First Person (Foreign Policy)

The Amazon rainforest has been called “the lungs of the planet” as it plays an outsized role in absorbing the Earth’s carbon dioxide output. But industrial interests have led to rapid deforestation in parts of the Amazon, which is not only disrupting ecosystems but also indigenous communities. To get a better sense of the human impact of deforestation, host John Sutter speaks with the climate activist Nina Gualinga. Gualinga is from the Kichwa community of Sarayaku in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Later in the program, what if the forest itself could become more profitable than logged timber and meat? The journalist Paula Moura brings us a story from the Brazilian Amazon on how local communities, NGOs, and scientists are combining conservation and technology in search of ways to make sure that trees are more valuable if they’re kept alive. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How much would it cost to fix climate change—and who should pay? Should it be the United States—the biggest polluter historically? Should it be China—the largest annual polluter these days? Is the entire industrial world to blame? These are some of the thorny questions the Heat of the Moment host John D. Sutter discusses with Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. Stiglitz is a top expert on how economic policy can play a leading role in steering the world away from fossil fuels. Later, Emily Johnson reports on real-life examples of how investments can kick-start change. She looks at projects supported by our partners at the Climate Investment Funds in Jamaica, Tajikistan, and Turkey. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're uploading the first episode of Seeking Peace from our friends at Georgetown’s Institute for Women, Peace & Security. Enjoy the show and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back with another episode of First Person on Friday.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of the weather these days is forming in an atmosphere that humans have warmed on average by about 1 degree Celsius. It’s not that fossil fuel pollution is causing all the bad weather, but it does play an inextricable role. In this episode of Heat of the Moment, host John D. Sutter speaks with MIT professor Kerry Emanuel, a leading expert on hurricanes and climate change, about how the crisis has evolved. Later in the episode, reporter Dhashen Moodley shares the story of how officials in Mozambique responded to extreme weather by fortifying key elements of their infrastructure to make their country more resilient. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The dialogue surrounding climate change is often passionate and sometimes contentious, especially when it touches on people’s livelihoods, religion, or political beliefs. So how can those seeking action get past the rancor and have a constructive dialogue? In this episode of Heat of the Moment, host John D. Sutter speaks with Katharine Hayhoe, a professor of political science at Texas Tech University, who regularly engages with audiences in deep-red states and other places where going green is seen as political treason. Hayhoe also hosts a digital video series for PBS called Global Weirding that seeks to present the discussion on climate change in an inclusive way. Later on in the episode, Belgian journalist Jan De Deken discusses why he created the Polar Project, an effort to tell the story of those impacted by climate change using a wide range of mediums including virtual reality and live performances. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian recounts his grueling 18 months in an Iranian prison Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FP's flagship podcast gets a reboot Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: A woman who challenged the Saudi regime by getting behind the wheel of a car speaks out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: How Brazilians grew tired of democracy and rallied around a strongman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 On the podcast: How a Saudi-led campaign has starved Yemen’s children Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: The last living Nuremberg prosecutor describes the Allied trials against Nazi leaders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: The price a Turkish newspaper editor is paying for angering Erdogan.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: A Uighur journalist describes the ordeal of her own relatives interned in Xinjiang.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: How a tiny Central American country became a leader in reducing carbon emissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: War correspondent Marie Colvin documented the horrors of war until one of them took her life.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: Inside the British campaign for a second vote on leaving Europe. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: The era of the strongman returns to Brazil. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: How the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 embroiled the U.S. in a trade war and prolonged the Great Depression.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are plenty of people sitting around waiting for some magical new or improved technology to come along and fix the mess we’ve made for ourselves with the climate emergency. That’s probably not going to happen—and, anyway, we have the tools we need to ditch fossil fuels now. In the first part of the episode, reporter Molly Schwartz looks into some of these solutions, including wind farm construction and carbon capture, utilization, and storage. In the second part of the program, host John D. Sutter speaks with Mafalda Duarte, the head of the Climate Investment Funds. (The Climate Investment Funds is FP Studios’ partnering organization for Heat of the Moment.) Duarte explains that her group’s goal is not only to give loans for solar farms and other green projects but also to help tip the scales in favor of a clean energy revolution. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How food production contributes to climate change and what individuals and the agricultural industry can do to make food production, distribution, and disposal more eco-friendly. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Water is our most vital resource, but climate change is making weather patterns and seasonal rainfall less predictable. Now, drought and water scarcity are increasingly threatening the lives and livelihoods of vulnerable communities around the planet. In this episode of Heat of the Moment, host John D. Sutter speaks with Peter Gleick, president emeritus of the Pacific Institute, and a leading global thinker on the relationship between water scarcity and violent conflict. Later on, reporter Portia Crowe travels to Niger to see how investments in drip irrigation are helping farmers adapt to more volatile weather patterns. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: A former CIA analyst on Beijing's interference in the affairs of other countries. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: A scientist who is also an evangelical Christian wants conservatives to believe in climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: What its like to be a journalist in Orban's Hungary Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the Podcast: A human rights activist describes life under Maduro.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: Former Pakistani ambassador Husain Haqqani on America's endgame in Afghanistan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: How chef José Andrés feeds the needy around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: A human rights lawyer describes the 10-year fight for LGBT rights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: a Uighur journalist in exile tells her family's story Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom on how to give women a voice in an arena dominated by men. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: The founder of the group Bellingcat on using open sources to investigate war crimes and other abuses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on First Person we hear from Joel Schectmen, an investigative reporter for Reuters who co-wrote a series of stories in the past year about the UAE’s hacking and surveillance program. His partner on the project was Christopher Bing, also of Reuters. The two reporters discovered, among other things, that the UAE was employing Americans in its secret program, including veterans of the National Security Agency. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg has helped ignite a global youth climate movement that’s energizing a new generation of activists. In this episode we profile two young climate leaders. First, host John D. Sutter talks with Varshini Prakash, a co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a U.S.-based organization whose mission is to get young people to advocate for climate action. We’ll then travel to the Philippines with reporter Avery Thompson and meet Marinel Ubaldo, an activist who is helping her country evolve toward a sustainable future. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Heat of the Moment, climate change is forcing people from their homes, especially in island nations. Host John D. Sutter speaks with Ama Francis, a native of Dominica and a climate law fellow at Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law about ways to change immigration policy to help those whose homelands have been destroyed. In the second part of the episode, the reporter Philip Nii Lartey takes us to Ghana, where the Climate Investment Funds’ Forest Investment Program (FIP) is helping to persuade cocoa farmers stay on their land. With the aid of FIP, farmers are improving yields and mitigating climate change by planting shade trees to protect their cocoa fields. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the world looks to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, there’s hope in the growing renewable energy market. In this episode of Heat of the Moment, Daniel Schrag, the director of Harvard University’s Center for the Environment, speaks to host John Sutter about the benefits of renewable energy and the policy challenges involved in moving to greener power sources. Later, the reporter Sebastian Bouknight travels to Morocco and the Noor Ouarzazate Solar Complex to get a firsthand look at the remarkable advances being made in concentrated solar power. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: A journalist reconstructs the world's worst nuclear disaster. This interview was first broadcast in March of last year. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A look back at the vote in Ireland that ended the abortion ban.  This episode was first broadcast in May of last year. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the podcast: A former China correspondent traces Beijing's sustained effort to erode human rights in Hong Kong. This episode was first aired in June of last year. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Protesters are directing their anger at the political elite for years of corruption and mismanagement. This episode was first aired in October of last year. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Harvard historian Jill Lepore on the long and tortured history of the U.S. immigration debate. Save 15% on FP subscriptions. Visit https://foreignpolicy.com/subscribe/ and enter code PLAYLIST at checkout to claim this offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices