In Pursuit of Development
by Dan Banik
Step into conversations that travel across continents and challenge the way you think about progress. From democracy and inequality to climate resilience and healthcare, Dan Banik explores how societies navigate the complex terrain of democracy, poverty, inequality, and sustainability. Through dialogues with scholars, leaders, and innovators, In Pursuit of Development uncovers how ideas travel, why policies succeed or fail, and what it takes to build a more just and resilient world. Expect sharp insights, candid reflections, and a global perspective that connects local struggles to universal aspirations.Listen, reflect, and be inspired to see global development in a new light. 🎧
Episodes
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The rise and promise of South-South Cooperation | Dima Al-Khatib
Who gets to decide how the world develops, and why have the same countries dominated that conversation for so long? Across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, countries are increasingly challenging the traditional hierarchies of international development and asserting their right to shape their own...
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Why fighting corruption is more complicated than we think | Michael Johnston
Is corruption the world's favorite scapegoat for failed development? And why are wealthy democracies so eager to lecture poorer countries about good governance while struggling with corruption at home? In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik speaks with Michael Johnston, Professor...
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Voice without authority: The Global South after Aid | Dan Banik
The Global South is more visible, more vocal, and more organized than at any point in recent decades. But has that translated into real power? In this season-opening episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik challenges the familiar claim that the Global South is simply “rising.” His…
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Why hope is what we need | Dan Banik
What does it mean to defend hope in an age of crisis, anxiety, and political exhaustion? In this Season 6 finale of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik reflects on why hope is not the same as optimism, and why evidence-based hope may be one of the most important political resources of our time....
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How civil society adapts when aid shrinks | Tikhala Itaye
As traditional aid budgets shrink and donor priorities shift, civil society organizations across Malawi are being forced to rethink how they work, survive, and serve communities. In this conversation, Dan Banik speaks with Tikhala Itaye, a human rights lawyer and public health specialist, and the...
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Is Rwanda a development success? | Pritish Behuria
Rwanda is often described as one of Africa’s most remarkable development success stories: a country that rebuilt itself after the 1994 genocide, delivered impressive improvements in health and education, reduced its dependence on coffee, attracted global attention, and turned Kigali into a symbol...
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African agency at the crossroads | Dan Banik
In this solo episode, Dan Banik reflects on a series of recent conversations across Pretoria, Addis Ababa, Blantyre, and Mauritius, where African scholars, policymakers, civil society leaders, NGO directors, administrators, and practitioners debated the future of development in a rapidly changing...
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How public institutions become captured | Elizabeth Dávid-Barrett
Corruption is often imagined as a bribe paid to speed up a permit, avoid a fine, or gain access to a public service. But some of the most damaging forms of corruption operate at a much higher level, where powerful political and business actors reshape the rules of the game itself. This is the…
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Why the UN looks different from the Global South | Alanna O’Malley
In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik speaks with Alanna O’Malley, Professor and Chair of Global Governance & Wealth and Head of Department of History at Erasmus University, about the hidden history of the United Nations and the decisive role of the Global South in shaping…
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The poverty trap that kills a million people a year | Madhukar Pai
Why does tuberculosis remain one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases even though it is preventable and curable? In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik speaks with Madhukar Pai of the Department of Global and Public Health at the McGill School of Population and Global...
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Can aid still fight poverty? | Elina Scheja
What happens to development cooperation when aid budgets are cut, geopolitical tensions rise, and poverty reduction competes with a growing range of strategic priorities? In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik speaks with Elina Scheja, Chief Economist at the Swedish International...
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Can Asia still deliver the development dream? | Philip Schellekens
Asia is often described as the great success story of modern development, a region of rapid growth, falling poverty, rising middle classes, and extraordinary transformation. But how accurate is that narrative today? And what does Asia’s experience really tell us about the future of development in…
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Urbanization, inequality and the future of development | Benjamin Bradlow
Dan Banik speaks with Benjamin H. Bradlow, Assistant Professor of Sociology and International Affairs at Princeton University, about how cities can grow without leaving millions behind. At a moment when more than a billion people live in informal settlements or slum-like conditions, the...
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Why the middle class will shape global development | Homi Kharas
Dan Banik speaks with Homi Kharas about one of the most important yet surprisingly underexplored forces in modern development: the rise of the global middle class. Drawing on Kharas’s book The Rise of the Global Middle Class: How the Search for the Good Life Can Change the World, the conversation...
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Artificial intelligence and the future of human decision-making | Francesco Marcelloni
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how societies function — from healthcare and education to governance, public debate, and the future of work. But as AI systems become more powerful and more deeply embedded in everyday life, they also raise important questions about misinformation,...
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Why India–China relations could reshape the global order | Manoj Kewalramani
India-China relations are entering a new phase of cautious re-engagement after five years of deep tension following the 2020 Galwan clash. Leaders have resumed meetings, direct flights have restarted, and diplomatic channels are active again. However, beneath these gestures lie enduring…
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Can philosophy save a world obsessed with power? | Thomas Pogge
In an era of intensifying great-power rivalry, shrinking foreign aid budgets, and declining faith in multilateralism, what role is left for global justice? In this wide-ranging conversation, the Yale philosopher Thomas Pogge joins Dan Banik in Oslo to examine whether morality still has a place in...
