Talk World Radio

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about corporate power, the freedom of speech, and Ben & Jerry's ice cream with Ben of Ben & Jerry's, Ben Cohen, who has spoken out for years dramatically, creatively, and powerfully for peace and for a moral federal budget. Ben Cohen has frequently pushed the topic of obscene military spending and the wars it creates into the public discourse using reports, statements, creative props, getting himself arrested in Congress, and the work of several organizations including the Ben & Jerry's Foundation. He has also helped World BEYOND War put up antiwar billboards. We speak with Ben Cohen in a moment when the U.S. government is working on the biggest shift we've seen of resources from useful projects to war, and when the corporation called Magnum (which owns Ben & Jerry's) is trying to prevent Ben & Jerry's from opposing a super unpopular genocide. https://freebenandjerrys.com https://boycottmagnum.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about the influence of the Israeli government, not just on the U.S. government but on government at the state level here in Virginia, and some of the things that can be done about it. We welcome two guests. Dr. Alex Hilert is a Jewish-American anti-zionist activist and organizer with the Richmond Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Virginia Coalition of Human Rights. Dr. Hilert works as a community mental health counselor and professor in Richmond, VA. He is on the steering committee for the Dismantle VIAB and VRS Divest campaigns. Dr. Philip Farah was born and raised in Jerusalem. He is a Palestinian who came to the United States in 1978. He has lived, and worked in several Arab countries. A founding member of the Palestinian Christian Alliance for Peace, Dr. Farah has spoken widely on West Asia justice issues, and his writings have appeared in several publications. Philip has relatives in Gaza who were among the victims of Israel’s genocidal war. He recently retired after a 35-year career as a public sector economist. Divesting the Virgina Retirement System https://vrsdivest.org Upcoming Event on September 19, 2026, in Richmond, Virginia https://bit.ly/vrsrichmond

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about one of the ways in which the Israeli government has been murdering children in Gaza. Our guest, Dr. Mimi Syed, is a board-certified emergency medicine physician from the U.S. with extensive experience in managing trauma and critically ill patients in both urban and rural settings. She is an assistant clinical professor at University of Washington and Washington State University and a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. Dr. Syed served months in Gaza in 2024 at both al-Aqsa Hospital and Nasser Hospital, where she documented severe injuries from drone strikes. She has firsthand experience treating civilians targeted by the Israeli military. And she is coauthor of a new report from the Costs of War Project at Brown University: Lethal Precision Without Accountability: Israeli Government "Quadcopter” Use in Gaza by Mimi Syed, Wes J. Bryant, Charles O. Blaha, Stephanie Savell https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/sites/default/files/Syed_Quadcopter_June2026_CostsofWar.pdf

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about how obeying Trump's demand to move mountains of money into militarism is working out for European nations that had been doing much better than the United States in health and happiness by spending money on things other than wars. Our guest, Mikael Book, lives in Finland which has seen some dramatic changes in the past two years.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking with the great journalist, activist, and now candidate for the U.S. Congress, my friend Sam Husseini. Sam has been tossed out of more fancy events than most of us have ever attended, including I believe a Trump Putin meeting at a palace in Finland, a U.S. State Department briefing, and recently a Chuck Schumer speech at the National Press Club. We'll talk about getting kicked out of things, getting into things, and what the name of this country should be. You can find Sam Husseini at https://husseini.substack.com https://bethatempty.org https://samhusseini.com

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about the DNC, the Democratic National Committee, which is meeting in Austin, Texas, August 12-15, and will be voting on some interesting resolutions, and refusing to vote on at least one other. Key resolutions were drafted by our guest, Michele Johnson, who is a project manager by trade. She is an elected member of her local parish Democratic party council as well as on the executive board of the Louisiana Democratic Party where she serves as the DNC Committeewoman. Outside of work she organizes around food access, clean air and environmental justice issues and consults on field strategy for political campaigns.

