Carnegie Council Audio Podcast

In this episode host Hilary Sutcliffe explores . . . accidents from another angle. There is one thing we thought we knew about accidents, that they are accidental, no-one's fault, simply the result of human error. But author and journalist Jessie Singer’s in her compelling book There Are No Accidents shows that whilst one person dies by accident in the United States alone every three minutes these deaths are in fact far from accidental. The majority are not random acts of God but are the predictable and preventable if only money and power were not prioritized at the expense of ordinary people. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

This interview was recorded on December 16, 2022. Solar radiation modification may one day be needed to reduce climate risks, but great uncertainties remain, and more research and inclusive governance is needed to assess it, says Maarten Van Aalst, during a  C2GTalk. That requires discussions at all levels with people from a range of political and ethical backgrounds, in ways which respect different perspectives. Van Aalst is director general and chief science officer at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), having assumed that role on February 1, 2023. Before that, and at the time of this recording, he was director of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, the reference center on climate risk management for the international Red Cross Red Crescent movement. Van Aalst is also coordinating lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC WGII) and member of the European Advisory Board on Climate Change under the European Climate Law. For more, including tra

Current iterations of AI are increasingly able to encourage subservience to a non-human master, telling potentially systematic untruths with emphatic confidence. Senior Fellow Anja Kaspersen, AIEI Board Advisor Kobi Leins, and Carnegie-Uehiro Fellow Wendell Wallach argue that AI is closing, not opening, many pathways for work, meaning, expression, and human connectivity. To read this article, please go to carnegiecouncil.org.

Governing climate-altering technologies fairly will be very challenging, because of a democratic deficit, a transparency deficit, a coherence deficit, and an accountability deficit in global governance systems, says Kumi Naidoo in a C2GTalk. Nonetheless, it will be crucial to put justice at the heart of these considerations, by ensuring balanced participation of peoples, rooted in science, and in a spirit of redressing past injustice. Kumi Naidoo is a South African human rights and climate justice activist. As a 15-year old, he organized school boycotts against the Apartheid educational system in South Africa. Naidoo was later part of the leadership that sought to establish the African National Congress (ANC) as a political party and he then served as the official spokesperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the overseer of the country's first democratic elections in April 1994. He was previously secretary-general of Amnesty International, international executive director of Greenpeace Internat

In this episode, host Hilary Sutcliffe explores . . . expectation from another angle. Her guest David Robson delves into the science of expectation in his award-winning new book The Expectation Effect. They discuss how changes in our expectations can have dramatic effects on our bodies, minds, actions, and life outcomes. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

As a UN vote in February revealed, the world is divided on how to respond to Russia's continuing war against Ukraine. In this Ethics Article, Carnegie Council President Joel Rosenthal says that, for the sake of global security, "common interests," like protecting civilians, must be forged when there is disagreement on values. To read this article, please go to carengiecouncil.org. 

In this episode host Hilary Sutcliffe explores . . . ourselves at work from another angle. She talks with Gabriella Braun about her intriguing book All That We Are: Uncovering the Hidden Truths Behind Our Behaviour at Work, which in a series of compelling stories about company problems, strips away the outward trappings of status, power, and even our skills and experience, and shows that what goes on beneath, and in our past, is what really drives our behavior. They discuss how this knowledge can empower us to better understand our colleagues and ourselves making the work place a kinder, better place to be. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Caribbean countries have led the global push to limit warming to 1.5°C because the impacts of going above that would be so severe for their future wellbeing. In a C2GTalk, University of the West Indies' Professor Michael Taylor said it was important for the region to be involved in the research and governance of solar radiation modification, because decisions may soon be needed as to whether it could be an option to keep temperatures down. Taylor is professor of climate science and dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the Mona campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI). He is the co-director of the Climate Studies Group, Mona (CSGM) which is a center of regional thought and expertise with respect to climate change science for small islands and the wider Caribbean. He is a coordinating lead author for Chapter 3 of the Special Report on 1.5 Degrees of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Taylor has also received the Silver Musgrave Medal for Science from the Institute of Jama

A new space boom is underway. Commercial activity is multiplying, and new state actors are developing space programs. Subsequently, ethical concerns are emerging regarding the responsibilities of these actors and how to adapt space governance policies to protect space security. Brian Weeden, a space sustainability expert from Secure World Foundation, joins Amelia Mae Wolf to give listeners an understanding of these ethical challenges. For more from Wolf on space sustainability, check out her recent article for the Tony Blair Institute. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

As competing factions in Sudan wage war for the fourth week since tensions erupted, civilian suffering intensifies. What does the escalating conflict mean for the country, the region, and the world? Christopher Tounsel, associate professor of history and interim director of the African Studies Program at the University of Washington, joins Doorstep co-hosts Tatiana Serafin and Nikolas Gvosdev to map the strategic importance of Sudan to global trade and security. What is at stake if U.S.-led talks to broker peace fail? How has the Sudanese diaspora in the U.S. and around the world changed the face of the conflict? Can a civilian led democratic movement come to power in Sudan? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

In this episode, host Hilary Sutcliffe explores . . . regulation from another angle. The basis of most regulation and criminal justice is the concept that instilling fear of consequences, such as fines, sanctions, and jail is the best way to deter future misbehavior in companies and individuals. Her guest this week Chris Hodges OBE, emeritus professor of justice systems at the University of Oxford and a legal scientist and former regulator, explores the extensive research which shows that in reality this is not true and why it often does the opposite, increasing the chances of further bad conduct. He explains that our better understanding of human nature shows that the learning is more important than the sanction and how an approach called “outcome-based cooperative regulation” holds much promise for a more effective way to achieve the purposes of regulation with better outcomes for individuals, companies, and society. For more, please go to carengiecouncil.org. 

Microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Until recently, the United States was the #1 superpower, but its edge is slipping due to competition from Taiwan, Korea, Europe, and, above all, China. In Chip War, economic historian Chris Miller explains how America’s advantage in the chip market led to economic and military superiority, and what it could mean if China catches up. In this virtual book talk, Miller and Doorstep co-hosts Tatiana Serafin and Nikolas Gvosdev discuss the current state of politics, economics, and technology, and the vital role played by chips. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

In this episode, host Hilary Sutcliffe explores . . . democracy from another angle. For most people, democracy means elections, then governing, and then four years later, you do it again. Claudia Chwalisz, founder and CEO of DemocracyNext, has different ideas. Her vision is for a democracy that is a lot more “democratic,” where you as a citizen have a real say in how your country is run, and might even do away with elections and politicians altogether. Chwalisz previously established and led the OECD's work on innovative citizen participation, and co-authored the organization’s flagship report "Innovative Citizen Participation and New Democratic Institutions: Catching the Deliberative Wave," documenting over 600 examples of how citizens have shaped decision-making. For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

As electric vehicles become more common, policymakers will have a new set of ethical dilemmas to confront, says Senior Fellow Nikolas Gvosdev in this Ethics Article. Questions about pollution and geopolitics remain and the economic benefits are unclear and uneven. To read this article, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

The global energy crisis, greener energy, and the expansion of renewables (and those high electric bills) are many of the reasons electricity grids are making headlines. Research firm BloombergNEF estimates that demand for electricity will increase by 60 percent by 2050. What does this mean for policymakers and market influencers? Chiara Lo Prete, associate professor at the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to explain our cross-border electric grid connections and the need to re-frame global geopolitical risks with these grids in mind. How can we create robust electricity foreign policy? Can we move forward with a global energy grid? What is China's role in driving change? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

In this episode, host Hilary Sutcliffe explores . . . the way we think about ourselves from another angle. She talks with Jon Alexander, founder of the New Citizenship Project and author of the inspiring book Citizens: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us, one of McKinsey's top five recommended books of 2022 alongside those of Bill Gates, Francis Fukuyama, Adam Grant, and Henry Kissinger. Alexander explores changes in the way we see ourselves, how we see one another, how the organizations and institutions that structure our society see us, and how we behave as a result. He also shows how the shift from people as subjects to consumers and now to citizens changes what we believe is possible. What are the implications for individuals and societies when we make the shift from being seen as passive consumers of products to empowered citizens? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

For our final Women's History Month podcast, The Doorstep launches a special live event series traveling across the country over the next year. In collaboration with Marymount Manhattan College and their Social Justice Academy: Great Migrations, co-host Tatiana Serafin speaks with Sana Mustafa, CEO of Asylum Access, about the need to re-frame our discussion about forcibly displaced persons starting with understanding how language shapes rights. In 2022, over 100 million people suffered displacement with greatly divergent access to rights and resources. What more can we do to build intersectional alliances and bring refugees into decision-making? How can we counter decades of structural bias and bring more accountability to states and NGOs? What can we do at a local level local to increase the pace of change? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

Climate tipping points are points of no return, beyond which the Earth's systems would reorganize beyond the capacity of socioeconomic and ecological systems to adapt, warns the OECD's Jo Tyndall, in a new C2GTalk. Policymakers need to do more to address these risks now, including through support for carbon dioxide removal technologies, accounting for both opportunities and challenges. While solar radiation modification is not currently feasible, more research is needed. Jo Tyndall is director of the Environment Directorate at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) where she oversees the implementation of the Directorate’s program of work, covering a broad range of environmental issues, including: green growth, climate change, biodiversity, quality of ecosystems, eco-innovation, circular economy, and resource productivity. Click here for more C2GTalk podcasts.

In the second conversation of our Women's History Month podcast series, Kristina Lunz, co-CEO and co-founder of the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, joins Doorstep co-hosts Nick Gvosdev and Tatiana Serafin to discuss the need for a new mindset in foreign policy decision-making that advances global gender equality. To date, 11 countries have adopted a feminist foreign policy to challenge legacy power hierarchies and gendered institutions, with Germany leading the way. What can other states, including the U.S., learn from their example? What challenges remain to global acceptance of a new way of framing foreign policy debates? How can civil society alliances promote new narratives that close the global gender gap? For more, please go to carnegiecouncil.org. 

In this first episode, host Hilary Sutcliffe explores . . . our freedom to think from another angle. We might feel that what goes on in our heads remains in our heads, but international human rights lawyer Susie Alegre explores the surprising ways that our innermost thoughts are being exposed and manipulated through the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI). She explains how what is often seen as the most fundamental human right, our freedom of thought, is being eroded; what this means in practice, and what we can do to protect what goes on in our minds. Alegre is the author of an award-winning book, Freedom to Think: The Long Struggle to Liberate Our Minds. You can read her article "Freedom of Thought is a Human Right" in Wired's "World in 2023" issue or browse her extensive broadcasting and writing on this subject on her website.