In the final episode of this podcast series, we cope with the topic of cancel culture. But what exactly is cancel culture? For some, it may signify holding others accountable for their action, while to others it may imply censorship of speech. 

Generally speaking, cancel culture is an act of publicly calling out somebody - often public figures - for expressing ideas that are deemed to be offensive or controversial. The Pew Research Centre in the US has shown that cancel culture’s definitions and implications can vary widely across political views and demographic groups. Cancel culture has been weaponised by both sides of the political spectrum, dampening any common ground and suppressing debate. 

To help us unpack this all we are joined by Loretta J. Ross, an activist, public intellectual, and professor at Smith Colledge in Massachusetts, who has an interesting take on this topic. In her work, Loretta came up with the concept of ‘calling in’ culture, which she believes is an antidote to people being called out, or canceled. She doesn’t believe in the public shaming that has become so widespread in Western society. Instead of promoting a culture defined by anger, blaming, and lack of mutual understanding, she strives to turn these moments into teachable opportunities. Even for people you don't agree with. 

During her work at the Center for Democratic Renewal in the 90s, Loretta helped reintegrate Floyd Cochran, a national spokesperson of the Neo-Nazi group Aryan Nation into society, after he was kicked out from his compound. She strongly believes that society should give people a second choice. 

Instead of our usual 5 pieces of advice, Jonathan asked Loretta to advise him on a personal situation: “I have friends, they are family really. They are people with whom I grew up, they are really like family. They voted for Trump, they are vaccine deniers, and because of that, we can’t talk anymore, I feel like I have lost them. How do I start to get them back?”

Loretta: 

How well do you know them outside of their politics? That’s where you assure them of your relationship. You can talk about your shared values, by going underneath their words. What do you believe family members should do for each other? What do you believe children deserve from parents or the school system?

If you go underneath people’s words and talk about their values, you will always find a lot of common ground. You can call on someone’s inner goodness. 

Find out more about ‘call-in culture’ in Loretta’s Ted Talk.

Refugees are the human faces of displacement, forced to flee their homes due to conflict, persecution, and hardships. In a world that struggles with a constant stream of crises, the refugee crisis remains one of the most pressing global issues. The numbers are staggering – millions of individuals worldwide are living in uncertain conditions as they seek refuge.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), by the end of 2020, there were approximately 82.4 million forcibly displaced people globally, including refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally displaced persons.

Becoming a refugee may seem like a remote possibility for many, but it is, in fact, a reality that millions face daily. The UNHCR reports that, on average, one person is forcibly displaced every two seconds. These individuals are not just statistics; they are mothers, fathers, children, and grandparents who have seen their lives upended by violence, conflict, or persecution.

The regions most affected by this crisis include the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Syria, Afghanistan, and South Sudan have remained among the top countries of origin for refugees, with millions fleeing violence and instability in their homelands. The countries neighboring these conflict zones, such as Turkey, Pakistan, and Uganda, have been burdened with hosting large refugee populations.

In this episode we are joined by Thaeer Muhreez, a Syrian filmmaker, and one of the countless individuals whose life took an unexpected turn in the wake of the Syrian civil war. His story is one of resilience and survival. Thaeer was on the brink of a major career breakthrough, securing funding for a new film project when the civil war erupted. He found himself in the eye of a storm, which forced him to abandon his dreams and confront the harsh reality of conflict.

With rebel groups marking him for death, Thaeer realised that he was not just leaving Damascus; he was leaving Syria. He embarked on a challenging journey to reach the Netherlands, where he had friends. In his quest for safety, he sold his belongings, left his family with his mother, and set out with a group of Syrians. The path was fraught with danger, including treacherous boat rides, smugglers, and life-threatening moments. Thaeer's determination to reach safety fuelled his journey, despite exhaustion, sickness, and the constant fear of death.

Finally, Thaeer reached the Netherlands, where he began the process of rebuilding his life. He gained legal status, and after years of separation, he was reunited with his wife and daughter, who had also endured their share of trauma throughout their experiences.

