"Wake" with Luke Vargas

U.S. stock market keep on hitting record highs. New technology promises to make us more connected, as medical breakthroughs raise hopes of better, longer lives.

And yet by most accounts global wealth is as concentrated as ever. the psychological downsides of technology get more press than their benefits and expensive new drugs offer cures only if you can afford them. Something isn't working.

This week on Wake we're looking at the promise and the limitations of 'impact investing, a new way to steer global capital toward social good.

This week's expert panel features:

• Morgan Simon, author of the new book, "Real Impact: The New Economics of Social Change."

• Michael Jacobs, director of the Commission on Economic Justice at the Institute for Public Policy Research in the United Kingdom.

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded October 18, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the U.N. General Assembly last month he said Israel's global standing has never been higher:

"After 70 years, the world is embracing Israel, and Israel is embracing the world."

Netanyahu said relations with the US are at new highs, and that in the past year he'd visited six continents to improve Israel's diplomatic ties. Relations with Egypt are on the mend, and there's even talk of secret diplomatic channels opening with Saudi Arabia.

This week on Wake we're looking at the state of Israel's foreign relations and exploring the true impact of what some have called Netanyahu's global "charm offensive."

This week's expert panel features:

• Chuck Freilich, former Israeli deputy national security advisor and senior fellow at Harvard University's Belfer Center.

• Ben Caspit, columnist and author of the new book, "The Netanyahu Years,"

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded October 12, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

Earlier this month, Facebook said it was handing over information about suspicious advertising purchases made on its network by Russian companies and individuals. The disclosure raises questions about whether the world's largest social networks were used to influence the 2016 election.

This week on "Wake" we're going on a world tour of internet regulation, looking at how countries, including ours, are trying to balance competing interests of national security, privacy and free speech. Is such a balance even possible when internet and information companies like Facebook wield so much power?

To help us answer that question are:

• Natasha Tusikov, Assistant Professor at York University and author of "Chokepoints: Global Private Regulation on the Internet"

• Alan McQuinn, research analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded September 29, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

From Hurricanes Irma to Jose to Maria, an active atlantic storm season has ravaged wide swaths of the Caribbean.

The storms themselves receive wall-to-wall media coverage, but when they pass, the story of reconstruction quickly drops from the front page, and post-storm assessments become the stuff of academics and city planners, not the public at large.

And yet, climate scientists tell us the storms will get worse. Should we be using natural disasters as an entry point into a discussion about climate change and adaptation?

To help us answer those questions are:

• Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda

• Rachel Cleetus, lead economist and climate policy manager at the Union of Concerned Scientists

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded September 22, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

In recent weeks, a military campaign by Myanmar's Buddhist government in a remote corner of the country has displaced at least 400,000 people, most of them Rohingya Muslims.

International observers are banned from visiting conflict areas, but there are reports of mass killings, perhaps an ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

What's happening in Myanmar, and what can and should the international community do to intervene?

To help us answer those questions are:

• Pierre Peron, spokesperson for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Myanmar

• Cindy Huang, senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded September 15, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

It might seem unthinkable, but history suggests war between rising and ruling powers is far from unusual. What does that mean for the U.S. and China?

When the Iranian nuclear deal was signed two years ago in the summer of 2015, President Obama hailed the deal as preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, as a victory for multilateral diplomacy.

The deal is technically still in effect, but it's under siege by President Trump, who's eager to find evidence of Iranian non-compliance.

Will the Iran deal survive President Trump? What happens to the U.S., to Iran if the deal implodes?

To help us answer those questions are:

• Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council and author of "Losing an Enemy: Obama, Iran and the Triumph of Diplomacy."

• Suzanne Maloney, deputy director of the foreign policy program at the Brookings Institution.

• Kelsey Davenport, director of nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded August 4, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

Read, watch or listen to the news and you're likely hear about a sanctions threat. With military action often too costly or politically unpopular, the sanction looms as the tool of choice to respond to events in North Korea, Iran, Russia or Venezuela.

So how did we get here? Why are American policymakers so in love with the sanction? What questions should the public be asking to understand the effect these sanctions have on US foreign policy?

To help us answer those questions are:

• Richard Nephew, research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy and former State Department Deputy Coordinator for Sanctions Policy.

• Jonathan Kirshner, professor of International Political Economy at Cornell University, and author of "American Power After the Financial Crisis."

• Zachary Selden, professor at the University of Florida and former international affairs analyst at the Congressional Budget Office.

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded August 4, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

The Iraqi city of Mosul has been liberated from Islamic State control. Iraq's Prime Minister walked through the rubble of the city streets and declared victory. But what's next? Could another terror group spring up in the Islamic State's place?

Will Iraq's Kurds be rewarded for their gallantry on the battlefield? Can Iraq's government ever represent a country rife with sectarian division? And where does the U.S. fit in?

To help us answer those questions are:

• Daniel Serwer, academic director of conflict management at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies

• Celeste Ward Gventer, defense consultant and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for stability operations capabilities

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded July 29, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.

This month, 122 nations finished work on a nuclear weapons ban treaty. The goal, to rid the planet of nuclear weapons. The Cold War is over, but states with nuclear weapons remain very attached to their 15,000 warheads.

Is it time to do away with those weapons or at least rethink nuclear weapons policy? Is the new global treaty the right way to pursue denuclearization?

To help us answer those questions are:

• Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

• Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation

• Matthew Bunn, professor of practice at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and co-principal investigator at the Project on Managing the Atom

If you enjoy this discussion, please follow us on Twitter @WakeOnAir. To share feedback with us, send us an email to [email protected].

Recorded July 19, 2017.

Hosted by Luke Vargas.