Toobah Evacuation Update
Our friend is still there, fearing for her life. What is going on in Afghanistan right now? Laura shares Toobah's most recent experience as evacuations stall and no one really knows why. Pete helps ...
7 Sep 20219min
These Are Not My Beautiful Feet
For Pride Month (belatedly posted due to events in Afghanistan and our coverage of those), Austin Richey-Allen recounts his story of gender transition in the Foreign Service. A trans kid, he discover...
3 Sep 202139min
This Didn't Have to Happen
Our disastrous departure from Afghanistan. Hugo Llorens shares his knowledge of the Taliban's subgroups (hint: none abide by the Geneva Convention), his perspective on US domestic politics and its imp...
30 Aug 202129min
And What of Our Friend Toobah?
Wouldn't we all like to know. She's alive, at least. Bad luck becomes good luck as she is turned away on her way to the airport just before the bombs go off.
27 Aug 20212min
Whaddaya Do?
People's lives are at stake in the most urgent way. Policy is a macro-level thing, and utterly necessary. But what about the people themselves? What about Toobah? What should Biden have done? Peo...
20 Aug 202132min
Encore: The Ugly American
Or a traitor, anyway. In an eerily quiet region during the Vietnam war, from a banana grove in the middle of the night, Lionel Rosenblatt discovers that a US military official is guilty of supplying ...
12 Aug 202140min
Encore: Bahrain, So Small, So Important
The Arab Spring – Tunisia, Egypt – we know about these places. But Bahrain is almost never in the news. What is its geopolitical significance, and strategic importance to the US? And why was Ambassa...
5 Aug 202150min
They Will Cut Our Heads, Of Course!
Amb. Ryan Crocker, Middle East expert, explains the value of Foreign Service Nationals and brings it all home with a story of the day that local staff saved his life. Toobah, a former employee of USAI...
29 Jul 202122min
