If You Were In Charge

A Leadership Podcast with Sanam Naraghi Anderlini & Kavita Ramdas
  • 4.3 (6)
  • News Commentary
  • Updated Biweekly

If You Were In Charge with Sanam Naraghi Anderlini and Kavita Nandini Ramdas. A radical leadership podcast about people, power & possibilities from ICAN and ADA, told through a feminist perspective on leadership. Sanam and Kavita represent voices that are rarely heard in podcasting. Two powerful advocates for peace and social justice, women leaders with roots in India and Iran, who have led careers as global citizens at the highest levels. In a world increasingly led by autocratic superpowers, exploiting fear and uncertainty, the premise of If You Were In Charge is simple: for every major problem out in the world, there are ordinary people finding extraordinary solutions. This podcast focuses on those who know the truth of poet June Jordan’s words, “we are the ones we have been waiting for”. Join Sanam and Kavita, each week as they champion women's leadership and reimagine a better future with thought-provoking discussions and insights from leading global experts. If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN (International Civil Society Action Network). This is an ADA Production.

  1. Sanam on Iran: How to Stop the War and Win the Peace

    4d ago ·  Bonus

    Sanam on Iran: How to Stop the War and Win the Peace

    In this short mid-season episode of the leadership podcast If You Were In Charge, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini puts on her peace negotiation hat and asks a simple question: if she were in charge, how would she end the conflict with Iran? A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. Drawing on thirty years in peacebuilding, Sanam argues that war is not working and economic sanctions are not working, which leaves only one real option on the table: negotiations. But not the adversarial, who-won-who-lost kind we are seeing now. She makes the case for a more inclusive peace process, one built on two pillars, political will and inclusivity, where Iranians from the health, education, housing and environmental sectors have a seat at the table alongside UN agencies to decide how reparations and rebuilding are handled. She also tackles the question everyone is asking: who is actually in charge in Iran right now? And she closes with a reminder, in the words of the poet June Jordan, that "we are the ones we have been waiting for", and a reflection on what she calls advanced citizenship. A full episode returns in a couple of weeks to mark London Climate Week with Laura Garcia, CEO of the Global Greengrants Fund. Enjoyed this episode? Follow If You Were In Charge wherever you listen and leave a rating to help more people find the show. Get in touch and stay connected: Email ICAN: info@icanpeacework.org Sign up to the ICAN newsletter: https://icanpeacework.org/2025/03/sign-up-to-icans-newsletter/ More from us: adapodcasts.com If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN, the International Civil Society Action Network. An ADA Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    13 min
  2. Naila Kabeer: The Economics of Care - Moving Beyond GDP

    May 19

    Naila Kabeer: The Economics of Care - Moving Beyond GDP

    Feminist economist Naila Kabeer joins Sanam and Kavita on the leadership podcast If You Were In Charge to ask why we still measure success in GDP and what we could build if we counted care, peace and the planet. A clear-eyed, hopeful conversation about Beyond GDP, the absurd cost of the war in Iran for future generations, and the everyday agency that changes the world. A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. On this episode before we get to the interview, Sanam and Kavita pick up the threads Naila weaves through the conversation. They look at the $20 trillion annual cost of war, the way the care economy quietly runs on immigrant women, and the Iranian paradox where 65% of university professors are women inside a theocracy. A vivid reminder of why we need new ways to measure what's actually working in our societies. We then welcome in Naila who explains how GDP was invented in wartime to count what could be sold, and what it has always quietly excluded: the unpaid work that holds families together, the rivers and forests that hold up the planet, and a system now monopolised by a handful of oligarchs. She unpacks the staggering price tag of war nearly $20 trillion a year, around 11.6% of global GDP and asks what we could build instead if we counted care, peace, human capabilities, and the rights of the living world. We also hear about her new book “Renegotiating Patriarchy: Gender, Agency and the Bangladesh Paradox” — a study of how ordinary women, in some of the most oppressive circumstances, have changed their societies not through revolution but through everyday persistence. “Despair is a luxury for the well-off. I do not think we can afford to despair.” Enjoyed this episode? Follow If You Were In Charge wherever you listen and leave a rating to help more people find the show. Get in touch and stay connected: Email ICAN: info@icanpeacework.org Sign up to the ICAN newsletter: https://icanpeacework.org/2025/03/sign-up-to-icans-newsletter/ More from us: adapodcasts.com If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN, the International Civil Society Action Network. An ADA Production. Naila Kabeer Links. LSE faculty page: https://www.lse.ac.uk/international-development/people/naila-kabeer Naila's personal site (books, articles, talks): https://nailakabeer.net/ Renegotiating Patriarchy — free open-access download (LSE Press, 2024): https://press.lse.ac.uk/books/m/10.31389/lsepress.rpg UN High-Level Expert Group on Beyond GDP — members: https://www.un.org/en/beyondGDP/members IAFFE Feminist Economics Podcast (Kavita mentions this at the end): https://www.iaffe.org/feminist-economics-podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    47 min
  3. Raffaella Bolini: Europe's New Arms Race - The Only Winning Move Is Not to Play

