Between the Headlines

With COP30 just a month away, we’re taking a look at last year’s meeting of the parties in Baku, Azerbaijan, where organizations, governments, and activists gathered to debate, negotiate, and hammer out a collective global vision for climate action. Our Faces of COP series took the pulse — and, at times, captured the scathing criticism — of all the many different stakeholders at this meeting. In t...

With COP30 less than a month away, we’re taking a look at last year’s meeting of the parties in Baku, Azerbaijan, where organizations, governments, and activists gathered to debate, negotiate, and hammer out a collective global vision for climate action. Our Faces of COP series took the pulse — and, at times, captured the scathing criticism — of all the many different stakeholders at this meeting....

With COP30 just a month away, we’re taking a look at last year’s meeting of the parties in Baku, Azerbaijan, where organizations, governments, and activists gathered to debate, negotiate, and hammer out a collective global vision for climate action. Our Faces of COP series took the pulse — and, at times, captured the scathing criticism — of all the many different stakeholders at this meeting. In t...

With COP30 just a month away, we’re taking a look at last year’s meeting of the parties in Baku, Azerbaijan, where organizations, governments, and activists gathered to debate, negotiate, and hammer out a collective global vision for climate action. Our Faces of COP series took the pulse — and, at times, captured the scathing criticism — of all the many different stakeholders at this meeting. In t...

With COP30 just a month away, we’re taking a look at last year’s meeting of the parties in Baku, Azerbaijan, where organizations, governments, and activists gathered to debate, negotiate, and hammer out a collective global vision for climate action. Our Faces of COP series took the pulse — and, at times, captured the scathing criticism — of all the many different stakeholders at this meeting. In t...

With COP30 just a month away, we’re taking a look at last year’s meeting of the parties in Baku, Azerbaijan, where organizations, governments, and activists gathered to debate, negotiate, and hammer out a collective global vision for climate action. Our Faces of COP series took the pulse — and, at times, captured the scathing criticism — of all the many different stakeholders at this meeting. In t...

With COP30 just a month away, we’re taking a look at last year’s meeting of the parties in Baku, Azerbaijan, where organizations, governments, and activists gathered to debate, negotiate, and hammer out a collective global vision for climate action. Our Faces of COP series took the pulse — and, at times, captured the scathing criticism — of all the many different stakeholders at this meeting. In t...

In this episode, Manju and Mario talk with Meredith Bunn, founder of Skills for Humanity, about the current humanitarian situation in Myanmar. As the popular armed resistance to the military junta in Myanmar has gained significant territory since the 2021 military coup, this conversation is a timely one. With a background as a combat medic, Meredith has spent nearly a decade providing vital humani...

In this episode, Anya and Mario talk with the the official spokesperson for the National Unity Government, or NUG, of Myanmar. The NUG is the clandestine resistance government that was created after the military junta took control in February 2021. After a horrific war characterized by brutal civilian massacres and other atrocities, this year has marked a real shift in the Myanmar conflict—in rece...

In this collaborative episode with the ReefRoundUp podcast team, Manju and Tamara sit down with Farah Obaidullah, long time ocean advocate and founder of The Ocean and Us, to learn about deep sea mining, international seabed regulation, and the global ecological implications of opening an industry in this ancient and untouched ecosystem. Farah Obaidullah is the founder of The Ocean and Us, the edi...

In this episode, Mario and Anya sit down with the renowned economist and activist, Ann Pettifor. The interview is a deep dive into her illustrious career, as well as an exploration of Pettifor's insights regarding the global financial system. She sheds light on its pervasive impact on daily lives and underscores the pressing need for transformative grassroots actions. Drawing from her experien...

In this episode, we are sharing an interview with an anonymous young Afghan woman that was recorded in November 2021. Now a student in the US, our guest spent time working within Afghanistan's political civil society and public sector prior to the August 2021 Taliban takeover. She tells us about her experience under the US occupation, her assessment of the rapid fall of Kabul, and the implicat...

