The Final Service

The United States is three months into a mass movement against police violence. We are the midst of a  national conversation about the relationship between law enforcement and communities of color, but the fight over defining the problem of systemic racism, and how to fix it, is only intensifying. In the first half of this episode, Teresa Cotsirilos brings us the story of Jinho “The Piper” Ferreira, a hip-hop artist who lost a friend to police violence and still chose to join law enforcement. Next, we look at how South Africa has grappled with its legacy of white supremacy and police brutality. With the end of Apartheid in 1994, the police were supposed to be reformed, but a quarter-century later, South Africa is still struggling with this issue. Ray Suarez talks with Stan Henkeman, Executive Director of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in South Africa, and John Steinberg, Professor of African Studies at Oxford University, about policing in South Africa today.

Guests: 

Stan Henkeman, Executive director of the Institute and Reconciliation in South Africa

Jonny Steinberg, African Studies Professor, at Oxford University

Jinho “The Piper” Ferriera, musician, actor and former Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy

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As inequality rises around the world, some citizens are losing faith in the liberal democratic capitalism that emerged in the 20th century. Protests from the United States to Belarus share themes of resentment towards economic policies that are seen as inherently unfair. Stanford University’s Larry Diamond and Francis Fukuyama join Ray Suarez and Philip Yun to discuss what’s at stake for liberal democracy and the changing world order.

Guests: 

Larry Diamond, Stanford University and author of Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency

Francis Fukuyama, Stanford University and author of Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment

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It’s been three months since George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minnesota. The movement prompted an outpouring from lawmakers in Canada and Australia, and protests started in countries that share the United States’ colonial history. Now that the protests have started to slow down, how do we enact effective policies? The Black Lives Matter movement is calling to redirect police funding toward education and public services. Ideas that once seemed radical are now being discussed by politicians both on the local and federal levels. Historian Nell Irvin Painter and anthropologist Christen Smith join Ray Suarez to talk about the global Black Lives Matter movement, policing in the Western Hemisphere and why it’s important to understand the role white supremacy has played in building our institutions. 

Nell Irvin Painter, American historian, artist, author of numerous books including The History of White People and Professor of American History Emerita at Princeton University

Christen Smith, Associate Professor of Anthropology and African and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, founder of Cite Black Women and author of Afro Paradise: Blackness, Violence and Performance in Brazil

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After the Rwandan genocide, 70 percent of the country’s surviving population were women. They propelled the country’s reconciliation process and fostered its economic development. Today, life expectancies in Rwanda have doubled… and its parliament is majority female. Karen Sherman has witnessed many of these changes. She’s the president of Akilah, a college in Rwanda that provides affordable higher education for women, and she has interviewed thousands of women in war-torn and transitional countries. She joins us on the podcast to talk about her memoir Brick by Brick: Building Hope and Opportunity for Women Survivors Everywhere that covers her experience in global development.

Guests: 

Karen Sherman, President, Akilah Institute 

Linda Calhoun, Executive Producer, Career Girls

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In the United States, the pandemic is getting worse than we ever could have imagined. Many of our political leaders underestimated the virus… And as they fumbled the country’s initial response, developing nations with far fewer resources got prepared. This week, we’re looking at Uganda and Rwanda, two countries who have fought pandemics before and were ready for this one. Both countries have lost very few people to the virus. How did they do it?

Guests:

Stephen Asiimwe, Program Director, Global Health Collaborative, Uganda

Agnes Binagwaho, Vice Chancellor at the University of Global Health Equity, former Minister of Health, Rwanda

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Vietnam may have limited resources to stop the spread of the coronavirus, but it’s made up for it with proactive policies and manpower. The country mobilized tens of thousands of military personnel, health care workers and ordinary citizens to fight COVID-19. This level of collective action requires a unified front, and though it was ultimately successful, Vietnam is still an authoritarian country that weathered a 20-year, famous civil war. There are plenty of Vietnamese people who, with good reason, don’t trust their government, and our guest on the podcast, Nguyen Qui Duc, is one of them. He’s a journalist and restaurant owner who joined us to describe his experience in Vietnam during a global pandemic.

Guest: 

Duc Qui Nguyen, journalist and restaurant owner

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With 5 million recorded COVID-19  infections and 160,000 deaths, the coronavirus has paralyzed the United States…the richest, most powerful country in the world. We know it was preventable because at the same time, some countries with far fewer resources have kept infection and death rates remarkably low. Even with its close proximity to China, where the pandemic started, parts of Southeast Asia have managed to control the coronavirus far better than the US and Europe. What are Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar doing that the rest of the world finds itself unable to do? In this episode, we hear from New York Times Southeast Asia Bureau Chief Hannah Beech, Country Director for the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam Dr. Todd Pollock and Director of the Oxford University clinical research unit in Vietnam Guy Thwaites about the quick decision making that went into these countries’ successes. What can we learn from them?

Guests:

Hannah Beech, NYTimes Southeast Asia Bureau Chief, based in Bangkok, Thailand @hkbeech

Dr. Todd Pollock, Country Director for the Partnership for Health Advancement in Vietnam @toddmpollack

Guy Thwaites, Professor of infectious diseases and the director of the Oxford University clinical research unit in Vietnam @ThwaitesGuy

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How did El Salvador become one of the most violent countries on earth? And what role did the United States play in creating the notorious MS-13 gang? In this episode, we revisit and update a program we recorded in January about the origins of El Salvador’s bloody gang war with journalist William Wheeler and Joanne Elgart Jennings. Wheeler spoke with gang members, frustrated reformers, crime investigators and government officials to better understand the violence in the country and what is driving Salvadorans northward. His book is: “State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador’s World of Violence.” 

Guest: 

William Wheeler, journalist and author of State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador’s World of Violence

Moderator:

Joanne Elgart Jennings, executive producer & co-host

 
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After nearly twenty years of conflict, the United States is, once again, attempting to extricate itself from Afghanistan. This year, the US and the Taliban signed an agreement that was intended to be a first step towards an intra-Afghan peace deal and US forces began withdrawing troops. But for the time being, the peace process remains tenuous, and Afghanistan is still being used by Russia and the US as proxy war. Over the past few years, Russia has tried to present itself as an ascendant global power, expanding its influence in Syria, Ukraine, as well as Afghanistan. But Putin's government is also grappling with a raging pandemic and an economic crisis. Markos Kounalakis recently discussed Russia's delicate political moment with Steven Pifer.  He was ambassador to Ukraine, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and was a senior director for Russia and Eurasia at the National Security Council.

Guest:

Steven Pifer, William J Perry Fellow at Stanford, nonresident Brookings fellow and former US Ambassador to Ukraine

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United States forces have been fighting in Afghanistan for almost twenty years, making it the longest war in American history. But for many Americans, the conflict only became top of mind again after hearing reports that a Russian military intelligence unit offered bounty money to the Taliban for killing US soldiers. In this episode, we take a closer look at how the war in Afghanistan has served as a proxy conflict between the US and Russia and how it fits into Russia’s global agenda. Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry joins co-host Ray Suarez, followed by a conversation with Jennifer Glasse of Al Jazeera.

Guests: 

Jennifer Glasse, Senior Managing Editor at the Americas at Al Jazeera

Karl Eikenberry, former US Ambassador to Afghanistan, retired US Army Lieutenant General

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