In this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast, from UN News, we hear from independent UN human rights expert, Tendayi Achiume, who warns that apart from the coronavirus that’s destroying so many lives and transforming societies around the world, a virulent xenophobia and tide of racial hatred has also been unleashed, aided by what she calls “entrepreneurs of intolerance”.

Music credit: Ketsa: “Within the Earth”, and “Awaiting Her Return”

Yuriko was just a 12 year-old growing up in Hiroshima, when the devastating mushroom cloud enveloped the city in the morning of 6 August 1945.

Kathleen Burkinshaw’s novel The Last Cherry Blossom, tells Yuriko’s extraordinary survival story, a journey inspired by the life of the author’s mother, laying bare the importance of nuclear disarmament.

For this edition of our podcast show, The Lid is On, Ana Carmo spoke to Ms. Burkinshaw when she came to talk about the book, at the UN Bookshop in New York last year.

Music Credit: Hiroshima by Pierce Murphy. 

Audio Credit: 1945: Year of Decision, United Nations. 

For their first podcast of 2020, our UNcomplicated hosts, Sinduja Srinivasan and Jason DeWall, celebrate a milestone year for the UN, as it turns 75.

They’ve been talking to Fabrizio Hochschild, who’s leading the world body’s birthday mission, to listen to the concerns of a new generation of global citizens, and keep the UN relevant in the decades ahead.

Music credits: 'The Veil', by the band Signal and Report, written by Chris Hall and Noah Miller; plus their track, 'Abbey Minor'

A photography project to document the ‘humanity, and quiet dignity’ of workers in the United States has been launched by the UN’s specialized agency, the International Labour Organization (ILO). 

The aim of the project, which comes as ILO celebrates its 100th birthday, is to look at the working lives of Americans across the country and listen to their hopes and fears for the future. 

For this edition of our flagship podcast show, The Lid is On, Daniel Dickinson joined ILO on the road as it reached the southern US state of Louisiana.   

Music credit: Audiobinger, Rise and Shine 

A group of survivors devastated by terrorism in the Lake Chad region of Africa, are taking small steps towards building new lives and livelihoods.

In Cameroon alone, there are some 250,000 internally displaced people and around 100,000 refugees, forced to flee their homes due to a brutal insurgency which was originally led by Boko Haram – it’s now splintered into a number of different extremist Islamist armed groups.

In this West African country, men and women have been taught to produce artisanal goods for sale as a means to boost their meagre incomes. Meanwhile, young people are learning about the dangers of joining radical groups.

In this special edition of our Lid is On Podcast, Daniel Dickinson reports from Maroua in the Far North region of the country.

Music credit: Ketsa, Sad Moments

Ahead of the UN’s Climate Action Summiton 23 September, the Secretary-General urged Member States to come with“concrete” solutions to the climate crisis, not just speeches. 

On Monday, some Member States rose to that challenge. Kicking off the 74th General Assembly session at UN headquarters in New York, delegates presented long-term strategies to achieve carbon neutrality throughout the day-long Summit, aspringboard for action on climate solutions.  

In this special Climate  Summit edition of our flagship Lid is On podcast, participants explained just how they plan on doing their part, owning the pledge to curb carbon emissions as outlined in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord.

Music credit: Audiobinger, China Town

What are the UN’s top priorities, and can countries make more progress towards lasting peace, prosperity, and essential climate action?

UN Secretary-General António Guterres is urging the nations that make up the 74th General Assembly to provide “concrete answers” to the big challenges of our time.

In this exclusive UN News interview, Melissa Fleming, new head of Global Communications here at the UN, talks to António Guterres for our Lid Is On podcast, about the power of effective international cooperation, on the road to 2030.

Music Credit: Stage 1 Level 24 by Montplaisir.

Survivors of terrorist atrocities in the Lake Chad region of Africa have been telling UN News about how they have been able to overcome the horror of kidnapping and being forced to watch their own close family members being executed.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and many thousands killed across the region over the past decade or so, as a result of a terrorist insurgency which continues to this day.

For this special edition of our Lid Is On podcast, Daniel Dickinson travelled to the north-east of Cameroon to meet two survivors of terrorism who are trying to rebuild their lives following the unspeakable acts committed against them and their families.

Who wants the death of the UN?

This provocative question is the title – translated into English from Qui veut la mort de l’ONU?  in French – of a new book by Romuald Sciora and Anne-Cécile Robert, two French journalists and experts in international affairs.

In it, they argue that the United Nations is often unfairly held responsible for a lot of the ailments of the world: war, famine, health and environmental crises…

For this new edition of The Lid Is On podcast, Yasmina Guerda spoke to them while they were visiting UN Headquarters in New York, about what, in their view, needs to happen to safeguard the Organization’s future.

Music credit: Massive Attack, by Podington Bear.

We’ve never had it so good – that’s the data-driven message delivered at UN Headquarters this month, by one of the world’s foremost public intellectuals, Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker.

He was delivering the Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) Inaugural Presidential Lecture, with the journalistically counter-intuitive declaration, that humankind is more peaceful, prosperous, healthy and free, than ever before.

For this latest UN News Lid Is On podcast, Matt Wells caught up with Professor Pinker who explained why the Sustainable Development Goals are one of the most “glorious, noble, thrilling” achievements of all time.

Music credit: Audiobinger, Rise and Shine.