In this episode, Eutopya sits down with the anonymous Burmese filmmakers behind the new documentary project called Myanmar Diaries . The film is a collection of short movies that depict everyday life and resistance under junta violence. The conversation covers contemporary civil disobedience movements, the role of film in resisting authoritarianism, and more. This episode was produced—across 4 cou...

In this episode, Caio Guatelli—a Brazilian journalist and photographer—shares his exclusive testimony with Eutopya surrounding the environmental crisis occurring in Brazil. Caio explains how the country’s political class has historically decided to be blind to the destruction of its environment. Today, the government is actively facilitating this devastation. In this way, Caio explains the notion...

In this episode, Anya sits down with Dr. Federica Fasanotti of the Brookings Institution and the Italian Institute for International Political Studies to discuss Russian private military companies. These underground groups act as informal—and brutal—strategic players who covertly carry out Russia’s foreign policy aims. Despite their relative lack of mainstream media coverage, the geopolitical impl...

In this episode, Lidia and Manju sit down with photographer and journalist Fábio Nascimento for the first instalment of our brand new Environmental Crimes series. Fábio has worked with groups like National Geographic, Greenpeace, The New York Times, and BBC. He recently finished directing and shooting MATA, a documentary that examines the impact of illegal land grabbing on indigenous Brazilians. I...

In this episode, Eutopya sits down with Jiye Seong-Yu of the Human Rights Foundation. She is the Program Manager of Flash Drives for Freedom, which is a program that smuggles flash drives full of information into North Korea—with the aim of giving citizens a taste of the outside world. We talk about what this initiative means, what it’s like to defect from North Korea and the country’s prospects f...

In this episode, the team sits down with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Manuel Mogato to discuss Filipino president Duterte’s domestic, and shockingly deadly, war on drugs. This episode was produced—across four countries and three continents—by Anya Bégué, Paula Medina Agromayor, Mario Simmaco, and Manju von Rospatt

The team recently sat down with Caroline Mendoza, the Student Director of STAND—a youth-led organization combatting genocide—for a conversation about the group’s operations and the state of atrocity prevention today. Since the early 2000s, STAND has become one of the most prominent human rights organizations in the United States. You can check out STAND’s website at < https://standnow.org/ >...

After a brief hiatus, we’re back with a new season of Eutopya Podcasts. Our first piece offers listeners a sneak peek of the 2021 Santo Stefano Summit, which Eutopya co-sponsored this past July. A group of summit participants get together to discuss the efficacy and relevance of SDGs. Stay tuned for our brand new content, coming soon!

Anya sits down with Manju von Rospatt to discuss the upcoming Santo Stefano Summit. Applications to the conference can be found at www.santostefanosummit.org.

In March, the team sat down with Dr. Seinenu Thein-Lemelson of UCLA and the Foundation for Psychocultural Research for a deep dive into the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar following the recent coup. She tracks for us the development of the conflict over decades, assessing the military’s relationship with Burmese civilians and the recent escalation of violence. This episode was developed acr...

After protests erupted across Senegal last month, the team sat down with Thiat—rapper, activist, and co-founder of Y’en a Marre, an organization that has been leading Senegalese social movements for years. Senegal has a roaring civil society, a big part of which is its hip hop culture. Our conversation quickly turned from the demonstrations to neocolonialism and Thiat’s broader aspirations for a n...

After yesterday’s dramatic events, the team developed a special episode to talk with Carlo Ferrari, President of the Association of the Italy-Burma Friendship to discuss the ongoing coup in Myanmar. We cover the reputation of Aung San Suu Kyi, the nature of the Myanmar-China relationship, the military’s involvement in the Rohingya genocide, and everything in between. This episode was produced by A...

From age 17 to 20, Omar Alshogre was detained as a political prisoner by the Assad regime—simply for attending opposition demonstrations. Syria is known for its brutal torture prisons; Omar spent time in the nation’s most notorious detention center, Saydnaya, where Syrian people are systematically executed. Listen to our conversation with Omar as he describes his three years of incarceration and h...