The Final Service

Protesters are back in the streets in Hong Kong to fight against a new security law that tightens the Chinese government’s  grip over the city. On this week’s episode, we look at how Hong Kong’s new security law will impact US-China relations, and what it means for the millions of people who live there. First, we’ll hear from Human Rights Watch’s China Director, Sophie Richardson, who argues that US-China relations are at their worst point since the Cold War. Will this new law make them worse? Next, an activist and artist from Hong Kong discusses the evolution of her city’s protest movement. Then, we revisit a conversation with journalist Mary Kay Magistad and professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom, a historian specializing in modern China. They unpack the history of Hong Kong and how the city got to where it is today. 

 

Guests: 

Mary Kay Magistad, former East Asia correspondent for NPR & Director of Audio Journalism at UC Berkeley

Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Professor at UC Irvine and author of Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink

Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch and author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence

Claire, artist and activist from Hong Kong

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The United States is in the midst of a national conversation about the role systemic racism plays in law enforcement, but police brutality is not just an American problem. In this episode, we look at how South Africa has grappled with its own legacy of white supremacy and police violence. Under Apartheid, South Africa’s white leaders used the police as an instrument of control, enforcing a web of laws that bound black lives. When liberation came with the end of Apartheid, the police were supposedly reformed. Now, a quarter-center later, has anything changed? Co-host 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 South Africa’s cautionary tale of police reforms made after Apartheid.

 

Guests: 

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

Jonny Steinberg, African Studies Professor, at Oxford University

Credits:

Philip Yun, President and CEO, WorldAffairs

Ray Suarez, co-host, WorldAffairs

Teresa Cotsirilos, producer, WorldAffairs

Jarrod Sport, senior producer, WorldAffairs

Joanne Elgart Jennings, executive producer, WorldAffairs

 

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Black Lives Matter might be the largest social movement in American history. Last month, an estimated 15-25 million people took to the streets to protest police violence, launching a national conversation about the role systemic racism plays in law enforcement. In this episode, producer Teresa Cotsirilos tells the story of a man whose past experiences with the police drove him to fight for justice from the inside. Jinho Ferreira, also known as “The Piper,” discusses his childhood in West Oakland, his experiences working in law enforcement and what it means to be an artist in a moment of radical change.

Guest: 

Jinho Ferreira, artist, actor and former Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy

Credits:

Teresa Cotsirilos, producer

Jarrod Sport, senior producer

Joanne Elgart Jennings, executive producer

Philip Yun, President and CEO

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Over the past few months, we’ve had to reimagine everything we do. From shopping, to eating and socializing, the ways we spend money have completely changed. And as each country manages the pandemic differently, the already fragile global economy has been disrupted by broken supply chains and shifts in demand. Now we’re questioning the role of the government, the future of capitalism and changing our values. The choices we make now could change the world for decades. On this week’s episode, we tackle these big issues and examine our new digital economy with James Manyika, Chairman and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute, Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz, and Gillian Tett, Editor at Large at the Financial Times.     James Manyika, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company; Chairman and Director, McKinsey Global Institute   Mohamed El-Erian, Chief Economic Advisor, Allianz   Gillian Tett, Chair of Editorial Board and Editor-at-Large, US, Financial Times  

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Seventy-five years ago, delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco to sign the UN Charter. Initially, the purpose of the United Nations was to maintain peace and security through international cooperation and to essentially prevent another world war.  Today’s UN has 193 member countries and is facing a time of uncertainty and open disdain from US President Donald Trump, who has cut funding to the world body and declared, “The future does not belong to globalists. The future belongs to patriots.” On this week’s episode, we look at the UN’s achievements, its shortcomings and what the future holds for international cooperation with journalist James Traub. Then Ray Suarez talks with former Prime Minister of Canada The Rt. Hon Kim Campbell and former Foreign Minister of Mexico Jorge Castañeda about how the United States is viewed by its neighbors. 

 

Jorge Castañeda, former Foreign Minister of Mexico and author of America Through Foreign Eyes

The Hon Rt. Kim Campbell, Canada's 19th Prime Minister

James Traub,  fellow at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, author of The Best Intentions: Kofi Annan and the UN in the Era of American World Power and regular contributor to Foreign Affairs and the New York Times Magazine

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Some countries are using smartphones and facial recognition to track COVID-19 outbreaks, but here, in the US, we’re starting with simple phone calls. On this week’s episode, we take a closer look at contact tracing in California and what it might look like into the future. We also hear from San Francisco Bay Area activists about the risks of protesting during a pandemic and how to protect yourself and others.

Dr. George Rutherford, Director of Prevention & Public Health at University of California at San Francisco

Melissa Millsaps, Investigator at San Francisco City Attorney's Office

Jon Jocobo, Latino Task Force for COVID-19

Cat Brooks,  Justice Teams Network and co-founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project

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Can we contain COVID-19 without a vaccine? Congress allocated $25 Billion for COVID-19 testing this year, but Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul M. Romer, says  that’s a fraction of what we need. On this week’s podcast, he and epidemiologist Dr. Jonathan Quick join co-host Ray Suarez to talk about what it would take to use testing and tracing to contain the virus safely reopen the US.

Paul M. Romer, Co-recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics and Professor at New York University

Dr. Jonathan Quick, Managing Director, Pandemic Response at The Rockefeller Foundation and author of The End of Pandemics: The Looming Threat to Humanity and How to Stop It

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The outrage of the last two weeks has made it clear that we are at a moment of national reckoning. The Black Lives Matter movement is calling to abolish the police and 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 level. On this week’s episode, 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. 

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Fiona Hill was President Trump’s top Russia advisor on the National Security Council and testified during his impeachment hearings that Russia systematically attacked America’s democratic institutions in 2016. On this episode of the podcast, Hill says Russia is poised to meddle in the 2020 election and she says that America’s divisive politics make us vulnerable to a “hacking of the minds.” 

In an expansive interview with Mina Kim, Hill talks about Vladimir Putin’s plans to hold onto power and how he stokes America’s political divisions to advance his causes.

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The United States presidential election is only months away and intelligence officials warn that the risk of Russian interference in our political system is high. On this week’s episode, Fiona Hill, who was a top Russia advisor under three presidents, talks with KQED’s Mina Kim about how Vladimir Putin uses our internal divisions to his advantage. And co-host Ray Suarez discusses Putin’s rise to power and the nationwide vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow him to rule Russia for another 16 years with Reuters correspondent Catherine Belton. They also discuss her new book, Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West. 

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