Thaeer is currently working on a documentary project to shed light on the life of a refugee, offering an authentic glimpse into the journey he and countless others have endured. He even attempted to return to Syria to retrace his steps and capture the ongoing struggle.

In this episode, Thaeer shares five invaluable pieces of advice for individuals considering the path of a refugee or those who find themselves thrust into it:

Don't Do It for Yourself: becoming a refugee should not be a self-serving decision. It's a choice that should not be made lightly.

Don't Plan for Your Future: making long-term plans as a refugee is almost impossible, as the unpredictable nature of displacement can shatter those plans.

Expect Cultural and Language Loss: prepare for the loss of these vital aspects of your identity, and the emotional toll of leaving behind your culture and language.

Anticipate Personal Change: becoming a refugee can transform a person significantly. The experiences and hardships endured can lead to profound personal changes. Expect and prepare for this transformation.

Prepare for Altered Relationships: relationships with family, friends, and even one's own body and mind will change as a refugee. The journey and experience can have a profound impact on all aspects of life.

In our sixth episode, we are coping with climate change. As we all know, the data display a grim picture of the extent of the emergency. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecasts that sea levels could be 1 to 2 meters higher by the end of the century. According to the same panel, we need to cut global emissions by 2030. However, governments seem to take little action in response to the current global crisis. A study says that 1% of companies is responsible for 71% of greenhouse emissions since 1988.

Grassroots, small-scale and local solutions like the one created by Peter van Wingerden, might prove to be the solution. Peter is Dutch and he got concerned about the sea level rise that will impact his country. After he traveled to New York to see the impact of hurricane Sandy that hit the city in 2012, he got frightened by the food shortage he witnessed. That’s why he came up with the idea of the Floating farm, the first farm in the world built on the water, in the harbour of Rotterdam. The farm offers space for 40 cows and is a great example of a sustainable and circular economy. 

To help us cope with climate change, Peter gave us 5 pieces of advice to help us cope with climate change:

Don’t wait in making a change You can start small (Eg. collect rainwater and give rainwater to the plants) 

Ask your parliament to have weekly discussions on climate change, involving youngsters and the entire society

Take small steps at your city or at your country level, at your broadcasting station: tell a story, create awareness that we need to change, and act right now 

Write a letter to your city, to your country, write a letter to the parliament 

Start with yourself; you need to be motivated and strongly believe that we need to do something not for today, but for the next generation

In our fifth episode, we’re coping with fascist dictatorships. Fascism can be described as a political philosophy or regime that exalts nation, and often race, above the individual, and that stands for a centralised autocratic government with one dictatorial leader. And almost one year into Putin’s war on Ukraine, his regime comes dangerously close to being a fascist one. With worrying developments across the world, there are a number of other countries, such as Hungary, the Philippines, and more recently, Italy, that seem to come close to a fascist dictatorship as well.

In this episode we’re joined by American-British financier Bill Browder, author of the Magnitsky act. Browder lobbied for the legislation after his lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was tortured for almost a year in a Russian prison, resulting in his death. This act has named and shamed many corrupt Russian officials, and made them persona non grata all over the world, effectively banning them from entering the 35 countries that have signed the act. As a result however, Russian forces launched a disinformation and defamation campaign against Browder trying to convince the world he was a criminal, so he has had to watch his back every day since. 

To cope with this, Browder offered us some advice, focussing mainly on the truth: 

1. The truth will always prevail, we just need to work harder at telling it

2. Use every possible tool to tell the truth

3. Remain energetic whilst telling the truth

4. Don’t be discouraged by the dystopian times we are living in 

5. Fight for justice 

In the fourth episode, we are coping with falling back to the ‘50s. The Freedom House has measured a steady decline in democracy and human rights since 2006. The USA is one of the countries that suffered the most significant decline between 2010 and 2020. Authoritarianism seems to be on the rise everywhere, and human rights are definitely under pressure. This does not concern abortion rights only, with the overturn of Roe v. Wade in the USA, but also LGTBQ+ rights.  

