Opinion Has It

Type the words “Tiananmen” or “June 4” in a search browser in China, and little, if anything, identifies Beijing’s central square as the site where thousands of people, mostly students, were killed while peacefully demonstrating for democratic reform in 1989. Thirty years later, China’s government is as determined as ever to crush dissent.Featured in this podcast: Chris Patten served as the last British governor of Hong Kong, from 1992-1997. He is the author of several books, including East and West: China, Power, and the Future of Asia. Louisa Lim is an award-winning journalist who has reported from China for a decade, most recently for National Public Radio. She is the author of The People’s Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited. Sophie Richardson is the China director at Human Rights Watch. She is the author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence.

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Last week, we spoke with Yascha Mounk, a professor on liberal democracy and populism at Johns Hopkins University in Washington. We discussed the state of the EU in the run up to last week's European Parliament elections. During our conversation, we also touched on the role social media has played in democracy. Here's this week's outtake.

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European Parliament elections have traditionally been tedious, low-turnout affairs. But five years of financial and migrant crises, terrorist attacks, and growing nationalism have put the European Union under unprecedented strain, and this week’s vote could reset its direction. Featured in this episode: Yascha Mounk is an associate professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and author of the book The People Versus Democracy – Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It.

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Often when we're recording, we end up asking questions that are very interesting, but don't make it into our final episode. Rather than letting this just sit as extra tape our hard drive, we want to turn these questions into outtakes. Here's our first one. Last week, we published an episode with Ambassador William Burns, a career diplomat who served for 33 years in the US Foreign Service. We asked him about the future of the Iran Nuclear Deal. But from 2005-2008 Bill Burns was the ambassador to Russia. Our host, Elmira Bayrasli, asked what he had to say about the relationship between the US and Russia.

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When Donald Trump took the stage at his inauguration in January 2017, he promised to put an end to the multilateral approach that had marked US foreign policy since the end of World War II, pledging to put “America First.” Ambassador William Burns joins our podcast to discuss what that means for the Foreign Service members who work on behalf of US interests abroad.**In this episode we highlight part of an interview with Rebecca Lissner, an associate professor at the US Naval War College and previous Opinion Has It guest. Listen to her full episode, published in January, here --> https://www.project-syndicate.org/podcasts/the-world-after-trump. **

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The days of waiting for the 7pm news or the morning paper are long gone. But, so too, is perspective and trust. Jay Rosen joins our podcast to discuss the future of journalism.

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In Waziristan, girls don’t play sports. They’re not allowed. But hostility and discrimination didn’t stop Maria Toorpakai from becoming one of the world’s top-ranked squash players. She joins our podcast to discuss how sports offer a platform for advancing gender equality and promoting social change.

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Around the world—at the grassroots level and in civil society—young people are taking action and raising their voices. Yet they remain underrepresented in political institutions and decision-making on issues of sexual and reproductive rights. For this special project podcast, recorded during the sixty-third session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York, Project Syndicate, in collaboration with the International Women’s Health Coalition, follows three young sexual and reproductive rights advocates as they tackle challenges within their home countries and work towards gender empowerment and equality.

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According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO, his creation was supposed “to make the world more open and connected.” After massive privacy breaches and the proliferation of misinformation and hate speech, that mission lies in ruins. Roger McNamee, an early investor in the platform, joins our podcast to discuss what went wrong.*NB at 14:47: It was Michael Cohen's Rockefeller Center office that was raided by the FBI in April 2018. Paul Manafort's home was searched in August 2017.

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It has been two years and nine months since the people of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. To say that the subsequent negotiations outlining exactly how Britain would withdraw from the bloc have been messy would be an understatement. Fintan O’Toole joins our podcast to discuss one of the thorniest issues: the Irish backstop.

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