The Finch Podcast

If Myanmar’s history has been a long march towards democracy, the Southeast Asian nation faced a major setback earlier this year. The military recently ousted the de facto leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi, and has begun a crackdown on its own citizens. To make matters much worse, the nation had already been undergoing and executing what the United States calls a genocide. Joshua Kurlantzick is a Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations studying the collapse of democracies, state capitalism, and populism. Formerly at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the University of Southern California Center for Public Diplomacy, and the Pacific Council on International Policy, Kurlantzick has written as a columnist for Time, The Economist, and Mother Jones. And now, he's on The Finch. You can learn more about what we do by following us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, or by checking out our website. New episodes released each Friday.

Understanding and sparring with Russia has been a goal of American diplomacy since the 1950's. But Putin has brought his country to a new level of post-Soviet grandeur. The largest nation in the world is making its presence felt by the ex-KGB man turned politician. Understanding Putin is the main purpose of this episode. His desires, his weaknesses, his endgame.  And there is no better a witness to each than Dr. Angela Stent. The Director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and Eastern European Studies, and a Professor of Government and Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Stent has over 40 years of experience with the USSR and Russia. And now, she’s on The Finch. You can learn more about what we do by following us on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube, or by checking out our website. New episodes released each Friday. 

Asked what's wrong with the country, many Lebanese will say "mafi dawla," there is no state. Princeton University Associate Professor of History and Near Eastern Studies Max Weiss on sectarianism in Lebanon following last year's deadly explosion at the Port of Beirut. Joined by Lebanese student advocates at the Simply Youth Podcast, we discuss corruption, Hezbollah, and the Revolution. Then, 2020 may have had record turnout, but millions of Americans still didn't vote, and not for the reasons you think. Plus, as the world moved online, so did cybercriminals—we investigate massive online attacks to the vaccine cold chain.  Max Weiss' recent work: Roundabout of Death (Translator), In the Shadow of Sectarianism (Author), Arabic Thought Beyond the Liberal Age (Author), Arabic Thought Against the Authoritarian Age Featuring (in order of appearance): Will Fang, Alex Benoit, Max Weiss, Lilia Chahine, Mahmoud Yamani, Marcos Rios, Cassandra He ------------------------------------------- Find more from The Finch at https://www.thefinchpodcast.com Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter = @thefinchmedia

This is a vaccine you've never heard about. University of Cambridge Professor of Social Psychology Sander van Der Linden on inoculating the public against misinformation, and the battle for truth in climate change, the pandemic, and American politics. Plus, how Medicare's Hospital Trust Fund is depleting an alarming rate. And how the January 6th white supremacist mob was not the first time blood was spilt in the Capitol—how precedent can predict what happens next.  The Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab: GoViral! and Bad News Featuring (in order of appearance): Alex Benoit, Will Fang, Sander Linden, Isabel Zhang, Mariah Norman ---------------------------------------------- Find more from The Finch at https://www.thefinchpodcast.com Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter = @thefinchmedia

Is genocide the crime of all crimes? UNC Chapel-Hill Distinguished Professor of Global Human Rights History Dirk Moses on the Problems of Genocide, the symmetry of warfare, and permanent security in America. Plus, a French suburb for artists in exile, the evolution of fingernails and hair, Kazuo Ichiguro's eerie orphanage, and the future of the Republican Party.  Find more from The Finch at https://www.thefinchpodcast.com Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter = @thefinchmedia