WorldNow ™ with Jim Falk

Why are fewer women seeking political leadership today? In this episode, recorded on June 1 for KSFR's The Forum Plus, Linda Robinson and I discuss the growing threats, harassment, and intimidation that are driving many women away from public service both in the United States and around the world. Linda's latest book is Women in Power: Fighting for Democracy in an Age of Authoritarianism.  As thre...

Tina Young, after retiring as a Navy Captain, continued her public service with NATO and then later with the American Battle Monuments Commission. From July 2010 to March 2021, she was Director of Cemetery Operations where she was responsible for the management and oversight of all of ABMC overseas monuments and cemeteries. This interview was recorded at the KSFR studios on May 21 for The Forum's...

At a time when there is growing pushback against AI, Sebastian Mallaby, the Paul A. Volcker Senior Fellow for International Economics at the Council on Foreign Relations, joined me for a wide-ranging conversation based on his latest bestseller, The Infinity Machine. Mallaby has a unique talent for building compelling narratives around fascinating individuals and the forces shaping their fields. In...

 Simon Rogers, data editor at Google and author of What We Ask Google and I talk about his new book. Drawing on search data from around the world, Rogers talks about how our questions about grief, cooking, relationships, and countless everyday concerns reveal that people everywhere share remarkably similar hopes, fears, and curiosities. Simon also tells how we can use Google Trends to see what is...

Steven Cook, Amb. Deborah Jones and Beth Sanner draw on their years of experience for an insightful conversation on the war on Iran. With so much uncertainty surrounding the negotiations, their views provide rarely heard context on how we got to where we are today and what may happen next. This conversation was recorded on April 20 for KSFR's The Forum and WorldNow, hosted by the World Affairs Cou...

  In our conversation, Matthew Frakes, author of Rogue States: The Making of America’s Global War on Terror, takes us back to the Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush presidencies—when policies forged in that era help explain, in part, what we’re witnessing today in Iran and, earlier this year, in Venezuela. Listeners will also hear a short archival clip of George H. W. Bush and Margaret Thatcher s...

If you love France, a good steak frites, and have ever wondered what really happens inside the kitchen, you’ll want to hear my recent conversation with author Luke Barr. His latest book, "The Secret History of French Cooking," traces ,the evolution from haute cuisine to nouvelle cuisine and explores its lasting influence on how we eat today. But there’s much more to the story: the secret past of L...

University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer is one of the most influential, and often controversial, voices in international relations. In this conversation, recorded April 17 for KSFR’s The Forum Plus, Mearsheimer warns that the conflict with Iran risks dangerous escalation, with potentially severe consequences for the global economy. On Ukraine, he argues a true peace deal is unlikely—and t...

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Tod Robberson and I talk about his just published book, "Globemaster Down: Soviet Espionage and the Doomed American Attempt to Sneak Nukes into Europe." Shrouded in mystery, the U.S. government continues to keep classified many of the documents that might shed light on the cargo and whether sabotage could have been responsible for the crash. An unanswered question...

As the war on Iran entered its fourth week, David Vine, a key contributor to the Costs of War Project at Brown University, talked about the human and financial costs of conflict with particular attention to what we are seeing now in Iran. This conversation was originally broadcast on KSFR's The Forum who provided permission to rebroadcast on WorldNow.

Shortly after the publication of her first book, author and journalist Yi-Ling Liu joined WorldNow to talk about how Chinese citizens navigate the web. Despite censorship, either self or dictated, and , the web continues to be a strong connector for people seeking to express their individualism while also building community. Yi-Ling, drawing on her unique background, shared her concern that govern...

In this show, William Hartung, senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, takes a hard, unvarnished look at the extraordinary growth of the U.S. defense budget. Now just under $1 trillion, President Trump is requesting a 50 percent increase for FY 2027—pushing defense spending to $1.5 trillion. Hartung explains how, despite hopes to the contrary, the end of the Cold...

