At the Coalface

In this episode, I speak with Theo R. A few months ago, I learned about Theo from reading Michela Wrong’s book Do Not Disturb about Rwanda as part of DWN Bookshelf. Theo had been a member of the President's inner circle, from the time of the struggle when RPF sought to take control of the country and then later into government. Theo embarked on the Fletcher School’s GMAP degree around the tim...

In this episode, I speak with Paloma Serra. Paloma is a career diplomat for Spain, but her life could have taken a very different turn, had her parents not enticed her as a child with images about the beauty of African landscapes. Paloma describes the opportunity she had, as a freshly minted diplomat, to be posted to Ivory Coast and start discovering the continent that had so attracted her. Her ex...

Today I speak with Neri Martinez. Neri is the granddaughter of Cubans who moved into the immigrant melting pot of Florida to start a new life after Castro’s revolution. Neri felt an early calling to work on furthering the rights of the homeless, the vulnerable, minorities and women. She recognised her passion for politics and started working on campaigns for the Republican Party and then relocated...

Today I speak with Nawaz Wahla. Nawaz shares his remarkable story, growing up in a rural Pakistan, raised by his father with modest means but with a strong belief in the paramount importance of education, a principle that guided Nawaz’s life through extraordinary hardships. By planting educational seeds well before knowing what to do when they would sprout, Nawaz was able to bounce back after bull...

In this episode, I speak with Khaled Mansour. Khaled shares the twists and turns of a fascinating life, during which he grabbed chances to change careers multiple times. He worked as an engineer, then as a translator and journalist, then for the United Nations in the US, Sudan and Afghanistan, then for a small human rights organisation in Egypt, before deciding to become a teacher and writer, just...

In this episode, we’re doing something a little different. Siri Khalsa and I will co-host a conversation with Tamás Landesz. Siri and Tamás were classmates on the Fletcher School’s GMAP degree programme. As Siri is also a podcast aficionado , we thought - why not give it a try and vary the format a little! Originally from Hungary, Tamás has lived all over the world, speaks 8 languages, has earned...

Today I speak with Siri Khalsa. Siri’s life has followed many unconventional paths. She was raised in a spiritual community in New Mexico where she began a life-long practice of yoga and meditation.  Her family was in the tea business, where she started her professional life. She moved into politics, as an aide to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, campaigning for him. She later worked on Barak...

Today I speak with Benjamin Lodmell. No description could do justice to Ben’s incredible life. Ben is Norwegian-American, whose curiosity for life and the world took him on a journey that is the stuff of novels - or poetry, of which he is a prolific writer. Ben lives in Portugal with his wife and five children, the place he calls home after a globe-trotting life across continents. Ben is an indepe...

Steve Viola has had a distinguished career in the United States’s Navy, most of which in Naval Special Warfare (the SEALs) deployed around the world, where he reached the senior position of Command Master Chief. His training as a leader and a medic makes him particularly attuned to how people tick physically and mentally under chaos, something he is devoting his post retirement life to as speaker,...

Today I speak with Mohamad Al-Arief. Arief’s life follows the stunning trajectory of Indonesia’s recent history. He was a student as the youth-led push against authoritarianism finally prompted Indonesia’s President Suharto to resign. That's when Arief devoted  his full energy to the efforts that helped cement Indonesia’s transition to the vibrant democracy it is today. He shares his mission...

Today I speak with Rachel Kyte. Rachel is the Dean of the Fletcher School. She has been a lifelong advocate for action on a range of critical issues, coming of age during the Thatcher Era’s relentless drive towards privatisation, away from a collective participatory society and towards individualism.  She has experience working in NGOs and in international organisations, including at the IFC, Worl...

Today I speak with Enrique Ochoa. Enrique is a seasoned humanitarian professional whose expertise is in conflict emergencies. His career has taken him all over the world, from Latin America to the Middle East to South Asia and South East Asia. He’s also a consummate learner, a principled leader and a really engaging person, it’s a great pleasure to be speaking with him on the difficult subject of...

