The Deep Dive with Andy Heintz

This podcast episode examines the heartbreaking, horrifying and entirely preventable human consequences caused by the Trump administration's decision to dismantle the United States Agency for International Development, also known as U.S.A.I.D. Brooke Nichols, Boston University epidemiologist and mathematical modeller, maintains a respected tracker that estimates the human costs of the closure of U.S.A.I.D. As of November 23, the closing of the agency has caused more than 600,000 deaths, more than two-thirds of them children. That number grows each day. Established in 1961, U.S.A.I.D. had more than 60 years of bipartisan backing behind it and it accounted for less than one percent of the federal budget before the Trump administration, spearheaded by the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency, took action that led to the eventual shuttering of the agency. In Musk's words, U.S.A.I.D. was fed to the wood chipper. An unelected billionaire-who could become the world's first trillionaire-helped sign the death warrant of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg correctly writes that Musk's legacy is and should remain Disease, Starvation and Death until he takes responsibility for the horrors his actions have unleashed.

In an article he penned for the New Yorker, Atul Gawande, an assistant adminstrator for global health at U.S.A.I.D. for the Joe Biden administration, wrote, "I spent my last days at U.S.A.I.D. in meetings with our civil- and foreign-service leaders, thanking them. Their work with partner countries had helped to contain twenty-one outbreaks of deadly disease, sustain Ukraine’s health system after Russia’s invasion, combat H.I.V., tuberculosis, and polio, and reduce maternal and child deaths worldwide."

An independent, peer-reviewed analysis by the medical journal Lancet found that U.S.A.I.D. assistance had saved almost ninety-two million lives over the last two decades. In 2024, U.S.A.I.D was providing assistance to people in 130 countries. an Oxfam report notes that "Countries that needed lifesaving aid the most are experiencing the worst of the cuts, including Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, and Syria, to name only a few."

The decision to shutter U.S.A.I.D. is a lethal example of the tragic consequences of the Trump administration's dehumanizing cruelty, arrogant ignorance and deadly incuriosity. People need to demand that the administration change course and restore lifesaving aid for people all over the world.

In this podcast episode, I discuss why the term Western Civilization is not only problematic, but also an obstacle to understanding the world and solving the some of the thorniest political issues facing us today. Whether it used as a codeword for white by the Far Right, or pro-science and pro-human rights by others, Western or Western civilization oversimplifies the world and draws artificial lines between countries and continents that obscures the reality that some of the most inspiring pro-democracy movements over the last decade have come from countries like Syria, Bangladesh, Sudan and Iran; while many so-called Western countries have been home to Far-Rights movements and movements that are anti-democratic in nature. Religious fundamentalism and authoritarian populism can be embraced by anyone in any country, but the same can be said for human rights, democracy and science.

This episode features Part one of an interview I conducted with Kwame Anthony Appiah on March 29, 2025. Anthony is an author, intellectual, philosopher and writer. He writes The Ethicist column for the New York Times and he is a professor of Philosophy and Law at New York University. Anthony has written several books including Captive Gods: Religion and the Rise of Social Science, The Ethics of Identity, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, Lines of Descent: W.E.B. Dubois and the Emergency of Identity, and The Honor Code: How Moral Revolutions Happen. He also co-authored Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race with Amy Gutmann and The Dictionary of Global Culture with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In our interview Anthony shares why the idea of Western civilization is at best a source of confusion, and at worst an obstacle to solving some of our biggest political problems. He discusses how intellectually, Islam and Christianity are tightly connected by their shared interest in the Abrahamic faith and Aristotle, how democracy is possible everywhere but not guaranteed anywhere, and how examples of religious toleration and religious intolerance exist both in so-called Western countries and countries outside the West. Anthony shares how Confucius's view of education was more democratic than Plato and Aristotle, how Aristotle doesn't belong to the West but to anyone who chooses to read him, and how the line from Plato and Aristotle goes just as much through Baghdad as it does through Paris.

This episode is meant to raise awareness and call for more international action to assist and empower the Rohingya, a ethnic Muslim minority whose ancestral home is the Rakhine State, a western state in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. The Rohingya have faced years of discrimination and repression in Burma and are not among the 135 ethnic groups recognized in the country despite being able to trace Rohingya history in the country to the eighth century. Instead they are viewed as foreign migrants from Bangladesh. In August 2017, a genocidal assault by the Myanmar military killed 6,700 Rohingya and led to the exodus of 750,000 to neighboring Bangladesh. Today, more than a million Rohingya live in the Bangladeshi refugee camps and those remaining in Burma continue to face violence and persecution from Myanmar's army and the ethnic Arakan Army, a powerful resistance army that controls much of the Rakhine State. The lack of opportunities in the refugee camps and the Rakhine State has led some refugees to take dangerous sea routes in search of a better life in other countries. Some of these expeditions have ended in tragedy, with 427 Rohingya perishing at sea in May 2025. The Rohingya deserve better and the international community needs to take a stronger role in making sure the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh receive more opportunities and hope. They also must do more to ensure the conditions in the Rakhine State are conducive for the Rohingya to make a safe and voluntary return to their ancestral homeland.

