The Dissident's Dilemma: Case Studies of Moral Courage in an Age of Authoritarianism with Gal Beckerman
In this episode of The Burn Bag, Gal Beckerman joins us to explore what it means to be a dissident in an age of conformity, fear, and authoritarian drift. Drawing on themes from his new book, How to B...
4 Juni 55min
Violence as an Epidemic: From Community Harm to War and Authoritarianism with Dr. Gary Slutkin
In this episode, The Burn Bag speaks with Dr. Gary Slutkin, a physician, epidemiologist, former World Health Organization official, and founder of Cure Violence Global, about a provocative idea: what ...
27 Maj 55min
Rethinking China: Could Washington be Getting Beijing Wrong? w/ Zhengyu Huang
In this episode of The Burn Bag Podcast, A’ndre Gonawela sits down with Zhengyu Huang — former President of the Committee of 100 and author of Rethinking China — to examine the assumptions driving U.S...
19 Maj 49min
Data Centers as Targets: What Happens if the Cloud and AI Infrastructure gets Hit? with Morgan Plummer
For decades, wars targeted oil fields, pipelines, ports, and power grids. But in March 2026, that logic appeared to change when Iranian strikes reportedly targeted commercial cloud infrastructure in t...
7 Maj 50min
Fuels, Ports, and Power: How South Asia's Smaller States are Navigating Crisis, with Nilanthi Samaranayake
As geopolitical tensions spill into the Indian Ocean, smaller states in South Asia are finding themselves on the frontlines of crises they did not choose. From the sinking of an Iranian vessel off Sri...
29 Apr 46min
Global (Dis)Order: America and the Future of the International System with Dr. Mira Rapp-Hooper
In this episode of the Burn Bag Podcast, A'ndre Gonawela is joined by Mira Rapp-Hooper, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Special Assistant to the President and Senior D...
31 Mars 51min
Iran After Khamenei: Vali Nasr on the New Supreme Leader and Tehran's War Strategy
Who is Mojtaba Khamenei — Iran's new Supreme Leader? Who was the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? In this episode of the Burn Bag Podcast, A’ndre Gonawela is joined by Vali Nasr, the Majid Khadduri Professor o...
13 Mars 42min
