SoftPower/FulStories

Forget the idea of going "full circle," I feel like the life and career of Baktash Ahadi is doing laps. As an Afghan refugee, finding his way in the United States, the massive reverberations from 9/11 hit Baktash from all sides, and started him on a journey of service and empathy that led him to the Peace Corps, back to Afghanistan as a civilian interpretor with U.S. special operations, an instruc...

(This episode originally aired on September 12, 2025.) In case you missed it: Betsy Small grew up aware of both her privileged place in the world and her family's rapid rise from poverty and persecution. Both left a mark, resulting in decades of empathy and action--at home and in some of the most vulnerable places in the world. Following the release of Betsy’s podcast episode, her book, 'B...

Dateline: 1 July 2026 July 1, 2025, marked the inglorious (and highly dubious) end of USAID. To mark its passing, we asked Sara Sullivan, a USAID alumna who has been speaking out from the very beginning of the end, to "The Average American," to deliver a eulogy on behalf of the agency. As usual, she did not mince words. SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. e...

On February 3, 2025, Elon Musk posted this on X: "We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could gone [ sic ] to some great parties. Did that instead." It's safe to say that no one needed Musk's savage imagery. It's also worth pointing out that by now--a year later--the barely-trained, Musk-led forces at the Trump Administration's Department of Government...

"Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." – Banksy Laura Migliorino is an artist and long-time art instructor based in Minneapolis. She has--from the beginning of her long career in art--believed in the power of memory. Now, as Minnesota thaws out and moves forward after a long, devastating winter, she is already focused on remembering. And when you see that small p...

"Anything worth doing is worth overdoing." - Tina Martin Picture the cheerfulness--and tendency to break into song--of 'The Sound of Music's' Maria or Mary Poppins. Transplant her to Tonga, one of the most isolated island nations in the world. Electricity? No need. Running water? No need. Surround her by adoring children. Is it a Peace Corps adventure five decades removed or...

Note: This is the second of a two-part episode. We strongly recommend you start with Part 1. John Limbert was among 66 Americans taken hostage in the U.S. Embassy in November 1979, and among 52 who were held 444 days--an historical event that riveted America and the world. Episode 1 took us to the eve of the Iranian revolution. Here, Limbert shares his account of his time as a hostage and some wel...

"For lust of knowing what should not be known, We make the golden journey to Samarkand." - James Elroy Flecker Throughout his life, Ambassador John Limbert kept returning to Iran. As a student, as a Peace Corps volunteer, as a husband. He could not seem to stay away. But then, as a U.S. diplomat in Tehran — for a harrowing 444 days — he could not leave. This episode takes us to the verge...

As a young American girl living in Colombia, with little understanding of what it meant to be from the United States, Andrea Cristancho had a firsthand brush with grassroots U.S. soft power — and it may have changed her life. One thing is certain: When, years later, the roles were reversed, and she was the American helping to implement development programs overseas, the impact was every bit as pro...

As a young Peace Corps volunteer in Romania, Sean Cotter saw the reverence given to poets and philosophers and suspected he had found his people. But in the beginning, he couldn't even understand a child's spoken words. Flash forward to the present, where Sean, as the world's preeminent translator of Romanian literature into English, now helps shine a light on a place — and a people —...

"I am interested in what it takes to be the happy endings that our elders have been waiting for." --Kao Kalia Yang Award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang's voice has always been there, even though it wasn't always obvious. But even when she held it in, even when others couldn't hear it, it was there. And before she became a singular speaker (and soft, powerful storyteller), that...

Note: This is the second of a two-part episode. We strongly recommend you start with Part 1. Paul E. White's stories cannot be contained in a single episode. In fact, this is the second of a two-part episode in which neither progresses past his very first assignment, in Laos in the 1960s. From there, he went on to become a legend in the USAID ranks--and it's easy to see why. In this episod...

