Winter is Here

Next to the word ‘Relentless’ in the dictionary should be Masih Alinejad’s picture – the Iranian woman who has championed daring campaigns and protests against oppression of women by the Islamic republic of Iran. As a young girl, Masih refused to accept that it is illegal for women to ride bikes, sing in public or swim in the river. One day her mother taught her something that changed not just her life but that of women in Iran and around the world. Masih and i share the moments that have broken her heart and the ones that have given her the passion to keep going. You wont regret listening to her.

A quick note that our regular Winter Is Here podcast with Garry Kasparov and Uriel Epshtein will resume next week.

In this week’s episode of Winter is Here, Bill Kristol joins Garry Kasparov and Uriel Epshtein to discuss how Putin’s war in Ukraine, Trump’s impeachment, and the January 6th hearings are connected and what we can do to get people to care about defending freedom domestically and internationally. 

Bill Kristol served as Chief of Staff for Vice President Dan Quayle and led the Project for the Republican Future, where he helped shaped the strategy that produced the 1994 Republican Congressional victory. In 1995 he founded The Weekly Standard, which became one of the foremost magazines in conservative intellectual thought. He is the founder of Defending Democracy Together.

If you remember the Rwandan genocide of 1994, you will want to listen to this awe inspiring conversation. I talk with Carine Kanimba, the daughter of Paul Rusesabagina, the Hotel Rwanda hero who saved thousands of people by hiding them in the hotel where he worked. Bizarrely, Rusesabagina is today tortured and unjustly imprisoned in Rwanda. Carine and her family have launched a spirited campaign to free their father.

A QUICK NOTE FOR OUR LISTENERS - We will be releasing this podcast every Monday beginning on Monday 20th June. Thank you for subscribing.

We’re excited to launch Frontlines of Freedom, RDI’s newest podcast, hosted by Pastor Evan Mawarire, our Director of Education.

Pastor Evan Mawarire is a Zimbabwean democracy activist who led the This Flag protest movement, mobilizing millions and ultimately contributing to the fall of Robert Mugabe’s regime. Mawarire survived imprisonment and torture at the hands of the dictatorship, and was forced to flee Zimbabwe. Now located in the US, Mawarire will bring on a new guest each week to talk about their experiences leading a struggle for freedom against an autocratic government. 

Through guests’ real-life encounters, the conversations accentuate themes of hope, courage, resilience, strength, and the resolve of everyday people who believe that they have the power to overcome oppression. It is a first-of-its-kind show hosted by a political dissident and welcoming on other political dissidents as guests.

For this first episode, Mawarire speaks with Nigerian musician and activist Catherine Udeh, also known as DJ Switch. DJ Switch was involved in the End SARS protest movement, a campaign to have the Nigerian government dissolve the Special Anti-Robbery Squad which is notorious for its brutality and disregard for the law. During a protest in October of 2020, Nigerian soldiers opened fire on protesters by the Lekki toll gate in Lagos, killing more than a dozen people. Rather than flee, DJ Switch live streamed the aftermath of the shooting, providing critical evidence of the government’s involvement as it denied culpability. Afterward, she was targeted by the government and threatened for whistleblowing.

In their conversation, Mawarire and DJ Switch discuss the value of building and living in a free society and the responsibility we each have to protect it.

Before beginning to describe this week’s episode, I’d like to announce that the Winter is Here podcast and James’ Democracy brief will go on a 2-week hiatus from May 23rd until June 6th as we will be joining my co-host Garry for the Oslo Freedom Forum in Norway and other promising meetings in Europe. However, while we’re gone, you can listen to RDI’s Director of Education, Pastor Evan Mawarire, in his Frontlines of Freedom podcast. Where Winter is Here is more of an analysis of different strategies in the global war between tyranny & democracy, Evan’s podcast is more about individual stories of inspiration and resilience. He’ll be speaking with dissidents who have found the courage to overcome incredible hardship in a way that should offer us hope for our own lives – whether we’re fighting for justice or just fighting to put food on the table. While we are still tinkering with our release schedule, for the next two weeks, Evan’s podcast will be released on Fridays.

Now, on to our main event… Ruth Ben-Ghiat is the Professor of History and Italian Studies at New York University. She is an MSNBC Opinion Columnist and commentator on CNN, MSNBC, and other media outlets about authoritarianism and threats to democracy around the world.

Her latest book, Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present examines how illiberal leaders use corruption, violence, propaganda, and machismo to stay in power, and how resistance to them has unfolded over a century.

She joined me to discuss how anti-globalist populists are frequently the most globalist leaders of all, how we can prevent dirty money from corrupting the free world, and why tyrants like Putin actually need to be humiliated in order to be stopped.

Bret Stephens is a New York columnist. He won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary at The Wall Street Journal in 2013, was previously editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post, and is known for his sharp, contrarian takes. He is the author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder" (2014).

He joins Uriel to offer his take on why the Free World is actually in a strong position to reverse the tide of authoritarianism, why democratic pessimism might be a good thing, and how to make sure that self-reflection doesn’t become self-flagellation.

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Timothy Snyder is a professor of history at Yale University and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna. One of the most prominent historians of Eastern Europe, he speaks five and reads ten European languages. His many books, including Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (2010), On Tyranny (2017), and The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America (2018) are highly influential in Eastern European history and understanding our democratic crisis.

He joins Uriel and Garry to discuss the historical trends that led to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, why history is NOT destiny, and the role that history (or mythology) can play in our decision-making.

Laure Mandeville is a senior reporter at the center-right Le Figaro, the largest national French newspaper where she hosts a weekly page on intellectual debates around the world and has served as the bureau chief in Moscow and Washington. She is also the founder of the Tocqueville Conversations on the future of democracy and has recently published a new book – Les révoltés d’occident – The insurgents of the West from Trump to Zemmour.

She joins RDI’s Executive Director Uriel Epshtein to discuss what France’s presidential election & the preceding campaign entails for its role in the world moving forward, how Putin’s war against Ukraine changed the dynamics of the race, and how the French view Americans (hint: not always so well). Join us for a fascinating conversation and subscribe at www.rdi.org or by clicking the button below.

Tom Tugendhat is a member of the British Parliament and the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. He is also a Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial army and has served in Iraq and Afghanistan in addition to having been the principal advisor to the Chief of the Defense Staff (IE: the Professional Head of the British Armed Services).

Listen to Tom, Garry Kasparov, and Uriel Epshtein discuss how the war in Ukraine is evolving, what countries are supporting Russia, what victory could look like, and how we can achieve it.

Thanks for listening to Winter is Here! Subscribe today.

Pastor Evan Mawarire is the founder of the #ThisFlag Citizen Movement in Zimbabwe, which brought millions of people onto the streets to confront corruption, injustice, and poverty, and was ultimately instrumental in unseating Robert Mugabe. In 2016, Evan was named the African of the year by the Daily Maverick newspaper of South Africa and one of the 100 top global thinkers of 2016 by Foreign Policy Magazine. Unfortunately, since then, Evan has had to leave Zimbabwe for his own safety, but has served as a fellow at Stanford’s Centre for Democracy Development & Rule of Law and was a 2020 Yale university World Fellow. Currently he is a fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy and RDI’s inaugural Director of Education.

Join us as we discuss how to maintain resilience in the face of overwhelming odds, what dissidents can teach those of us in the Free World about democracy, and how we can unite to combat the forces of authoritarianism worldwide.