Tallberg Foundation Podcast

Is the Middle East going through a realignment as significant as after World War I or since Israel was created in 1948? New realities are emerging: peace among key Arab countries and Israel and growing confidence that local leaders can best produce peace, prosperity and security in the region. Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, the United Arab Emirates long-serving ambassador to the U.S. s and also a key player in the process of creating this new Middle East, discusses the future of the Middle East.

By any measure, Latin American democracy is in trouble. From Mexico to Argentina there has been an accelerating erosion of representative democracy. Is the witches’ brew of the pandemic, underperforming economies, weak rule of law, and structural inequalities more than democracy can bear? Eduardo Amadeo, Argentine economist and politician; Sergio Guzman, Colombian political risk analyst and commentator; Patricio Navia, Chilean political scientist and academic have some answers.

Agriculture as it is practiced today—industrial scale ranching and farming—is already a huge contributor to the accelerating pace of climate change. Is there a better alternative? Can we produce enough food to meet humanity's growing needs and wants, without further environmental damage? Our guest this week has positive answers to those questions. Didier Toubia is co-founder and CEO of Aleph Farms, a company that grows steaks from cow cells. Real steaks—without the downsides of factory farming.

How is Africa doing? In one sense, that's a nonsensical question to ask about 55 countries and almost 1.4 billion people, but even dumb questions can sometimes have smart answers. In this episode, Michela Wrong, who has spent nearly three decades writing about Africa, as a journalist and author, talks about the people, the politics, and the day-to-day realities. Her book, Do Not Disturb, takes a deep dive into President Kagame’s Rwanda which can be read as a window into Africa’s present and its futur

In this special episode, you will meet two Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership prize winners. Listen as two prize recipients and friends, scientist, inventor, and entrepreneur Fio Omenetto and social innovator and entrepreneur Bright Simons, discuss how great leaders can change everything.

“Youth is the hope of our future.” When it comes to governance, is that a good thing in a world where there is a growing body of evidence that youth's satisfaction with democracy is declining in many countries? This episode is part of Tällberg Foundation's exploration of the future of democracy. Listen as Cristóbal Marín Rojas and Julien Richard, discuss the challenges of making democracy work. Both are students at the Paris School for International Affairs at Sciences Po.

The Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Global Leadership Prize named in honor of Jan Eliasson, one of the most accomplished global diplomats of our era. In this special episode, Jan and Alan Stoga, chairman of the Tällberg Foundation discuss how great leaders can change everything. What can you do? Take Jan’s call to action seriously and nominate someone who deserves to be honored at tallbergprize.org Music: "Without You" by Oxime © 2021. Permissions granted courtesy of Oxime Audio https://www.oxime-audio.com

It wasn't that long ago that globalization was universally perceived as a good thing, when policymakers celebrated free trade agreements, and when countries competed to lower barriers to the free flow of goods. But we seem to be moving from a world where markets ruled to one where politics rules. Weijian Shan, chairman, and CEO of PAG, one of Asia's leading investment firms, shares his unique perspective, not just on global markets, but on how the world really works.

A shape-shifting event like the global pandemic affects almost everyone on the planet—especially children. They have seen their education, social and mental health development, nutrition, and health badly damaged. And, it is worse for girls, because in too many countries, girls don’t have anywhere near adequate access to schools, health care, even food. In this episode, Dr. Maliha Khan, one of the leaders of Malala Fund, talks about how the pandemic has made that goal even more difficult to achieve.

