Podcasts by Big World
Big World shines a spotlight on complex ideas and issues that matter. Each episode features an expert from the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC, breaking down a big, important topic into small bite sizes.
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What Do We Get Wrong About Afghanistan? from 2022-02-01T13:00:15
On August 30, 2021, nearly 20 years after they arrived, the last US troops left Afghanistan. Now, some six months later, the world has largely moved on from the story of Afghanistan and the people ...
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Capitol Insurrection, Riot, or Domestic Terrorism? from 2022-01-04T13:00:02
On January 6, 2021, a throng of Donald Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol building. Their stated goal was to overturn the valid results of the 2020 presidential election by interrupting the U...
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Secrets, Spies, Intelligence, and Lines from 2021-12-01T13:00:34
Hollywood has made big business of spy films and television for decades, but the truth of intelligence gathering has always been opaque, even in a democracy like the US. In this episode of Big Worl...
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What Do We Owe Veterans? from 2021-11-01T12:00:14
Since the US military transtioned from a draft to an all-volunteer force in 1973, most Americans can go their entire lives without thinking too much about their fellow citizens who sign up to serve...
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International Education Isn’t Optional Anymore from 2021-10-01T12:00:22
The world’s most pressing problems—including climate change, pandemics, and cybersecurity—cross borders. And to solve these problems, our students need international experience, believes Fanta Aw, ...
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The National Security Legacy of 9/11 from 2021-09-01T12:00:15
At 8:46 a.m. ET on Tuesday, September 11, 2001, American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center—the first of four plane crashes that morning—and nothing was ever ...
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Star Trek and Global IR from 2021-08-02T12:00:14
The original Star Trek television series, which aired from 1966 to 1969, spawned movies, sequels, and an entire pop culture universe. Along the way, the show and its successors have used their futu...
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How to Get a Fellowship in International Affairs from 2021-07-01T12:00:10
Fellowships can help students and recent graduates gain hands-on experience in international affairs and bolster their résumés for their desired career paths. In this episode of Big World, Chris Sw...
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Farming's Racist Roots from 2021-06-01T12:00:13
Agriculture in America is older than the United States itself. But agriculture policy and the politics that drive it have always been, like so much of our world's history, unequal at best. In this ...
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Who Controls the Internet? from 2021-05-03T12:00:12
Over the past decade, the internet’s role in international affairs has expanded, with governments, including India’s, periodically shutting down the internet; great powers, like Russia in the 2016 ...
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Is the US a Flawed Democracy? from 2021-04-01T12:00:10
The United States has long considered itself the world's bastion of democracy. However, independent analysis currently doesn't support that belief, and the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual Demo...
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A "New START" for Nuclear Weapons from 2021-03-01T13:00:22
In the early 1990s, the US and the USSR signed the first of a series of treaties designed to limit the existential threat posed by nuclear weapons. In this episode of Big World, SIS professor Sharo...
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Black Masculinity & the Wage Earner Ideal from 2021-02-01T13:00:17
Amidst the long-overdue reckoning with systemic racism in the US and globally, an area of study that focuses on the lives of Black people and seeks to more fully share a totality of Black experienc...
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The Long Shadow of the Long '60s from 2021-01-04T13:00:04
The 1960s started 60 years ago, but the shadow cast by that decade in the US is long. It was a decade that fundamentally changed how the US treats our citizens and views our role in the world. In t...
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Russia-US Relations After Trump from 2020-12-01T13:00:22
Russia is defined, at least in part, by its relationship with the United States. In January 2021, US leadership will transition again, and the world's most significant dysfunctional relationship wi...
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The Politics of Food from 2020-11-02T13:00:15
It is not surprising that food—something so universal yet so individual and culturally specific—would have a place in foreign policy. In this episode, SIS professor Johanna Mendelson Forman joins B...
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Can US Policing Be Redeemed? from 2020-10-01T12:00:17
Breonna Taylor. Eric Garner. Michael Brown. George Floyd. The list of names goes on and on and on. They are US citizens killed by the police. They are all Black. And those two facts are inextricabl...
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The Netanyahu Effect from 2020-09-01T12:00:27
*Note: This episode of Big World was recorded with Guy Ziv prior to the agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates that was signed on August 13th, 2020.
Over his decades in and ...
How to Get an Internship in International Affairs from 2020-08-03T12:00:06
A college graduate’s search for their first professional job is made a lot easier when they have a great internship or two on their résumé. In this episode, Shaine Cunningham, SIS director of caree...
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War by Proxy from 2020-07-01T12:00:11
What happens when a country is powerful enough not to fight its own battles? In this episode, SIS professor Dylan Craig joins Big World to discuss proxy warfare.
Professor Craig provides a...
Who Stole Democracy from the Arabs? from 2020-06-01T12:00:17
As far as the West is concerned, World War I is largely a European story, but that's only part of the full narrative. In this episode of Big World, SIS professor Elizabeth Thompson discusses stolen...
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The Lethal Inequity of Coronavirus from 2020-05-01T12:00:28
Viruses are supposed to be the ultimate equal opportunity offenders–they’re just looking for a host. Why, then, have inequities become magnified during the coronavirus pandemic?
SIS profe...
