The World and Me

Paul McCabe returns to press Sara Stevenson on North Korea's decision to send thousands of soldiers to Russia. Could this be a crack to the closed regime? 

Sara has been studying this war and has focused on this particular aspect which examines how and why North Korean soldiers are fighting for Russia and what the significance of this could be. Sara and Paul also discuss what life is like in North Korea and how the regime functions.

Some sources to check out:

Chatham House - www.chathamhouse.org - 'North Korea and Russia's dangerous partnership.' 2024.

Chatham House - www.chathamhouse.org - 2026 - Russia preparing to receive as many as 30,000 new North Korean.

Benzinga Newswires, 2024. Southfield: Accretive Capital. ‘North Korean Soldiers transported by ships to Port Vladiovstok’.  (Details NK troops being transported by ship from the Wonsan region of North Korea to Vladiovstok and then transported to multiple training sites in eastern Russia, fighting in Kursk Oblast).

Carlough, Molly, 2025, ‘The Meaning and Significance of North Korean Troops Deployment to Russia. How North Korea Has Bolstered Russia’s War in Ukraine.’ RUSI Report.

CE Noticias Financieras, English ed, Miami, 10 Dec 2024, ‘US Reveals that North Korea exchanges soldiers for Russian fighter jets for war against Ukraine.’ 

 CE Noticias Financieras, ‘North Korean soldiers thought they would face South Korean forces in the Ukraine war’. (Disinformation adding to cognivite dissonance for their insurgency mobilisation).

Park, Sokeel J. Dec 17th 2019, ‘Songbun/Social Class In A Socialist Paradise’. Liberty In North Korea. (The elite ‘Core’ class given most privileges with jobs, education etc, the top 28% per cent of the population amongst three classes).

Sojin, Lim, 2023, ‘International Aid and Sustainable Development in North Korea: A Country Left Behind with Cloaked Society. Oxford: Taylor and Francis. (Details some marketisation reforms within NK due to the 1990s famine but limited by NK’s information control. The regime has survived due to cyber warfare such as obtaining cryptocurrency as well as reliance on China to bypass some sanctions).

Paul McCabe, a former colleague of Sara's, joins The World and Me in today's episode. This is so that he can engage questions with Sara around what it's like to study war, whether wars of choice are moral, to reflect on current wars as well as the rise of Christian nationalism.

War is an applied ethical issue and the various problems that are entangled within current conflicts are most relevant for our Series 1 question addressing human moral values.

Cancel Culture conversation with Clare Williams Sarpong. You will find Clare on Instagram as a digital creator with realquestionsuk. 

There are many nuances to this conversation. We take justice seriously, as well as exploring the complications about living in a cancel culture age, particularly with the rise of social media.

Sara Stevenson explores a range of thoughts from Jonathan Haidt, Chesterton, C.S.Lewis, CBT and The Hobbit to think about how we start changing the label that we have in being, 'The Anxious Generation'. How do we change the story?
The events of Easter are significant in conquering our deepest fear, and that is the catalyst for living one moment at a time in God's strength. Long term changes come when we make repeated decisions to trust God one moment at a time. Both rationality and spiritual practices with God are necessary for spiritual healing.

Manuela Maher joins Sara Stevenson online from Cairo! Manuela works within a university context and is trained in apologetics through @OCCA, The Oxford Center for Christian Apologetics where Sara and Manuela met. Manuela shares some thoughts on how to stick to your moral principles within the workplace. Manuela and Sara discuss examples of how we apply our faith in the public square.

Last week, Sara Stevenson outlined a cumulative case from moral evidence to believe in the existence of God. This drew upon both logical evidence as well as experiential evidence that Christianity provides a path for moral transformation. In this podcast, Dan Lacich chats to Sara about how to navigate shame, moral regrets and forgiveness and outlines what we should expect with moral transformation if we become a Christian.

Tara Van Der Vliet hosts Sara Stevenson in a conversation examining the moral evidence for God. Sara explains how an abductive approach, or Sherlock Holmes style investigation, is the most explanatory for why God makes sense of objective moral facts as well as many aspects of human experience and what it is to be moral.

In this episode, Tara Van Der Vliet outlines some of her experience as a Pharmacist who is now working in Global Health. Sara Stevenson and Tara Van Der Vliet outline their ambition to see Christian apologetics bridge effectively to practical care as well as stories and lived experience. Sara and Tara push into some examples of how this might happen and share their hopes for The World and Me to begin exploring holistic apologetics. 

In the final part of an intriguing interview with Dr Benjamin Levi Moses, Benji shares a variety of reasons for believing in objective Christian morality. He discusses the work of the United Nations and its founding principles. Benji also makes the point that the necessity of objective morality becomes clear when you are faced with multiple pressures. God provides the authority for advancing human rights and the strength to keep going when you are faced with ongoing challenges.

This episode tells the story of 'Global Leadership Geneva Bern', a story that we explored in our documentary (the first video on our YouTube channel). In this interview, Dr Benjamin Levi Moses explains how this charity serves the diplomats and ambassadors of the UN with a Christian ethos. Their incredible lived experiences provide a practical example of how the Christian worldview makes sense of our moral decision making (speaking into our series 1 question!).