Global Connections Television Podcast

Charles F. “Chic” Dambach, Global Peacebuilder and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, has a wide ranging career that  includes being the former President of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, former President of the National Peace Corps Association, and past Chief of Staff for Congressman John Garamendi of California. His memoir, Exhaust the Limits, the Life and Times of a Global Peacebuilder, features...

John Feffer, author of Splinterlands, and director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, focuses on  policies of the Trump and Biden Administrations. Support for Ukraine is critical to America’s interest. Donald Trump implemented several international policies that adversely affected the USA and endangered the world, such as withdrawing from the Iranian Nuclear Deal, the...

 John R. Wilmoth, Director of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Population Division at the United Nations, discusses the role of DESA’s Population Division and the recent “World Social Report 2023: Leaving No One Behind in an Ageing World.” Some of the findings indicate that people are living longer, for example the approximately 760 million people today above-65 will double by 2050,...

 Lynn Levine Greenky, Associate Teaching Professor at Syracuse University in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, authored “When Freedom Speaks: The Boundaries and the Boundlessness of our First Amendment Right. “Professor Greenky highlights the relationship of the First Amendment to our government, politics, and culture, especially in the areas of book banning, teacher and stud...

Suzanne Nossel is Chief Executive Officer of PEN America, and a leading voice on free expression issues in the United States and globally. She is the author of Dare to Speak: Defending Free Speech for All . Over her ten-year tenure, she has established a Washington, D.C. office, and overseen groundbreaking work on free expression in Hong Kong and China, Myanmar, Eurasia, and the United States.  Sh...

Dr. Chuck Powell is the CEO for Encompassing Leadership Associates, and is a member of the board of the Daisy Alliance which challenges the establishment view that nuclear weapons make the world more secure. Daisy Alliance’s goal is to change the conversation by reframing how nuclear weapons are viewed by both policymakers and the public. Previously, Dr. Powell was in the US Air Force and oversaw...

Olga Tokariuk, an independent journalist, is a fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism in Oxford, England and a non-resident fellow at CEPA (Center for European Policy Analysis). Her professional interests include international relations and disinformation research. She details how resilient the Ukrainian people and military have been in confronting a more powerful Russian mili...

Mark D. Walker, a Returned U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer from Guatemala, is President of Million Mile Walker. His most recent book is “My Saddest Pleasures.” A previous book was titled “Different Latitudes.” Mr. Walker discusses the philosophy of his Million Mile Walker through the celebration of international travel and literature, cross-cultural relationships, overseas development, philanthropy, an...

Dr. David Marchick, Dean of American University’s Kogod School of Business, hosted the popular Transition Lab podcast addressing presidential changes of power with the Partnership for Public Service’s Center for Presidential Transition. His most recent book is: The Peaceful Transfer of Power: An Oral History of America’s Presidential Transitions The acceptance of the results of a fair, free and de...

Robert Bilott, an American environmental attorney and author, is known for lawsuits against DuPont on behalf of plaintiffs from West Virginia and has spent more than twenty years litigating hazardous dumping of dangerous chemicals, especially PFAS. His most recent book is Exposure: Poisoned Water, Corporate Greed, and One Lawyer's Twenty-Year Battle Against DuPont ? U.S. Centers for Disease C...

Liz Karan, Project Director of Protecting Ocean life on the High Seas with the Pew Charitable Trusts, highlights the challenges to protect the marine life and water quality in the oceans.  The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Treaty and the International Seabed Authority are the foundations for a comprehensive global approach to preserve biodiversity, prevent pollution and contamina...

Mark Stoll, a professor of history at Texas Tech University , teaches environmental history and the history of religion. His recent book is an environmental history of capitalism titled: “Profit: An Environmental History.” He explores the Capitalistic System and how it intersects with environmentalism. Over millions of years, Capitalism has evolved through a variety of stages, the last two being i...

