how might Friends move beyond individual purity or denial and toward mutual aid, community wealth-building, repair, and solidarity? In This Episode The Dissonance: Peterson reflects on the gap between Quaker faith and a global economy built on extraction and inequity. Capitalism and White Supremacy: Lisa Graustein names capitalism and white supremacy as forces that keep the here and now from becoming the realm of God. Stolen Land and Reparative Responsibility: Lisa shares the story of New England Yearly Meeting selling property after repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and raises questions about what should happen to profits from land acquired through colonization. From Charity to Right Relationship: Nathan Kleban of Right Sharing of World Resources challenges paternalistic models of giving and asks who the economy is actually for. Quaker Wealth and Enslavement: David Watt, professor of Quaker studies at Haverford College, reminds us that some early Quaker wealth in Philadelphia was tied to Barbados, sugar plantations, and the labor of enslaved people. The Wealth of Not Having Debt: Traci Hjelt Sullivan expands the definition of ancestral wealth, naming the opportunities that come from beginning adult life without student debt. The Inner Capitalist: Diana reminds us that the Quaker belief in “that of God in everyone” also extends to capitalists, and to the parts of ourselves that continue to benefit from extractive systems. Our Guests Lisa Graustein Lisa Graustein is a Quaker educator, activist, and writer whose work often explores money, power, race, and reparative justice. In this episode, she reflects on inherited wealth, stewardship, and the responsibility to repair harm caused through the accumulation of resources. Nathan Kleban Nathan Kleban works with Right Sharing of World Resources, a Quaker organization that supports women-led economic projects in the Global South. Nathan brings a relational and community-centered lens to economics, asking how people get their needs met and how communities express their gifts outside extractive systems. David Watt David Watt is the Douglas and Dorothy Steere Professor of Quaker Studies at Haverford College. In this episode, he offers historical context about Quaker wealth, including the connections between early Philadelphia Friends, Barbados, sugar plantations, and slavery. Traci Hjelt Sullivan Traci Hjelt Sullivan is the executive director of Right Sharing of World Resources. She brings decades of nonprofit leadership and international experience to her work. In this episode, she reflects on truth, denial, race, class, debt, and the spiritual work of recognizing our own responsibility. Resources and Recommendations QuakerSpeak: “What If Wall Street Were Honest?” https://quakerspeak.com/video/what-if-wall-street-were-honest/ North Carolina Quaker Mark Hulbert has tracked investment advisors since the early 1980s. In this QuakerSpeak video, he talks about how his Quaker background and commitment to integrity led him to ask whether Wall Street advisors were telling the truth. Spent https://playspent.org/ Diana recommends Spent, a free browser-based survival game that places players inside the poverty trap. You begin with $1,000 and try to survive for 30 days while making impossible choices: pay rent, fix the car, buy medicine, or keep the lights on. It offers one way to better understand how expensive it can be to be poor in the current economic system. Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1575 Diana references Federici's work while discussing the relationship between capitalism, labor control, gendered violence, and colonialism. The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374157357/thedawnofeverything/ Diana also points to this book while reflecting on European colonialism, the construction of human hierarchy, and the ideas that shaped the modern world. Organizations Mentioned Right Sharing of World Resources: https://rswr.org/ A Quaker organization that supports women's self-help groups in the Global South through seed grants and relationship-based partnerships. Earth Quaker Action Team: https://eqat.org/ A grassroots Quaker organization that uses nonviolent direct action to challenge systems of economic and environmental injustice. New England Yearly Meeting: https://neym.org/ A regional body of the Religious Society of Friends is mentioned in Lisa Graustein's story about land, reparative responsibility, and the Doctrine of Discovery. Haverford College / David Harrington Watt: https://www.haverford.edu/users/dhwatt David Watt teaches Quaker studies at Haverford College and appears in this episode to discuss Quaker history, wealth, slavery, and capitalism. Listener Voicemails Thank you to John Choe for sharing his reflections and concerns about Quakers, financial discernment, and the role of institutions like Friends Fiduciary. Thank you also to Richard Tindall for his faithful reminder to drink a glass of water first thing in the morning. As summer begins in the Northern Hemisphere, it is a timely invitation to stay hydrated and care for our bodies. Question for Listeners How do you navigate the tension between Quaker values and capitalism? Where do you feel dissonance between your financial life and your spiritual commitments? Share your thoughts: · Voicemail: Call 317-QUAKERS, 317-782-5377 · Email: podcast@friendsjournal.org · Social Media: Respond to us on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok Sponsors Friends Fiduciary https://friendsfiduciary.org/ Friends Fiduciary unites Quaker values with expert investing. They serve Friends meetings, churches, schools, and organizations through ethical portfolios, shareholder advocacy, and a commitment to justice and sustainability. American Friends Service Committee https://afsc.org/ The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization working with communities worldwide to challenge injustice, meet urgent community needs, and build conditions for lasting peace. AFSC and the Vanguard S.O.S. / Never Vanguard campaign AFSC announcement: https://afsc.org/newsroom/afsc-joins-vanguard-sos-campaign-fossil-fuel-divestment Never Vanguard pledge: https://eqat.org/never-vanguard/ AFSC has joined with Earth Quaker Action Team in the Vanguard S.O.S. campaign, asking Friends to boycott and divest from Vanguard until it stops funding fossil fuel projects and takes climate justice into account. Disclaimers Quakers Today is a project of Friends Publishing Corporation. This season is sponsored by Friends Fiduciary and the American Friends Service Committee. This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice. Listening does not create an advisory relationship. Friends Fiduciary is a sponsor of this podcast. Sponsorship does not constitute an endorsement, and Quakers Today does not receive compensation based on listener investment decisions. Diana Gisel Yañez is an Investment Advisor Representative of Natural Investments PBLLC. Natural Investments is an independent Registered Investment Advisor. Quakers Today and Friends Journal are not a registered entity and are not an affiliate or subsidiary of Natural Investments. See the Natural Investments Disclosures and Disclaimers and Form CRS: https://naturalinvestments.com/disclosures-disclaimers/

"Crisis creates clarity, and philanthropic funding is the best risk capital we have." That's how Hala Hanna reads the moment we're in, and as Executive Director of MIT Solve, she has the data to back it up.MIT Solve has spent a decade brokering the relationship between companies, funders, and the early-stage innovators closing equity gaps in health, learning, climate, and economic opportunity. Their 460 solvers are reaching 430 million lives, have mobilized $87 million in direct funding, and have collectively raised $1.4 billion. And Hala has a front-row seat to the fundamental shift happening in how money moves toward mission.In this episode, you'll hear:Why the most forward-thinking funders are moving from rewarding proximity to power to rewarding proximity to the problem, and what that means for your missionWhat corporate partners actually need from nonprofit partnerships right now, and how to position your org to meet them thereWhy pairing measurable outcomes with storytelling is the real fundraising unlock, and the one question every nonprofit leader needs to answer before walking into a funder conversationYou'll walk away with a sharper read on where philanthropy is heading and a concrete playbook for becoming the partner funders are actually looking for.

What does it mean, three decades after the demise of the USSR, to inhabit cities built for a future that has never arrived? In pursuit of the question—what is left of the socialist city?—this book aims not only to trace the material and mnemonic remains of the socialist city,  but to show how the Soviet discourse of the city at times engendered radical ideas that challenged the narrow confines of state socialism itself. These ideas are, for instance, the efforts of Esperanto-speaking internationalists from Czechoslovakia to build the internationalist city from below in the Central Asian steppe, the quest of Armenian Futurists to root the architectural style of Soviet Armenia in the country's Persianate heritage, or a Jewish-Kyrgyz philosopher's vision of turning a science town in the hinterland of Moscow into the first ecopolis of the USSR. In an effort to rethink the life and afterlife of the Soviet city from its geographical South, The Death and Life of Southern Soviet Cities: Urban Futures and Their Afterlives (Routledge, 2026) explores the material and immaterial legacies of socialist-era urbanization in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. To this end, it embarks on a historical and ethnographic journey to urban sites in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. In a quest to reconstruct competing visions of urbanity that emerged from within the Soviet South, using varied empirical sources in Armenian, Czech, Kyrgyz, and Russian, the book outlines four urban visions: bottom-up urbanity, rooted urbanity, polycentric urbanity, and ecocentric urbanity. By understanding the social vision of a "socialist city of the future" beyond the political center in its trans-local independence, the book highlights the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Soviet South and its historical embeddedness within the regional dynamics of the Global South. David Leupold is a sociologist, scholar of memory wars and research fellow in the ERC-funded research project REVENANT: Revivals of Empire. He is the author of the prize-winning book Embattled Dreamlands: The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Turkish, and Kurdish Memory (2021), the former principal investigator of the DFG-funded research project Future Images of the Past (2021–2025), and a current resource scholar for the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies (Middlebury Institute of International Studies). He lives in Berlin.  This interview was conducted by Ernest Lee, PhD student at the University of Chicago. He researches the history of postcolonial energy through the lens of development, infrastructure and environment, with a focus on West Africa and Southeast Asia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