This week on Talk World Radio, my recent thoughts on Robert Kagan, Christopher Nolan, Gabriele D'Annunzio, and Donald Trump.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're discussing wars, migrations, and borders with Josephine Solanki who is a project coordinator at the Transnational Institute where she works on the militarisation of the European Union, EU migration and border policy, and related topics. She is also a member of the international Abolish Frontex network. She will also be a speaker at the online annual conference of World BEYOND War coming up in November which is on the topic of borders. LINKS: World BEYOND War's upcoming annual conference https://worldbeyondwar.org/nowar2026 Recent articles by Josephine Solanki: https://www.tni.org/en/publication/military-and-related-spending-in-the-mff-2028-34-proposal https://www.tni.org/en/publication/eu-military-spending-until-2027 https://www.tni.org/en/war-and-pacification/border-wars https://abolishfrontex.org/ https://www.tni.org/en/publication/natos-35-spending-goal

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about a new documentary called An Ordinary Insanity (which you can see at https://www.anordinaryinsanity.com ) which focuses on Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg’s calls to action about the global threat posed by nuclear weapons. Our guest, the maker of this and a number of other wornderful films is Judith Ehrich, film director, writer, and producer. Her 2009 film The Most Dangerous Man in America, also about Daniel Ellsberg, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature and won a Peabody Award.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about nuclear insanity with Dr. Ivana Nikolić Hughes, President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (see https://wagingpeace.org ) and a Senior Lecturer in the Discipline of Chemistry at Columbia University. You can find her at https://nuclearinsanity.substack.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about Venezuela after the earthquakes. Our guest Gabriel Aguirre is Latin America Organizer for World BEYOND War, is from Venezuela, and is currently based in Caracas. He has been an activist and advocate for peace, social justice, international solidarity and human rights, and has more than 13 years of experience in social and community work. He has participated in multiple international events and activities on five continents, always in defense of a stable and lasting peace. He has been a representative to the United Nations to defend the foundations of a more just world without wars or sanctions. His work experience includes participation in several international missions of solidarity to countries that have had military, economic, political, and social conflicts. He has also been an organizer of various campaigns for the closure of military bases, and the lifting of sanctions on countries that suffer their consequences. He holds a degree in Political Science, with a specialization in International Relations, and a master’s degree in Public Policy. He can be contacted through his email: gabriel @ worldbeyondwar.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about whether opposing genocide in the UK is now a serious criminal offense and perhaps terrorism. Our guest, Tony Greenstein, is a leading Jewish anti-Zionist in Britain and founding member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods. His books include Zionism During the Holocaust and A History of Fighting Fascism in Brighton and the South Coast. He has written for numerous outlets, including a recent article in Al Jazeera called "The anti-Semitism smear that ruined Corbyn’s Labour now targets the Greens".

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about U.S. military spending. Greg Williams is the director of the Center for Defense Information at the Project On Government Oversight. The Project on Government Oversight has worked with a number of friends of this program to put out a report called The True Total U.S. Military Budget. See: https://www.pogo.org/reports/the-true-total-u-s-military-budget

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about what the U.S. military does to Hawaii and what Hawaii could be without a massive military occupation. Our guest, Christine Ahn, is an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. She is the Founder and former Executive Director of Women Cross DMZ, a global movement of women mobilizing to end the Korean War and ensure women’s leadership in peace building. In 2015, she led 30 international women peacemakers across the De-Militarized Zone (DMZ) from North Korea, which was the subject of the award-winning 2023 PBS documentary, Crossings. IPS and a number of partners have released a new report called "The True Cost Of The U.S. Military In Hawaiʻi: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Economic, Environmental, Strategic, and Social Impacts of the U.S. Military Presence in Hawai'i." See: https://www.ips-dc.org/report-true-cost-of-u-s-military-bases-in-hawaii

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about campus activism. Our guest, Francis Burns, is a student organizer at Cornell University and a native of Ithaca, New York. He grew up in a family of Catholic Workers who were deeply involved in the anti-war movement throughout the early 2000s. His father was one of the Saint Patrick’s Four. At Cornell, he is vice president of the Cornell progressives and students for justice in Palestine, which are focused on direct action and education surrounding Palestine and other leftist causes on campus. He is currently working on Graham Platner's campaign in Maine for the U.S. Senate.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about Bolivia and people who refuse to put up with outrages that people in the United States sit back and accept. Our guest Kathryn Ledebur is director of the Andean Information Network which is online at https://ain-bolivia.org/about/