Today I speak with Deborah Winslow Nutter. Deborah was senior associate dean and professor of practice at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. She founded the Global Master of Arts Program (GMAP) over 20 years ago, that all guests on this podcast attended. She is known to us as the heart and soul of the programme, where she also taught what was for me on of the most person...

Today I speak with Per Olof Schroeder. Per Olof and I were classmates on Fletcher School’s GMAP programme in international affairs. He is an accomplished senior executive with a career in energy, consultancy and technology, including at Microsoft, and more recently as CEO of StormGeo, a weather service provider. We discuss our career trajectories, the importance of staying curious, how things in l...

In this episode, I speak with Ruben Usesche. Since July, Ruben is the new Director of the Diplomatic Academy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Colombia. Ruben shares with me his journey of personal development, growing up between Colombia and Ecuador, with a strong sense of mission of building bridges between people, of being open to all perspectives (drawing on his Jesuit education), and work...

In this conversation, I speak with Celeste Marinelli. Celeste and I were classmates on the Global Masters of Arts Programme (or GMAP) at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Celeste grew up in Guatemala and is part of her country’s diplomatic service. She was first posted to the Netherlands, then went to Thailand to set up and open Guatemala’s embassy, and recently moved to Washington DC. Cel...

In this episode, I speak with Robinson Cook. Robinson and I were classmates on the Fletcher’s School Global Master of Arts Programme in International Affairs. When we met, he was running the Bogota Employment Project that he’d launched, helping Colombian women stay in employment with wage subsidies with painstaking field world, one person at a time. In this conversation, we talk about racial justi...

Today, I speak with Vanessa Calva. Vanessa is a career diplomat representing Mexico, currently working as Consul in Leamington, Canada. We were classmates during the Global Master of Arts Programme (GMAP) at the Fletcher School and members of the 'Chuchos' group. Vanessa shares her almost accidental journey into foreign affairs, her passion for serving the interests of Mexicans abroad, a...

Today I speak with Antonio Martinez Lopez. Antonio and I met at an alumni event of the Fletcher School’s Global Master of Arts Programme a few years ago, and kept in touch over the years. Antonio is a diplomat with Venezuela’s Foreign Service. He is currently Head of Political Section at Venezuela’s Embassy in Baghdad. Antonio shares his lifelong aspiration to live the ideals of Simón Bolívar that...

Today I speak with Jason Clarke. Jason and I were students in the same class at the Fletcher School’s Global Master of Arts Programme. Jason is one of the most entrepreneurial people I know. His mind is always buzzing with new ideas, and he’s always got business projects cooking in the background. What sets Jason apart is his motivation to place positive social impact at the centre of his ventures...

Today I’m speaking with Sunjidmaa Jamba. Sunji is a classmate from the Global Master of Arts Programme at the Fletcher School and we struck up a friendship. Sunji grew up in Mongolia in a family that loved reading and storytelling. As if mirroring the Mongolian nomadic spirit,  Sunji’s life weaves her country’s recent history, the simpler times of socialist planning through to the democratic revol...

Today I’m speaking with Nino Kalandadze. Nino is a classmate from the Global Master of Arts Programme (GMAP) at the Fletcher School that we both completed. Nino grew up in the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic and read law in Germany as the Soviet Union broke apart. She returned to her country to take part in shaping its fledgling institutions and politics through some of its most dramatic moment...

Today I’m speaking with Samer Sobh. We used to be team mates working on a particularly challenging energy project in South Iraq. We used to chat over dinner at the camp’s canteen after long work days, and as I spoke about my experience on the Global Master of Arts Programme (GMAP) at the Fletcher School that I was doing, I think Samer caught the bug as well and joined shortly thereafter. Samer is...

In our second episode, I am joined by Serhat Çubukçuoğlu. Serhat and I met in Dubai at our school's Global Master's of Arts Programme (GMAP) alumni event and struck up a friendship. Today, Serhat is well known for his frequent media appearances as an expert of the Eastern Mediterranean maritime, energy and security issues. However, not too long ago, Serhat was a computer programmer and a...