    May 5

    Raffaella Bolini: Europe's New Arms Race - The Only Winning Move Is Not to Play

    On the leadership podcast If You Were In Charge, Italian peace activist Raffaella Bolini was on the streets of the 80s peace movement against the Euromissiles. Forty years later, she's back, pushing back on a Europe planning to spend €6.8 trillion on armaments over the next decade. In conversation with Sanam Naraghi Anderlini and Kavita Nandini Ramdas, she makes the case for common security, the politics of care, and a multipolar Europe of intersectional regions. The only winning move, she argues, is not to play. A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. Sanam and Kavita open the episode with the latest flotilla to be intercepted on the way to Gaza, the unfolding war in Iran, and the absurdity of trillions being spent on defence at the expense of future generations, while everything from healthcare to social services goes without. But not without hope. They also remember the remarkable legacy of Cora and Peter Weiss, whose memorial was held this month, two activists at the forefront of the peace and justice movement for their entire lifetimes. Enjoyed this episode? Follow If You Were In Charge wherever you listen and leave a rating to help more people find the show. Get in touch and stay connected: Email ICAN: info@icanpeacework.org Sign up to the ICAN newsletter: https://icanpeacework.org/2025/03/sign-up-to-icans-newsletter/ More from us: adapodcasts.com If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN, the International Civil Society Action Network. An ADA Production. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    47 min
  4. Guest Episode: Disrupting Peace

    Apr 28 ·  Bonus

    Guest Episode: Disrupting Peace

    A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. What beliefs make people willing to commit violence, and what could change their minds? In this episode, we explore what makes individuals vulnerable to white supremacist beliefs, what it means when extremism becomes mainstream, the surprising permeability of these groups, and how to talk to people in your life who express racist ideology. Peter Simi is a professor of Sociology at Chapman University, and an expert on extremist groups and violence in the US. Among his many publications, he is co-author of American Swastika: Inside the White Power Movement's Hidden Spaces of Hate, and Out of Hiding: Extremist White Supremacy and How It Can be Stopped. Find out more about Peter at: https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/pete-simi.aspx. Sara Winegar Budge holds a doctorate in Psychology and is a licensed psychologist in Oregon. She is the Director of US Programs at Moonshot, which builds technology to identify and disrupt organized crime, child sexual exploitation, and trafficking, among other forms of abuse and violence. Her clinical work focuses on individuals who are or have been involved in violent extremism. Find out more at https://moonshotteam.com/ In this episode, we talk about Stephen Tyrone Johns, Bridget's former colleague from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum who was killed by a white supremacist. You can learn more about him, and contribute to a fund in his name, here: https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/in-memoriam/stephen-tyrone-johns-1969-2009. Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Kaelen Song. Show artwork by Simon Fung. This season was partially funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Special thanks to Lisa Avery and Alex de Waal, and the Tufts Digital Design Studio team. Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Instagram and TikTok at @worldpeacefdtn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    50 min
  5. Anasuya Sengupta: AI, Colonising Knowledge, and Iran's Information War

