The Tallinn University Podcast

The second half of our conversation with Maliheh Keshmiri, an Iranian activist, poet, and Junior Research Fellow at Tallinn University's School of Governance, Law and Society. Recorded the morning Iran's internet came back online after 85 days.

In part two, Mal discusses Iranian perspectives on the United States and Israel, her message to Donald Trump on US-Iran negotiations, the response of the Western left to the war, the experience of the Iranian diaspora during the internet blackout, and her view on what comes next for Iran.

Part one is available in the feed.

Recorded the morning Iran's internet came back online after 85 days of nationwide blackout.

Maliheh Keshmiri, an Iranian activist, poet, and Junior Research Fellow at Tallinn University's School of Governance, Law and Society, returns to the podcast for the third time. In part one, she discusses what she's hearing from contacts inside Iran: a death toll she estimates at over a hundred thousand from the January massacre, the state of the freedom movement, the regime's failure to bury its Supreme Leader since February, and the economic collapse continuing under sanctions and war.

Earlier this season, another conversation with an Iranian activist was withheld at the guest's request, out of concern for her family's safety. We're grateful to Mal for continuing to speak under these conditions.

Part two follows shortly.

From the Tallinn University conference "Legal Education in Europe and Estonia in Light of the Digital Future", we feature TLU Law student Sofia Uksiratsa interviewing Professor Urs Kramer of the University of Passau. They explore the challenges and risks of AI, and discuss its potential in legal education. They also take a closer look at the DeepWrite project led by Professor Kramer.

For a closer look at the conference, you can check it out here: https://onlineexpo.com/en/legal-2026/

We will be back with our regular episodes next week.

What have President Trump and Elon Musk done in ending the USAID Program? “We are now witnessing what the historian Richard Rhodes termed ‘public man-made death,’” - Harvard Professor Atul Gawande, who has put the death toll in the first year of USAID being cut at 600 000, mostly women and children.

A study from The Lancet calculated that USAID had saved 92 million lives at the time it was killed. It was the world's largest aid organization.

Patrick Wilson spent 27 years at USAID, fighting corruption, arranging food aid, and after 2022, rebuilding Ukraine. He joins our host Terry McDonald again today to discuss what the Trump administration - through Elon Musk's DOGE program - has wrought.

The organization Patrick works with now can be found at www.novaukraine.org

The book he mentions is: "Into the Wood Chipper: A Whistleblower's Account of How the Trump Administration Shredded USAID" by Nicholas Enrich

As A.I. takes a bigger role in our lives, both through our own choices and through the choices of governments and corporations, we are faced with dilemmas. Where should we draw the lines? Who should draw them?

A.I. researcher Paula Gürtler joins host Terry McDonald do discuss the wider questions of A.I., and the real world issues like biases in the systems, which company to use, and the Pentagon's crackdown on Anthropic. This is an important and fun conversation about the possibly dismal future of humanity.

Brought to you by the School of Governance, Law, and Society and the Baltic Film, Media, and Arts Institute at Tallinn University. Thanks to our partners at Estonian World Magazine.

Professor Matthew Crandall returns to break down the thinking behind current U.S. foreign policy. Iran, Greenland, relationships with small state allies like Estonia, response to Mark Carney's famous Davos speech, relationship with Israel, and more are covered in this wide ranging and thoughtful conversation with host Terry McDonald.

Visit www.tlu.ee for programs and more. Brought to you in cooperation with Estonian World magazine - https://estonianworld.com/

We're back - and there is so much to catch up on. We're beginning season 4 with some updates on important conversations we began in previous seasons. In this episode, we welcome back Iranian poet and TLU Research Assistant Mal Keshmiri to open up about the massive protests and brutal crackdowns rocking Iran this month. As mentioned in the episode, you can follow Mal's organization here https://www.facebook.com/isoestonia/ .

This is an emotional conversation that gives important context and understanding to this issue and the world today. After so long on pause, we're grateful to be back with such an important conversation.

The Tallinn University Podcast is brought to you by the Tallinn University School of Governance, Law, and Society ( https://www.tlu.ee/en/yti ) and the Baltic Film and Media School ( https://www.tlu.ee/en/bfm ) , is produced by Tanel Kadalipp, and and is written and hosted by Terry McDonald.

After a two year sick leave, we just wan to say that it's good to be back, and thank you for sticking with us.

In our annual Pride episode, comedian and TLU alumni Jana Levitina joins our host Terry McDonald to discuss the role humour plays in activism. Jana has co-founded a FLINTA (female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, trans, agender) comedy club in Estonia, and in this episode enlightens Terry on the importance of political humour, how is feminism related to LGBTQ+ rights, and the ongoing importance of Pride in 2023.

For more info on Baltic Pride:

https://www.balticpride.ee/

Jana is also an editor at Feministeerium:

https://feministeerium.ee/

Thank you for 3 great seasons - see you in season 4!

The reconstruction of Ukraine is going to be one of the biggest international development projects in history. Many partners - governments, NGOs, and in the private sector - will have a role to play. 

As in the war itself, the US government will have a leading role in these efforts. As the development arm of the US government, USAid will likely be at the helm. In this episode of the Tallinn University Podcast, Patrick J. Wilson - Senior Advisor on Ukraine Recovery and Reconstruction for USAid, joins our host Terry McDonald in a unique episode format. 

As Terry is a Lecturer of International Relations in Tallinn University, this conversation takes place in Terry’s Global Development course lecture. Mr. Wilson joined Terry’s class via Zoom from Washington, taking questions from Terry and then from the students of the class. 

In the conversation, they first discuss the lessons learned since the Marshall Plan and through 70 years of success and failure in global development projects. Then, the topic moves to the reconstruction of Ukraine - the hopes, the challenges, who should bear the cost and how they will pay it, and what a potential US administration change might mean for the effort. 

As this was a ‘live’  episode, the usual studio perfection audio quality is not quite there - nonetheless, the opportunity to have one of the architects of Ukraine’s reconstruction in conversation makes the episode a must-listen.

In our annual Green Month episode, our host Terry McDonald speaks with Dr. Bianka Plüschke-Altof,  a Senior researcher in Environmental Sociology at Tallinn University. They discuss Green Cities, whether or not Tallinn deserves this award, and Bianka's book Whose Green City? Contested Urban Green Spaces and Environmental Justice in Northern Europe.

You can purchase the book here, or check it out your local library. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-04636-0