Beyond the Scoop: A Harriman Magazine Podcast

In the latest episode of Beyond the Scoop from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, host Masha Udensiva-Brenner speaks with geopolitical analyst Tinatin Japaridze (MARS-REERS ’19) about Georgia’s democratic backsliding and the personal toll of watching it unfold from afar. Blending memoir and analysis, Tinatin reflects on her childhood in post-Soviet Georgia, her family’s displacement du...

Ambassador Sarah Mendelson (Ph. D., Political Science, GSAS ‘93) has been working in democracy and human rights promotion for decades, including posts in the Obama Administration, first leading USAID’s democracy, human rights and governance work and later as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Mendelson has long noticed cracks in the field of international democracy...

In the first episode of Beyond the Scoop, Season 2, editor Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews political scientist, and former Harriman Institute director Timothy Frye about his essay in the 2026 issue of Harriman Magazine, which tracks the evolution of U.S. soft power through Frye's personal experiences working on soft power projects.    Frye discusses his time as a young guide working for a U.S. I...

Harriman Magazine editor Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews Latvian investigative journalist Inga Springe of Re:Baltica about the rise and fall of the newspaper Diena, Latvia's journey to join NATO and the EU, and how investigative journalism addresses corruption and Russian influence in the Baltic region.

In mid-March, the Trump Administration began its attempts to dismantle U.S. International Broadcasting. Harriman Magazine editor Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviewed journalist Jeffrey Trimble  about the rise and fall of U.S. International Broadcasting in the latest episode of Beyond the Scoop: A Harriman Magazine Podcast , from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. Trimble, an author in th...

Time Magazine Senior Correspondent Simon Shuster discusses his book on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine; the current state of affairs; and some of the historical context that brought us here.

Harriman Magazine editor Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews editor-in-chief Ann Cooper about her experiences covering the end of the Soviet Union for NPR; how we might reframe that period; and some of the articles in the 2025 issue of Harriman Magazine.