In honor of Barbie’s 57th birthday, we’re putting out this episode all about our girl! Barbie not only has an international background (intergalactic, actually, since she’s also an astronaut) but this much discussed figurine is a popular subject for social commentary. Revisit our favorite teacher/superhero/legal guardian/president/computer programmer/cruise ship director/merchant/prostitute with us!  Listen here And as always check us out on iTunes and Stitcher Sources: Barbie Media Barbie History Time Time NY Times Human Barbie The Barbie Doll Test Doll Test NAACP Refinery 29 CNN Bustle Native American Barbie: The Marketing of Euro-American Desires Islamic Barbie: The Politics of Gender and Performativity Global Encounters: ‘Barbie’ in Nigerian Agbogho-mmuo Mask Context Trixie Mattel Instagram

Barbie: A Life in Plastic

International Realness is an accessible explainer for global events, issues, and general nonsense that crosses borders. Join EJ, May and Radford as they walk you through the ups and downs of world politics.

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We’re back! And it looks like we’ve arrived just in time. Nikki Haley just resigned as the United Nations Ambassador last week and we have thoughts. That shouldn’t surprise you though! Enjoy our latest mini-sode and stay tuned for our new season coming up soon! Download here

UN-Disassembly

Happy Women’s History Month! We’re celebrating by highlighting the UN Convention on the Elimination of  Discrimination against Women or CEDAW. We went over the basics about human rights a few weeks ago, but now we’re going to talk about the things that women are entitled to but are still striving to get. Equip yourself against mansplainers and misogynists by listening to this episode!  If you somehow need hard evidence that women aren’t treated equally…use the internet every once and awhile. Don’t say you weren’t warned. Listen here iTunes Here Stitcher Here

Maybe She's Born With It. Maybe They're Human Rights.

People are starving in Venezuela. Haven’t heard about it lately? The crisis in Venezuela should be spotlighted in spite of neglectful American media outlets.  Ever since the death of Hugo Chavez, what was once the most stable nation in South America has been crumbling, endangering the lives of its people. We in the states have a portrait of a defiant Chavez fed to us, but in this episode we parse out the good and the bad, and how this story is unfolding right now.  Listen here Show notes here Subscribe to us on iTunes and Stitcher Photo Credit: andresAZP Flickr Creative Commons

Pay Attention to Venezuela

Hi fronds! We’re back at it with another episode that addresses the big orange elephant in the room: Donald J. Trump, the current president of the United States. I know, it still sounds weird and sad to us too.  We cover what we can expect from his foreign policy for the next four (ONLY FOUR) years of his reign term. This includes, a plan for ISIS, the wall, and making regrettable phone calls that could get us blown to pieces someday. (Stars! They’re just like us!) So strap in as we prepare for this ride together. We’d also like to note, that we recorded this episode a couple of weeks ago, so there’s no mention of the aftermath of the Muslim/Immigration Ban or the recent confirmation of our new Secretary of State. It’s all still relevant though! Listen here Sources here Subscribe to us on iTunes and Stitcher

What’s a Rex Tillerson?

Contrary to the current political trends humans have rights! I’ll pause for a minute to let that sink in.  Good? Ok. Yes, since the mid-20th century we’ve even had them in writing! In this episode we review what exactly human rights are, what it means for us, and who protects them.  Listen here, show notes here. Also, all we want for Christmas is for you to leave reviews and give us 5 stars on iTunes and Stitcher!

Barbie: A Life in Plastic

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