On Shifting Ground World Affairs

By 2030, it’s estimated one out of every six people on planet earth will be over 60. Thanks to leaps in technology and public health, people are living longer and better than ever before. 
 
We’re taking a look at what economists and demographers are calling “the Silver Wave.” Ray speaks with MIT’s Joseph F. Coughlin,and New York Times Tokyo Bureau Chief Motoko Rich, on the challenges – and opportunities – that global aging presents. 



Guests:
 
Joseph F. Coughlin, PhD, Founder and Director of MIT’s AgeLab
 
Motoko Rich, Tokyo Bureau Chief for the New York Times
 
Host:  
Ray Suarez
 
If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
 

For the most part, the world has gone back to normal. We’re getting on planes… going to concerts… but many Americans haven’t changed their pandemic drinking habits. And this increased consumption trend is especially high for older Americans.
 
In 2020, alcohol accounted for more than 11,000 deaths among those 65 and up – that’s an 18 percent increase from the previous year – and many of those cases went untreated. 
 
Ray speaks with Keith Humphreys, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, to understand why.
 
Guest:
 
Keith Humphreys, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University
 
Host:  
 
Ray Suarez
 
If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.
 

Ray Suarez talks with former NPR Beijing correspondent Louisa Lim about China’s brazen efforts to stamp out free speech in Hong Kong, the city she grew up in. Lim shares the experiences she chronicled in her book Indelible City, an emotional eyewitness account of the pro-democracy protests and a reflection on Hong Kong’s identity.
 
Guest:  
 
Louisa Lim, journalist and author of  “Indelible City: Dispossession and Defiance in Hong Kong” 
 
Host: 
 
Ray Suarez
 
If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Ray Suarez speaks with Sebastien Lai, the son of the imprisoned media mogul Jimmy Lai, and Jonathan Price, a member of Lai’s legal team. He’s on trial for his pro-democracy campaign, and they explore the fate of Hong Kong after China’s passage of the restrictive Article 23.
 
Guests:
  
Sebastien Lai, democracy advocate and son of jailed Hong Kong businessman and publisher
 
Jonathan Price, a member of Jimmy Lai’s legal team
 
Host: 
 
Ray Suarez
 
If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Abortion advocates have long warned the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade would reverberate across all areas of reproductive health. Two years later, state personhood laws have challenged IVF and birth control… further threatening women’s bodily autonomy.
 
In our third special election episode, we explore how the issue of abortion rights is likely to shape the 2024 election. First, we hear from two women whose lives were changed by rapidly shifting legislation surrounding IVF and abortion access. Then, Ray Suarez sits down with Dr. Jamila Perritt, President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH), and UC Davis Law Professor Mary Ziegler to discuss the upcoming cases before the Supreme Court, and who may be the next “Roe”.
 
Special thanks to All Roads Productions LLC for sharing the audio of Maleeha’s encounter with a crisis pregnancy center. You can watch the full scene from “Preconceived” at preconceivedfilm.com.
 
Guests:  
 
Latorya Beasley, therapist and in vitro fertilization (IVF) patient in Alabama
 
Maleeha Aziz, Deputy Director at the Texas Equal Access Fund
 
Dr. Jamila Perritt, President and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health (PRH)
 
Mary Ziegler, Martin Luther King Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis
 
Host: 
 
Ray Suarez
 
Guest Producer: Elize Manoukian
 
If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.

Earlier this year, a grassroots movement emerged in the key battleground state of Michigan calling on Democratic voters to cast “uncommitted votes” in protest of president Joe Biden’s policy towards Israel’s war in Gaza. And in the months since, it’s gone national. But are Arab and Muslim American voters willing to gamble a second Trump presidency to hold Biden accountable for his Israel policy?
 
Nihad Awad, a CAIR Action board member, joins Ray Suarez to share why Arab and Muslim voters feel abandoned by the Democratic party, and why they won’t be bullied into accepting the “lesser of two evils.” 
 
Guest:
 
Nihad Awad, Board Member of Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Action
 
Host:  
 
Ray Suarez
 
If you appreciate this episode and want to support the work we do, please consider making a donation to World Affairs. We cannot do this work without your help. Thank you.