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about Iran and how we got to this point. Our guest Stephen Zunes is a professor of politics and program director for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about abolishing the police. Our guest, brian bean, is the author of Their End Is Our Beginning: Cops, Capitalism, and Abolition, which I've just read and highly recommend. brian bean is a Chicago-based socialist organizer, writer, and agitator originally from North Carolina. They are one of the founding editors of Rampant magazine. Their work has been published in Truthout, Jacobin, Tempest, Spectre, Red Flag, New Politics, Socialist Worker, International Viewpoint, and more. They coedited and contributed to the book Palestine: A Socialist Introduction.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about ending the death penalty with Scott Langley, co-founder of Death Penalty Action. See: https://deathpenaltyaction.org https://abolition.org https://forwhomthebelltolls.org

This week on Talk World Radio we speak with John Reuwer, just freed after having been kidnapped at sea by the Israeli military. John Reuwer is Treasurer and a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. He is a retired emergency physician whose practice convinced him of a crying need for alternatives to violence for resolving tough conflicts. This led him to the informal study and teaching of nonviolence for the last 35 years, with peace team field experience in Haiti, Colombia, Central America, Palestine/Israel, and several US inner cities. He worked in South Sudan with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, one of the few organizations practicing professional unarmed civilian peacekeeping. He also serves on the Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons with Physicians for Social Responsibility educating the public and politicians about the threat from nuclear weapons, which he sees as the ultimate expression of the insanity of modern warfare, so blatantly displayed in the current war in Ukraine. John has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses “War Abolition 201” and “Leaving World War II Behind.”

This week on Talk World Radio, we have the great privilege of speaking with John Sayles. John Sayles is an independent filmmaker, screenwriter, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, and once for the National Book Award. He has written eight novels, including, most recently, Jamie MacGillivray and To Save the Man, and his latest which we will be discussing: Crucible.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about community and workplace organizing. Our guest Keith Kelleher was the founder of United Labor Unions (ULU) Local 880 (1983-5), then Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 880 (1985-2008) and then president (2008-2017) of SEIU Healthcare Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas (HCIIMK). Once the smallest local union, it is now the largest local union in Chicago, Cook County, the state of Illinois, and the Midwest, as well as the 7th largest local of the 2 million member Service Employees International Union. Keith has also served as an International Vice President of SEIU. How Black and Brown Women in Chicago Helped Build Jesse Jackson’s Campaigns https://convergencemag.com/articles/how-black-and-brown-women-in-chicago-helped-build-jesse-jacksons-campaigns How Mass-Based Community Unions Could Transform the Country https://forgeorganizing.org/article/how-mass-based-community-unions-could-transform-the-country The Coming Storm In New York https://forgeorganizing.org/article/the-coming-storm-in-new-york

This week on Talk World Radio, we're joined by Howard Yaruss, an economist, professor, attorney, businessman, and activist who teaches at New York University. He has published a new edition of a book called Understandable Economics: Because Understanding Our Economy Is Easier Than You Think and More Important Than You Know.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about Iran, the world, and the problem of war. Our guest Matthew Hoh is a disabled Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War and former Afghan War State Department Officer. In 2009, after being appointed to the Foreign Service, Hoh resigned his post in Afghanistan over the Obama administration’s escalation of the Afghan War. He is now an analyst and commentator on foreign and military policy issues as a senior fellow with the Eisenhower Media Network. He serves on the advisory boards of many peace organizations, including Veterans For Peace and World BEYOND War, and is an associate member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about the U.S. National Guard. Our guest Isaac Evans-Frantz is director of Action Corps. See https://actioncorps.org

John Reuwer is Treasurer and a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. He is a retired emergency physician whose practice convinced him of a crying need for alternatives to violence for resolving tough conflicts. This led him to the informal study and teaching of nonviolence for the last 35 years, with peace team field experience in Haiti, Colombia, Central America, Palestine/Israel, and several US inner cities. He worked in South Sudan with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, one of the few organizations practicing professional unarmed civilian peacekeeping. He also serves on the Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons with Physicians for Social Responsibility educating the public and politicians about the threat from nuclear weapons, which he sees as the ultimate expression of the insanity of modern warfare, so blatantly displayed in the current war in Ukraine. John has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses “War Abolition 201” and “Leaving World War II Behind.”

