Talk World Radio

This week on Talk World Radio, we're joined by Howard Yaruss, an economist, professor, attorney, businessman, and activist who teaches at New York University. He has published a new edition of a book called Understandable Economics: Because Understanding Our Economy Is Easier Than You Think and More Important Than You Know.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about Iran, the world, and the problem of war. Our guest Matthew Hoh is a disabled Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War and former Afghan War State Department Officer. In 2009, after being appointed to the Foreign Service, Hoh resigned his post in Afghanistan over the Obama administration’s escalation of the Afghan War. He is now an analyst and commentator on foreign and military policy issues as a senior fellow with the Eisenhower Media Network. He serves on the advisory boards of many peace organizations, including Veterans For Peace and World BEYOND War, and is an associate member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about the U.S. National Guard. Our guest Isaac Evans-Frantz is director of Action Corps. See https://actioncorps.org

John Reuwer is Treasurer and a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. He is a retired emergency physician whose practice convinced him of a crying need for alternatives to violence for resolving tough conflicts. This led him to the informal study and teaching of nonviolence for the last 35 years, with peace team field experience in Haiti, Colombia, Central America, Palestine/Israel, and several US inner cities. He worked in South Sudan with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, one of the few organizations practicing professional unarmed civilian peacekeeping. He also serves on the Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons with Physicians for Social Responsibility educating the public and politicians about the threat from nuclear weapons, which he sees as the ultimate expression of the insanity of modern warfare, so blatantly displayed in the current war in Ukraine. John has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses “War Abolition 201” and “Leaving World War II Behind.”

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about the war on Iran with two of my colleagues from RootsAction. Hanieh Jodat Barnes is Senior Partnerships Coordinator, an Iranian American activist, and one of the founding members of Women’s March Los Angeles. Jeffrey Sterling is Whistleblower Advocate, a former CIA case officer who was at the agency, including the Iran Task Force, for nearly a decade. He served two and a half years in prison after being convicted of violating the Espionage Act. No incriminating evidence was produced at trial. His memoir is "Unwanted Spy: The Persecution of an American Whistleblower." Websites mentioned: https://rootsaction.org https://defusenuclearwar.org

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with the wonderful playwright Karen Malpede about her new book, Last Radiance: Radical Lives, Bright Deaths.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about Iran. Norman Solomon is Co-Founder / National Director of RootsAction. He founded the Institute for Public Accuracy in 1997 and is its executive director. Immersed in anti-war, social justice and environmental movements since the late 1960s, he is the author of a dozen books including "War Made Invisible," "War Made Easy" and "Made Love, Got War."

This week on Talk World Radio, we're talking about peace advocacy in Australia. Our guest, Melanie Morrison, is executive director of the Sydney Peace Foundation which can be found at sydneypeacefoundation.org.au. Melanie Morrison is a human rights, peace, and climate justice advocate with extensive leadership experience in partnerships, strategy, communications, and program development. She is an award-winning journalist, researcher, and producer.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about how the winter Olympics is melting the world's snow away. Our guest, Stuart Parkinson, joining us from England, is Executive Director of Scientists for Global Responsibility which has a new report out called Olympics Torched. Here's the report: https://www.sgr.org.uk/publications/olympics-torched Feb 21-23 are Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about Honduras. Joining us from Honduras is Jared Olson. He is a writer and independent investigative journalist documenting the human fallout from the so-called "war on drugs," state links to organized crime, and the targeting of land and water defenders in Mexico and Honduras. His work has appeared in the Intercept, the Los Angeles Times, the Baffler, the Nation, Foreign Policy, and more. See: https://jaredoperiodista.substack.com/p/my-latest-investigation-translated https://thebaffler.com/latest/spectacle-of-justice-olson https://theintercept.com/staff/jared-olson Feb 21-23 are Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking about Western Asia with Mouin Rabbani. He is a Middle East analyst specializing in the Arab-Israeli conflict and Palestinian affairs. He is the co-editor of the book Aborted State? The UN Initiative and New Palestinian Junctures. He has written for numerous publications and regularly posts writing and videos on Substack. See: https://mouinrabbani.substack.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking with Vijay Prashad, an Indian historian and journalist. Prashad is the author of forty books, including Washington Bullets, Red Star Over the Third World, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World, The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South, and The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of U.S. Power. His most recent book, with Grieve Chelwa, is How the International Monetary Fund Suffocates Africa (Johannesburg: Inkani Books, 2026). Upcoming General Strike: https://x.com/BTnewsroom/status/2015651683477369098 Upcoming Global Days of Action to #CloseBases: https://daytoclosebases.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're speaking with Hartzell Gray from Kansas City, Missouri, who is running as a Democrat in Missouri's fourth Congressional district. His website is hartzellforcongress.com

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about media and violence. Our guest, Rose A. Dyson, is a media education consultant, scholar, writer, journal editor, public speaker, and activist living in Toronto. She is the author of Mind Abuse: Media Violence and Its Threat to Democracy and will be doing an online book club in February about it at worldbeyondwar.org for those who want to read the book and ask her questions.

This week on Talk World Radio, we're speaking with Rose Penelope Yee who is a congressional candidate in California’s newly redrawn Second District. Rose is Chair of the Shasta County Democratic Central Committee and a longtime advocate for healthcare, housing, climate justice, and peace. She was also the endorsed candidate of the California Democratic Party in the 2024 congressional race in District 1. She supports Medicare for All, affordable housing, climate resilience, and an end to U.S. funding for endless war. Her website is RoseForCongress.com

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about U.S. threats and acts of war against Venezuela. Speaking with us from Venezuela is Gabriel Aguirre, Latin America Organizer for World BEYOND War, where I also work. Gabriel is from Venezuela, but is often in Colombia. He has long been an activist and advocate for peace, social justice, international solidarity, and human rights. World BEYOND War is working to pass local resolutions and host a webinar on January 7 and deliver this petition to the U.S. Congress on January 14 — as well as to hold a global day of actions against war on Venezuela on January 17. You can help share useful information on Bluesky, Instagram, and Twitter.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking with Norman Solomon about his brand new book, The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy. The book is free online at BlueRoad.info. It includes wonderful cartoons by Matt Wuerker. Norman Solomon is the national director of RootsAction, where I also work, and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of more than a dozen books, many of them previously discussed on this program, including War Made Invisible, and War Made Easy.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about a book from New Zealand called Hidden Stories of Heroism for a Peaceful Planet. Our guest is the book's author Linda Hansen, a New Zealand based author of books for both adults and children, whose website is lphansen.com.

This week on Talk World Radio, we are talking about Native Nations: A Millenium in North America with its author Kathleen DuVal who is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she specializes in early American and Native American history. DuVal is a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Guggenheim Fellow. Her website is at kathleenduval.net.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about a jarring new book called The Devil's Castle: Nazi Eugenics, Euthanasia, and How Psychiatry's Troubled History Reverberates Today. The author Susanne Antonetta is our guest.