What does it mean, three decades after the demise of the USSR, to inhabit cities built for a future that has never arrived? In pursuit of the question—what is left of the socialist city?—this book aims not only to trace the material and mnemonic remains of the socialist city,  but to show how the Soviet discourse of the city at times engendered radical ideas that challenged the narrow confines of state socialism itself. These ideas are, for instance, the efforts of Esperanto-speaking internationalists from Czechoslovakia to build the internationalist city from below in the Central Asian steppe, the quest of Armenian Futurists to root the architectural style of Soviet Armenia in the country's Persianate heritage, or a Jewish-Kyrgyz philosopher's vision of turning a science town in the hinterland of Moscow into the first ecopolis of the USSR. In an effort to rethink the life and afterlife of the Soviet city from its geographical South, The Death and Life of Southern Soviet Cities: Urban Futures and Their Afterlives (Routledge, 2026) explores the material and immaterial legacies of socialist-era urbanization in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. To this end, it embarks on a historical and ethnographic journey to urban sites in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. In a quest to reconstruct competing visions of urbanity that emerged from within the Soviet South, using varied empirical sources in Armenian, Czech, Kyrgyz, and Russian, the book outlines four urban visions: bottom-up urbanity, rooted urbanity, polycentric urbanity, and ecocentric urbanity. By understanding the social vision of a "socialist city of the future" beyond the political center in its trans-local independence, the book highlights the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Soviet South and its historical embeddedness within the regional dynamics of the Global South. David Leupold is a sociologist, scholar of memory wars and research fellow in the ERC-funded research project REVENANT: Revivals of Empire. He is the author of the prize-winning book Embattled Dreamlands: The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Turkish, and Kurdish Memory (2021), the former principal investigator of the DFG-funded research project Future Images of the Past (2021–2025), and a current resource scholar for the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies (Middlebury Institute of International Studies). He lives in Berlin.  This interview was conducted by Ernest Lee, PhD student at the University of Chicago. He researches the history of postcolonial energy through the lens of development, infrastructure and environment, with a focus on West Africa and Southeast Asia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/central-asian-studies

What does it mean, three decades after the demise of the USSR, to inhabit cities built for a future that has never arrived? In pursuit of the question—what is left of the socialist city?—this book aims not only to trace the material and mnemonic remains of the socialist city,  but to show how the Soviet discourse of the city at times engendered radical ideas that challenged the narrow confines of state socialism itself. These ideas are, for instance, the efforts of Esperanto-speaking internationalists from Czechoslovakia to build the internationalist city from below in the Central Asian steppe, the quest of Armenian Futurists to root the architectural style of Soviet Armenia in the country's Persianate heritage, or a Jewish-Kyrgyz philosopher's vision of turning a science town in the hinterland of Moscow into the first ecopolis of the USSR. In an effort to rethink the life and afterlife of the Soviet city from its geographical South, The Death and Life of Southern Soviet Cities: Urban Futures and Their Afterlives (Routledge, 2026) explores the material and immaterial legacies of socialist-era urbanization in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. To this end, it embarks on a historical and ethnographic journey to urban sites in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. In a quest to reconstruct competing visions of urbanity that emerged from within the Soviet South, using varied empirical sources in Armenian, Czech, Kyrgyz, and Russian, the book outlines four urban visions: bottom-up urbanity, rooted urbanity, polycentric urbanity, and ecocentric urbanity. By understanding the social vision of a "socialist city of the future" beyond the political center in its trans-local independence, the book highlights the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Soviet South and its historical embeddedness within the regional dynamics of the Global South. David Leupold is a sociologist, scholar of memory wars and research fellow in the ERC-funded research project REVENANT: Revivals of Empire. He is the author of the prize-winning book Embattled Dreamlands: The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Turkish, and Kurdish Memory (2021), the former principal investigator of the DFG-funded research project Future Images of the Past (2021–2025), and a current resource scholar for the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies (Middlebury Institute of International Studies). He lives in Berlin.  This interview was conducted by Ernest Lee, PhD student at the University of Chicago. He researches the history of postcolonial energy through the lens of development, infrastructure and environment, with a focus on West Africa and Southeast Asia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/russian-studies

What does it mean, three decades after the demise of the USSR, to inhabit cities built for a future that has never arrived? In pursuit of the question—what is left of the socialist city?—this book aims not only to trace the material and mnemonic remains of the socialist city,  but to show how the Soviet discourse of the city at times engendered radical ideas that challenged the narrow confines of state socialism itself. These ideas are, for instance, the efforts of Esperanto-speaking internationalists from Czechoslovakia to build the internationalist city from below in the Central Asian steppe, the quest of Armenian Futurists to root the architectural style of Soviet Armenia in the country's Persianate heritage, or a Jewish-Kyrgyz philosopher's vision of turning a science town in the hinterland of Moscow into the first ecopolis of the USSR. In an effort to rethink the life and afterlife of the Soviet city from its geographical South, The Death and Life of Southern Soviet Cities: Urban Futures and Their Afterlives (Routledge, 2026) explores the material and immaterial legacies of socialist-era urbanization in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. To this end, it embarks on a historical and ethnographic journey to urban sites in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. In a quest to reconstruct competing visions of urbanity that emerged from within the Soviet South, using varied empirical sources in Armenian, Czech, Kyrgyz, and Russian, the book outlines four urban visions: bottom-up urbanity, rooted urbanity, polycentric urbanity, and ecocentric urbanity. By understanding the social vision of a "socialist city of the future" beyond the political center in its trans-local independence, the book highlights the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Soviet South and its historical embeddedness within the regional dynamics of the Global South. David Leupold is a sociologist, scholar of memory wars and research fellow in the ERC-funded research project REVENANT: Revivals of Empire. He is the author of the prize-winning book Embattled Dreamlands: The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Turkish, and Kurdish Memory (2021), the former principal investigator of the DFG-funded research project Future Images of the Past (2021–2025), and a current resource scholar for the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies (Middlebury Institute of International Studies). He lives in Berlin.  This interview was conducted by Ernest Lee, PhD student at the University of Chicago. He researches the history of postcolonial energy through the lens of development, infrastructure and environment, with a focus on West Africa and Southeast Asia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/sociology