In this episode, we are joined by Dorottya Redai, a Hungarian academic at the Central European University Democracy Institute and LGTBQ+ activist part of the Labrisz Lesbian Association. In 2021 Dorottya was listed among the world’s 100 most influential people for her publication of ‘Fairyland is for Everyone’, an LGTBQ+ friendly book for children. The publication set a backlash in Hungary, ruled by anti-gay, anti-freedom of speech, and authoritarian rule of Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party. Soon after the book came out, a politician from a right-wing party made a video event in which she tore apart the book and put the pages in a paper shredder. That caused a tsunami of extreme negative reactions, one of which was the Hungarian parliament passing a law that restricted the promotion and access of LGTBQ+ materials to young people under 18. On the other hand, the book became soon a bestseller and has been published in 10 languages, becoming a symbol of the fight for LGTBQ+ rights. 

In the third episode, we deal with the death of press freedom. Press freedom can be defined as the right of newspapers and magazines to report the news without government control. By analysing data on abuses and acts of violence against journalists across 180 countries worldwide, the annual report of the World Press Freedom Index ranks each country according to how free it is. The 2022 report shows a decreasing trend worldwide, due to increased polarisation and disinformation narratives.

In this episode, we are joined by Monica Baro Sanchez, an independent investigative Cuban journalist. In 2019 she published a story about lead poisoning in Cuba called “La Sangre Nunca Fue Amarilla” or Blood was never yellow, which had two kinds of impacts. Firstly, she won the ‘Gabriel García Márquez Journalism Award’, one of Latin America’s highest honours. Secondly, the State Security Department of the Cuban government began a harassment campaign and jail threats that forced her to leave the country and move to Spain.

Monica is still active in Cuba, even though she now writes from abroad. And, if she can get a student visa in time, she’s been offered a scholarship and a fellowship at New York University.

In our second episode, we are coping with right-wing extremism. According to the 2019 Global Terrorism Index, far-right terrorism has surged by 320% over the last 5 years. Far-right movements often originate and grow in the online world, most likely on fringe platforms where restrictions are much more blurred than on mainstream platforms.

To help us cope, we met with Fabian Wichmann, from EXIT Deutschland in Berlin. EXIT provides support to people who want to leave extreme far-right movements. Two successful and creative initiatives made Neo-Nazis aware of the existence of EXIT Deutschland. The first one involved the distribution of a T-shirt during a right-wing rock festival. After the T-shirt was washed once, a surprise was left for the Neo-Nazis, with the contact information of EXIT appeared instead. The goal was to attract awareness and attention to the organisation. The second one, named Nazis against Nazis, consisted of a counter-protest against Nazi demonstrations. The idea behind it was that for every metre the demonstrators would walk, 10 euros would involuntarily be donated to EXIT. This action created a dilemma for the demonstrators: stopping the march or raising funds against their ideals. The outcome was pretty successful: the donation reached more than 20.000 euros. To cope with right-wing extremism, Fabian gave us five practical solutions.

In the first episode of this new podcast series we are coping with online trolling. Online trolling can be defined as malicious online behaviour actively put in action to provoke, upset, and harm people through hate speech, violent messages, and death threats. We were joined by Ginger Gorman, an Australian investigative journalist, and author of ‘Troll Hunting’. Ginger Gorman has experienced online hate first-hand as a victim of online trolling. 

Ginger explained that once the troll attacks quietened, she found herself less fearful for her safety and her family’s one, and more curious to understand who these trolls were. Ginger built a relationship with one of them to gain this understanding.  She found how dangerous this person was, discovering they were not only involved in cyber-hate, but also in real-life crimes.  Psychopathy, machiavellism, narcissism, and sadism are all traits of online trolls. Sadism has the strongest correlation, meaning that by upsetting their victims, trolls take pleasure from it. Gorman explained how these personality traits were perfectly profiling the troll she met in real life. Among the victims, online trolling can be associated with distress, self-harm, and sometimes, even suicide.

It is clear that online actions have offline consequences. To help us feel less powerless in front of this complicated phenomenon, Ginger gave us 5 practical solutions to tackle online trolling.