Ms. Izumi Nakamatsu is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. The Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) was established to work with and support United Nations member states to negotiate the peaceful uses of weapons of mass destruction to small arms. Currently, nine countries have nuclear weapons.  The risk of accidental or purposeful use of nucl...

Philip Lymbery is Chief Executive of a leading international farm animal welfare organization called Compassion in World Farming. He was appointed an ambassadorial “Champion” for the United Nations Food Systems Summit in 2021. His most recent book is: “Sixty Harvests Left: How to Reach a Nature-Friendly Future.” Compassion in World Farming strives to reduce the inhumane treatment of animals who ar...

Professor Andrew Koppelman, a John Paul Stevens Professor of Law at Northwestern University, is the author of “ Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed .” Libertarianism has deteriorated into a more doctrinaire form as espoused by Ayn Rand or Charles Koch. President Franklin Roosevelt dealt with a stock market collapse, bank failures and high unemploy...

Patrick Sciarratta, President of the Global NGO Executive Committee, discusses how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) interface with the United Nations Department of Global Communication regarding issues to eliminate the devastation of war, promote economic and social development and enhance human rights. Many NGOs have Consultative Status at the United Nations with organs such as the Economic...

Kevin Cassidy, Director and Representative to the Bretton Woods and Multilateral Organizations of the UN’s International Labour Office for the US in Washington, DC., discusses the role of the ILO, which was created in 1919, in developing international standards, rights at work, employment and income opportunities, social protection, social dialogue and tripartite consultations with workers, employ...

Thom Hartmann, an American radio personality, author, former psychotherapist, businessman, and progressive political commentator, discusses his new book: “The Hidden History of Neoliberalism: How Reaganism Gutted America and How to Restore Its Greatness?”  Neoliberalism ostensibly contributed to the transfer of $50 trillion from the middle class to the wealthiest 1%, as well as shifting 15 million...

Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute, focuses on the threat of nuclear weapons in the world today.  The use of nuclear weapons is incompatible with the development and survivability of living organisms and the planet as a whole. Elimination of nuclear weapons should be at the heart of the debate.  Currently, over 13,000 nukes are maintained by 9 nuclear countries. Several s...

Dr. Thomas G. Weiss is a distinguished scholar of international relations and global governance with special expertise in the politics of the United Nations. Since 1998 he has been Presidential Professor at The Graduate Center, CUNY (The City University of New York), and is Director Emeritus of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies. A recent book is “Would the World Be Better Withou...

Dr. Daniel Fiorino, a Distinguished Executive in Residence in the Department of Public Administration and Policy, is the Director of the Center for Environmental Policy in the School of Public Affairs at American University. He is the author of the “Clean Energy Transition: Policies and Politics for A Zero-Carbon World.”  The world needs to move quickly from dirty to clean energy because of the he...

University. His most recent book is: “ THE COAL TRAP:  How West Virginia Was Left Behind in the Clean Energy Revolution.” He highlights how political and business leaders have been unable to move beyond the “coal trap” of West Virginia’s heritage, and how it harmed the state’s citizens and dimmed their future prospects through the obstinate reliance on an unsustainable and outmoded resource: coal....

Katrina vanden Heuvel , the publisher, part-owner, and former editor of the magazine The Nation is a political commentator on various TV programs, a guest columnist for the Washington Post and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations . She emphasizes how President Franklin Delano Roosevelt helped found the UN out of the ashes of World War 2 and proffered the Four Freedoms (Freedoms of Speec...

Sir Mark Lowcock, former United Nations Under‑Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, discusses the role of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and his new book Relief Chief: A Manifesto for Saving Lives in Dire Times . As the “relief chief” his main responsibility was to coordinate the work of major humanitarian agencies, such as the Intern...

Robert Skinner, Deputy Director and Chief of Partnerships and Global Engagement Outreach Division of the United Nations Department of Global Communications (DGC), details how the DGC works to communicate with the world.  A major communication theme revolves around the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), such as to eliminate poverty, promote food security, empower women and girls and comb...