What does it mean, three decades after the demise of the USSR, to inhabit cities built for a future that has never arrived? In pursuit of the question—what is left of the socialist city?—this book aims not only to trace the material and mnemonic remains of the socialist city,  but to show how the Soviet discourse of the city at times engendered radical ideas that challenged the narrow confines of state socialism itself. These ideas are, for instance, the efforts of Esperanto-speaking internationalists from Czechoslovakia to build the internationalist city from below in the Central Asian steppe, the quest of Armenian Futurists to root the architectural style of Soviet Armenia in the country's Persianate heritage, or a Jewish-Kyrgyz philosopher's vision of turning a science town in the hinterland of Moscow into the first ecopolis of the USSR. In an effort to rethink the life and afterlife of the Soviet city from its geographical South, The Death and Life of Southern Soviet Cities: Urban Futures and Their Afterlives (Routledge, 2026) explores the material and immaterial legacies of socialist-era urbanization in Central Asia and the Southern Caucasus. To this end, it embarks on a historical and ethnographic journey to urban sites in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. In a quest to reconstruct competing visions of urbanity that emerged from within the Soviet South, using varied empirical sources in Armenian, Czech, Kyrgyz, and Russian, the book outlines four urban visions: bottom-up urbanity, rooted urbanity, polycentric urbanity, and ecocentric urbanity. By understanding the social vision of a "socialist city of the future" beyond the political center in its trans-local independence, the book highlights the cultural and linguistic diversity of the Soviet South and its historical embeddedness within the regional dynamics of the Global South. David Leupold is a sociologist, scholar of memory wars and research fellow in the ERC-funded research project REVENANT: Revivals of Empire. He is the author of the prize-winning book Embattled Dreamlands: The Politics of Contesting Armenian, Turkish, and Kurdish Memory (2021), the former principal investigator of the DFG-funded research project Future Images of the Past (2021–2025), and a current resource scholar for the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies (Middlebury Institute of International Studies). He lives in Berlin.  This interview was conducted by Ernest Lee, PhD student at the University of Chicago. He researches the history of postcolonial energy through the lens of development, infrastructure and environment, with a focus on West Africa and Southeast Asia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the building you live in could be grown instead of built, feed people while it goes up, and lock away carbon for a century? Architect Chris Maurer of Red House Architecture and MycoHab joins Karl and Erum to explain how he turns 12 tons of invasive bush into mushrooms that feed a community and mycelium blocks that test stronger than concrete. He breaks down the now famous sledgehammer test, why a ductile living material survives the earthquakes that shatter cinder block, and the counterintuitive truth that more mycelium does not make a stronger brick. Then things get cosmic. Chris walks through his NASA backed work growing habitats that pack down tight, fly to Mars, and unfold to grow their own radiation shielding from algae and fungi, plus the Biocycler that eats the toxins out of old houses and turns that waste into something safe. If you care about biomaterials, regenerative design, and the business models that could actually build us out of the climate crisis, this conversation will rewire how you see the walls around you.Grow Everything brings the bioeconomy to life. Hosts Karl Schmieder and Erum Azeez Khan share stories and interview the leaders and influencers changing the world by growing everything. Biology is the oldest technology. And it can be engineered. What are we growing?Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.messaginglab.com/groweverything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chapters:(00:00:00) Cold open and the first trillion dollar biotech(00:06:05) Robling's live demo: an AI process engineer for biomanufacturing(00:07:50) The Longevity Global Summit and the business of living longer(00:15:05) A warming planet is unleashing flesh eating microbes(00:18:35) Meet Chris Maurer: architecture that grows, decays, and feeds people(00:20:05) What Africa taught him about regenerative architecture(00:27:05) Building MycoHab with MIT and Standard Bank(00:32:25) The sledgehammer test: ductile mycelium versus brittle concrete(00:39:35) Failures, tuning biology, and the 60 day sweet spot(00:42:35) Does biology first design give the Global South an advantage?(00:48:35) Deployable Mars habitats that grow their own walls(00:53:05) The Biocycler: turning old toxic buildings into new ones(00:56:05) How fungi break down petrochemicals and chelate heavy metals(01:00:05) The hard nut of building a business around mycelium(01:02:00) The economics of mushrooms, materials, and carbon credits(01:03:35) Eco luxury myco habs and the first buyers(01:05:05) Why biobased construction becomes the rule by mid century(01:10:05) Earth or Mars, the weirdest material, and meeting Lynn RothschildLinks and Resources:Redhouse Studio ArchitectureChris MaurerNASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) ProgramCan 'mycotecture' provide the building blocks?143. Sunscreen from Space? Delavie's Kyle Landry Turns Space Microbes into Skincare 173. They Put the Ore in Organisms: Liz Dennett's Microbial Mining at Endolith156. When Matter Makes Decisions: Michael Levin on the Intelligence of Form 126. Sizzling Success: Eben Bayer of MyForest Foods on Scaling Mycelium Magic159. The Future Is Fungi Awards: From Mushroom Dreams to Real-World ThingsAI value pyramidOur warming planet is a petri-dish for new and deadly microbesBioInnovations Events - For 25% off use code: Grow EverythingTopics Covered:mycelium, regenerative architecture, biofabrication, carbon sequestration, fungal materials, circular economy, biomimicry, sustainable construction, extraterrestrial habitats, biogenic materialsHave a question or comment? Message us here:Text or Call (804) 505-5553⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ / ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Grow Everything⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music by: Nihilore Production by: Amplafy Media

In this episode, we speak with Elvis Ebikade, Director of Strategic Market Development at Bioleum Corporation, about why the Global South should be producing SAF rather than just exporting raw feedstocks, how renewable fuels are becoming an energy security play, the technical challenge of getting aromatics into SAF, and what actually separates a bankable SAF project from a good-looking spreadsheet.Ebikade discusses:The case for Africa and Southeast Asia as SAF producers, not just feedstock suppliersWhy exporting feedstocks and reimporting SAF adds a carbon intensity penalty that undermines the product's core valueFeedstock diversity in Africa: HEFA, alcohol-to-jet, woody biomass, and e-fuelsThe energy security reframe: why renewable fuels change who sits at the tableExport vs book-and-claim: why there's no single model for Global South SAFWhat Bioleum is building: lignin-to-aromatics, cellulosic ethanol, and the Hexas Biomass acquisitionWhy most SAF today still needs to be blended with fossil jet fuel before it can be used to power aircraftWhat makes a SAF project bankable: feedstock, offtake, EPC, and a credible path to cost parityThe gap between financial models and operational realityIf you LOVED this episode, you'll also love the conversation we had with Meg Gentle, Executive Director at HIF Global, about how synthetic fuels and waste-based pathways could reshape the economics of sustainable aviation fuel. Check it out here. Learn more about the innovators who are navigating the industry's challenges to make sustainable aviation a reality, in our new book ‘Sustainability in the Air: Volume 2'. Click here to learn more.Feel free to reach out via email to podcast@simpliflying.com. For more content on sustainable aviation, visit our website green.simpliflying.com and join the movement. It's about time.Links & More:Bioleum Corporation Why the Global South could produce aviation's cheapest sustainable fuels - SimpliFlyingThe six-times markup that convinced a Kenyan entrepreneur to make his own SAF - SimpliFlying Could Cameroon become Central Africa's SAF gateway? - SimpliFlying The country that banned petrol cars is now betting on SAF - SimpliFlyingHexas: A sustainable solution to the food vs. fuel debate - SimpliFlying

Is the world becoming more religious or less religious? Gina Zurlo, Lecturer on World Christianity at Harvard Divinity School, talks about the demographic, cultural, and social forces reshaping religion around the globe. Drawing on a recent Pew Research Center report on religious diversity, Zurlo explores Christianity's shift toward the Global South, the impact of migration and demographics, and what researchers are learning about faith and spirituality among younger generations. Produced and hosted by Jonathan Beasley Edited by Tyler Sprouse Logo art direction by Kristie Welsh Pew Research Report on religious diversity around the world: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2026/02/12/religious-diversity-around-the-world/ Harvard Divinity Bulletin article: "Is the World Becoming More or Less Religious? Depends on China." https://bulletin.hds.harvard.edu/is-the-world-becoming-more-or-less-religious-depends-on-china/ Intro/Outro music: "Shape Of Hope"; Publishers: Abbey Road Masters; Universal Production Music Ad break music: "Atmospheres"; Publishers: Aurora; Universal Production Music Sign up for the HDS Current newsletter: www.hds.harvard.edu/news/connect Follow HDS on social media: IG, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn (@HarvardDivinity)

Energy transition of India, like any other country in the world is currently marred with wars, energy map reset and new challenges of AI and climate financing. Every nation is back on the drawing board to plan their energy future and climate action in a warming, conflicting world. As The India Energy Hour enters the century club, informed conversations tracking the transition, especially of the Global South led by India become more important than ever. To get an overview of how far India has come in its transition journey, the lessons that have been learnt along the way and what lies ahead, we hosted a guest who has seen the inside and outside of policymaking and its real-world implementation. From working in the IT sector to the corridors of the Parliament, from India's federal ministry of finance to civil aviation and now in the global climate finance universe, Jayant Sinha has donned several hats. He is currently President, Everstone Group and Visiting Professor in Practice, London School of Economics. He is the former minister of state for finance and civil aviation, Government of India (2014 to 2019) and was also chairperson of the Standing Committee on Finance, Parliament of India (2019 to 2024). Sinha is also a prolific writer and his columns on green finance, transition modelling and AI have appeared in leading mainstream publications and research organisations. Full transcript of the episode is available in English. Presented by 101ReportersJayant Sinha  is on LinkedIn and Twitter. Follow TIEH podcast on Twitter, Linkedin & YouTube Our hosts, Shreya Jai on Twitter, Linkedin & Dr. Sandeep Pai on Twitter, Linkedin