In this episode you will meet Nithya Ramanathan, a 2020 prize winners. Nithya is an engineer and social entrepreneur, saving lives through the innovative application of technology, creating and applying data-driven solutions to global challenges. Listen, as she is interviewed by Cecilia Weckstrom, Sr Director, Diversity, Inclusion & People Innovation, Lego and a member of the 2020 prize jury. Music: “Without You” by Oxime © 2021. Permissions granted courtesy of Oxime Audio https://www.oxime-audio.co

What does China—or, more particularly China’s leadership and the Chinese Communist Party— want from the rest of the world?  Jonathan Ward, an American who is rapidly becoming one of that country's leading China experts, thinks they want victory. Dr. Ward, who has lived and worked in China and has a deep affinity for the Chinese people, recently published a new provocative book, China's Vision of Victory. Listen as he shares his perspective on the issue that could literally change the course of his

Early in 2020, when the global pandemic was still gathering force, UNICEF published a prophetic, deeply disturbing document. If anything, what actually has happened—and continues to happen—to children everywhere is, if anything, probably worse than UNICEF imagined.  Robert Jenkins is leading UNICEF's global education response to the pandemic and brings decades of experience and a global perspective to what might easily be the most important and longest lasting impact of COVID. How worried is he?

Today’s world is short of a lot of things—sustainable environment, peace, prosperity, equality—but what we lack most is innovative, global, values-based leadership. If we can find and nurture that kind of leadership, the rest will follow. In this special episode, Jared Genser (one of the three 2020 prize winners), an international human rights lawyer who is teaching and mentoring the next generation of human rights lawyers, is interviewed by Shahidul Alam, photographer, writer, activist and 2020 J

Increased poverty and malnutrition; greater inequality; damaged and depleted health care systems; rising social and political tensions. But is this crisis or opportunity? This week’s guests are dedicated to trying to make the world the kind of place it could and should be. Vidhya Ramalingam is a recognized expert on the use of technology to disrupt violent extremism online. Sarah Durieux focuses on mobilizing citizens online, to help them achieve policies they care about.

Europe is increasingly divided: between the frugal North and the Club Med South; between the illiberal East and the progressive West. In many ways, the latter is more profound at a time when democracy is under pressure almost everywhere. Our guests are engaged in this conflict. Zuzanna Rudzińska-Bluszcz, Poland's Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights and András Léderer, Hungarian Helsinki Committee. Listen as they discuss the profound conflicts that will shape their countries for decades to com

Today's world is short of a lot of things, but what we lack most is innovative, global, values-based leadership. If we can find and nurture that kind of leadership, the rest will follow.  In this special episode, you will meet Sylvia Earle, one of the three 2020 prize winners. Listen, as she is interviewed by Ashok Mirpuri, Singapore's ambassador to the U.S and a member of the 2020 prize jury Music: "Without You" by Oxime © 2021. Permissions granted courtesy of Oxime Audio https://www.oxime-audio.co

Venezuela has been in a death spiral for years. The country have been devastated by political repression and economic depression; its people suffer from huger, malnutrition, shortages of food, medicine and, perhaps worst of all, opportunity. More than 5 million have fled. David Smolansky was chased from his elected post of mayor of El Hatillo and avoided jail by seeking political asylum in the US. Listen as he imagines how his country can go from a failed, kleptocratic state to a prosperous democracy.

Social media has become the lifeblood of modern culture. But it has evolved in ways which reward excessive outrage and which encourage hyper attention to the immediate—untethered from traditions, knowledge, and values. In this week's podcast, Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, is considered one of America's leading legal scholars on freedom of speech talks about the challenges of social media.

Europe has had a bad few years. The struggles between North and South mostly over economics, between East and West mostly over values. Brexit, which shifted the locus of power eastward and distracted European leaders from any possibility of a more positive agenda. The pandemic, which among all its other impacts led to interrupted borders in a Europe that prided itself on having no borders. Pierre Lellouche, former French parliamentarian and minister, worries that bad is likely to get worse.

2020 was an awful year for Iran. It started with the assassination of the country's leading general and ended with the assassination of its most important nuclear scientist. American “maximum pressure” combined with mismanagement took a huge toll on the country. Yet, the regime seems more firmly in power today than a year ago. How can that be? Sima Shine, Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and Dr. Sanam Vakil, Chatham House's Middle East Africa Program, discuss Iran, today and tomorrow.