This episode features an interview I recorded with documentary photographer Simone Rudolphi on August 9, 2024. Simone discussed her time interning for renowned photographer, writer and activist Shahidul Alam in Bangladesh. Simone shared her thoughts on the student-led Monsoon Revolution that ended the 15-year autocratic rule of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024. She also discusses how she came to see Alam and others in Bangladesh as kindred spirits and how the so-called Western world still dictates too much of global policy. Rudolphi touches on the origins of discontent that led to the revolution that ousted Sheikh Hasina, and how distorted framing in the Global North can lead people in Europe and the United States to misunderstand the revolution. She also talks about how blanket terms like violent protests failed to accurately convey what was happening in Bangladesh during the revolution including when state forces where using firearms against unarmed student protesters. Rudolphi also briefly touches on the Far-Right Riots in Britain in August 2024.

This episode was recorded on May 4, 2025, and it features an interview I conducted with writer, author and intellectual Michael Walzer on September 8, 2024. Michael discusses his views on the war in Gaza, and his critique of human rights organizations and prominent individuals who have accused the Israeli government of apartheid in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and within its borders. Michael also discusses the origins of the rise of the Israeli Far Right and the decline of the Israeli Left, and why recent events offer a window of opportunity for the Left to regain a foothold in Israeli politics. Michael and I also discuss the history of within-group disagreement in the Zionist movement regarding how Zionism should be interpreted and lived out in people's actual lives. Michael and I also discuss whether US military aid to Israel should ever be suspended or conditioned because of Israel's occupation of Gaza. I also share my position on the the war in Gaza including why I consider the Israeli government's actions to be genocide. I also discuss the importance of opposing this genocide, while also strongly denouncing both actual antisemitism -- it is on the rise which should disturb us all --and the weaponization of antisemitism by bad-faith actors within the US and Israeli governments.

This is an interview I conducted with veteran journalist Bill Weinberg on April 23, 2025. Bill is an author, journalist and blogger. He is the author of Homage to Chiapas: The New Indigenous Struggles in Mexico and War on the Land: Ecology and Politics in Central America. His work has been published in the The Progressive, In These Times, Al Jazeera, NACLA Report on the Americas, Miami Herald and Indian Country Today. Bill is the host of the CounterVortex podcast and he runs the CounterVortex blog and news service. CounterVortex is one of my favorite podcasts and it has often been my go-to source when I want to learn about the nuances of events happening in places like Burma, Burkina Faso, Mali, Gaza, Ukraine, Somalia or Venezuela. In this episode, Bill and I discuss the most consequential aspects of the increasingly authoritarian Trump government including the current and future human costs of cutting foreign aid and dismantling the US Agency for International Development (USAID) if foreign aid is not restored, the crackdown on free speech, the denial of due process and the Trump's administration's use of a notorious prison in El Salvador as an unconstitutional answer to it's strategy of mass deportations. Bill also discusses why he considers Trump an illegitimate president, and the potential of anti-Trump protests that have broken out around the country. Bill and I also discuss the genocide in Gaza, and the potential of anti-Hamas and anti-Netanyahu protests that have occurred in Gaza and Israel. We also discuss how the weaponization of antisemitism by the Trump administration is hypocritical and distracts from actual antisemitism while also suppressing free speech.

Bill Weinberg adds: "Contrary to what I imply at 33 minutes, no student activists have been abducted to El Salvador, of course.... Just the accused gang-bangers. Student activists have been abducted, but not to El Salvador (thank goodness!)"

I hope everyone enjoys the show.

This episode features an interview I conducted with Maryam Namazie that was recorded on September 17, 2024. Maryam is an Iranian-born human rights activist, free speech advocate, women's rights activist and blogger. She is the spokesperson of One Law for All and the Council of Ex-Muslims in Britain. In our we talk about how the term The West can obscure more than illuminate how to understand the world, and how the term can be used to divide people and create an Us versus Them framework that serves the identify politics practiced by Far Right Nationalists. She discusses how Identity Politics problematically treats people of the same religion, skin color or ethnicity as homogenous, instead of as heterogeneous groups full of within-group differences and disagreements. Maryam also discusses how anti-Westism is used by patriarchal and authoritarian forces in so-called non-Western countries to suppress and demonize those challenging their rule. She discusses her opposition to blasphemy laws, and how people can oppose patriarchal forces within minority communities while also opposing ugly anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric practiced by Far Right Forces in the Europe. Maryam also talks about the legacy of the Women Life Freedom Movement in Iran that was launched in September 2022, and she discusses the Far Right protests in Britain in August 2024, and how she was heartened by the much larger counterprotests opposing the Far Right, welcoming refugees and opposing racism.

This podcast includes my thoughts about why small acts of empathy and compassion combined with nonviolent protest are key to pushing back against the cruelty and nihilism of the Trump administration.

This podcast is about the Rwanda-backed rebel group M23's seizure of Goma -- the largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo -- on January 27, 2025. It discusses the origins of M23 and the humanitarian disaster created by the fighting between the rebel group and the Congolese army and its local allied militias. The podcast also features criticism of Rwanda's role in supporting the rebel group. Fidel Bwanangela, human rights activists and humanitarian worker, shares his thoughts on the conflict. The conflict in the DRC has for too long suffered from a deficit of international attention and news coverage despite the ongoing fighting and suffering in the country in the last 30 plus years. The DRC's robust and brave activists and activist groups have also not received adequate attention. The country's citizen need and deserve more international attention and media coverage. Moreover, the crimes of M23, the Congolese military and human-rights abusing militias should not be allowed to be committed with impunity.