It's Wednesday, June 10th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark Hindu mob injured 25 Christians during worship service A Hindu mob attacked a Christian worship service in central India last week. The mob injured at least 25 people, including the pastor's pregnant wife. Such attacks are becoming more common in the country's state of Chhattisgarh.  The state's government passed a law criminalizing conversion in March. It is India's second most oppressive state for Christians. Open Doors ranks the whole country as the 12th most oppressive in the world for Christians.    7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Philippines A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of the southern part of the Philippines on Monday. The quake killed at least 37 people, injured nearly 500, and displaced over 32,000. Christians in the area are jumping into action. International Christian Concern reports, “Local churches have opened their doors and converted their sanctuaries into vital emergency evacuation centers, providing safe shelter, immediate access to drinking water, and essential family food packs to thousands of displaced and traumatized residents.”   In Matthew 5:7, Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Spanish Anglican church joins Bible-believing Anglican denomination In Spain, the Evangelical Anglican Community of Valencia joined the Global Anglican Communion last week. It's the first church in the country to do so. The Global Anglican Communion is a movement of conservative Anglicans led by churches in the Global South. The group rejects the leadership of the Church of England which has shown support for sexually perverted lifestyles. Julian Milson is the pastor of the church in Valencia. He told Evangelical Focus, “We believe that the Church is called to submit to the authority of Scripture above any cultural pressure.” FDA launched safety study of Abortion Kill Pill In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration launched a safety study of the Abortion Kill Pill, reports The Wall Street Journal.  This comes a year after the Trump administration promised to review the dangers of the abortion drug Mifepristone. The drug is not only part of ending the lives of unborn babies, it also poses health risks to the mothers who take it.  Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri introduced legislation in March to ban the Abortion Kill Pill. Listen to his comments. HAWLEY: “It is time for Congress to give the victims, the survivors -- many of whom are here today -- the right to recover against this company that has inflicted harm on them solely for the purpose of making profits. I'm introducing legislation today that will do just that. And I'm delighted to have with me here today great advocates for women's health and for life.” FBI fired analysts who targeted Catholics under President Biden         MS Now reports that the FBI fired several intelligence analysts who targeted Catholics under the Biden administration. The analysts were involved in a 2023 memo which revealed how the FBI was surveilling Catholics as potential domestic threats.  A recent report from the Justice Department stated, “The Biden Administration's policies regularly clashed with a Christian worldview and burdened traditional religious practices.” Amazon dethroned Walmart Amazon has dethroned Walmart as the largest corporation in the U.S. by revenue. That's according to the Fortune 500 rankings for 2026. Walmart came in second, ending its 13-year reign at the number one spot. Other top 10 companies include UnitedHealth Group, Apple, Alphabet, CVS Health, and Exxon Mobil.  Also, Texas dethroned California as the state with the most Fortune 500 companies this year.  Curaçao soccer player shared Christian testimony And finally, soccer teams from around the world are about to compete for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The international men's soccer championship is being hosted across the United States, Mexico, and Canada this year. One of teams hails from Curaçao, an island county in the Caribbean. Players from the national team participated in a Christian worship event ahead of the competition.  The team's striker, Kenji Gorré, shared his testimony at the event. Listen. GORRE: “I received Him as my Savior, because I knew that my good works couldn't do enough. I thought that if you're a good person, you'll make it to Heaven. I thought if you're a good person, God will forgive me. He's a loving God. But the love of God goes deeper. “And that's when I heard the true Gospel of Jesus dying for my sins on the cross, bleeding for me, washing me, cleaning me. And He cleaned me from the inside out. But I thank Jesus every single day. And from that day I've never stopped seeking Him.” Gorré also said, “Tonight we don't gather as athletes seeking worldly success, but as children of God who recognize that everything we have belongs to Him.” 1 John 2:15 and 17 says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. … The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.” Close And that's The Worldview on this Wednesday, June 10th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

As the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, a new AP-NORC poll reveals a nation wrestling with its identity, its democratic institutions, and its place in the world. Only about 25% of Americans now believe the United States stands above all other countries, while nearly 30% say there are better countries elsewhere—a significant increase from 19% in 2016. Meanwhile, confidence in democracy as a defining feature of American identity has declined, with only about two-thirds of Americans viewing a democratically elected government as highly important to the nation's identity, down from 80% in 2021. Younger Americans are especially skeptical, with 44% of adults under 30 believing other countries are better than the United States. (AP News) In this episode of Let's Have This Conversation, we welcome Dr. Bernd Reiter, Professor of Comparative Politics and Latin American Studies at Texas Tech University and an internationally recognized expert on democracy, race, decolonization, and social change. With a career that began in activism across Germany, Colombia, and Brazil, Bernd brings a truly global perspective to some of the most pressing challenges facing democracies today. Drawing from his latest books, Status: Honor and White Privilege in Brazil and Beyond and The African Origins of Democracy, Bernd challenges conventional assumptions about democracy, governance, and progress. He argues that many of the solutions to today's democratic crises cannot come exclusively from Western nations and that valuable lessons can be found in Africa, Latin America, and other regions often overlooked in mainstream political discourse. During our conversation, we explore the growing concerns about democratic backsliding and authoritarianism, the impact of economic inequality on civic participation, and how innovative democratic models from the Global South may offer practical solutions for rebuilding trust and representation. We also discuss the importance of decolonizing knowledge, questioning Eurocentric narratives, and creating more inclusive approaches to understanding history, power, and governance. As political polarization, economic uncertainty, and declining faith in institutions continue to shape public opinion, this conversation offers a timely examination of what democracy can become when we are willing to learn from a broader range of voices and experiences. Rather than focusing solely on what's broken, Dr. Reiter invites us to imagine new possibilities for democratic renewal in an increasingly interconnected world. Whether you're concerned about the future of democracy, interested in global political innovation, or seeking fresh perspectives on America's role in the world, this episode challenges assumptions and expands the conversation about where meaningful change may come from next.     For more information: https://www.berndreiterphd.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

① What does China's CPI in May reveal about consumer demand? (00:41) ② How is the Global South's push for a greater voice reshaping the world's human rights system? (14:29) ③ A flying car factory begins operation in Guangzhou. Can China become a leader in flying vehicles? (25:22) ④ Iran and the U.S. trade retaliatory attacks. Are the prospects for a ceasefire growing dim? (26:32) ⑤ Britain to ban "harmful" social media for under-16s. We explore how to create a healthy internet culture for children. (46:01)

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha's top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Is Altérra's ambitious effort to mobilize climate finance for the Global South working?; how Fervo Energy pulled off the biggest clean energy IPO in Wall Street history; and, Working Capital Fund secures $31 million for its third supply chain resilience fund.To try ImpactAlpha Edge, ⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠. This week's stories:“Is Altérra's ambitious effort to mobilize climate finance for the Global South working?,” by Erik Stein, Amy Cortese and David Bank“Fervo's IPO recipe includes a dash of federal funding and a scoop of catalytic capital,” by Antony Bugg-Levine"Working Capital Fund secures $31 million for its third supply chain resilience fund," by Amy Cortese

In Rwanda's Genocide Heritage: Between Justice and Sovereignty (Duke UP, 2025), Delia Duong Ba Wendel contends with the forms of justice and sovereignty enacted through sites of violent memory. Drawing from oral histories and a visual archive of memory work after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, she explores the human rights and government priorities that preserved killing sites and victims' remains for public display. Rwanda's genocide memorials exemplify a global phenomenon that Wendel terms trauma heritage, wherein hidden or unrecognized violence is spatialized--made visible in public space--to demand justice and recognition. She argues that trauma heritage innovates on the form histories take by "writing" them into landscapes, constituting a reparative historiography from the Global South. Among those sites, Rwanda's genocide heritage comprises exceptionally visceral sites of truth-telling that highlight the politics of a past made present. Wendel demonstrates that such sites of memory require reckoning with the ethical and political dilemmas that arise from viewing violence as forms of repair and control. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Host Brian Walsh takes up ImpactAlpha's top stories with editor David Bank. Up this week: Is Altérra's ambitious effort to mobilize climate finance for the Global South working?; how Fervo Energy pulled off the biggest clean energy IPO in Wall Street history; and, Working Capital Fund secures $31 million for its third supply chain resilience fund.To try ImpactAlpha Edge, ⁠⁠⁠⁠click here⁠⁠⁠⁠. This week's stories:“Is Altérra's ambitious effort to mobilize climate finance for the Global South working?,” by Erik Stein, Amy Cortese and David Bank“Fervo's IPO recipe includes a dash of federal funding and a scoop of catalytic capital,” by Antony Bugg-Levine"Working Capital Fund secures $31 million for its third supply chain resilience fund," by Amy Cortese