    Apr 20

    Anasuya Sengupta: AI, Colonising Knowledge, and Iran's Information War

    The internet is a monocrop. A plantation of knowledge in English, owned by a handful of mega corporations, built on the bones of colonial infrastructure. And we are no longer just the consumers and as ever we are the product, the training set, the data points. So who gets to imagine the future? A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. This week on If You Were In Charge, Sanam and Kavita sit down with Anasuya Sengupta, co-founder of Whose Knowledge?, a global multilingual campaign to centre the knowledges of marginalised communities (the minoritised majority of the world) online. Anasuya traces a direct line from the telegraph networks of the British Empire to today’s Big Tech monopolies. But this is not just a story of extraction. Anasuya shares what it looks like when voices from the margins reimagine technology. From building sovereign language models in Bangla, Urdu and Hindi, to transforming Wikipedia so that women are no longer invisible. The episode opens with Sanam and Kavita reflecting on the Iran ceasefire, the extraordinary Lego memes coming out of Iran, and what it means when the world is surprised that Iranians have both sophisticated technology and a sense of humour. Anasuya Sengupta — Co-founder of Whose Knowledge? Enjoyed this episode? Follow If You Were In Charge wherever you listen and leave a rating to help more people find the show. Get in touch and stay connected: Email ICAN: info@icanpeacework.org Sign up to the ICAN newsletter: https://icanpeacework.org/2025/03/sign-up-to-icans-newsletter/ More from us: adapodcasts.com If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN, the International Civil Society Action Network. An ADA Production. Original Music, Little Monster Media Executive Producer: Pearse Lynch This is an ADA Production Timeline 00:00 — Cold open: Anasuya on “plantation tech” 00:26 — Intro with Sanam and Kavita 00:36 — Hosts discuss the Iran ceasefire, Lego memes, and Iranian political humour 07:15 — Transition to the possibilities theme and Arundhati Roy quote 07:35 — Reflection on the ceasefire moment and what comes next 10:30 — Discussion of Anthropic, AI containment, and Palantir 12:13 — Main interview begins: Anasuya Sengupta on the internet and search 14:30 — Tech solutionism and the polycrisis 16:34 — Colonial history of the internet: telegraph to Big Tech 20:30 — Infrastructure: who owns the message vs the messenger 23:12 — “We are the training set” — AI and data extraction 24:21 — Founding of Whose Knowledge? and feminist tech activism 28:16 — Women’s invisibility in knowledge systems and Wikipedia 33:12 — “If you were in charge” — reimagining tech from the margins 35:37 — Language, plantation tech, and multilingual futures 38:26 — Disability rights and imagining from the margins in 40:09 — Scaling across, not scaling up 43:30 — The right to refusal and feminist archives 47:24 — Representation: necessary but insufficient 49:38 — A growing coalition for change 50:15 — Radical idea: knowledge as a commons 52:59 — Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    54 min
  6. Farhana Yamin, Reetta Toivanen & Rana Dajani: Iran, Gaza Reax - Why Never Again Is Now

    Apr 6

    Farhana Yamin, Reetta Toivanen & Rana Dajani: Iran, Gaza Reax - Why Never Again Is Now

    Hospitals in Iran are preparing to evacuate children. International institutions are issuing statements while bombs fall on petrochemical plants. And five women sit down in Berlin to ask: what radical ideas should actually be common sense? A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. This episode of If You Were In Charge opens with hosts Sanam Naraghi Anderlini and Kavita Ramdas in conversation about the Iran crisis. Trump’s threats of escalation, the spectre of nuclear disaster, and the devastating parallel with Gaza. They ask the question that frames the whole episode: have the institutions built by generations of careful, caring work, the UN, the IAEA, international law has finally failed us? Then the episode moves to Berlin, where Sanam and Kavita are joined by three extraordinary guests for a live group conversation recorded at the Robert Bosch Foundation Forum: Farhana Yamin — World-renowned climate lawyer. Attended COP 1 in Berlin in 1995. Now working on global governance and philanthropy for frontline communities. Reetta Toivanen — Finnish legal anthropologist and Professor at the University of Helsinki. Researches refugee knowledge and just transition in Europe. Rana Dajani — Palestinian-Syrian professor of molecular cell biology. Researches the epigenetics of trauma. Founded We Love Reading, now in 78 countries. Together, they tackle: abolishing national borders, valuing care work, why trauma survivors inherit agency (not victimhood), diaspora economies that outperform foreign aid, AI that can’t tell a scientist from a nun, and what it really means to put feminists—of every gender—in charge. Enjoyed this episode? Follow If You Were In Charge wherever you listen and leave a rating to help more people find the show. Get in touch and stay connected: Email ICAN: info@icanpeacework.org Sign up to the ICAN newsletter: https://icanpeacework.org/2025/03/sign-up-to-icans-newsletter/ More from us: adapodcasts.com If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN, the International Civil Society Action Network. An ADA Production. Original Music, Little Monster Media  Executive Producer: Pearse Lynch This is an ⁠⁠⁠⁠ADA Production⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    52 min
  7. Stefanie Fox: Not in Our Name - Jewish Anti-Zionism Amid an Expanding Iran War

