Is Your Country Slipping Into Authoritarianism?

How does a county fall from the podium of democracy? And is it always a sudden fall? When it’s not something sudden and obvious, like a military coup, but a gradual process, it can be more difficult to spot, point a finger to, and name. So what does it entail?

Noam Chomsky on Russia, Ukraine, China, US, and The State of The World

What would it take to negotiate a peace settlement in Ukraine?
What could Vladimir Putin see as a way out of this?
What role is the US currently playing here?
What’s happening with China?
And what’s the state of journalism and the mainstream media as the war in Ukraine is happening?

When an Empire Offers You a Moral Compass, You Can Pass

As the war in Ukraine has started, we have seen some absolutely hypocritical statements made by U.S. officials.

But they’re only hypocritical if we know a bit of the context here.

And when we do, we are much better equipped to construct our own moral compasses, without any help from the U.S. This is what I illustrate and explain much better in my episode.

What Would Peace in Ukraine Look Like?

If we believe that peace in Ukraine is possible, we have to ask what it would look like. What could a negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia be?
Listen to what Anatol Lieven from The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft has to say.

The War in Ukraine and Its Multiple “Yes, And”s (Part 2)

Can we talk about the war in Ukraine and its complexities without being shut down or accused of minimising its horrors?

I think that is possible indeed – yet not that easy.

In my second episode, I talk about (1) racism in the media, (2) the overtness of racist and xenophobic immigration policies when it comes to accepting refugees, and (3) the difference between what-about-ism and saying, “this, too” when it comes to the war in Ukraine.

The War in Ukraine and Its Multiple “Yes, And”s (Part 1)

Can we talk about the war in Ukraine and its complexities without being shut down or accused of minimising its horrors?

I think that is possible indeed – yet not that easy.

In my first episode, I talk about (1) NATO expansion, (2) the extreme right in Ukraine, and (3) what we have to know about how sanctions work.

The War in Ukraine: What We Shouldn’t Forget?

No matter how you saw the situation in Eastern Ukraine before, it is clear now that a full-scale war in Ukraine has started. Putin did something that might have seemed incredible – just too massive – even for him.
If we are anti-war, we have to condemn this aggression, call for a ceasefire, and ask how people in Ukraine – in all of its regions – can be truly protected, under what arrangement.

The US and Russia: Is There An Alternative to The Drums of War?

The military escalations between NATO (well, the U.S., really) and Russia over Ukraine are no joke.
The price of war between two nuclear superpowers is as terrifying as it is clear. So what is it that can get in the way of saying NO to military escalations?

Privilege: What Makes Us Change? Part 3

In the fourth part of my series on privilege, I take the liberty to tell you about my own privilege journey.
How the concept of privilege has changed throughout my life, what directions it took, what different regions have to do with it, and how it explains so much of what you’re hearing in all of my podcast episodes. It explains so much that this episode could have been an introductory episode exactly a year ago when I started this podcast.