Brookings Podcast Network highlights international guests on International Podcast Day

Sunday, September 30, is International Podcast Day, the fifth observance of “the power of podcasts” globally, and is a day “focused on bringing more visibility to podcasting and promoting the growing digital media worldwide.”

The Brookings Podcast Network (BPN) is contributing to this visibility by highlighting many of the episodes of our shows that featured guests from outside the United States, our home base. While many of our scholars are themselves originally from countries around the world, we thought it would be fitting on International Podcast Day to focus on the experts who continue to reside outside the U.S. but frequent our Washington, DC headquarters for their research and activities.

In that spirit, here is a sampling of guests who have appeared on the BPN’s two hosted programs, Intersections and Brookings Cafeteria, and a bit of info about the discussion. You can access and listen to these podcasts, as well as our “5 on 45” and “Brookings Events” podcasts, on various platforms.

Enric Sala, a Spanish native and National Geographic Explorer in Residence, joined Senior Fellow Homi Kharas and Brookings Press Director Bill Finan to discuss innovative approaches for reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

At the 2017 Saban Forum, “Intersections” host Adrianna Pita caught up with Senior Fellow Tamara Wittes and Stav Shaffir, the youngest female Knesset member in Israel’s history, to discuss Shaffir’s transition from leading protest movements to joining the Labor Party and winning election to Israel’s parliament, fighting cynicism in politics, and changing political systems.

Brookings Distinguished Fellow Shivshankar Menon, chairman of the advisory board of the Institute of Chinese Studies in New Delhi, India, was part of a conversation with Brookings scholars Tanvi Madan and Joshua White on  how China’s deepening economic investments across South and Southeast Asia and India’s own expanding presence are affecting the regional balance of economic and political cooperation and competition.

“Brookings Cafeteria” host Fred Dews has interviewed two former or current high-level officials in government, including former-Prime Minister of Australia Julia Gillard on her commitment to global education; and current Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland on her Ukrainian roots and Ukraine’s struggle with Russia.

In a wide-ranging conversation about the “three Latin Americas,” Ernesto Talvi, once a nonresident senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at Brookings, shared a passage from Peruvian poet Mario Vargas Llosa describing Latin America.

Brookings expert Jonathan Stromseth recently interviewed Bilahari Kausikan, the former permanent secretary of Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on a range of current diplomatic and security issues in Southeast Asia, including Singapore’s role in the region, China’s rise, and the Trump administration’s approach to foreign policy.

Educating girls has a wide-ranging impact on meeting global development goals. For International Women’s Day, “Intersections” showcased the work of the Echidna Global Scholars – leaders from NGOs and academia who work to improve learning opportunities and outcomes for girls in the developing world. In this episode, Dasmine Kennedy, Armene Modi, Maria Cristina Osorio, and Damaris Parsitau talked about empowering some of the most marginalized girls in Jamaica, India, Mexico, and Kenya, and engaging their communities to invest in girls for wider social and systemic change.

Brookings Senior Fellow Ted Piccone talked with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former Prime Minister of Tunisia Mehdi Jomaa about the importance of liberal democracy in strengthening international security, and why states should encourage democratic participation among their people as a means to achieve greater domestic security.

Javier Solana, a distinguished fellow at Brookings, discussed why Europe and European institutions such as the EU and NATO are important not only in terms of European integration, but for the world. Solana has held numerous leadership posts, including: member of the Spanish parliament; Spanish foreign affairs minister; secretary-general of NATO; European Union high representative for common foreign and security policy; and secretary-general of the Council of the European Union.