What does China’s newly announced three-child policy tell us about China’s changing demographics? What have been the economic and societal consequences of China’s historical efforts to control births? How does this policy fit into a context of global demographic change, and what are the political implications? Wang Feng, Professor of Sociology at University of California, Irvine, talks to RBI Director John Torpey about global demographic changes across China and the world, and what can we expect in the future from today’s changing global demographic trends.

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What are the current policy objectives guiding the State Department’s foreign policy decisions? How has the US approach to China changed with the transition to a new administration? How is America re-engaging with the world after several years of unilateralism? Scott Busby, the Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (DRL), talks with RBI Director John Torpey about their work promoting human rights and democracy abroad, as well as about global trends that are implicated in these efforts.

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How are the Eurovision Song Contest and politics interconnected? How do countries use the song contest to promote their interests in this nominally apolitical event? What role does it play in cultural trends and the soft power of countries, languages, and identity? Dean Vuletic, a historian at the Research Center for the History of Transformations at the University of Vienna, talks to RBI Director John Torpey about the 65 years of the Eurovision Song Contest and the role it plays in European culture and politics. You can read the transcript here: https://ralphbuncheinstitute.org/dev/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/The-Eurovision-Song-Contest-as-a-Cultural-and-Political-Phenomenon.docx

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Researchers at the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently analyzed Africa’s “second wave” of Covid-19 in The Lancet. How does the situation in Africa look in comparison to the situations elsewhere? How are the continent’s various countries faring in their struggles with the coronavirus? Dr. Stephanie Salyer of the Africa CDC talks to RBI Director John Torpey about the trajectory of the virus since the start of the pandemic, efforts to produce vaccines within the countries of the African Union, and other unique challenges facing Africa in its battle against the coronavirus. You can find a transcript here: https://ralphbuncheinstitute.org/2021/05/17/africas-experience-with-covid-19-with-dr-stephanie-salyer/

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How did recent protests against Colombia’s proposed tax reforms turn into chaos? What differentiates these events from previous anti-government protests in the region? Is Venezuela’s role in these protests as an outside agitator or a convenient scapegoat for the government? Sandra Patricia Borda Guzman, Associate Professor of political science at Los Andes University, discusses the quickly escalating protests in Colombia, and what they tell us about the current political climate within the country and Latin America. You can find a transcript of the podcast here: https://ralphbuncheinstitute.org/2021/05/11/the-anti-government-protests-in-colombia-with-sandra-borda/

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Are Israel’s policies over the West Bank and Gaza Strip war crimes? What are the implications of such an accusation? Do these policies come from Israel’s security concerns, or are they pretextual explanations for their repressive treatment over the Palestinian population? Eric Goldstein, acting Executive Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch, talks to RBI Director John Torpey about the latest HRW report that accuses Israel of crimes against humanity. He discusses what that means and how the determination was made, HRW’s efforts to stay impartial in their inherently political work, and what governments response to the report indicate for the future of Israel. You can read the transcript at https://ralphbuncheinstitute.org/2021/05/10/the-human-rights-watch-report-charging-israel-with-the-crime-of-apartheid-with-eric-goldstein/

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What impact has the standardization of international trade had on society? Has the newfound speed and efficiency outpaced other market factors, such as worker conditions and risk prevention? How have dock cities, built on traditional supply chains, been affected by these changes? What can we expect to happen to the hundreds of thousands of shipping containers once they too become obsolete? RBI Director John Torpey talks to Marc Levinson, economist, historian, and journalist, and Liang Wu, doctoral candidate in anthropology at the Graduate Center, CUNY, about how shipping containers have become the new paradigm in international shipping, and what affect that has had on supply chains, markets, and those working in the shipping industry. You can read a transcript of this episode here: https://ralphbuncheinstitute.org/2021/05/03/the-containerization-of-shipping-and-its-global-consequences-with-marc-levinson/

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How did India go from declaring victory over covid in January to being the world’s hotspot 3 months later? As one of the largest pharmaceutical and vaccine producers in the world, did India focus too much on vaccine diplomacy and too little on internal vaccination efforts? How has India’s regional competition with China affected how this plays out? Manu Bhagavan, Professor of history, human rights, and public policy at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, talks to RBI Director John Torpey about how India reached its current crisis point and what other problems face today’s India on the international stage. You can find the transcript here: https://ralphbuncheinstitute.org/2021/04/26/indias-struggle-against-covid-with-manu-bhagavan/

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Is Asia in the ascendancy, and the West in decline? How does the rise of Asia affect power dynamics and competition with Western markets? Will China’s creation of its own regional banking and investment vehicles weaken Western-dominated global financial institutions? Does the rise of cryptocurrency threaten to further destabilize and restructure markets? Kimberly Kay Hoang, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Global Studies at the University of Chicago, discusses economic soft power and its role in the broader pattern of Asian ascendancy. You can read the transcript of this episode here:https://ralphbuncheinstitute.org/2021/04/19/asian-ascendency-western-decline-with-kimberly-kay-hoang/

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What does China’s past tell us about its present and future? How do remnants of its pre-Communist history affect the way the current leadership approaches the country’s contemporary challenges? How will the United States and China deal with each other on such issues as trade and climate change? How much “soft power” does China have as it takes its place on the world stage? Ian Johnson, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, formerly with the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other outlets, and recently expelled from China, discusses historical trends in China’s development and how they affect the policy choices of the Chinese Communist Party today. You can find a transcript here: https://ralphbuncheinstitute.org/2021/04/12/china-before-today-tomorrow-with-ian-johnson/

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