What Cuba Got Right from 2020-04-13T19:04:49
Though Fidel Castro was an authoritarian leader with no tolerance for dissenting views and little regard for human rights, Cuba under his rule developed and maintained robust public education and h...
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Human Rights & the Middle East from 2020-04-01T12:00:22
According to Amnesty International’s 2018 review of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, this is not a great time for human rights activists and defenders in the Middle East. That year...
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Selling Terrorism Online from 2020-03-02T14:29:45
Over the past two decades, the roles of social media and other digital technologies have evolved. What started as a means of communication among friends quickly snowballed into tools for business, ...
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What's a Normal Presidency? from 2020-01-31T13:00:20
To say the president's foreign policy agenda has been an item of interest lately is a dramatic understatement. The American president traditionally sets foreign policy priorities for the country, b...
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Where Do Refugees Go? from 2020-01-02T13:00:03
Every minute in 2018, 25 people were forced to flee their homes. That's according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, which also revealed in their 2018 annual report that there are currently more than...
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The Rise of Putin from 2019-12-02T13:00:03
On December 31, 1999, Vladimir Putin became acting president of Russia. Twenty years later, he is still the country’s president and will be for the foreseeable future—at least until 2024. But how e...
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US Foreign Aid Deconstructed from 2019-11-01T12:00:12
How effective is US foreign assistance, and why is it offered in the first place? In this episode of Big World, SIS professor Jessica Trisko Darden discusses foreign aid and how it can be more thou...
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Brazil: Does Corruption Corrode Democracy? from 2019-10-01T12:00:24
Authoritarianism and corruption are on the rise in Latin America, while democracy may be receding. In this episode of Big World, SIS professor Matthew Taylor joins us to discuss politics and corrup...
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Teaching Today's World from 2019-09-03T12:00:06
International affairs education is changing. From teaching, learning, and administrative perspectives, the curriculum continues to evolve alongside a transforming world.
In this episode of...
Rape during Wartime from 2019-08-01T13:00:05
As long as there have been people, there has been conflict and war among them. And too often, this conflict has been accompanied by sexual violence. Through the centuries, there has been a move to ...
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How to Get a Job in International Affairs from 2019-07-01T13:00
The School of International Service takes an enormous amount of pride in our students and their potential to positively impact the world. We believe that a crucial piece of preparing students to ef...
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The Difference a Union Makes from 2019-05-31T13:00:17
There is, perhaps, no better measure of a country than how it treats its workers, and Germany, the world’s fourth-largest economy, is a manufacturing powerhouse that is known for its progressive id...
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A Leg Up for Startups from 2019-05-01T13:37:50
Small businesses are often referred to as the engine or the backbone of the economy. Entrepreneurs, the people who build new businesses and come up with innovative ideas, can help deter economic st...
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Show me the (Border) Money from 2019-04-08T13:35:03
At the heart of the 35-day partial government shutdown, the longest in US history, was a fiery debate over funding for the border wall. Throughout that period, Americans were constantly reassured b...
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Earth After Activism from 2019-04-01T13:38:09
Over the years, environmental activism in America has evolved. The movement began with a concern for wilderness and focused on pollution as we transitioned into the Industrial Revolution. Events th...
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Normalizing Hate from 2019-03-01T14:19:12
Far-right extremists are often opposed to values such as equality—especially the idea that all races are equal. They reject the notion that America is a country comprised of immigrants and that the...
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Sex Ed Politics and Policy from 2019-02-01T14:43:44
The education of sexuality and reproduction, or (as we called it in high school) sex ed, is a controversial topic around the world. Discussions on how to teach sex ed can often get mired in a combi...
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The Riddle of Haiti from 2019-01-02T15:21:56
Why do aid projects in Haiti so often seem to fail? In this episode of Big World, Professor Scott Freeman joins us to discuss the colonial history of foreign intervention in the country [01:28] and...
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A Professor's Guide to the Galaxy from 2018-11-30T14:19:01
From hyperdrives to the Vulcan salute, science fiction and fantasy have provided the abundance of worlds and characters that comprise our pop culture. But can these genres inform or reflect our thi...
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The Soft Power of Muppets from 2018-11-01T13:40:01
Generations of Americans grew up in front of Sesame Street, but it might surprise you to learn that children all around the world are reciting “Rubber Ducky,” too – in many different languages and ...
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America's Tortured Relationship with Terrorism from 2018-10-01T13:35:07
Terrorism has been a key issue in US domestic and foreign policy, as well as the country’s national discourse, since 2001. As the War on Terror continues 17 year later, what have we learned about A...
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#metoo and Women on the Margins from 2018-09-05T21:27:02
The #MeToo movement has gone global and led to important conversations about the prevalence of sexual assault and harassment worldwide. But have women on the margins—sex workers, domestic workers, ...
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Carbon Sinks and Strategies from 2018-09-04T17:40:40
Could a giant vacuum that sucks dangerous greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere really be effective in reversing climate change, or is this just a thing of science fiction?
Humans release...
Welcome to Big World, a different kind of international affairs conversation from 2018-08-02T15:07:09
Big World brings you conversations that get you thinking about things differently, or maybe just thinking about different things. Join us as we take international affairs to interesting places ever...
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