In Rwanda's Genocide Heritage: Between Justice and Sovereignty (Duke UP, 2025), Delia Duong Ba Wendel contends with the forms of justice and sovereignty enacted through sites of violent memory. Drawing from oral histories and a visual archive of memory work after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, she explores the human rights and government priorities that preserved killing sites and victims' remains for public display. Rwanda's genocide memorials exemplify a global phenomenon that Wendel terms trauma heritage, wherein hidden or unrecognized violence is spatialized--made visible in public space--to demand justice and recognition. She argues that trauma heritage innovates on the form histories take by "writing" them into landscapes, constituting a reparative historiography from the Global South. Among those sites, Rwanda's genocide heritage comprises exceptionally visceral sites of truth-telling that highlight the politics of a past made present. Wendel demonstrates that such sites of memory require reckoning with the ethical and political dilemmas that arise from viewing violence as forms of repair and control. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-studies

In Rwanda's Genocide Heritage: Between Justice and Sovereignty (Duke UP, 2025), Delia Duong Ba Wendel contends with the forms of justice and sovereignty enacted through sites of violent memory. Drawing from oral histories and a visual archive of memory work after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, she explores the human rights and government priorities that preserved killing sites and victims' remains for public display. Rwanda's genocide memorials exemplify a global phenomenon that Wendel terms trauma heritage, wherein hidden or unrecognized violence is spatialized--made visible in public space--to demand justice and recognition. She argues that trauma heritage innovates on the form histories take by "writing" them into landscapes, constituting a reparative historiography from the Global South. Among those sites, Rwanda's genocide heritage comprises exceptionally visceral sites of truth-telling that highlight the politics of a past made present. Wendel demonstrates that such sites of memory require reckoning with the ethical and political dilemmas that arise from viewing violence as forms of repair and control. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/genocide-studies

In Rwanda's Genocide Heritage: Between Justice and Sovereignty (Duke UP, 2025), Delia Duong Ba Wendel contends with the forms of justice and sovereignty enacted through sites of violent memory. Drawing from oral histories and a visual archive of memory work after the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, she explores the human rights and government priorities that preserved killing sites and victims' remains for public display. Rwanda's genocide memorials exemplify a global phenomenon that Wendel terms trauma heritage, wherein hidden or unrecognized violence is spatialized--made visible in public space--to demand justice and recognition. She argues that trauma heritage innovates on the form histories take by "writing" them into landscapes, constituting a reparative historiography from the Global South. Among those sites, Rwanda's genocide heritage comprises exceptionally visceral sites of truth-telling that highlight the politics of a past made present. Wendel demonstrates that such sites of memory require reckoning with the ethical and political dilemmas that arise from viewing violence as forms of repair and control. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/law

In this episode of In Focus, we speak with former diplomat Gurjit Singh about the evolution of India–Africa relations, China's expanding footprint across the continent, India's development partnership model, the role of the Indian diaspora in East Africa, and whether New Delhi has done enough to keep pace with Africa's growing geopolitical and economic importance. A wide-ranging conversation on diplomacy, strategy, and the future of the Global South. Why was the 4th India–Africa Forum Summit postponed, and what does the decade-long gap since the last summit reveal about India's engagement with Africa? Guest: Gurjit Singh, Former Ambassador of India to Germany, Indonesia, Ethiopia & the African Union Host: Aniket Singh Chauhan Producer: Jude Francis Weston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the first half of this episode, cohosts Marcy Winograd and Medea Benjamin discuss CODEPINK Solidarity with Cuba, despite intimidation from the Trump administration. On the second half of our program, Marcy interviews podcaster Teri Mattson and CODEPINK's War is Not Green campaigner Aaron Kirshenbaum on Colombia's climate conference to transition the Global South.

Technology isn't magic. But sometimes dropping your spoon in a bowl of soup during a pandemic leads you somewhere extraordinary.In this episode of HappyPorch Radio, Barry O'Kane speaks with Thierry Sanders, founder of Kolekt, a platform connecting waste collectors, buy-back centres, and recyclers across the Global South. Thierry's background spans fintech, microfinance, and living in developing countries from Ecuador to Pakistan to Indonesia, and Kolekt grew directly out of two weeks spent riding around Bali on a motorbike with informal waste collectors, learning how their world actually works.What makes Kolekt's story unusual is the order of operations. Thierry didn't arrive with a product looking for a market. He started with cigarettes, lunch, and genuine curiosity, and the technology followed the problems he discovered: collectors wasting half their time searching for materials that weren't there, workers without phones or bank accounts locked out of digital systems, and facial recognition tools that didn't work for the people who needed them most.The conversation is direct about the harder edges of this work: the fossil fuel industry flooding markets with cheap virgin plastic, governments demanding surveillance data on immigrant workers, and the gap between EPR policy and what actually reaches the people doing the collecting.✨ In this episode:Thierry tells the origin story of Kolekt, from a pandemic soup bowl in Jakarta to 14,000+ waste collector profiles across six countriesWe explore the practical technology challenges of serving users who have no phone, no bank account, and no reliable connectivityThierry explains how Kolekt discovered and worked around racist bias in open-source facial recognitionBarry and Thierry discuss the economics of informal waste collection and why recycled materials cost more than virgin plasticThierry shares his work advising South Asian governments on EPR legislation and the $100 billion opportunity it representsWe hear how Kolekt chose to lose contracts rather than hand over user data to governments targeting immigrant collectors

Introduction Across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, two-wheeled vehicles are the backbone of everyday transportation. With roughly one billion two-wheelers on the road globally, their collective carbon footprint is enormous. Briz, a brand developed by Hong Kong-based One Energy (HK) Limited, is tackling this head-on with affordable electric two-wheelers paired with a rapid battery-swapping service that makes going electric cheaper than filling a tank. Background Two-wheelers dominate personal mobility across the Global South for one simple reason: cost. Cars remain out of reach for hundreds of millions of people, making motorcycles and scooters the primary mode of getting to work, school, and the market. They also power much of the last-mile delivery economy such as food, parcels, and pharmaceuticals in dense urban environments across Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and South America. Since most of these vehicles run on gasoline, they collectively represent a significant and often overlooked source of global CO₂ emissions. Briz electric two-wheelers are designed to be price-competitive with their gas-powered equivalents from the outset. Rather than relying on home charging, which requires a stable power supply, time, and upfront infrastructure, Briz customers subscribe to a battery-swapping service. When the battery runs low, riders visit a nearby swap station, slide out the depleted battery, and click in a fully charged one. The company says the swap takes under a minute. Critically, the monthly cost of the swapping service is designed to be lower than what a rider would typically spend on gasoline, lowering the financial barrier to switching. One of the most persistent obstacles to electric vehicle adoption in emerging markets is charging time. Early Briz models required up to five hours to recharge, a dealbreaker for riders who depend on their vehicles for daily income, but the battery-swap model sidesteps this entirely. It also removes battery degradation. Since customers are subscribing to a service rather than owning a battery outright, the often steep cost of battery replacement falls on the operator, not the individual rider. Advantages By targeting a vehicle category that has historically been overlooked in the electrification conversation, Briz has the potential to generate outsized climate impact. Electrifying even a fraction of the world's one billion two-wheelers, especially in regions where electricity grids are increasingly powered by renewables, could deliver meaningful reductions in transport emissions. The business model is also structured to work for people with lower and irregular incomes: the subscription pricing removes large upfront costs, and the swap infrastructure means riders aren't dependent on owning or accessing home charging equipment. Drawbacks and Critiques The battery-swap model works well in cities and dense corridors with swap station coverage, however it creates real limitations for long-distance travel. Riders venturing beyond the swap network face the same range anxiety that affects all battery electric vehicles. Expanding station infrastructure into rural and peri-urban areas will be essential and expensive if the model is to reach its full potential. Safety is another concern. Battery swap stations concentrate large numbers of lithium-ion cells in a single location, creating a fire risk. One Energy says its stations are equipped with automatic fire-extinguishing systems designed to respond to any battery fire before it can spread, but the risk is worth monitoring as the network scales. Kevin To's Perspective Kevin To, CEO of One Energy (HK) Limited, brings the operator's view to the challenge of electrifying the world's most common vehicle. His company's approach of supplying affordable hardware, subscription-based battery access, and a focus on markets where two-wheelers are a necessity rather than a lifestyle choice reflects a pragmatic bet that climate solutions need to make economic sense for the people adopting them, not just for investors or policymakers. About Kevin To Kevin To is the CEO of One Energy (HK) Limited, the parent company behind the Briz brand of light electric vehicles. Based in Hong Kong, he leads the company's efforts to bring affordable, battery-swappable electric two-wheelers to mass markets across Asia and beyond. Further Reading Briz LEV — Official website IEA: Global EV Outlook — Two- and Three-Wheelers Bloomberg NEF: Electric Vehicle Outlook For a transcript, please visit climatebreak.org/electric-two-wheelers-with-kevin-to/

