New Thinking for a New World - a Tallberg Foundation Podcast

How is Africa doing? In one sense, that's a nonsensical question to ask about 55 countries and almost 1.4 billion people, but even dumb questions can sometimes have smart answers. In this episode, Michela Wrong, who has spent nearly three decades writing about Africa, as a journalist and author, talks about the people, the politics, and the day-to-day realities. Her book, Do Not Disturb, takes a d...

In this special episode, you will meet two Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership prize winners. Listen as two prize recipients and friends, scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur Fio Omenetto and social innovator and entrepreneur Bright Simons, discuss how great leaders can change everything.

“Youth is the hope of our future.” When it comes to governance, is that a good thing in a world where there is a growing body of evidence that youth's satisfaction with democracy is declining in many countries? This episode is part of Tällberg Foundation's exploration of the future of democracy. Listen as Cristóbal Marín Rojas and Julien Richard, discuss the challenges of making democracy work. Bo...

The Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize named in honor of Jan Eliasson, one of the most accomplished global diplomats of our era. In this special episode, Jan and Alan Stoga, chairman of the Tällberg Foundation discuss how great leaders can change everything. What can you do? Take Jan’s call to action seriously and nominate someone who deserves to be honored at tallbergprize.org Music: "...

It wasn't that long ago that globalization was universally perceived as a good thing, when policymakers celebrated free trade agreements, and when countries competed to lower barriers to the free flow of goods. But we seem to be moving from a world where markets ruled to one where politics rules. Weijian Shan, chairman, and CEO of PAG, one of Asia's leading investment firms, shares his unique pers...

A shape-shifting event like the global pandemic affects almost everyone on the planet—especially children. They have seen their education, social and mental health development, nutrition, and health badly damaged. And, it is worse for girls, because in too many countries, girls don’t have anywhere near adequate access to schools, health care, even food. In this episode, Dr. Maliha Khan, one of the...

In this episode you will meet Nithya Ramanathan, a 2020 prize winners. Nithya is an engineer and social entrepreneur, saving lives through the innovative application of technology, creating and applying data-driven solutions to global challenges. Listen, as she is interviewed by Cecilia Weckstrom, Sr Director, Diversity, Inclusion & People Innovation, Lego and a member of the 2020 prize jury. Musi...

What does China—or, more particularly China’s leadership and the Chinese Communist Party— want from the rest of the world?  Jonathan Ward, an American who is rapidly becoming one of that country's leading China experts, thinks they want victory. Dr. Ward, who has lived and worked in China and has a deep affinity for the Chinese people, recently published a new provocative book, China's Vision of V...

Early in 2020, when the global pandemic was still gathering force, UNICEF published a prophetic, deeply disturbing document. If anything, what actually has happened—and continues to happen—to children everywhere is, if anything, probably worse than UNICEF imagined.  Robert Jenkins is leading UNICEF's global education response to the pandemic and brings decades of experience and a global perspectiv...

Today’s world is short of a lot of things—sustainable environment, peace, prosperity, equality—but what we lack most is innovative, global, values-based leadership. If we can find and nurture that kind of leadership, the rest will follow. In this special episode, Jared Genser (one of the three 2020 prize winners), an international human rights lawyer who is teaching and mentoring the next generati...

Increased poverty and malnutrition; greater inequality; damaged and depleted health care systems; rising social and political tensions. But is this crisis or opportunity? This week’s guests are dedicated to trying to make the world the kind of place it could and should be. Vidhya Ramalingam is a recognized expert on the use of technology to disrupt violent extremism online. Sarah Durieux focuses o...

Europe is increasingly divided: between the frugal North and the Club Med South; between the illiberal East and the progressive West. In many ways, the latter is more profound at a time when democracy is under pressure almost everywhere. Our guests are engaged in this conflict. Zuzanna Rudzińska-Bluszcz, Poland's Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights and András Léderer, Hungarian Helsinki Co...

