12 episodes

The Gen Z Global Affairs podcast is dedicated to engaging and informing Gen Z about various international affairs, crises, and dynamics in preparation to be contributors and decision-makers in the future. We also have a weekly newsletter that gives a summary of all the week’s most important global events that you can subscribe to on our website! You can reach us by email at genzglobalaffairs@gmail.com or visit our website at genzglobalaffairs.com.

Gen Z Global Affairs Dana Adibifar

    • News
    • 5.0 • 6 Ratings

The Gen Z Global Affairs podcast is dedicated to engaging and informing Gen Z about various international affairs, crises, and dynamics in preparation to be contributors and decision-makers in the future. We also have a weekly newsletter that gives a summary of all the week’s most important global events that you can subscribe to on our website! You can reach us by email at genzglobalaffairs@gmail.com or visit our website at genzglobalaffairs.com.

    The Iran Series: A Conversation with Michael Metrinko- Foreign Service Officer, Peace Corps Volunteer/Diplomat, and Hostage During the Iran Hostage Crisis

    The Iran Series: A Conversation with Michael Metrinko- Foreign Service Officer, Peace Corps Volunteer/Diplomat, and Hostage During the Iran Hostage Crisis

    In this episode, our host Dana interviews Michael Metrinko, a foreign service officer, Peace Corps volunteer/diplomat, and hostage during the Iran Hostage Crisis about Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution and Hostage Crisis. 
    Shortly before he graduated from Georgetown University in 1968 and then departed for Peace Corps training, Michael Metrinko watched the flames that erupted on the Washington horizon following the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King. It was a portentous scene, signifying vast social and political change, and one that Metrinko would see again and again in his 25 years of service outside the United States. Some version of martial law, police brutality, mob violence, terrorism or bloody revolution were hallmarks of almost every place he served.
    Two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Turkey and then 3 more years with the Peace Corps in Iran prepared him for several years more years as a Foreign Service Officer in both of those countries, and he witnessed the Turkish-Cypriot War, the rise of ethnic hostility in Turkey, the heavy hand of Hafez Al -Assad’s police during an assignment to Syria, and then the frenzy and violence of events as Iran fell into revolution. He was taken to prison twice in Iran, once in Tabriz in 1979 because he had remained behind as the only U.S. official in western Iran in an effort (ultimately successful) to help 4 Americans and 4 other westerners escape from the Tabriz prison. That was followed by a return to Iranian prison later that same year in the better-known 444 days of the Hostage Crisis. Both were harsh experiences.
    In the early 1980s, he was assigned to Krakow, Poland, for 3 years, and watched as the Polish Solidarity Movement crashed up against the Communist government. And then on to Israel in 1989 for 4 years as Consul General in Tel Aviv, where he closely witnessed the ongoing Palestinian intifada. And the Persian Gulf War, when Iraq’s Saddam Husseinn repeated the air attacks over Israel that Metrinko had already experienced in 1980 when Saddam Hussein launched his invasion of Iran and Metrinko was in an Iranian prison under aerial bombardment.
    There were, of course, some quiet times in Washington and abroad, but 9/11 changed the world. Metrinko was called out of retirement and asked to go to Kabul to help the newly opening embassy for 30 days. That “30 days” turned into more than 5 years in Afghanistan, with a series of Embassy-related and military-advisory positions that led him over much of the country. A second assignment in Yemen took him there for several months to help the Embassy in Sana’a, and the war in Iraq resulted in his two deployments into that combat zone in 2004 and 2009. And now? His focus is on helping Afghan refugee students adjust to their new lives in America.
    Stay tuned for our next episode and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter which you can do by visiting our website genzglobalaffairs.com. Questions, comments, feedback, or requests for future episodes and topics? Send us an email at genzglobalaffairs@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

    • 2 hr 22 min
    The Iran Series: A Background of Iran

    The Iran Series: A Background of Iran

    In this episode of the Gen Z Global Affairs Podcast, our host Dana provides a historical and political background of Iran. Stay tuned for our next episode and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter which you can do by visiting our website genzglobalaffairs.com. Don't forget to follow us on social media! Questions, comments, feedback, or requests for future episodes and topics? Send us an email at genzglobalaffairs@gmail.com

