WorldNow ™ with Jim Falk

Jim Falk talks with British journalist and author Antonia Senior about her new book, Stalin's Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire. Drawing on newly declassified documents from Britain and Eastern Europe, Senior offers a fresh assessment of one of the most damaging espionage networks of the twentieth century.

Why are fewer women seeking political leadership today? In this episode, recorded on June 1 for KSFR's The Forum Plus, Linda Robinson and I discuss the growing threats, harassment, and intimidation that are driving many women away from public service both in the United States and around the world. Linda's latest book is Women in Power: Fighting for Democracy in an Age of Authoritarianism. 

As threats, harassment, and intimidation increasingly target women leaders, and often their families, many are deciding that the personal cost of public service is simply too high. Robinson explores how attacks on democracy and gender equality frequently go hand in hand, particularly under authoritarian movements. Drawing on her extensive interviews with women who have led their countries' defense against authoritarianism, she describes similarities among these inspiring leaders.

Tina Young, after retiring as a Navy Captain, continued her public service with NATO and then later with the American Battle Monuments Commission. From July 2010 to March 2021, she was Director of Cemetery Operations where she was responsible for the management and oversight of all of ABMC overseas monuments and cemeteries. This interview was recorded at the KSFR studios on May 21 for The Forum's special program in celebration of Memorial Day. 

At a time when there is growing pushback against AI, Sebastian Mallaby, the Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, joined me for a wide-ranging conversation based on his latest bestseller, The Infinity Machine.

Mallaby has a unique talent for building compelling narratives around fascinating individuals and the forces shaping their fields. In The Infinity Machine, he focuses on Demis Hassabis, founder of DeepMind, exploring his lifelong drive for competition, scientific discovery, and innovation.

During our conversation, Sebastian reflected on how three years of research changed his own thinking about whether AI represents a profound threat or an extraordinary opportunity. We also discussed the growing competition between China and the United States, and whether winning that race truly matters.

Sebastian explains why he believes governments must play a role in regulating AI and suggests that the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons could serve as a useful model for international cooperation and oversight.

This conversation, which was hosted by the World Affairs Council of Connecticut, was recorded on May 20, 2026.

 Simon Rogers, data editor at Google and author of What We Ask Google and I talk about his new book. Drawing on search data from around the world, Rogers talks about how our questions about grief, cooking, relationships, and countless everyday concerns reveal that people everywhere share remarkably similar hopes, fears, and curiosities.

Simon also tells how we can use Google Trends to see what is capturing public attention in real time and discusses how artificial intelligence is changing the way we search, making our queries longer, more conversational, and increasingly interactive.

Steven Cook, Amb. Deborah Jones and Beth Sanner draw on their years of experience for an insightful conversation on the war on Iran. With so much uncertainty surrounding the negotiations, their views provide rarely heard context on how we got to where we are today and what may happen next. This conversation was recorded on April 20 for KSFR's The Forum and WorldNow, hosted by the World Affairs Council of Connecticut. 

In our conversation, Matthew Frakes, author of Rogue States: The Making of America’s Global War on Terror, takes us back to the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush presidencies—when policies forged in that era help explain, in part, what we’re witnessing today in Iran and, earlier this year, in Venezuela.

Listeners will also hear a short archival clip of George H. W. Bush and Margaret Thatcher speaking to reporters at the Aspen Institute on August 2, 1990, just as Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait was unfolding, a moment that would help shape the future U.S. approach to state-sponsored aggression.

If you love France, a good steak frites, and have ever wondered what really happens inside the kitchen, you’ll want to hear my recent conversation with author Luke Barr. His latest book, "The Secret History of French Cooking," traces ,the evolution from haute cuisine to nouvelle cuisine and explores its lasting influence on how we eat today. But there’s much more to the story: the secret past of Le Monde’s food critic Robert Courtine, the battle waged by women chefs for equal treatment, and the way celebrity chefs like Paul Bocuse helped bring French cuisine to a global audience.

University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer is one of the most influential, and often controversial, voices in international relations. In this conversation, recorded April 17 for KSFR’s The Forum Plus, Mearsheimer warns that the conflict with Iran risks dangerous escalation, with potentially severe consequences for the global economy. On Ukraine, he argues a true peace deal is unlikely—and that a Korea-style armistice may be the best we can hope for.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tod Robberson and I talk about his just published book, "Globemaster Down: Soviet Espionage and the Doomed American Attempt to Sneak Nukes into Europe." Shrouded in mystery, the U.S. government continues to keep classified many of the documents that might shed light on the cargo and whether sabotage could have been responsible for the crash. An unanswered question is why weren't the survivors viewed from the air not rescued? Tod also describes the mood of U.S. leaders and their fear that the Soviets were positioning to overtake Europe and that having an atomic weapon in the U.K. was a needed deterrent.