Today's world is short of a lot of things, but what we lack most is innovative, global, values-based leadership. If we can find and nurture that kind of leadership, the rest will follow.  In this special episode, you will meet Sylvia Earle, one of the three 2020 prize winners. Listen, as she is interviewed by Ashok Mirpuri, Singapore's ambassador to the U.S and a member of the 2020 prize jury Musi...

Venezuela has been in a death spiral for years. The country have been devastated by political repression and economic depression; its people suffer from huger, malnutrition, shortages of food, medicine and, perhaps worst of all, opportunity. More than 5 million have fled. David Smolansky was chased from his elected post of mayor of El Hatillo and avoided jail by seeking political asylum in the US....

Social media has become the lifeblood of modern culture. But it has evolved in ways which reward excessive outrage and which encourage hyper attention to the immediate—untethered from traditions, knowledge, and values. In this week's podcast, Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, is considered one of America's leading legal scholars on freedom of speech talks about the challenges of soc...

Europe has had a bad few years. The struggles between North and South mostly over economics, between East and West mostly over values. Brexit, which shifted the locus of power eastward and distracted European leaders from any possibility of a more positive agenda. The pandemic, which among all its other impacts led to interrupted borders in a Europe that prided itself on having no borders. Pierre...

2020 was an awful year for Iran. It started with the assassination of the country's leading general and ended with the assassination of its most important nuclear scientist. American “maximum pressure” combined with mismanagement took a huge toll on the country. Yet, the regime seems more firmly in power today than a year ago. How can that be? Sima Shine, Institute for National Security Studies (I...

Even amid optimism about vaccines and declining infection rates, there is mounting evidence that the pandemic is generating a global mental health crisis. How do we cope with the results? Could rising levels of child abuse, spousal abuse, drug abuse, homicide and suicide leave even deeper marks than COVID itself? Dr. Jonathan DePierro, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medic...

The pandemic has forced most of us to move from real life to virtual life and we are mostly unhappy about the results. Is there a cure for Zoom fatigue? For answers, we turned to a magician. Magic used to be fundamentally physical, requiring a lot of interaction between the magician and his audience. Mark Mitton, a world class magician, whose performances produced Springsteen-like enthusiasm explo...

Worth Repeating: What are some of the challenges Africa faces in its future? At least so far, what plagues Africa is less Covid-19, than its consequences: collapsed economies, an industrial world that is closing to Africa, a deceleration (if not reversal) in globalization, a new “Cold War”, severe climate change, and the need to develop faster to serve its young population. Alan Stoga talks to Yvo...

We live at a time of pandemic, recession, challenges to democracy, shifts in global power. The response of many organizations, is to hunker down and survive. But some are embracing the challenges and opportunities of change. The Robert Bosch Stiftung, under the leadership of Sandra Breka and others, recently rethought, rebooted and relaunched its operations. Listen as she discusses how they fared...

The amazing events of recent weeks—Donald Trump’s efforts to undo an electoral outcome, the assault on the Capitol, and the impeachment of the former President —caused many Americans to worry about the stability of their government. Congressman Dick Gephardt, believes America needs bipartisanship to cope with the divisive spirits that are tearing at the country. He talks about some of the things t...

History is replete with leaders drawing real or metaphorical lines in the sand, challenging opponents to cross only if they dare. David Andelman, an American journalist and author, believes that one way to understand global risks and challenges is to explore the nexus of red lines that define global politics. Indeed, Andelman argues that never before have global affairs been so entangled by red li...

Since the onset of the pandemic, much of life has shifted from the real world to the virtual world. For many, it has been a painful, frustrating experience. For others, it has been liberating and highly productive. For all, we will inevitably emerge changed by the experience. We explore living online with a woman whose job it is to make the experience as productive and pleasant as possible. Jaime...

Pascal Lamy, former Director General of the World Trade Organization, is arguably one of the most prominent, thoughtful and enthusiastic supporters of a global leadership role for Europe. But is the Europe that seems more divided—north versus south, east versus west—than united really ready to lead?  If so, how?  If so, who?  In this episode of New Thinking for a New World, Lamy offers some intrig...