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about the war on Iran with two of my colleagues from RootsAction. Hanieh Jodat Barnes is Senior Partnerships Coordinator, an Iranian American activist, and one of the founding members of Women’s March Los Angeles. Jeffrey Sterling is Whistleblower Advocate, a former CIA case officer who was at the agency, including the Iran Task Force, for nearly a decade. He served two and a half years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act. No incriminating evidence was produced at trial. His memoir is "Unwanted Spy: The Persecution of an American Whistleblower." Websites mentioned: https://rootsaction.org https://defusenuclearwar.org

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with the wonderful playwright Karen Malpede about her new book, Last Radiance: Radical Lives, Bright Deaths.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about Iran. Norman Solomon is Co-Founder / National Director of RootsAction. He founded the Institute for Public Accuracy in 1997 and is its executive director. Immersed in anti-war, social justice and environmental movements since the late 1960s, he is the author of a dozen books including "War Made Invisible," "War Made Easy" and "Made Love, Got War."

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about peace advocacy in Australia. Our guest, Melanie Morrison, is executive director of the Sydney Peace Foundation which can be found at sydneypeacefoundation.org.au. Melanie Morrison is a human rights, peace, and climate justice advocate with extensive leadership experience in partnerships, strategy, communications, and program development. She is an award-winning journalist, researcher, and producer.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about how the winter Olympics is melting the world's snow away. Our guest, Stuart Parkinson, joining us from England, is Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility which has a new report out called Olympics Torched. Here's the report: https://www.sgr.org.uk/publications/olympics-torched Feb 21-23 are Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about Honduras. Joining us from Honduras is Jared Olson. He is a writer and independent investigative journalist documenting the human fallout from the so-called "war on drugs," state links to organized crime, and the targeting of land and water defenders in Mexico and Honduras. His work has appeared in the Intercept, the Los Angeles Times, the Baffler, the Nation, Foreign Policy, and more. See: https://jaredoperiodista.substack.com/p/my-latest-investigation-translated https://thebaffler.com/latest/spectacle-of-justice-olson https://theintercept.com/staff/jared-olson Feb 21-23 are Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking about Western Asia with Mouin Rabbani. He is a Middle East analyst specializing in the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian affairs. He is the co-editor of the book Aborted State? The UN Initiative and New Palestinian Junctures. He has written for numerous publications and regularly posts writing and videos on Substack. See: https://mouinrabbani.substack.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking with Vijay Prashad, an Indian historian and journalist. Prashad is the author of forty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, and The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power. His most recent book, with Grieve Chelwa, is How the International Monetary Fund Suffocates Africa (Johannesburg: Inkani Books, 2026). Upcoming General Strike: https://x.com/BTnewsroom/status/2015651683477369098 Upcoming Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking with Hartzell Gray from Kansas City, Missouri, who is running as a Democrat in Missouri's fourth Congressional district. His website is hartzellforcongress.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about media and violence. Our guest, Rose A. Dyson, is a media education consultant, scholar, writer, journal editor, public speaker, and activist living in Toronto. She is the author of Mind Abuse: Media Violence and Its Threat to Democracy and will be doing an online book club in February about it at worldbeyondwar.org for those who want to read the book and ask her questions.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with Rose Penelope Yee who is a congressional candidate in California’s newly redrawn Second District. Rose is Chair of the Shasta County Democratic Central Committee and a longtime advocate for healthcare, housing, climate justice, and peace. She was also the endorsed candidate of the California Democratic Party in the 2024 congressional race in District 1. She supports Medicare for All, affordable housing, climate resilience, and an end to U.S. funding for endless war. Her website is RoseForCongress.com

