Talk World Radio

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about cheering for the abusing of horses. Our guest, Patrick Battuello, has been writing on animal-rights issues since 2009 when he launched the Animal Rights blog for the Albany Times Union, one of the first of its kind in the nation. His work from this period has appeared in a high school text book, "The Case for Animal Rights." Patrick launched Horseracing Wrongs in 2013 and incorporated as a non-profit in 2017. Horseracing Wrongs is the nation's preeminent anti-racing organization. Patrick has had op-eds published in The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun, MSNBC, and Katie Couric Media, among many others. He has appeared on CNN and ESPN multiple times, and in 2019 was featured on a groundbreaking segment of HBO's "Real Sports." Patrick has also testified before the New York Senate. Horseracing Wrongs is at horseracingwrongs.org

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about wars and borders, and an upcoming online conference called #NoWar2026 Beyond Borders. Our guest, who will be one of the speakers at the conference is Dr Mujib Abid, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He is an Afghan-Australian scholar of modern Afghan history, peace studies, and political theory. Mujib's work foregrounds critical traditions that self-locate in the Global South, including postcolonial and decolonial approaches, as well as other traditional and Islamic knowledge perspectives. He's the author of the forthcoming book, Resurgent Histories of Afghanistan. He is also working as a coauthor with Masoom Stanekzai on a book called The Broken Road to Peace: An Insider’s Account of Afghanistan’s Five-Decade Struggle.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/drmujibabid/media

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/voices-of-unity/id6790224075

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about this terrific new book. It is called CAST OUT: A Call for a Forgiving Society in an Age of Incarceration. The author, our guest, Joseph Margulies is a writer and a litigator, and Professor of Government at Cornell University. He was lead counsel in Rasul v. Bush in 2004 which gave Guantanamo detainees the right to challenge their detention in federal court, and in Munaf v. Geren in 2008, which gave U.S. citizens the right to challenge their detention by the U.S. government abroad.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about this terrific book, Empire of Lies: Fragments from the Memory Hole: The Shameful Story of the Deep State's War Lords, War Lies, & Failed Foreign Interventions. The author, whom we are privileged to have join us, is Charles Goyette, a best-selling author and award-winning talk show host.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're discussing a new book called Strung Up: How White America Learned to Lynch Black Children. The author, our guest, Stacey Patton is an award-winning journalist, author, college professor, historian, and nationally recognized child advocate. Her scholarship and advocacy challenge corporal punishment in homes and schools and examine the historical relationship among childhood, race, violence, and power. Patton’s writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and other national outlets. She is also the author of Spare the Kids: Why Whupping Children Won’t Save Black America.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about U.S.-Iranian relations with two guests who recently visited Iran from the United States, Nuri Ronaghy and Alan Shorb.

Nuri Ronaghy was born in Iran in 1940, and has been an activist for peace for over 70 years. She came to the United States nearly 60 years ago, and got her Masters degree in Economics from the University of Wisconsin while teaching Farsi there. She has been a member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and was active in the Iranian Student Association during her student days. On a visit to Iran in the waning days of the Shah’s regime she was put into solitary confinement in the infamous Evin Prison of the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK. Nuri has been an organizing member of peace delegations to Iran both in the Fall of 2024 as well as in the Spring/Summer of 2026. During those delegations she has been a strong supporter of a school for Afghani children, refugees from the U.S. war on Afghanistan.

Alan Shorb, Nuri's husband, was born in Baltimore in 1938. He participated in the 1963 March on Washington and peace demonstrations over the years, and in recent years has been a full-time peace activist, including being an anchor of the weekly Peace Vigil in Ojai, California for the last 11 years, and participating in the peace delegations to Iran.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about corporate power, the freedom of speech, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream with Ben of Ben & Jerry's, Ben Cohen, who has spoken out for years dramatically, creatively, and powerfully for peace and for a moral federal budget. Ben Cohen has frequently pushed the topic of obscene military spending and the wars it creates into the public discourse using reports, statements, creative props, getting himself arrested in Congress, and the work of several organizations including the Ben & Jerry's Foundation. He has also helped World BEYOND War put up antiwar billboards. We speak with Ben Cohen in a moment when the U.S. government is working on the biggest shift we've seen of resources from useful projects to war, and when the corporation called Magnum (which owns Ben & Jerry's) is trying to prevent Ben & Jerry's from opposing a super unpopular genocide.

https://freebenandjerrys.com

https://boycottmagnum.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about the influence of the Israeli government, not just on the U.S. government but on government at the state level here in Virginia, and some of the things that can be done about it. We welcome two guests.

Dr. Alex Hilert is a Jewish-American anti-zionist activist and organizer with the Richmond Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Virginia Coalition of Human Rights. Dr. Hilert works as a community mental health counselor and professor in Richmond, VA. He is on the steering committee for the Dismantle VIAB and VRS Divest campaigns.

Dr. Philip Farah was born and raised in Jerusalem. He is a Palestinian who came to the United States in 1978. He has lived, and worked in several Arab countries. A founding member of the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, Dr. Farah has spoken widely on West Asia justice issues, and his writings have appeared in several publications. Philip has relatives in Gaza who were among the victims of Israel’s genocidal war. He recently retired after a 35-year career as a public sector economist.

Divesting the Virgina Retirement System

https://vrsdivest.org

Upcoming Event on September 19, 2026, in Richmond, Virginia

https://bit.ly/vrsrichmond

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about one of the ways in which the Israeli government has been murdering children in Gaza. Our guest, Dr. Mimi Syed, is a board-certified emergency medicine physician from the U.S. with extensive experience in managing trauma and critically ill patients in both urban and rural settings. She is an assistant clinical professor at University of Washington and Washington State University and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Syed served months in Gaza in 2024 at both al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Hospital, where she documented severe injuries from drone strikes. She has firsthand experience treating civilians targeted by the Israeli military. And she is coauthor of a new report from the Costs of War Project at Brown University:

Lethal Precision Without Accountability: Israeli Government "Quadcopter” Use in Gaza by Mimi Syed, Wes J. Bryant, Charles O. Blaha, Stephanie Savell

https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/sites/default/files/Syed_Quadcopter_June2026_CostsofWar.pdf

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about how obeying Trump's demand to move mountains of money into militarism is working out for European nations that had been doing much better than the United States in health and happiness by spending money on things other than wars. Our guest, Mikael Book, lives in Finland which has seen some dramatic changes in the past two years.