A group of 57 nations mostly from the Global South, describing themselves as "coalition of the willing" intent on making the Transition Away From Fossil Fuels, or TAFF, convened in the Colombian city of Santa Marta, from April 24-29, 2026, for the inaugural TAFF summit. Also referred to as the "Santa Marta Coalition," this group of countries met to discuss and develop frameworks and pathways for nations to phase out fossil fuel dependency. Joining the Mongabay Newscast this week is Mamphela Ramphele, a medical doctor, activist and member of the Planetary Guardians, a network of experts advocating for the planetary boundaries as a measurement framework. Ramphele explains the highlights of the conference, which included the unveiling of a dedicated scientific panel to advise nations on developing road maps to transition off fossil fuels. The science panel includes experts such as Carlos Nobre from Brazil and Johan Rockström from Sweden, who pioneered the planetary boundaries concept. The conference also saw the establishment of "workstreams" to help nations connect their phaseout road maps to their emissions reduction targets as part of their U.N. climate commitments; leverage support to change their financial systems for the transition; and reform trade systems. Two nations in attendance, Colombia and France, announced their own phaseout road maps at the conference. Ramphele, from South Africa, suggests that as countries in the Santa Marta Coalition develop and implement their own road maps, other nations not yet on board will eventually be pressured to follow. Until a legally binding agreement, such as the one advocated for by the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, this is the most immediate path forward, Ramphele says.  "We champion for a legally binding agreement. We get the coalition of the willing to start implementing, and by both positive stories that come out of it and moral suasion, we get people to buy into it." Please take a minute to let us know what you think of our podcast here. Image Credit: Creek in the Colombian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. ——- Timecodes (00:00) A 'coalition of the willing' emerges (12:13) Nations begin to announce phaseout roadmaps (20:48) The pathway to a legally binding fossil fuel phaseout (23:38) Looking ahead to the next conference

“Historically, as a region, we've been extracted at two levels. If you look at the AI value chain, a lot of our youth, some who have studied computer science, are left at data labelling roles at the bottom of the value chain, where the least value is created. In a different way, a lot of our data is being extracted for free to train those systems. We want to make sure we don't go into similar models that we had during colonisation.” Leanna Byrne speaks to Kate Kallot, founder of the Kenyan artificial intelligence company Amini, which is building AI infrastructure across Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.She warns that billions of people risk being left out of the artificial intelligence systems shaping modern life, with languages, cultures and knowledge from large parts of the world underrepresented in the technology being built today.Kate argues that AI risks repeating old patterns of global inequality, with poorer countries supplying valuable data while richer nations reap the rewards.She explains why the Global South should help shape the future of AI, rather than simply supply the data behind it.The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC, including episodes with Sundar Pichai and Julia Gillard. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.Presenter: Leanne Byrne Producer: Osman Iqbal Editor: Farhana Haider and Damon RoseGet in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.(Image: Kate Kallot. Credit: Getty)

