Roughly four hundred million people in India use the encrypted messaging platform WhatsApp. Now, the country’s ruling party is trying to force WhatsApp to let the government trace and censor messages. The outcome could change digital freedoms in the world’s largest democracy, and could have strong implications for the future of privacy everywhere.

Featured Guests: 

Seema Mody (Global Markets Reporter, CNBC) 

Vindu Goel (Technology and Business Reporter, New York Times) 

Chinmayi Arun (Resident Fellow, Yale University)

For more information on this episode, visit us at cfr.org/podcasts/whatsapp-india

What’s the true cost of cheap clothes? Fast fashion has become a multibillion-dollar industry in recent decades, reshaping the world’s shopping habits. But the industry’s low prices disguise a staggering environmental cost.

Featured Guests: 

Elizabeth Segran (Senior Staff Writer, Fast Company) 

Linda Greer (Senior Global Fellow, Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs Beijing China) 

Amber Valletta (Activist, and founder, Master & Muse)

For more information on this episode, visit us at cfr.org/podcasts/wearing-world-out

Is the coronavirus a zero-sum game in which we must choose between saving lives and saving the economy? In this episode, we sit down with two experts to find out.

Now more than ever, it’s clear that global problems can become local in a flash. In season two, Why It Matters dives into a new set of challenges that will shape our lives in the years to come.

The worldwide spread of the new coronavirus has pulled back the curtain on the vulnerabilities of our interconnected world. Now we are left asking some basic questions. What lessons have we learned so far? 

Guests: 

Sylvia Burwell, former United States Secretary of Health and Human Services 

Tom Frieden, former Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

Rana Foroohar, Global Business Columnist and Associate Editor, Financial Times 

Shannon O’Neil, Senior Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations 

You’re making the rounds at a party when someone asks you about NATO. Is it still important? The alliance is credited with preventing a third world war, but a lot of us don’t know what it is or how it works. This episode takes a look at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from the ground up, paired best with a cold drink.

As climate change accelerates, some scientists are researching ways to alter our climate to slow down warming. But the method, called solar geoengineering, comes with some serious risks. 

Guests 

David Keith (Harvard University)

Shuchi Talati (Union of Concerned Scientists)

Gernot Wagner (New York University)

Show Notes

The aftershocks of Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election are still being felt today. Is the United States ready for 2020?

Militaries around the world are designing artificial intelligence–powered weapons that could one day make their own decisions about who to target. The technology could change warfare, but at what cost?

At the start of the new year, the Why It Matters team takes a look at some of the best interview segments that didn’t make it into the episodes.