    Mar 23

    Stefanie Fox: Not in Our Name - Jewish Anti-Zionism Amid an Expanding Iran War

    What does it mean when the world's largest progressive Jewish organisation says "not in our name"? This week on the leadership podcast If You Were In Charge, Sanam and Kavita sit down with Stefanie Fox, Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), to explore the growing movement of Jewish anti-Zionism in America and beyond. Stefanie walks us through how JVP now three times the size it was three years ago is organising hundreds of thousands of Jews to withdraw their complicity from Israeli apartheid and genocide through boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns, Israel bonds divestment at city and state level, and deep cultural work reclaiming Judaism beyond Zionism. From the mechanics of how American taxpayer money flows to the Israeli treasury, to the personal cost of leading a movement under legal attack and White House scrutiny, Stefanie offers a clear-eyed, hopeful account of what collective organising can achieve and why refusing the politics of despair is itself an act of resistance. We are also joined by Sanams daughter Soleh joins us from Cambridge. Where she gives her view on JVP and their role in the student protests over Gaza. A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. Guest: Stefanie Fox, Executive Director, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Links: Jewish Voice for Peace Wrestling with Zionism storytelling project If You Were In Charge Enjoyed this episode? Follow If You Were In Charge wherever you listen and leave a rating to help more people find the show. Get in touch and stay connected: Email ICAN: info@icanpeacework.org Sign up to the ICAN newsletter: https://icanpeacework.org/2025/03/sign-up-to-icans-newsletter/ More from us: adapodcasts.com If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN, the International Civil Society Action Network. An ADA Production. Original Music, Little Monster Media  Executive Producer: Pearse Lynch This is an ⁠⁠⁠⁠ADA Production⁠ TIMESTAMPED CHAPTER MARKERS 00:00 – 00:33 | Cold Open 00:33 – 01:27 | Intro & Welcome Sanam introduces the episode. Soleh joins from Cambridge. 01:27 – 02:16 | How they got Stefanie 02:16 – 04:36 | Soleh on JVP's cultural impact Separating anti-Zionism from anti-Semitism. 04:36 – 06:28 | JVP's statement on the war on Iran 06:28 – 08:50 | Asymmetric warfare If Iran survives, it's winning. The logic of escalation on all sides. 08:50 – 09:40 | Iran's opposition & the monarchists Both regime and opposition willing to sacrifice the nation. Reza Pahlavi's MAGA-style approach. 09:40 – 11:04 | Global ripple effects Gas shortages in India, Sri Lanka rationing, Pakistan's crisis — the war's worldwide impact. 11:04 – 13:31 | Geography & supply chains Soleh's generation discovering the Strait of Hormuz. 13:31 – 14:13 | Language & culture 14:13 – 15:43 | Happy Nowruz 15:43 – 16:35 | Human cost of targeted killings Larijani's assassination and 100+ civilian deaths. 16:35 – 17:17 | Transition to interview Stefanie welcomed on. 17:17 – 20:07 | Who is JVP? World's largest progressive Jewish org for Palestinian rights. 100+ chapters. Three times the size it was three years ago. 20:07 – 21:05 | Growth amid horror More grassroots power than ever, yet the genocide continues. 21:05 – 23:45 | What is Zionism? Why anti-Zionism? Zionism as political ideology leading to expulsion and ethnostate. True safety through solidarity. 23:45 – 26:23 | Self-censorship & the anti-Semitism smear Sanam on 20 years of self-censorship in America. South Africa parallel. 26:23 – 28:42 | JVP's day-to-day work Three pillars: political, financial, cultural. BDS campaigns and Israel bonds divestment. 27:38 – 30:27 | Israel bonds explained 30:27 – 32:20 | BDS-proofing the economy How Israel uses bonds to underwrite the war economy. Public opinion shifting. 32:20 – 34:31 | Complicity & tax resistance Nuremberg tribunals, aiding and abetting through taxes. BDS as collective action. 35:03 – 39:50 | Culture shift Anti-Zionist Jews since the 19th century. Identity fusion only since 1967. Wrestling with Zionism project. 39:58 – 42:54 | Sanam on Iranian Jews & identity Iran's Jewish community. Being labelled anti-Semitic in America for criticising Israel. 42:54 – 44:44 | Anti-Semitism & Zionism as "cousins" Montague and the Balfour Declaration. Both ideologies rooted in Western nation-state building. 44:44 – 47:17 | Threats, lawsuits & Project Esther Five active lawsuits. Named in Project Esther. On a White House list. 47:17 – 48:46 | Q: Radical idea that should be normal? 47:59 – 49:56 | Q: If you were in charge of US policy? Full divestment, end US funding of Israel, invest in life-sustaining programmes. 50:02 – 51:13 | Q: Billionaire / What gives you hope? No billionaires. Hope = organising and refusing the politics of despair. 51:13 – 53:50 | Tangible wins $30 million divested from Israel bonds in the last month. Mamdani's election. 53:50 – 58:41 | If you were in charge of the media Manufacturing consent. The debunked NY Times piece. Passive voice on Gaza vs. Ukraine. Assassinated Palestinian journalists. 58:41 – 59:32 | Closing "Hope is great, but it's the strategy that really matters." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    1h 1m
  8. Maya & Nancy Yamout: The Cycle of Violence and Extremism