Steve Twomey is the author of "Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack." In addition to this podcast, I also produce and host The Forum, a weekly public affairs program on KSFR, Northern New Mexico's public radio station. For our December 8th show, I wanted to do a program commemorating the 84th anniversary of the surprise attack that drew the United States into WWII and Steve came highly reco...

On December 8, the editor of The Economist's "The World Ahead," Tom Standage joined me for what has become an annual conversation about the popular predictive issue. We began with Tom presenting his Top Ten Trends for 2026, followed by questions from the audience and concluded with a special treat where we played Hello All Stations, an original composition by Sebastopol, the alt-rock band. Tom is...

Originally broadcast on KSFR's The Forum Plus, UMass historian Stephen R. Platt shares the untold story of Evans Carlson — a WWII Marine commander, secret confidant of FDR, and pioneer of U.S. special forces. Drawing on exclusive access to Carlson’s family letters, journals, and military archives, Platt reveals a hero celebrated for introducing “gung-ho” to America but later vilified during the Mc...

We speak with Lois Lipman, director of the documentary First We Bombed New Mexico, and Tina Cordova, the film’s heart and co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium. Together, they discuss the film’s impact and their decades-long advocacy for those harmed by nuclear testing and uranium mining. A hopeful development: the recently signed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” enacted on July 4, 2025...

Eliza Reid, Iceland’s former First Lady, joins Jim Falk to discuss her debut novel — Death on the Island — a gripping murder mystery set against the dramatic backdrop of Iceland’s Westman Islands. Drawing from her own diplomatic experience, Eliza has created a compelling ensemble of characters, each with secrets to uncover as they find themselves isolated on the windswept archipelago. This intervi...

 Dr. Ian Kumekawa, an Anniversary Fellow at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard, is the author of "Empty Vessel." Through the lens of a single barge, and its travels from the Falklands, Germany, to NYC's East River, Kumekawa exposes the underbelly of offshoring and its impact on the global economy.

Journalist, author Adam Weymouth's latest book, "Lone Wolf" is a fascinating story how over the course of several months he followed the path of Slavc, a European grey wolf, who journeyed from Slovenia to the Italian Alps. Weymouth, through candid interviews with people he met along the way, raises important questions about immigration, climate change and the delicate balance we as humans have wit...

Originally broadcast on KSFR's "The Forum," guests Robert Holleyman, former Deputy U.S. Trade Representative, and Edward (Ted) Alden, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, discuss what has become the defining issue of Trump 2.0. To listen to other episodes of The Forum, go to KSFR.org

Recorded on May 6, Lawrence Wright discusses "The Human Scale," his recent novel set in the West Bank. Described as a political thriller, the book is  much more—as it goes deep into the troubled history of the region and reminds us of the human cost of "scale" of the conflict. During the conversation, Wright talks about how he landed in Cairo with just a few days advance notice, what continues to...

While USAID is being dismantled, four professionals with decades of experience give their views of why foreign aid is an integral part of U.S. foreign policy. Mark Asquino, former U.S. ambassador to Equatorial Guinea; Rebecca Black, former USAID mission director; Lisa Ellis, development and communications specialist; and, Kate Schecter, President & CEO of World Neighbors talk with Jim Falk and...

H.R. McMaster, who served as President Trump's 2nd National Security Advisor, takes us inside the Oval Office, sharing his perspective on the president's decision-making process and how his tendency to be disruptive can have unintended consequences, and, yet, often positive results. McMaster gives his thoughts on Panama, Ukraine and much more as he responds to questions from World Affairs Council...

Author, journalist and high school teacher, Gregg Jones has written an extremely well documented and entertaining book about the forgotten Japanese American World War II war hero, Ben Kuroki. In our conversation, Gregg tells us how this Nebraska farm boy became the only Japanese-American to fly in combat missions over Japan. Following the war, he continued his mission to fight against racism and d...

This broadcast was aired live on October 7 for KSFR's "The Forum." When Forum programs have an international focus, I'll include them on this podcast. On this episode, recorded on the one year anniversary of Hamas' attack on Israel, we hear from three Middle East specialists: Ambassador Deborah Jones, who during her distinguished career served throughout the Middle East, including as U.S. ambassad...