Worldly

Latest Episodes:

Hindsight is 2018 Dec 20, 2018

Show notes

Zack, Jenn, and Alex wrap up 2018 by looking back at three of the most dramatic foreign policy decisions President Trump made in 2018 — and whether, in retrospect, they turned out to be as dramatic as we’d initially thought. For Elsewhere, Zack pushes back on the fundamental premise of the conversation in the first part of the show and argues that, #actually, Trump’s decisions are still bad, regardless. Zack sings some Miley Cyrus, Jenn explains that the Gestapo were, in fact, Nazis, and Alex treats us to his adorably atrocious Southern accent. Links: Trump doesn’t believe his own government’s report that the climate is changing for the worse. Vox has done a lot of coverage on Trump’s policy toward Saudi Arabia after the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. It’s worth reading Trump’s statement on his final decision on what to do. Here’s a good explainer on Trump’s decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Some analysts, including the New York Times editorial board, called Trump’s move a “failure.” The worry was moving the embassy would imperil US-Palestine relations. But they weren’t that good, even in previous administrations. The Saudi-Iran spat is now more central to Middle East issues than the Israel-Palestine one. Read the agreement between North Korea and the US signed in Singapore. A little explainer of the Jan meme Zack referenced. Despite what Trump says, North Korea is still a threat. As Jenn noted, North Korea at one point threatened to bomb Guam. North Korea greatly accelerated and improved its nuclear and missile programs in 2017. Yes, Trump actually said he and Kim Jong Un “fell in love.” It’s worth reading the full transcript of the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki. Alex mentioned how Trump once invoked the Nazis when describing American intelligence agents. Watch this Vox video to understand how the US became the world’s superpower and stabilizing force. Trump, slowly but surely, has been increasingly tough on Russia. He’s even started a trade war with China to push back on its trading practices. And ISIS has lost the vast majority of its territory since Trump took office.

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It was China, in the Marriott database, with the hack Dec 13, 2018

Show notes

Zack and Jenn discuss the massive hack of Marriott, in which the information of as many as 500 million people was stolen. China appears to be the culprit — part of a broader cyber assault on US institutions that amounts to a massive Chinese intelligence coup against America. On Elsewhere, they discuss British Prime Minister Theresa May’s uncomfortably close victory in a vote challenging her leadership of the Conservative Party, and what that means for the future of Brexit. Zack adopts some British vocabulary and Jenn vents about the many irritations of the security clearance process. The team cited this New York Times piece about the hacks throughout the episode. The full Fox & Friends interview with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo can be found here. If you want to read more about the security clearance process, Jenn recommends this FAQ. Zack mentioned that the CFO of Huawei was arrested in Canada, but here's a much more in-depth look at what that means. And for more context on the no-confidence vote, Vox has two pieces you might enjoy.

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2 French 2 Furious Dec 06, 2018