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about U.S. threats and acts of war against Venezuela. Speaking with us from Venezuela is Gabriel Aguirre, Latin America Organizer for World BEYOND War, where I also work. Gabriel is from Venezuela, but is often in Colombia. He has long been an activist and advocate for peace, social justice, international solidarity, and human rights. World BEYOND War is working to pass local resolutions and host a webinar on January 7 and deliver this petition to the U.S. Congress on January 14 — as well as to hold a global day of actions against war on Venezuela on January 17. You can help share useful information on Bluesky, Instagram, and Twitter.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking with Norman Solomon about his brand new book, The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy. The book is free online at BlueRoad.info. It includes wonderful cartoons by Matt Wuerker. Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction, where I also work, and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of more than a dozen books, many of them previously discussed on this program, including War Made Invisible, and War Made Easy.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about a book from New Zealand called Hidden Stories of Heroism for a Peaceful Planet. Our guest is the book's author Linda Hansen, a New Zealand based author of books for both adults and children, whose website is lphansen.com.

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about Native Nations: A Millenium in North America with its author Kathleen DuVal who is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she specializes in early American and Native American history. DuVal is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her website is at kathleenduval.net.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about a jarring new book called The Devil's Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today. The author Susanne Antonetta is our guest.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the damage that's done when Donald Trump opens his mouth or uses social media, in this case to make confused and ignorant utterances about nuclear testing. Our guest, Greg Mello, is executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the collapse of societies with the author of one of the best books I've read in a long time. The book is called Goliath's Curse. The author is Luke Kemp, who is also a Research Affiliate & Former Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking with Guy Feugap who is Africa Organizer for World BEYOND War. He is a secondary school teacher, writer, and peace activist, based in Cameroon. He has long worked to educate youths for peace and non-violence. His work has put young girls in particular at the heart of crisis resolution and awareness raising on several issues in their communities. He joined WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) in 2014 and founded the Cameroon Chapter of World BEYOND War in 2020. The upcoming Imagine Africa Beyond War conference is here https://worldbeyondwar.org/africa2025

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking with Sam Husseini who writes at husseini.substack.com and one of whose recent articles was titled "They Have Torn Down the East Wing of the White House. They Should Keep Going." See https://husseini.substack.com/p/they-have-torn-down-the-east-wing You can find all kinds of projects Sam is working on at http://husseini.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about military bases and the law with Martha Schmidt who is a co-chair of the Human Rights Framework Project and member of the Anti-Militarism Working Group of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). Martha Schmidt holds law degrees from the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin. She wrote a thesis was on the illegality of nuclear weapons in the oceans. Before “retirement”, she practiced labor rights, equal employment and juvenile law in Washington and Illinois. She chaired the World Peace Through Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association several times and led a successful effort for a Bar resolution supporting US ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. She also co-chaired NLG subcommittees on Peace and Disarmament, the Hawaiian Kingdom (illegally occupied by the US), and the Task Force on the Americas. She is also part of the Task Force of the People’s Academy of International Law, which was created by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which is the NLG’s affiliate organization. They have been providing free courses on various topics of international peace and humanitarian and human rights law. She also serves as a board member of the Center for World Indigenous Studies.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about so-called authorizations to use force. Brett Heinz is a policy researcher and freelance writer based in Washington, DC, where his work focuses on economic justice, political inequality, corruption, and U.S. foreign policy. He is currently the Global Policy Coordinator for Economic and Climate Justice at the American Friends Service Committee. You can find his writings at brettheinz.com.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about opening borders with John Washington, author of a terrific book called The Case for Open Borders. John Washington is a staff writer at Arizona Luminaria, a community-focused media outlet where he writes about the border, climate change, democracy, and more. He has written for The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Nation, and The Intercept.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with Abby Martin about her new film, Earth's Greatest Enemy. Earth’s Greatest Enemy, the second feature film project by Abby Martin, is a groundbreaking anti-imperialist environmental documentary. Exempt from international climate agreements and rarely scrutinized in mainstream reporting, the Pentagon is the world’s single largest institutional polluter—spewing carbon, contaminating water, and scarring landscapes across the globe. Combining investigative journalism, striking visuals, and stories from impacted communities, this film challenges audiences to rethink the hidden costs of a global military empire and its planetary consequences. Provocative, urgent, and eye-opening, this is a documentary that will change how you see both the military and environmentalism. See: https://earthsgreatestenemy.com