Overview:

The U.S. exit from Afghanistan in August 2021 resulted in the Taliban regaining control of the country and creating a refugee crisis as many Afghans fled. It also led to a significant economic contraction, increasing food insecurity and widespread deprivation. At the same time, at the end of 2022, the Taliban regime ordered all non-governmental groups to suspend employing women, worsening hunger and further lowering Afghanistan’s growth prospects.

On Feb. 9, 2023, Pulte Institute Inaugural Director Ray Offenheiser spoke with Aref Dostyar on what day-to-day life is like for families in Afghanistan. Dostyar is a scholar in residence at the University of Notre Dame Keough School’s Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, where he leads the Afghan program for peace and development. Before the fall of the democratic government, Dostyar served as the Consul General of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Los Angeles and as Director for Afghanistan at the National Security Council.

We have watched helplessly in horror as bombs rain down on residential neighborhoods across Ukraine, its citizens huddle in subway stations and millions flee toward the Polish border. War is hell wherever it is fought and no matter how large or small the weapons.

With a focus on the public health consequences, both the immediate and long term of all we are witnessing, Ray interviews Dr. Barry Levy who, for many years, has studied the health impacts of war. Dr. Levy is a physician and epidemiologist. He is an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine. He previously worked as an epidemiologist at the CDC, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and a director of programs and projects in international health. He is a past president of the American Public Health Association. Learn more about this topic and Dr. Levy's work in his new book From Horror to Hope: Recognizing and Preventing the Health Impacts of War (Oxford University Press).

Dr. Peter Sterling has devoted his life to social activism and science and is devoting the latter part of this career to championing a radically new vision of what is health. Sterling is a distinguished professor of neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania whose book Principles of Neural Design is one of the definitive texts in that field. His research has focused heavily on the micro-neural pathways from the retina to the brain. However, Dr. Sterling has been a social activist throughout his career.

As a twenty-year-old Cornell student, he left his studies to head to Mississippi in the summer of 1961 as a Freedom Rider where he was arrested and jailed. That experience shaped his life and over the subsequent decades he has sought ways his work in science might shed light on the “impacts of racism on the African American community in the US”. His recently published book—What is Health?: Allostasis and the Evolution of Human Design is the culmination of years of reading and research and his effort to answer this question. This conversation focuses on his life and work and the major arguments of his latest book.

Dr. Susanne E. Jalbert is a gender equity advocate, economic development activist, and a women’s rights political strategist who currently serves as a director in Chemonics’ Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan region, and previously served as chief of party on the USAID Promote: Women in Government project. Jalbert offers her own perspective on the tumultuous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the terror Afghan refugees — particularly women — are currently facing. This episode also features Sima, an Afghan refugee who recently arrived in the U.S. with her two sisters. She will share the story of her journey with us.

To help empower the women of Afghanistan to evacuate to safer situations, please consider donating to the Friends of Afghan Women in Government fundraiser on GoFundMe.

Jim Ansara is the co-founder and managing director of Build Health International (BHI), whose mission is to design, build and equip high-quality health infrastructure for the most marginalized populations in under-resourced settings, while also promoting international philanthropy and development. In this episode, Jim discusses the past, present, and future of BHI as well as the unique challenges and rewards of relief response. 

To learn more and support the work BHI is doing to ensure critical health infrastructure is accessible to patients in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti, visit buildhealthinternational.org.

Paul O’Brien, the recently-appointed Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, discusses his new book entitled, Power Switch: How We Can Reverse Extreme Inequality and poses the following provocative question:

Is it actually possible—that we might emerge from this pandemic with a peaceful global power switch from those who have too much to those who don't have enough? 

Steven Feldstein is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program where he focuses on issues of technology and democracy, human rights, U.S. foreign policy, and Africa.

Feldstein discusses his new book entitled, The Rise of Digital Repression, where he documents how the emergence of advanced digital tools brings new dimensions to political repression. Presenting new field research from Thailand, the Philippines, and Ethiopia, he investigates the goals, motivations, and drivers of these digital tactics. More of Feldstein's recent publications include: How the Dictator’s Digital Dilemma Constrains Leaders’ Choices and Democracy Dies in Disinformation. 

Here we are one year into this pandemic and finally, we are beginning to see the effect of mass vaccinations knocking back the numbers of new infections here in the US. A weary public is just beginning to believe that it may be possible to return to some semblance of normalcy by sometime this fall. As the numbers of the vaccinated increases, there is a palpable sense of relief and hope that has returned to everyday conversations. 

Dr. Paul Perrin is the director of monitoring and evaluation at the Pulte Institute for Global Development within the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. In this episode, Dr. Perrin discusses the psychological effects of global pandemics both short-term and long-term, and the hope he has found as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Judy Samuelson, vice president, founder, and executive director of the Business and Society Program at the Aspen Institute, led pioneering work on impact investing with the Ford Foundation for over a decade. After doing so, Judy became possessed with a simple question: Why doesn’t anyone at the Ford Foundation talk about business? Is it possible to enlist business as a partner and collaborator in our work? Judy discusses these questions as well as her new book, The Six New Rules of Business: Creating Real Value in a Changing World. For more information on this topic, visit aspenbsp.org and judysamuelson.com.

The first Forum on China and Africa Cooperation Summit (FOCAC) were held in Beijing from November 3 to 5, 2006. This was a grand affair; however, much has happened since this major event. This episode discusses the Chinese presence and ambitions in Africa today.

Dr. Joshua Eisenman is an Associate Professor of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs. His research focuses on the political economy of China’s development and its foreign relations with the United States and the developing world – particularly Africa. He is the author of several books, two of which are forthcoming on China in Africa.