Join our monthly Seed Chat at SeedChat.orgIn This Podcast: In this monthly Seed Chat, Greg Peterson and Bill McDorman explore the global rules governing seed ownership, seed saving, biodiversity, and agricultural policy. The conversation dives into international treaties, plant patenting, farmers' rights, and the growing tension between the Global North and Global South over control of genetic resources. Bill shares firsthand experiences attending United Nations treaty negotiations and working with Indigenous seed sovereignty issues through Native Seeds/SEARCH. The episode also highlights why everyday gardeners and farmers should become “seed citizens” by saving and sharing locally adapted seeds.Bill McDorman is a renowned seed saver, educator, and advocate for agricultural biodiversity. He co-founded the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance and has spent decades teaching gardeners and farmers how to grow, save, and share heirloom seeds. Through workshops, speaking, and mentorship, Bill inspires communities to strengthen local food systems, preserve regional seed diversity, and protect seed sovereignty for future generations.Key TopicsSeed libraries and locally adapted seed sharingInternational Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)UPOV and global plant variety protection lawsWorld Trade Organization (WTO) seed policy influenceFarmers' rights and seed sovereigntyPlant patenting and intellectual property in agricultureConvention on Biological Diversity (CBD)Nagoya Protocol and access-benefit sharingDigital Sequence Information (DSI) and genetic ownershipNative Seeds/SEARCH and Indigenous seed stewardshipOrganic Seed Alliance and seed policy debatesGlobal North vs. Global South agricultural power dynamicsSeed banks and the Multilateral System (MLS)The importance of saving open-pollinated seedsThe future resilience of local food systemsKey Questions AnsweredWhat is the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture?The ITPGRFA is a legally binding international treaty created to govern the conservation, sharing, and equitable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. It officially entered into force in 2004 and now includes participation from more than 180 countries.Why do global seed treaties matter to everyday gardeners and farmers?These treaties influence who can save seeds, who profits from plant genetics, and how agricultural biodiversity is preserved. The policies affect food security, seed availability, farmer independence, and long-term resilience of local food systems.What is UPOV and why is it controversial?UPOV is an international agreement that grants intellectual property protections to plant breeders. Critics argue that newer versions of UPOV weaken farmers' traditional rights to save and replant seeds while strengthening corporate control over agriculture.How does the WTO influence seed laws around the world?According to Bill McDorman, countries seeking participation in global trade systems often adopt UPOV-style protections as part of WTO-related trade expectations, creating pressure on smaller nations to align with industrial seed systems.What is the Nagoya Protocol?The Nagoya Protocol is an international agreement designed to ensure fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from genetic resources. It attempts to address historical exploitation of Indigenous and Global South biodiversity by pharmaceutical and agricultural corporations.What is Digital Sequence Information (DSI)?DSI refers to genetic sequencing data derived from crops and plant varieties. A major debate centers around who owns this information and whether communities that stewarded these crops for generations should share in the economic benefits created from their genetic data.What are farmers' rights in global seed policy?Farmers' rights include the ability to save, use, exchange, and sell farm-saved seed. These rights remain one of the most contested issues in international agricultural negotiations.Why are seed libraries important?Seed libraries help preserve locally adapted seed varieties while strengthening regional food resilience. They also create community networks for knowledge sharing and decentralized seed stewardship.How did Native Seeds/SEARCH navigate Indigenous seed stewardship?Bill shares stories from his time directing Native Seeds/SEARCH, including working with Zuni and Hopi communities to renegotiate relationships around seed stewardship, naming rights, and seed distribution.Why does Bill McDorman encourage people to attend UN treaty meetings?He believes participation in international seed policy discussions is critical for protecting biodiversity and farmers' rights. Attending these events allows citizens, gardeners, and small farmers to directly engage with global agricultural policy.Episode HighlightsBill discovers a seed library inside a small-town New Mexico library and reflects on the importance of locally adapted seeds.Greg and Bill explain how seed laws emerged alongside industrial agriculture and large-scale seed commerce.Bill breaks down UPOV, WTO policy, and how plant patenting transformed global agriculture.The conversation explores how Indigenous plant genetics were historically extracted and commercialized.Bill recounts receiving a cease-and-desist letter regarding Zuni bean varieties while directing Native Seeds/SEARCH.A deep discussion unfolds around Digital Sequence Information and the ownership of plant DNA data.Bill explains why small farmers across Africa increasingly believe they no longer have the right to save seeds.The episode concludes with a call for more “seed citizens” actively saving and sharing seeds locally.ResourcesResource — Seed Chat Live Events — SeedChat.orgPodcast — Urban Farm PodcastOrganization — UPOV – International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of PlantsOrganization — World Trade Organization (WTO)Organization — Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (CGRFA)Treaty — International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA)Organization — Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)Resource — Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharingCommunity — Organic Seed AllianceOrganization — Native Seeds/SEARCHEvent — Great American Seed Up — First weekend in November in Phoenix, ArizonaVisit UrbanFarm.org/987 for the show notes and links on this episode!Need a little bit of advice or just a feedback on your design for your yard or garden?The Urban Farm Team is offering consults over the phone or zoom. Get the benefits of a personalized garden and yard space analysis without the cost of trip charges.You can chat with Greg to get permaculture based feedback.Click HERE to learn more!*Disclosure: Some of the links in our podcast show notes and blog posts are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase, we will earn a nominal commission at no cost to you. We offer links to items recommended by our podcast guests and guest writers as a service to our audience and these items are not selected because of the commission we receive from your purchases. We know the decision is yours, and whether you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Eric Olander on how the Global South is reading the Beijing summitsThis week I'm joined again by Eric Olander, founder of the China Global South Project, which runs the most indispensable English-language operation going for understanding China's engagement with Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.I came in with a plan: map, region by region, how the capitals of the Global South were reading the back-to-back Trump and Putin visits to Beijing — relief at a steadier U.S.-China modus vivendi, or foreboding at a G2 condominium squeezing shut their room to maneuver. Eric dismantled the premise within ten minutes. The honest answer, he warned me, is that most of the Global South simply isn't watching the way we are — and the disappointment turned out to be the most interesting thing in the room. What looked like the absence of a story was the story. I'd built my questions around one assumption about what mattered; Eric had built his answers around another, and I cop to being schooled.Once you set the summit framing aside, what Eric's contributors are actually seeing comes into focus: Japan racing to recenter an Asia-Pacific security architecture, a region quietly de-risking from an unreliable United States, fresh cracks in the BRICS, Justin Yifu Lin's “three moves” for Chinese manufacturing, Latin America's “find out” phase, and a Gulf where the Chinese setback so many in Washington insist must exist simply isn't there. We get into all of it — and close on the summit as a remarkable piece of theater, the first since 1945 at which no one quite knew who the most powerful person in the room was.04:27 — The dominant mood: pro forma coverage, exhaustion, and bigger problems at home08:15 — Breaking news: the paused $14B Taiwan arms package and the canceled Colby trip11:15 — The dog that caught the truck: China and the costs of a receding U.S. umbrella13:00 — "Constructive strategic stability" — new equilibrium or just choreography?28:23 — The snub: Beijing sends only an ambassador to the BRICS meeting in New Delhi37:56 — Africa: tariff-free access, the trade imbalance, and Kenya's "collapsed" exports44:34 — Justin Yifu Lin's "three moves": move up-market, localize, move south51:00 — Latin America's "find out" phase in Panama, and very low China literacy57:35 — The Gulf after the war on Iran: who really won?Paying it Forward:Boston University's Global Development Policy (GDP) Research CenterRecommendationsEric: A “rabbit hole” of books on Xi Jinping, currently Party of One by Chun Han Wong (after Kevin Rudd's On Xi Jinping).Kaiser: Angine de Poitrine, a “microtonal math rock” duo from Quebec — think Frank Zappa meets King Crimson — possibly the thing to breathe new life into progressive rock.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Biljana Vankovska, a Macedonian professor of political science, international relations and peace studies at Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, delivers a sharp systemic critique of declining Western hegemony in this wide-ranging conversation. She interprets the recent conflicts in the Middle East, particularly the Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz events, alongside the situation in Ukraine as structural turning points signaling the shift toward a multipolar global order. Rooted in her experience growing up in former Yugoslavia and the legacy of the Non-Aligned Movement, Vankovska rejects mainstream narratives that reduce global crises to the personal failings of leaders like Donald Trump or simple kakistocracy. Instead, she argues that the world is witnessing the violent death throes of hyper-imperialism and a declining global capitalist system. She deconstructs the so-called rules-based international order as a euphemism for arbitrary US diktat that masks ongoing neo-colonialism while whitewashing historical atrocities. Vankovska contrasts the media-driven fear, paralysis and moral bankruptcy prevalent in the US and EU with the historical optimism and strategic stamina of the Global South. Evoking Antonio Gramsci, she balances a pessimism of the intellect with an optimism of the will, defending legitimate resistance against the military-industrial-media-academic complex. Ultimately, she views the tragedies in Gaza and Iran not as isolated failures but as painful birth pangs of a new cooperative world order grounded in mutual sovereignty, trust, and emancipation from empire. Get full access to Savage Minds at www.savageminds.co/subscribe

Shownotes After the assassination of its leader in September 2024, Hezbollah sank to its weakest point since its founding in 1982. Supporters began to doubt Hezbollah's capabilities, and detractors—inside Lebanon and abroad—planned to dismantle the group. In March of this year, Lebanon's government outlawed Hezbollah's powerful militia. Many of Hezbollah's competitors and critics declared the end of the group's military capability and political base. But Hezbollah's strength has returned. This spring, as Israel has expanded its occupation of southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has fought effectively. It's all looking very much like a comeback. Century International fellow Sima Ghaddar has closely tracked Hezbollah's constituents and power, and shares a granular look at how the group has revived, and how researchers can assess the notoriously opaque organization. Related reading Nathan Brown, “Rubble is Israel's Doctrine, Not a Case of Improvisation,” Carnegie Endowment, May 21, 2026 Sam Heller, “Trump's Lebanon Negotiations Are Breaking the Country,” Foreign Policy, May 15, 2026 Sima Ghaddar, “Doubting the Party, Revering Its Ideology: Hezbollah's Battered Constituencies Reckon with a Year of Loss.”  US Treasury, “Treasury Targets Hizballah-Aligned Officials Obstructing Peace and Disarmament,” May 21, 2026 Mohamad Bazzi, “Is This What War Looks Like Now?” Guardian, April 24, 2026 Participants SIma Ghaddar is a fellow at Century International and a sociologist whose research spans humanitarianism, the politics of international aid, political sociology, and popular mobilization in the Middle East and the Global South. She holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her dissertation, “Brokers of the Humanitarian Interface: The Politics of Aid in Lebanon's Urban Peripheries,” examines humanitarian aid, transnational NGO governance, and the intersections of patronage, clientelism, and global aid systems in Lebanon. She is also a policy researcher specializing in Middle East politics. Her policy research focuses on hybrid armed actors, regional Shia politics, and social movements in Lebanon. Thanassis Cambanis is director of Century International.  Date: Tuesday, May 25, 2026 Episode: Order from Ashes 114

Jaspreet's framing for the AI and work debate is worth staying with. He is not dismissive of disruption: he thinks AI will destroy certain jobs, create new ones, and the rupture will be real. But he pushes back on the idea that job destruction is the right frame. The more useful question, he argues, is what happens to workers, and the answer to that depends almost entirely on whether people develop the skills to move into the roles that AI creates rather than the ones it displaces. His reference point is the IT sector itself, an industry born out of the last great technology disruption, when fears about computers eliminating clerical work gave way to an entirely new economy of higher-paying, more fulfilling jobs. The same logic, he believes, applies now. The bulk of the conversation settles on AI literacy, a concept Jaspreet distinguishes sharply from training. Training teaches you how to use a specific tool. Literacy gives you the grammar to work with any tool, across any context. He lays out a five-step framework from his book, reads, writes, ads, thinks, does, designed as a practical ladder for building that literacy, and is candid that even three years after ChatGPT, most organizations have brought the horse to the water without making it drink. On the policy side, he is supportive of initiatives like AI in school curricula and IIT fellowships, but his bigger ask is that India treat AI the way it treated digital public infrastructure: as a genuine national mission, not a sectoral initiative. On deepfakes and copyright, his view is pragmatic: deepfakes are a known evil that needs specific, exemplary regulation rather than an omnibus AI law, and copyright will likely resolve through a combination of revenue sharing agreements and citation norms, neither side fully satisfied but better than where things stand today.Episode ContributorsJaspreet Bindra is the founder of AI&Beyond and The Tech Whisperer, and author of 'Winning with AI: Your Guide to AI Literacy.' He has served as the group chief digital officer at the Mahindra Group, as a regional director at Microsoft India, and as a general manager in the Tata Group as part of the select Tata Administrative Services. He was also a member of the founding team at Baazee.com, which later became eBay India.Adarsh Ranjan is a research analyst at Carnegie India where his research focuses on AI and emerging technologies, digital transformation, and technology partnerships. His current research explores India's evolving policy on AI compute and digital transformation in Global South countries.Timestamps 00:08 Introduction to AI and India's Future 03:15 AI's Impact on Work and Adoption Trends 11:50 Job Transformation vs. Job Destruction in IT 16:06 The Importance of AI Literacy 21:55 Framework for AI Literacy 28:32 Challenges in AI Adoption 32:02 Government Initiatives for AI Education 35:38 Ethics in AI: Deepfakes and Copyright Every two weeks, Interpreting India brings you diverse voices from India and around the world to explore the critical questions shaping the nation's future. We delve into how technology, the economy, and foreign policy intertwine to influence India's relationship with the global stage.As a Carnegie India production, hosted by Carnegie scholars, Interpreting India, a Carnegie India production, provides insightful perspectives and cutting-edge by tackling the defining questions that chart India's course through the next decade.Stay tuned for thought-provoking discussions, expert insights, and a deeper understanding of India's place in the world.Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave a review to join the conversation and be part of Interpreting India's journey.