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Debt, development finance, and global agency | David McNair
In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik is joined by Dr. David McNair, Executive Director of ONE.org, for a conversation on the future of activism and global development in an age of overlapping crises. At a time when debt distress is rising, humanitarian funding is falling, and...
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Six economists and the making of modern development | David Engerman
In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik speaks with Yale historian David Engerman about how “development” became one of the most powerful and contested ideas of the modern era. Drawing on Engerman’s 2025 book Apostles of Development: Six Economists and the World They Made, the...
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Making evidence actually usable | Lindsey Moore
This episode of In Pursuit of Development explores how AI is reshaping the way development organizations learn from evidence, unlocking lessons buried in evaluations and reports, and helping practitioners make better decisions in complex, fast-moving settings. Dan Banik speaks with Lindsey Moore,...
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Vietnam’s remarkable development turnaround | Arve Hansen
Vietnam is often held up as one of the world’s standout development success stories—rapid growth, dramatic poverty reduction, and a transformation from low-income to middle-income status within a single generation. But what happens when success starts to produce new tensions: rising inequality,...
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Energy for growth on the African continent | Todd Moss
Electricity is often treated as a basic development milestone. But in large parts of the African continent, the deeper challenge is not only connecting people to the grid, but ensuring power is affordable and reliable enough to support jobs, industrialization, and economic transformation. This...
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Looking back, thinking forward | Dan Banik
As the year comes to a close, this special year-end episode of In Pursuit of Development offers a reflective look back at the conversations that have shaped Season 6 so far. Host Dan Banik brings together the main ideas, debates, and tensions explored across the season, drawing connections…
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Climate, conflict and the development squeeze | Florian Krampe
Dan Banik and Florian Krampe explore how climate change is reshaping development and security debates -- not as a single cause of conflict, but as a force that intensifies existing vulnerabilities in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. Moving beyond environmental impacts alone, the discussion...
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Aid at the breaking point | Nilima Gulrajani
Foreign aid is under pressure. Budgets are shrinking, politics are hardening, and trust between donors and recipients is wearing thin. In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik speaks with Nilima Gulrajani, Principal Research Fellow at the Overseas Development Institute, about what...
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How Latin America sees the new Global South | Benedicte Bull
Dan Banik sits down with Benedicte Bull, professor of political science at the University of Oslo’s Centre for Global Sustainability, to unpack how Latin America understands (and helps redefine) the idea of the Global South. Once used loosely to describe developing nations, the term has gained…
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Borders, bargains, and the business of smuggling | Max Gallien
Smuggling is often portrayed as a shadowy threat to state authority — a world of criminals, traffickers, and dangerous border crossings. But in many parts of North Africa, smuggling is a fundamental part of the political economy. It sustains livelihoods, shapes state–society relations, and…
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Solidarity in a divided world | Cecilia Bailliet
In this episode, Dan Banik speaks with Cecilia Marcela Bailliet, the UN Independent Expert on Human Rights and International Solidarity and Professor at the University of Oslo’s Faculty of Law about what solidarity truly means in an era of geopolitical tension, shrinking aid budgets, and growing...
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When evidence meets Washington politics | Dean Karlan
In this episode, Dan Banik speaks with economist Dean Karlan, the Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor at Northwestern University and former Chief Economist of USAID, about his effort to build a new evidence-driven office inside the world’s largest bilateral aid agency. Drawing on his...
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China’s evolving role in global development finance | Hong Bo
As globalization gives way to fragmentation, the politics of finance and development are shifting fast. Tariffs, trade wars, and geopolitical rivalries are redrawing economic maps, while traditional sources of aid are shrinking. In this environment, low- and middle-income countries are searching...
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Power, policy, and the future of global development | Rachel Glennerster
In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik sits down with Rachel Glennerster, President of the Center for Global Development (CGD), to discuss how the global development landscape is being reshaped by shifting politics, tighter budgets, and new sources of innovation and influence.…
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Democracy against the odds | Happy Kayuni
Malawi has once again gone to the polls, reaffirming its reputation as one of Africa’s most enduring democracies. In September 2025, former president Peter Mutharika returned to power after defeating Lazarus Chakwera in a peaceful transfer of power that defied global trends of democratic decline....
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The protest that changed Serbia | Nemanja Džuverović
One year after a deadly train-station collapse in Novi Sad that killed sixteen people, Serbia’s student-led protests have become a powerful challenge to corruption, impunity, and democratic decay. In this episode, Dan Banik speaks with Nemanja Džuverović, Professor of Peace Studies at the...
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Why choosing sides is out of style | Jorge Heine
In this episode, Dan Banik speaks with Jorge Heine, a seasoned diplomat, former Minister of State, and Chile’s ambassador to China, India, and South Africa — three pivotal countries at the center of today’s shifting world order. Drawing on his extensive diplomatic experience, Heine discusses the...
