In the very! last! episode! of the Worldly podcast, Zack interviews renowned economic historian Adam Tooze about his forthcoming book, Shutdown — an early history of the year 2020, one that felt to many like the end of the world as they knew it

Authoritarians without borders

Aug 5th, 2021 42m 59s

Zack, Jenn, and Jen Kirby look at how authoritarianism has become internationalized, through the lens of two recent news stories: 1) Fox News host Tucker Carlson choosing to broadcast his show from Hungary this week; and 2) a Belarusian Olympia

Trouble in Tunisia

1 Jul 29th, 2021 41m 44s

Zack, Jenn, and Jen Kirby discuss the political crisis gripping Tunisia following the president’s decision to fire the prime minister and suspend parliament. Tunisia was the big “success story” of the Arab Spring: the one country whose revoluti

iSpy

Jul 22nd, 2021 45m 4s

Zack Beauchamp, Jenn Williams, and Jen Kirby discuss the explosive revelations that a number of governments around the world, from Saudi Arabia to Hungary to India, have been using military-grade spyware made by an Israeli firm to secretly hack

Cuba Libre

Jul 15th, 2021 52m 42s

Worldly guest co-host Jen Kirby talks to Michael Bustamante, professor of Latin American history at Florida International University and the author of Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile (2021), about Cuba’s recent

Erdoğan’s enemy in the NBA

Jul 8th, 2021 46m 1s

Frequent Worldly guest cohost Jen Kirby talks Turkey with NBA player and activist Enes Kanter. Kanter was born in Switzerland to Turkish parents and raised in Turkey, but his criticism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ongoing human r

Brexit interview

Jul 1st, 2021 23m 53s

A special repost from the folks at Today, Explained! While the Worldly team is out enjoying the holiday weekend in the States, TEX host Sean Rameswaram helps walk you through what’s going with Brexit right now — chatting with The Atlantic’s Tom

Hungary's new anti-LGBTQ law gets a red card

Jun 24th, 2021 42m 40s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the European soccer dustup over Hungary’s new anti-LGBTQ law. They explain what the Hungarian law does, how the country’s increasingly authoritarian leader Viktor Orbán is using it — and soccer — to further his anti

Joe Biden’s Eurotrip

Jun 17th, 2021 48m 59s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss President Joe Biden’s big trip to Europe, where he met with the other leaders of the G7 and NATO countries as well as with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The gang examine what Biden actually accomplished on his t

Introducing: Now & Then

Jun 12th, 2021 46m 46s

Now & Then is a new podcast from CAFE hosted by award-winning historians Heather Cox Richardson and Joanne Freeman. Every Tuesday, Heather and Joanne use their encyclopedic knowledge of US history to bring the past to life. Together, they make

Canada’s reckoning with residential schools

Jun 10th, 2021 50m 17s

Zack and Jenn talk about the horrifying discovery of the remains of 215 children at a so-called “residential school” in Canada. They talk about the history of these schools, which were a centerpiece of Canada’s long-running effort to wipe out I

The end of the Netanyahu era?

Jun 3rd, 2021 50m 35s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the political earthquake happening in Israel that could soon see longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ousted from power by a shaky coalition of far-right, centrist, leftist, and Islamist parties. They explain

Why John Cena is apologizing to China

1 1 May 27th, 2021 49m 49s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex explain why WWE wrestling superstar John Cena issued an apology to China this week over a comment he made about Taiwan while promoting his new Fast & Furious 9 movie — and what it says about China’s increasing efforts to us

The big picture of the Israel-Gaza war

May 20th, 2021 51m 54s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex take a look at how, after more than a week of fighting, the war between Israel and Hamas is already reshaping the contours of the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict — deepening entrenched political realities, shaking up a

The Israel-Gaza doom loop

May 13th, 2021 58m 35s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the ongoing fighting between Israelis and Palestinians — the worst violence the conflict has seen in seven years. They explain how the fighting arose out of tensions in Jerusalem, how the militant group Hamas escala

Bonus: Rep. Ro Khanna on what America owes India

May 7th, 2021 42m 20s

On a special bonus Worldly, Zack interviews Rep. Ro Khanna — the vice-chair of the House’s India Caucus — on the covid crisis in that country. They talk about how things got so bad in India and what it says about the state of India’s political

The politics of India’s Covid crisis

May 6th, 2021 46m 56s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the political implications of the ongoing Covid-19 catastrophe in India, where cases are skyrocketing, overwhelming the country’s health care system. They look at how much Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government i

The surprising success of Covid-19 travel bans

Apr 29th, 2021 47m 10s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex are joined by special guest Julia Belluz, Vox's senior health correspondent, to talk about how Vietnam has managed to keep its total coronavirus deaths to just 35 — yes, you read that right, 35 — in part by completely seali

Bonus

The Super League

Apr 23rd, 2021 9m 58s

Twelve of Europe’s richest soccer teams tried, and failed, to create their own elite tournament in a naked money grab. Worldly’s Alex Ward, arguably Vox’s top soccer fan, explains why the move angered basically everyone and the scheme failed —

How Nigeria explains the climate crisis

Apr 22nd, 2021 59m 2s

In a very special Earth Month episode, Zack, Jenn, and Alex use Nigeria as a case study to uncover the deep reasons why it’s so hard for the world to quit fossil fuels. Nigeria is a country deeply threatened by climate change, but it’s also one

America is finally leaving Afghanistan

Apr 15th, 2021 54m 1s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex talk about President Joe Biden’s announcement that all remaining US troops will withdraw from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021 — the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks that launched the war. They discuss what the US with

Jordan’s royal family feud

Apr 8th, 2021 42m 8s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex break down the royal drama that has roiled the normally quiet kingdom of Jordan this week: The king has accused his half-brother, the former crown prince, of a vague conspiracy against the crown and has put him under house

Is Myanmar heading for civil war?

Apr 1st, 2021 42m 52s

Zack, Alex, and returning guest Jen Kirby talk about the potential for a “bloodbath” in Myanmar. Since the military deposed the democratic government in a February 1 coup, pro-democracy protesters and armed ethnic groups have risen up against t

Your questions about the world, answered

Mar 25th, 2021 51m 34s

In a very special Worldly episode, Zack, Jenn, and Alex answer YOUR questions! From the many great listener questions sent in over the last several weeks, the gang picked four to answer in this week’s episode: What is “the Quad” and how does it

Europe’s vaccine disaster

Mar 18th, 2021 55m 59s

Zack, Jenn, and Alex discuss the raft of problems stymying Europe’s vaccine rollout, which has been slower and messier than expected, given some of the earlier successes the continent had controlling infection rates. They talk about why some co