Show notes

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the protests currently raging in France. They began as a reaction to President Emmanuel Macron’s gas tax hike, but have evolved into a much wider rebuke of his allegedly elitist, out-of-touch presidency. For Elsewhere, they break down the late President George H.W. Bush’s hugely consequential foreign policy legacy — both for good and for ill. Zack advises Macron not to act like a god, Jenn nerds out on Middle East history, and Alex tries his hand at French. Macron wants to increase the price of gas by 30 cents to $7.36 a gallon. France’s economy isn’t doing too hot, as Jenn mentioned. Macron fancies himself as a political centrist, which may explain why he’s berated from across the political spectrum. Macron has proposed many labor reforms, the source of the current controversy. Jenn and Alex note that people in the lower and middle classes don’t like “Macronomics.” Zack still can’t believe Macron compared himself to a god. Macron lambasts his citizens for not understanding why he wants to reform France’s economy, as Zack mentioned. Jenn referenced Alex’s piece with stunning photos of France during the protests. There will likely be a protest on Saturday that could turn more violent, a scary prospect since four people have already died. The riots in Paris are the worst since 1968, per Alex, when French students aimed to change the country’s culture. France said it would back down from the gas tax hike, for now. As Zack noted, some experts have called for a gas tax around the world to incentivize people to stop driving. Here’s a quick guide to former President George H.W. Bush and the Panama invasion, which Alex described. Some historians still criticize the invasion. Jenn talked about the First Gulf War. The State Department has a short history of it. Some people argue the Panama invasion led Bush to use military force against Iraq in Kuwait. Jenn mentioned the amazing fact that the US only needed 100 hours to defeat the Iraqis. Bush didn’t do anything about Saddam Hussein retaliating against Shiites and Kurds that opposed him. Kuwait put Bush’s face on towers to celebrate him after his death. Zack noted that Bush came into office at the tail end of the Cold War. Zack details how Bush proved instrumental in helping Germany to unify after the Cold War. Bush says he wasn’t really into the “vision thing.” Alex disagrees. Germany thought about leaving NATO, but Bush ensured it stayed in the alliance. Angela Merkel, the current German chancellor, attended Bush’s funeral in Washington.

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A trio of unlikely senators work to stop the Yemen war Nov 29, 2018

Show notes

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the Senate’s historic War Powers vote on Wednesday, the first step toward reining in US participation in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen. The US has been supporting Saudi Arabia with weapons and intelligence for years, but the Senate just took a major — unprecedented, in fact — step toward stopping it. On Elsewhere, they run through the UK’s deal with the EU on the terms of Brexit and why Parliament might end up rejecting the deal in December. Zack does a terrible British accent, Jenn manages to repeatedly work the word “omnishambles” into the conversation, and Alex talks about a “garden of unicorns.” References: Alex Ward wrote a great explainer on the recent Senate vote. The full clip of Sens. Mike Lee and Bernie Sanders speaking about the war in Yemen on NBC. For a deeper dive on the Khashoggi murder, you can listen to our last episode, or read our latest Khashoggi coverage here. Trump offered his full-throated support for Saudi Arabia in an (as Alex put it) childlike statement. Jenn paraphrased Sen. Chris Murphy’s reaction to the Senate vote, but his direct quote is here: "I’ve been at this for 3 years, and I am blown away by this.” Zack interviewed Murphy in 2015 and he discussed similar themes. A top Saudi Arabia expert told the New York Times that the Senate vote was an “unprecedented setback” for the US-Saudi alliance. A little nuance to add to Jenn’s point about Germany’s support of the war in Yemen. Directly after Jamal Khashoggi’s death, Germany announced that it would stop exporting arms to Saudi Arabia, but then approved an arms sale anyway. Jenn mentioned that other Western countries support the Saudi-led war in Yemen, including the UK, Germany, and France. Alex mentioned that the senators wanted to hear from CIA Director Gina Haspel before their vote, but couldn’t. Here’s some backstory on that. Jenn walked through a couple of things that did not push us to break our relationship with Saudi Arabia, including Saudi involvement in 9/11 and the Saudi coalition bombings of school buses. She also offered Vox’s Brian Resnick’s piece about psychic numbing as a possible explanation for the impact that Khashoggi’s murder has had. Zack noted that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is actually destabilizing the Middle East, despite US assurances to the contrary, and Jenn offered the Qatar blockade as an example. For further reading on our Brexit Elsewhere, Jenn recommends this explainer on the Brexit deal and this explainer on the economic effects that Brexit will have.

