Terrell J Starr Official

Good evening from Kyiv! Today’s show is all about the ongoing and ever-changing newscycle revolving around the aftermath of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s failed mutiny of the Russia’s Ministry of Defense. I break down the aftermath of how Russian President Vladimir Putin is responding to everything and the need to not try and predict what’s coming next. The following segment deals with Ukraine’s top intel c...

This week on Black Diplomats, I start off with news about the Kakhova dam explosion in the Kherson region that has claimed at least 5 lives and is causing a massive ecocide in the area.   For on the ground coverage, please read these articles that break down what is going on: The New York Times: U.S. Official Says Spy Satellites Detected Explosion Just Before Dam Collapse The Moscow Time...

On this episode of Black Diplomats we're doing something different. Terrell is on his way back to Ukraine so he sat down with BD producer Michael Hull to talk about his plans for the summer, some special projects we have coming up, and what the media needs to do to help the world survive the 2024 election cycle. Plus - what does Terrell do for his mental health? Can't have a Black Diplomats interv...

What are we to believe nowadays? It’s a question most of us have asked since social media platforms began competing with traditional media outlets in the 2010s. Everyone has the power to push out information and that is actually a good thing. We saw the power of citizen journalism during the Ferguson Uprisings and how they helped to push out culturally competent narratives when local and national...

Terrell J. Starr opens up this week’s episode of Black Diplomas with his thoughts on Great Britain’s likely shipment of long range missiles to Ukraine, weapons Kyiv have long requested. He also talks about the disinformation fog that will precede the upcoming Ukrainian offensive. From there he talks with Sudanese human rights scholar Mutasim Ali about the violence in Sudan. Terrell concludes the s...

Producer’s Note: We need your financial support! Please give us 5 star ratings on Spotify, iTunes or wherever you listen to us. Also support our work financially on CashApp at $BlackDiplomats,Venmo @BlackDiplomats and on PayPal at paypal.me/BlackDiplomats .  This week on Black Diplomats, where everyone can be a diplomat, I breakdown Russian President Vladimir Putin’s no-so-certain in-person a...

Today’s show is a great one! I had the pleasure of discussing what it means for Black Lives Matter organizers and Ukrainian activists to fight systems of oppression together. LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, and Maryna Prykhodko, a board member at Razom, one of the biggest Ukrainian-American organizations in the United States, helped me have that discussion. We also talked about R...

Black Diplomats is back, baby!  We have a new show format that’ll make the episode easier to follow, so let us know what you think about it. Today, my special guests, Nola Haynes and Earl Carr, will discuss the worsening Chinese-U.S. relationship, with a focus on the Chinese nationals arrested in Manhattan for running police outposts without proper jurisdiction and the GOP’s attack on TikTok....

This week Russia was pushed out of the regional capital of Kherson, bringing Ukraine another dramatic step closer to ending the war on their terms. Much of the oblast is still under Russian control, but capturing the city and surrounding territories is a major victory for Ukraine. This is only the latest in a string of victories and there is no indication Russia will be able to go back on the offe...

The effective borders of Ukraine are in constant motion, with Russian forces in retreat. The massive Kerch Bridge connecting Russian and Crimea was severely damaged by a truck bomb this week, and there have been several missile strikes in civilian neighborhoods in Ukraine. While war is raging on the ground, Ukrainian officials are trying to get more support from Europe and the US. They have offici...

Russia is losing their war in Ukraine. They’ve been pushed back on the ground, and Ukraine is re-arming with Western help. Even Russia’s global allies are voicing concern . With losses piling up, the Kremlin decided to start calling on their national reserve - trained soldiers who are not on active duty. But the conscription effort has been poorly managed and many Russians are worried it’s cover f...

In this episode of Black Diplomats host Terrell Starr talks to Andriy Kononenko, a close personal friend and fighter in Ukraine’s Territorial Defense Force. Andriy is a language professional and co-founder of NovaMova, a language school with outposts in Kyiv and all over Eastern Europe. He is an example of how the Russian invasion has forced average Ukrainians to call on their resources and reserv...