    Mar 9

    Maya & Nancy Yamout: The Cycle of Violence and Extremism

    On the leadership podcast If You Were In Charge, we begin with Sanam and Kavita discussing the war in Iran. A leadership podcast about people, power and possibilities. Sanam shares what she is hearing from inside Iran as US and Israeli forces continue to strike across the country. Reflecting on the school strike, the sinking of a naval vessel by a US submarine, and the election of a new Supreme Leader. She considers where this chaos and violence may ultimately lead. Sanam and Kavita then sit down with Maya and Nancy Yamout, two extraordinary sisters from Lebanon who understand better than most the long-term consequences of war, extremism, and violence. Maya and Nancy Yamout are forensic social workers renowned for their deradicalisation work targeting Islamist extremists within Lebanon's prison system. Following the death of a mutual friend who had joined an extremist group, they co-founded the non-governmental organisation Rescue Me in 2011, focusing on rehabilitating at-risk youth and inmates. This conversation explores the complex world of countering extremism through personal testimony, rehabilitation, and community rebuilding in Lebanon. Maya and Nancy share their experiences working inside prisons, navigating family dynamics, and fostering empathy as a tool to prevent violence. Enjoyed this episode? Follow If You Were In Charge wherever you listen and leave a rating to help more people find the show. Get in touch and stay connected: Email ICAN: info@icanpeacework.org Sign up to the ICAN newsletter: https://icanpeacework.org/2025/03/sign-up-to-icans-newsletter/ More from us: adapodcasts.com If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN, the International Civil Society Action Network. An ADA Production. Original Music, Little Monster Media  Executive Producer: Pearse Lynch If You Were In Charge Website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    59 min
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Ratings & Reviews

4.3
out of 5
6 Ratings

About

If You Were In Charge with Sanam Naraghi Anderlini and Kavita Nandini Ramdas. A radical leadership podcast about people, power & possibilities from ICAN and ADA, told through a feminist perspective on leadership. Sanam and Kavita represent voices that are rarely heard in podcasting. Two powerful advocates for peace and social justice, women leaders with roots in India and Iran, who have led careers as global citizens at the highest levels. In a world increasingly led by autocratic superpowers, exploiting fear and uncertainty, the premise of If You Were In Charge is simple: for every major problem out in the world, there are ordinary people finding extraordinary solutions. This podcast focuses on those who know the truth of poet June Jordan’s words, “we are the ones we have been waiting for”. Join Sanam and Kavita, each week as they champion women's leadership and reimagine a better future with thought-provoking discussions and insights from leading global experts. If You Were In Charge is brought to you by ICAN (International Civil Society Action Network). This is an ADA Production.

Information

  • Creator
    A Leadership Podcast with Sanam Naraghi Anderlini & Kavita Ramdas
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    39
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © ADA Productions Ltd
  • Show Website
    If You Were In Charge

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