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The case for (and against) open borders Nov 22, 2018

Show notes

On Future Perfect, Vox’s Dylan Matthews tackles provocative ideas with the potential to radically improve the world – ideas like opening up our borders. One of the most reliable, best-documented ways to lift someone in a poor country out of poverty is to let them come to the US (or another rich country). That’s the argument made by Fabio Rojas, a self-described advocate of open borders. "Open borders" is often used as a punching bag by immigration opponents, but Rojas argues it could dramatically reduce poverty without costing Americans jobs. Leon Fresco works to help get real immigration legislation passed. He's very skeptical. Find Future Perfect on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | ART19

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China’s “concentration camps” for Muslims Nov 15, 2018

Show notes

Zack and Alex are joined by James Palmer, an editor at Foreign Policy magazine, to discuss a terrible and under-discussed humanitarian crisis: China’s repression of its Uighur Muslim minority. In Xinjiang province, where most Uighurs live, China has set up a series of concentration camps designed to brainwash Uighurs and stamp out their culture and religion. As many as 1 million people are currently in those camps. The Worldly team breaks down how this is happening, what it says about modern China, and what (if anything) the world can do to stop it. Uighurs, explained James Palmer shouted out this piece on Uighur camps by Rian Thum, and an older piece he himself had written called The Strangers He also cited the Urumqi riots as part of the lead up to the introduction of the camps. This New York Times piece provides more details about those. Palmer mentioned that a prominent Uighur footballer was sent to the camps. His story here. Here’s more on China’s social credit score and use of facial recognition software — both of which Palmer suggest have been blown out of proportion. He also talked about the failure of facial recognition software in England. Zack mentioned a BuzzFeed report that dug into apps used to police the Chinese public. Groups that aim to “Free Tibet” remain, including this one.

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Jeff Sessions is out. Is Robert Mueller next? Nov 08, 2018

Show notes

Zack, Jenn, and Alex break down the implications of President Donald Trump firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions, both for the Russia investigation and for the rule of law. On Elsewhere, they discuss how the Democratic takeover of the House could result in some much-needed scrutiny over America’s role in Saudi Arabia’s vicious war in Yemen. Zack says most dictators are men, Jenn points out that women can also be power-hungry queens, and Alex explains that House Democrats are Democrats … in the House. Mueller Investigation 101 A little more information about Sessions’s confirmation hearings. More on the history of the Trump-Sessions feud. As Zack said, the president reportedly screamed at Sessions. Trump actually called Sessions “Mr. Magoo.” And Jenn mentioned several Trump tweets about Sessions. As Alex claimed, Trump wanted to fire Sessions even before midterm elections results were in. Jenn mentioned Matt Whitaker’s “Mueller lynch mob” tweet. More on what the investigation revealed about Paul Manafort. Here’s the interview in which Matt Whitaker suggested reducing funding for the Mueller investigation. A deeper look at what degradation of democracy looks like in other countries. Whitaker spoke often with Trump and seemingly lobbied for Sessions’s job. Here’s a Vox video to get you up to speed on the Yemen war, and an article about war crimes in Yemen. A bipartisan group of senators tried — and failed — to stop American involvement in the Yemen war earlier this year. Alex spoke with House Democrats about their plans for Yemen in the next Congress. There may be legislation voted on at the end of the month to end US support for the Yemen war. We played a short clip from Trump’s conversation with Axios about Yemen, but here’s the longer version.

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Why fringe groups are winning around the world Nov 01, 2018