Tales of Health: Illness, Disability, and Citizenship in the Romantic National Tale (Liverpool UP, 2026) is about the way the Romantic National Tale exercises power and defines the boundaries of citizenship through the categories of health, illness, and disability. When we see these categories at work in these novels, we understand how socio-political belonging is premised on the conception of the healthy body, to the exclusion of bodies deemed otherwise. Employing the medical humanities and, especially, the social determinants of health, this book shows that the National Tale achieves its consolidation of the nation through its enforcement of a rigorous politics of health that polices its characters' and citizens' bodies. Focusing on novels from Sydney Owenson, Maria Edgeworth, Germaine de Staël, Walter Scott, and Jane Austen allows this argument to show that the imbricated concerns of health and citizenship extend well beyond the immediate anxiety roused by the implementation of the 1800 Act of Union. This book argues that, by prioritizing the categories of health, illness, and disability, we better understand how power and citizenship function in this widely influential early nineteenth-century genre of Romantic fiction and, thus, how we continue to envision citizenship as an extension of bodily characteristics. Matthew L. Reznicek is Associate Professor of Medical Humanities at the University of Minnesota Medical School, where he uses eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British and Irish literature to explore the impact of social, historical, and cultural factors in the experience of medicine and health. Victoria Oana Lupașcu is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Asian Studies at University of Montréal. Her areas of interest include medical humanities, visual art, 20th- and 21st-century Chinese, Brazilian and Romanian literature and Global South studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

We've invited friend of the show and journalist Annie Kelly to discuss the recent far-right march in London, the online AI slop aspect of it, and the offshoring of fascist outrage content on Facebook to…entrepreneurs in the Global South? Get more TF episodes each week by subscribing to our Patreon here! RILEY ALERT Check out No Gods, No Mayors here! HUSSEIN ALERT Check out 10k Posts here! MILO ALERT Check out Milo's tour dates here: https://www.miloedwards.co.uk/liveshows NATE ALERT Lions Led By Donkeys will be performing live in London on 29th May and you can get tickets here! Also, Nate's band Second Homes has just released their debut album, and you can stream it for free here! Trashfuture are: Riley (@raaleh), Milo (@Milo_Edwards), Hussein (@HKesvani), Nate (@inthesedeserts), and November (@postoctobrist)

Rehumanizing People of the Past: Bioarchaeology, Medical Museums and Archives, and the Human Remains Trade (SUNY Press, 2026) argues that much of the technical communication used to reference human remains--including reports in bioarchaeology, labels and descriptions in medical museums and archives, and web content in the human remains trade--does not adequately recognize the humanity of the individuals represented by those remains. The book presents "rehumanizing language" as a solution to this dehumanization problem, framing it as advocacy and social justice work in technical communication. Building from concepts and ethical standards in bioarchaeology, medical museums and archives, and the human remains trade along with technical communication and rhetoric of health and medicine (RHM), each chapter presents a framework for developing rehumanizing language in various contexts to better honor, dignify, and respect the people represented by human remains. These frameworks are also applied to several original studies, which explore existing technical communication and the ways it uses rehumanizing language or could be adapted to be more rehumanizing. Overall, this book is a tool for both technical communicators and practitioners in numerous fields, offering practical guidance for emphasizing the humanity of the dead. Kristin LaFollette is Associate Professor of English at the University of Southern Indiana. She is the author of Hematology, a full-length collection of poetry, and coeditor of Queer Approaches: Emotion, Expression, and Communication in the Classroom. Victoria Oana Lupașcu is an Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature and Asian Studies at University of Montréal. Her areas of interest include medical humanities, visual art, 20th and 21st Chinese, Brazilian and Romanian literature and Global South studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Subscribe now to skip the ads. Danny and Derek welcome back to the show political scientist Thea Riofrancos to talk about the politics of extraction in the global energy transition. They explore the contradictions of green capitalism, the debate over degrowth and abundance, China's role in lithium battery production, the history of lithium batteries, green industrial policy, U.S. oil and gas power, popular resistance to data centers and mining, where the Global South falls in renewable supply chains, and the environmental costs of green development. Be sure to grab a copy of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism. Don't forget that our weekly livestream is ⁠on our YouTube channe⁠l tomorrow, Wednesday, at 8pm ET! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Danny and Derek welcome back to the show political scientist Thea Riofrancos to talk about the politics of extraction in the global energy transition. They explore the contradictions of green capitalism, the debate over degrowth and abundance, China's role in lithium battery production, the history of lithium batteries, green industrial policy, U.S. oil and gas power, popular resistance to data centers and mining, where the Global South falls in renewable supply chains, and the environmental costs of green development.Be sure to grab a copy of Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

** This Tuesday, come to Macro ‘n Chill, our online gathering. Bring your insights and questions about this episode. May 19 at 8pm ET/5pm PT Use this link to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/AIz56SKPT6Gfh0pXhs3PTwYou may know Luna Nguyen as Luna Oi, the YouTuber and member of the Non-Compete content collective who creates videos about culture, history, and politics in Vietnam, as well as panels and interviews with indigenous activists and comrades in the Global South.Steve asked her to come onto the podcast because, as a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist, she can take us beyond US propaganda and into the lived history of Vietnamese resistance. The conversation goes into Ho Chi Minh's revolutionary development, the application of Marxism-Leninism to Vietnam's reality, French colonialism and Japanese fascism, the 1945 famine and August Revolution, US betrayal after WWII, the fabricated Gulf of Tonkin incident, the nature of the "Resistance War Against Imperialist USA," and the post-war embargo and debt extortion.Luna shares deeply personal family history – her grandfather's death in the Tet Offensive and her mother's childhood survival of a US bombing – grounding the analysis in living memory. She also connects Ho Chi Minh Thought to dialectical and historical materialism, making the case that revolutionary movements must emerge from concrete material conditions.Born and raised in Vietnam, Luna Nguyen is a writer and creator on a mission to share her country's perspective with the world. She's currently tackling the ambitious project of translating Vietnam's official Marxist-Leninist philosophy curriculum into English. In addition to her translation work, she also produces YouTube documentaries that dive into the intersection of Vietnamese culture and politics.Check out her channel https://www.youtube.com/LunaOi/Free E-books available at https://www.banyanhouse.org/shop/

In this very special episode, Erin sits down with Fr. Joash P. Thomas, a public theologian and author of The Justice of Jesus. They explore the intersections of faith, justice, and cultural perspectives as Fr. Joash shares how his experiences navigating different cultural contexts inform his theological insights and advocacy for justice in the church.MENTIONSFather Joash P Thomas: The Justice of Jesus | Instagram | Website | Substack | St. Stephen's UniversityMasala Chai: Wagh Bakri | Tata TeaCan you tell me more about the Global Church? Here's some info from Pew ResearchThe Faith Adjacent Seminary: Support us on Patreon. I've Got Questions by Erin Moon: Order Here | Guided Journal Subscribe to our Newsletter: The Dish from Faith AdjacentFaith Adjacent Merch: Shop HereShop our Amazon Link: amazon.com/shop/faithadjacentFollow Faith Adjacent on Socials: InstagramSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.