The World Unpacked

There’s a lot to learn from the lobster. Its transformation from disdained prison food to fine-dining delicacy reveals how culture shapes our palate and how people could start to get a taste for food that does less damage to the planet than a bacon cheeseburger. In Episode 5, we look to the future of alternative proteins—from bean burgers to lab-grown nuggets—and ask what it would look like to live in a world less centered on traditional meat production.

The soybean is more than just a humble legume—it’s a major geopolitical player that feeds the international meat market, shapes trade wars, and transforms economies. In Episode 4, we tell the story of how the soybeans that feed pigs around the world have shaped the geopolitical behavior of what some call “the Meat Triangle”: the United States, Brazil, and China.

What is cattle laundering—and how are big meat companies involved with it? Episode 3 explores the phenomenon of the smuggling and sale of illegal cattle throughout the Amazon and tells the story of how the meat industry uses its power to undermine climate goals.

Tractors blocking government buildings. Manure piled on highways. The birth of a populist political party. In the Netherlands, government regulations on agriculture’s nitrogen emissions have sparked backlash from Dutch farmers. In Episode 2 of Barbecue Earth, we tell the story of this quarrel. It holds lessons for all countries, in Europe and beyond, that are facing rising agricultural populism as they begin to implement stricter environmental regulations on farming.

In the United States, agriculture plays by a different set of rules than other sectors. With its lax child labor laws and lack of environmental restrictions, the American farming industry operates in a uniquely under-regulated environment. Why? Episode 1 of Barbecue Earth explores the history of agricultural exceptionalism and how it impacts North Carolina residents living close to factory farms.

The third episode, "Trouble in the Blue House," dissects the corruption scandal often called "South Korea's Watergate." When former President Park Geun-hye was first elected in 2013, she held widespread conservative support and was internationally celebrated as the country's first female president. No one could have predicted that just 5 years later, she would end up embroiled in a corruption case that would leave her disgraced, impeached, and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Although not without its controversy, Park Geun-hye's impeachment shows how anti-corruption movements can pursue accountability and reform while protecting democratic norms. 

The second episode, "Seeing the Monster," explores what some call the biggest corruption scandal in history—Brazil's Lava Jato scandal. The story begins at a small gas station in southern Brazil, where a single arrest for bribery in 2013 unleashed a domino effect that would topple hundreds of business executives, imprison a former head of state, and impeach the sitting president. The aftermath of the scandal shows how important it is for anti-corruption movements to not only expose corruption, but also to provide constructive ways to address it. 

What is corruption in democracies? How has it changed over time? And, in what forms does it emerge in our society today? Episode 1, 'If Men Were Angels, We Wouldn't Need Government,' answers these questions through the lens of case studies in the United States, including the political scandal of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have eroded controls on influence-peddling, and other frequent tools used by leaders and groups to receive preferential treatment in the U.S. system of government.  

The global hunger crisis has reached unprecedented levels. Violent conflict, economic shocks from the war in Ukraine, and accelerating climate change have exacerbated food shortages in many parts of the world. According to the World Food Program, 828 million people—one in ten people on Earth—are unsure of where their next meal is coming from. More than 345 million face extreme food insecurity, a figure that is more than double the number in 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

CARE USA President and CEO Michelle Nunn joins Stewart on the show to discuss the many facets of the global hunger crisis and assess how NGOs and policymakers alike can best address food shortages worldwide. 

Since President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States and its allies have imposed tough global sanctions against Russia. Numerous sectors, individuals, and entities have been targeted for helping Russia’s war efforts. But despite these aims, the Kremlin has been successful in finding ways to evade these sanctions. 

Joining the show to assess Russia’s sanction-evading strategies and how to counter them is Jodi Vittori, a nonresident scholar in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment, as well as the co-chair of the Global Politics and Security program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She's a leading expert on corruption, state fragility, illicit finance, and U.S. national security. Prior to joining Carnegie, she served in the U.S. Air Force, where she advanced to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was assigned to NATO’s only counter-corruption task force.