Show notes

Jenn, Alex, and returning special guest Alina Polyakova discuss what a presidential election in Brazil and a stunning political announcement in Germany have in common: the collapse of centrist leadership worldwide. The center-left and center-right have broadly governed world affairs since World War II, but a mix of economic problems and growing immigration have led fringe groups to gain power around the globe. It’s a potentially dangerous development that threatens to upend how the world has mostly governed itself for more than 70 years. Jenn usurps Zack’s traditional hosting role, Alex somehow fails to make a soccer reference, and Alina corrects many of Alex’s bad takes. We based the episode around Alex’s piece on the decline of centrist leadership around the world. Alex mentioned the Bretton Woods agreement that led to many of the world’s global institutions. Alina noted how the European Union rose from the ashes of World War II. International relations theory nerds will appreciate the “End of History” reference. We didn’t have enough time to talk about Brazil’s “Operation Car Wash,” but watching this Vox video will get you up to speed. Jair Bolsonaro made a horrifying statement that he would rather have a dead son than a homosexual one. Bolsonaro has had so many sexist moments, a compilation video was made. And yes, Bolsonaro praised the country’s dark past with torture as he voted to impeach former President Dilma Rousseff — who herself was tortured. For more on Bolsonaro, read Jen Kirby’s piece for Vox. Millennials around the globe don’t seem to think democracy is that important, as Alina pointed out. Read about the two October elections — one in Bavaria and the other in Hesse — that doomed Angela Merkel. Here’s why Merkel has been the vanguard for status-quo, centrist politics, and why that led to her downfall. Merkel’s troubles began in 2015 when she let in more than a million refugees.

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Duck and cover Oct 25, 2018

Show notes

Zack, Jenn, and Alex address one of the world’s biggest threats: nuclear war. There’s a small but still very real chance that nuclear weapons will be used in our lifetimes; the gang discusses how that could happen — and what it would look like if the bomb actually went off. For Elsewhere, they end the episode on a “high” note: discussing the impact of Canada’s recent legalization of marijuana. Zack comes up with a new nuclear Pokémon, Jenn complains about “dirty hippies,” and Alex finds a way to talk about the World Cup. Throughout the episode, we drew on Alex Ward’s story about how a nuclear war kills you. As we mentioned, Worldly’s dug deep in to the possibility of nuclear war between India and Pakistan before. And here’s Yochi Dreazen’s piece on what a war between the US and North Korea would look like. We’re still at war with North Korea formally, for real. Jeffrey Lewis’s book, The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States: A Speculative Novel There’s a Tumblr of Kim Jong Un looking at things, and it makes Jenn and the Worldly crew laugh every time The Trump administration’s new nuclear strategy calls for more little nukes -- how cute. For more on the treaty we just pulled out of, check out yesterday’s episode of Today, Explained Here’s the nuclear bomb simulator Alex mentioned Here are the basic facts of Canada’s weed legalization. Zack mentioned a Brookings Institution report on how Uruguay is doing just fine after legalizing pot. Zack also talked about “norm cascades,” a term coined by scholars Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink Check out the Future Perfect podcast!

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A murder and an outbreak Oct 18, 2018

Show notes

On a special episode of Worldly with two main segments, Zack talks with Alex about the latest in the Jamal Khashoggi saga and then interviews Vox health writer Julia Belluz on the worrying Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Zack and Alex examine how the US political system is responding to the mounting evidence of Saudi guilt, and Julia explains why this looks like one of the worst Ebola outbreaks in history. This is a pretty dark episode, so not a lot of jokes — sorry fam. Vox has been following the Khashoggi story closely. You can find some of the latest articles here, here, and here. We talked about Sen. Lindsey Graham’s and Sen. Marco Rubio’s strong pushback against Saudi Arabia. Here’s a video of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo telling the press he doesn’t “want to know any of the facts.” But it does look like Pompeo pressed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hard in private during their meeting this week. President Donald Trump says he doesn’t want to punish Saudi Arabia to the point that it jeopardizes $110 billion in arms sales and because Khashoggi was a US resident, not citizen. But it turns out the $110 billion weapons sale is fake news. Trump compared the Khashoggi case to the controversy over Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s alleged past of sexual assault. Yes, really. American leaders have rarely done much to change Riyadh’s behavior. Here’s an interview Alex did with an expert that touches upon that. The Washington Post published Khashoggi’s final column posthumously. Julia recommends this article for more details about the current Ebola outbreak in the DRC. She also discussed a recent outbreak that was successfully contained using vaccines. Zack mentioned that conflict zones in Syria have also had problems controlling the spread of infectious disease. Here’s the survey Julia mentioned of people’s attitudes towards vaccines and clinics.

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