Beyond the Scoop: A Harriman Magazine Podcast

In the latest episode of Beyond the Scoop from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University, host Masha Udensiva-Brenner speaks with geopolitical analyst Tinatin Japaridze (MARS-REERS ’19) about Georgia’s democratic backsliding and the personal toll of watching it unfold from afar. Blending memoir and analysis, Tinatin reflects on her childhood in post-Soviet Georgia, her family’s displacement during the Georgian civil war, and her unexpected journey from music to geopolitics. As protests erupt in Tbilisi over the government’s pivot away from Europe, she explores how Soviet legacies, generational divides, and rising authoritarianism continue to shape the present.

Ambassador Sarah Mendelson (Ph.D., Political Science, GSAS ‘93) has been working in democracy and human rights promotion for decades, including posts in the Obama Administration, first leading USAID’s democracy, human rights and governance work and later as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. Mendelson has long noticed cracks in the field of international democracy promotion, particularly in the United States. In this episode, she discusses the problems in the field, why we need new approaches to human rights and development, and how she hopes to implement these approaches through a Carnegie Mellon initiative called Sustainable Futures. The project, in the pilot stages in Pittsburgh, is based on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals framework. It uses AI to collect data on the most pressing local issues and brings these issues to the attention of local representatives. If successful, Mendelson hopes it can serve as a model for global development.    

In the first episode of Beyond the Scoop, Season 2, editor Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews political scientist, and former Harriman Institute director Timothy Frye about his essay in the 2026 issue of Harriman Magazine, which tracks the evolution of U.S. soft power through Frye's personal experiences working on soft power projects.    Frye discusses his time as a young guide working for a U.S. Information Agency traveling exhibit in the late Soviet Union, and his thoughts on the current state of U.S. soft power, an element of U.S. foreign policy that enjoyed bipartisan support for decades until the Trump administration dismantled most of the programs that brought American aid and American culture to the rest of the world.   

Harriman Magazine editor Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews Latvian investigative journalist Inga Springe of Re:Baltica about the rise and fall of the newspaper Diena, Latvia's journey to join NATO and the EU, and how investigative journalism addresses corruption and Russian influence in the Baltic region.

In mid-March, the Trump Administration began its attempts to dismantle U.S. International Broadcasting. Harriman Magazine editor Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviewed journalist Jeffrey Trimble about the rise and fall of U.S. International Broadcasting in the latest episode of Beyond the Scoop: A Harriman Magazine Podcast, from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University. Trimble, an author in the latest issue of Harriman Magazine, is a former executive at the U.S. Board of Broadcasting Governors and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.  This episode was written and produced by Masha Udensiva-Brenner and edited by Ann Cooper. Music from Blue Dot Sessions. Podcast cover design by Brayden Hill.

Time Magazine Senior Correspondent Simon Shuster discusses his book on Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and the first year of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine; the current state of affairs; and some of the historical context that brought us here.

Harriman Magazine editor Masha Udensiva-Brenner interviews editor-in-chief Ann Cooper about her experiences covering the end of the Soviet Union for NPR; how we might reframe that period; and some of the articles in the 2025 issue of Harriman Magazine.