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Who gains from AI? Human development in a divided world | Pedro Conceição
In this episode of In Pursuit of Development, Dan Banik speaks with Pedro Conceição, Director of the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report Office, about the enduring power and renewed urgency of the human development idea. The conversation begins with the origins of the...
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Africa’s pulse: Listening to citizens in an age of uncertainty | Joseph Asunka
As global politics shifts and economic pressures mount, understanding what citizens actually think — not what outsiders assume they think — has never been more important. In this episode, Dan Banik speaks with Joseph Asunka, CEO of Afrobarometer, the pan-African, non-partisan research network…
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Bangladesh: How a ‘basket case’ became a development pioneer | Naomi Hossain
Bangladesh is often described as one of the great development success stories of recent decades. Poverty has fallen sharply, life expectancy has risen, and millions of women have entered the workforce. Today, however, that narrative sits uneasily beside new questions about data reliability, the...
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How to Save the United Nations from Financial Meltdown | Ronny Patz
The United Nations is facing its worst financial crisis in decades. Compared to its 2023 peak, total UN spending has fallen by almost one-third. While some countries have withheld much of their funding, others are paying late. And still others have reduced or postponed contributions. Against this...
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From crisis to possibility | Dan Banik
In the first episode of In Pursuit of Development Season 6, host Dan Banik returns after an unexpected year-and-a-half hiatus following a serious health emergency. Dan examines how the world has entered a period of profound flux. The once-stable liberal international order is giving way to a more...
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Empowering Bureaucrats for Better Government Performance — Dan Honig
Season finale! It is my great pleasure to welcome back a person I have very much enjoyed speaking with earlier— Dan Honig, an Associate Professor of Public Policy at University College London and Georgetown McCourt School of Public Policy (@rambletastic). His latest book is Mission Driven...
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Rising Powers and the New Global Order — Rohan Mukherjee
The liberal international order, characterized by rules-based multilateralism and values such as openness and representation, is often portrayed in terms of multiple crises. These crises, often analyzed from a Western perspective, include the reduced support of some Western powers towards certain...
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Great Power Competition and the Global South — Ilaria Carrozza
The ever-evolving world of global power dynamics is characterized by the complex relationships between large economies such as the United States and China and how these interactions are perceived and navigated by countries in the Global South. Understanding these dynamics requires a comprehensive...
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Politics, power, and resistance — Ian Shapiro
A central theme in Ian Shapiro's extensive body of research is the concept of domination, which captures the reactive nature of human beings towards power structures. Unlike traditional political theories that imagine societies designing just orders from scratch, Ian argues that political...
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Administrative Capacity and Its Impact on Development in Pakistan — Sameen A. Mohsin Ali
Effective bureaucracies are pivotal in mobilizing resources, implementing development projects, and ensuring equitable distribution of growth benefits across all societal segments. Conversely, weak administrative systems often result in inefficiency, corruption, and the derailment of vital...
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Infrastructure, Governance, and Society in Modern Africa — Karuti Kanyinga
A common concern voiced by leaders in many developing nations is the deterioration of their road systems and the apparent hesitance of the international community to fund infrastructure improvements. In response, China launched the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013. This sweeping project has...
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Politics of the Planet — Lan Marie Nguyen Berg
The continued reliance on a "business as usual" model is insufficient for countering the detrimental consequences of global warming. Numerous studies, including the influential reports from the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, have sparked a keen interest in understanding the...
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Tackling the Energy Access and Development Challenge — Jörg Ankel-Peters
Many nations around the world are grappling with the challenge of providing reliable and sustainable energy access to their populations. Half a billion people, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia, still rely on biomass for their basic needs, underscoring the urgent…
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The US-China Partnership That Transformed International Trade — Elizabeth Ingleson
In the fabric of today's interconnected globe, "Made in China" has emerged as a richly layered emblem, intertwined with economic, political, and cultural narratives. Every day, consumers worldwide engage with this tag, embedded in an array of products, prompting us to ponder: What deeper meanings...
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Empowering Change: Leadership's Role in Global Development — Willem Fourie
Effective leadership is characterized by its ability to inspire collective action, foster inclusivity, and navigate the intricate dynamics of political, economic, and cultural landscapes to drive meaningful change. The challenge of leadership in the context of development is further complicated…
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Cityscapes and Sanctuaries: Exploring the Socio-Spatial and Religious Dynamics of Johannesburg and Lagos — Obvious Katsaura
The African continent is projected to have the fastest urban growth rate in the world: by 2050, Africa’s cities will be home to an additional 950 million people. While this surge presents urban centers with a wealth of opportunities such as a larger workforce, increased consumer markets, and...
About this show
Step into conversations that travel across continents and challenge the way you think about progress. From democracy and inequality to climate resilience and healthcare, Dan Banik explores how societies navigate the complex terrain of democracy, poverty, inequality, and sustainability. Through dialogues with scholars, leaders, and innovators, In Pursuit of Development uncovers how ideas travel, why policies succeed or fail, and what it takes to build a more just and resilient world. Expect sharp insights, candid reflections, and a global perspective that connects local struggles to universal aspirations.Listen, reflect, and be inspired to see global development in a new light. 🎧
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Dan Banik
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