Carnegie Council Podcasts

Riverkeeper fights to protect the Hudson and the drinking water for nine million New Yorkers. Paul Gallay relates three of its success stories, offering lessons for other communities. Whether working on a  local level or tackling climate change on a global one, his advice is the same: be realistic, honest, and, above all, creative and courageous.

Manhattan's Chinatown is a city within a city; it's very poorly understood by outsiders. This panel of insiders helps change that. Topics include migrant financing, an overview of Chinese migration, the Chinatown gang wars of the 1970s, the "model minority" myth, and today's encroaching gentrification.

Is the American century coming to a close, and if so, what's taking its place? Was there ever an American century to begin with? These questions have been around for at least a decade, but are still under debate. In this lively discussion, three experts with different perspectives give their opinions and forecasts for the future.

In this lively, learned, and funny talk, leading U.S. expert on Tibetan Buddhism Robert Thurman riffs off the Dalai Lama's secular ethics project, laying out the theory--and science--of karma and why it's important for all of us to learn to be more compassionate and other-directed. After all, it's a form of enlightened self-interest.

There are roughly 2 billion people who are under-nourished and another 2 billion who are overweight or obese. In other words, about half the world's population is malnourished. How can we feed the world ethically, sustainably, and well? This panel provides some answers, from food aid to producing milk and meat in cell cultures.

Today, America's ties to Israel are so close that when there are differences, they tend to make the news. But it was not always this way. Ambassador Ross deftly lays out the surprising history of the U.S-Israel relationship. He  goes on to answer questions on U.S. policies and the current worrying situation across the Middle East.

ISIS is often portrayed as a mysterious force that came out of nowhere. It's nothing of the kind. This grim, unforgettable talk gives us the full, terrifying story, from the initial mistakes made in Iraq to the carnage going on now in Syria. (The TV show made from this talk won a Telly award.)

The good news is that ISIL has lost one-third of the key areas that it took over, both in Iraq and Syria, says Castleberry. But the Russian intervention in Syria has complicated things; she explains just how.

Karenna Gore, daughter of Al Gore and director of the Center for Earth Ethics, discusses how faith communities (including indigenous peoples) are rallying to combat climate change; what she sees as a shift in consciousness in how we define success; and much more.

Francis is the first pope who wasn't born in a village, says Vatican expert Marco Politi, but in a mega-city with many social-economic levels and faiths. "This explains why when he speaks he doesn't speak only to Catholics, not only to Christians. He speaks beyond religious borders. He speaks to men and women as they are in contemporary society."