On today’s episode of Black Diplomats host Terrell Starr talks to three people who are dealing with the war in Ukraine on very personal terms. Most of the news about the war is concentrated on borders, troop losses, and the nuclear threat. Our guests in this episode are focused on protecting loved ones and rebuilding their communities. After spending many years in Ukraine, Starr has deep relations...

Inna Sovsun is a member of Parliament in Ukraine and a university professor. Sovsun is in an opposition party so she’s usually working against the established leadership in her country. But one thing she’s very clear on: politics can wait until they’ve kicked Putin’s troops off their land. From a NATO no-fly zone, to the history of anarchism and mutual aid in Ukraine, and what she thinks when she...

Black Diplomats host Terrell Starr is in Ukraine covering the Russian invasion. This week he spoke with Oleg Volsky, the mayor of Zhovkva, a town about 40 minutes north of Lviv. Volsky was in the town square talking to constituents when he sat with Terrell for a short interview. As mayor of the town Volsky has several concerns, including helping the vulnerable members of his community, and prepari...

War has come to Ukraine. Black Diplomats has been on the ground in Ukraine from the beginning of the show two years ago. We've talked to journalists, diplomats, policy experts, military strategists, and others about exactly this scenario. We heard for months that the Ukrainian military was prepared for a Russian invasion and that the citizens of Ukraine would stand and fight. All of it turned out...

With so much hysteria and propaganda going around the world about Ukraine it’s important to find journalists on the ground that we can trust. Whether it’s Kremlin backed mouthpieces like Russia Today or anything coming out of the US State Department it’s clear the concerns of the innocent majority are not being addressed. It is especially hard to find independent Ukrainian voices working in Englis...

Black Diplomats host Terrell Starr is in Ukraine, despite President Biden’s warning that Americans should leave. He’s reporting on the ground, but also spending time with loved ones and friends. Like everyone else in the country he’s keeping an eye on the Russian troops at the border but trying not to let the situation get to him. With so much focus on what Russia is doing in Eastern Ukraine, it’s...

Michael McFaul is a seasoned Diplomat who was Ambassador to Russia under President Obama. This is a man who has been in the room for negotiations with Putin and he has a lot to say about the current situation in Ukraine. Black Diplomats host Terrell Starr has been following McFaul’s career and reading his work for years. As the conversation develops it becomes clear that the respect and admiration...

As Russian troops continue the build up on Ukraine’s border some people are suggesting Germany toughen their rhetoric and policies. But even Ukrainian President Zelensky has asked the Biden administration to tone it down, so what’s the move? The history of these nations is as hard as it gets, with a brutal invasion of the Soviet Union by Germany during WWII leaving millions of dead soldiers and ci...

As Ukraine celebrates its long holiday season, all eyes are on the East. Putin has built up a massive force on the border between Russia and Ukraine but so far no one knows what he plans to do with it. The US media are talking about a possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia, apparently forgetting there was already an invasion during the takeover of Crimea in 2014. What they’re not doing is intervie...

There have been nationwide protests in Kazakhstan recently and the Western media did what they always do: show a few pictures of destruction and ignore the cause of the people in the streets. With Russian troops coming in to ‘maintain order’ and a ban on the widely used mobile internet it’s very hard to tell what is going to happen next. This week on Black Diplomats Terrell talks to two experts wh...

It has been one year since the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, when supporters of former president Trump broke into Congress and tried to take control of the seat of government. The folks responsible for the chaos have worked hard to change the narrative any way they can - blaming Black Lives Matter, or in some cases claiming it was nothing more than a bunch of tourists out for a holiday. To co...

2021 was a beast. There was an insurrection, a global pandemic, vaccine inequality, rich people went to space (sort of). Bad people lived while good people died. It was a lot. Pam Keith joins Terrell in this episode of Black Diplomats for a debrief. Of course they talk about their mental health and how they’re surviving it all. Other big topics include Putin increasing tensions in Ukraine, all the...

The USSR dissolved 30 years ago this week, so Terrell sat down with two people in a former Soviet colony who are living through the aftermath. Olga Tokariuk and Illia Ponomarenko are journalists in Ukraine where Russian troops are currently occupying Crimea. With the threat of a larger invasion always literally on the eastern horizon, people in Ukraine have learned to prepare for the worst while c...