Paul E. White's stories cannot be contained in a single episode. In fact, this is the first of a two-part episode in which neither progresses past his very first assignment, in Laos in the 1960s. From there, he went on to become a legend in the USAID ranks--and it's easy to see why. In this episode, we meet Paul as a brand new International Voluntary Services teacher doing development work...

This is an episode about answering the call--whether it comes from a widowed father, a Maasai student, or a couple of guys named John F. Kennedy and Sargent Shriver. Diane Raleigh not only answered the call but also found herself needed in each situation. Again and again, stepping up for those in need. Answer the call, step up, repeat. SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why...

"You can't help people from a distance." - Sergio Viera de Mello When it comes to overseas experiences, Keith Mines has seen a lot, from a remarkable set of vantage points: from LDS missionary work to active-duty assignments as a soldier to various leadership roles as a diplomat, and finally serving at the United States Institute of Peace. Through it all, he never stopped fighting fo...

If you are a six-foot-six white guy in Liberia, you are going to stick out--and Glenn Ivers did stand out. But, if you add to that infectious enthusiasm, humor, and maybe throw in a new soccer pitch, you might become unforgettable. That describes Glenn, then and now. 'SoftPower/FulStories' uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations...

"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them." --Paul Wellstone Her name in Ojibwe is Anisiiwiikwe , which means "woman made of stone," an apt description of Ashley Fairbanks. And though her skills and experiences are varied — ranging from art and design work to writing, to political c...

"Come as a visitor, not as a spy." -Zambian proverb "Eliza" is better known as Beth Jere, who is cheered in her old Zambian village and the surrounding areas for good reason. She was the first American her village ever knew, and she stayed on--helping locally at first, then regionally. Wherever she found herself, she was on the front lines of the greatest lifesaving effort ever...

As a young man, Mike Tidwell traveled halfway across the globe to teach rural Africans a potential new livelihood. As with most Peace Corps volunteers, he found himself on the receiving end of the most prominent lessons. Decades later, after great success as a journalist, an author, and a climate activist, he still yearns to teach people about the environment. Only now, he works closer to home. Mu...

This special bonus episode of SP/FS features Troy University professor Michael Slobodchikoff, an expert on US-Russia relations. He pays particular attention to Russia's soft power efforts. In this fascinating conversation, he shares the history and distinct differences between US and Russian soft power. Our conversation goes from the Soviet Union to the modern day, and how Russia's most si...

Raised in a Ghanian-American family, Katherine Ntihmoah's parents instilled within her the idea that her only limits would be self-imposed. She took that to heart and has been expanding her limits throughout her life--with Americorps, the U.S. State Department as a diplomat, and now at Indiana University's prestigious Hamilton-Lugar School of Global and International Studies, where she seeks to br...

"No human is more human than another human" -General Romeo Dallaire. John Berry's long overseas career, spanning the Peace Corps, USAID, and the United Nations, took him to nearly 100 countries, with positive benefits for countless people. But there's one country that looms over all the others. The one with the people he couldn't save. And the real ghosts of Rwanda follow him to this day. SoftPowe...

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin Ka Vang was born in Laos and raised in Minnesota, in a world shaped by memory, migration, and the quiet weight of what is carried across generations. As a Hmong-American storyteller and journalist, she exposes her culture and her experiences so they may be seen. It is telling, the...

Less than 24 hours after he graduated from college, Paul Barker was on a plane, en route to Iran, where he would spend the next five years as a Peace Corps volunteer, immersed in Iranian culture and history. And though he followed that with three decades of international work, he remained--remains!--in the thrall of Iran. And he understands, more so than almost anyone, the scope of the cataclysm u...

John Dinkelman--or "Dink" as he is known to countless current and former U.S. Foreign Service Officers--is something of a legend. He spent nearly four decades serving his country as a diplomat--and now he serves those same diplomats as the President of the American Foreign Service Association (or AFSA). And, if there's a more caring and compassionate steward, I have not yet met them....