    • 27 min
    The Russia-Ukraine War: A Conversation with Gen Z Ukrainian Student and Activist, Catarina Buchatskiy

    The Russia-Ukraine War: A Conversation with Gen Z Ukrainian Student and Activist, Catarina Buchatskiy

    In this episode, our host Dana interviews Gen Z Ukrainian student and activist, Catarina Buchatskiy. She is the co-founder of the Shadows Project, a youth-led Ukrainian cultural organization. Catarina grew up in Kyiv, Ukraine, and watching the annexation of Crimea shaped her passion for national security and foreign affairs. She is now a student at Stanford University majoring in International Relations with a focus on International Security.

    Stay tuned for our next episode and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter which you can do by visiting our website genzglobalaffairs.com. Questions, comments, feedback, or requests for future episodes and topics? Send us an email at genzglobalaffairs@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

    • 37 min
    The Russia-Ukraine War: A Conversation with Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer

    The Russia-Ukraine War: A Conversation with Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer

    In this episode, our host Dana interviews former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer about the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war. 
    Ambassador Steven Pifer is an affiliate of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University as well as a non-resident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution. He was a William J. Perry Fellow at the center from 2018-2022 and a fellow at the Robert Bosch Academy in Berlin from January-May 2021. Pifer’s research focuses on nuclear arms control, Ukraine, Russia, and European security. He has offered commentary on these issues on National Public Radio, PBS NewsHour, CNN, and BBC, and his articles have been published in a wide variety of outlets. He is the author of The Eagle and the Trident: U.S.-Ukraine Relations in Turbulent Times (Brookings Institution Press, 2017), and co-author of The Opportunity: Next Steps in Reducing Nuclear Arms (Brookings Institution Press, 2012).
    A retired Foreign Service officer, Pifer’s more than 25 years with the State Department focused on U.S. relations with the former Soviet Union and Europe, as well as arms control and security issues.  He served as deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibilities for Russia and Ukraine, ambassador to Ukraine, and special assistant to the president and senior director for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia on the National Security Council. In addition to Ukraine, he served at the U.S. embassies in Warsaw, Moscow, and London as well as with the U.S. delegation to the negotiation on intermediate-range nuclear forces in Geneva. From 2000 to 2001, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford’s Institute for International Studies, and he was a resident scholar at the Brookings Institution from 2008 to 2017.
    Stay tuned for our next episode and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter which you can do by visiting our website genzglobalaffairs.com. Questions, comments, feedback, or requests for future episodes and topics? Send us an email at genzglobalaffairs@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

    • 1 hr 6 min
    The Russia-Ukraine War: A Background

    The Russia-Ukraine War: A Background

    In this episode of the Gen Z Global Affairs Podcast, our host Dana discusses the Russian Invasion of Ukraine. She provides a historical background of the two country’s relations as well as their respective history. Stay tuned for our next episode and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter which you can do by visiting our website genzglobalaffairs.com. Don't forget to follow us on social media! Questions, comments, feedback, or requests for future episodes and topics? Send us an email at genzglobalaffairs@gmail.com

    • 22 min
    Afghanistan and the Taliban Takeover: A Conversation Gen Z Afghan Activist and Educator, Pashtana Dorani

    Afghanistan and the Taliban Takeover: A Conversation Gen Z Afghan Activist and Educator, Pashtana Dorani

    In this episode, our host Dana interviews Gen Z Afghan feminist, activist, and educator, Pashtana Dorani. At the age of 21, she became the head of her family following her father’s passing. By then she had already founded LEARN Afghanistan, the country’s first-ever digital school network. LEARN has educated 7,000 girls in Kandahar, Afghanistan, and trained more than 80 teachers in digital literacy. LEARN also focuses on girls’ health, and has trained 700 girls in menstrual hygiene management. Forced into exile by the Taliban takeover in 2021, she is currently a visiting fellow at Wellesley Centers for Women while continuing to provide education for hundreds of girls in Afghanistan despite the current ban on them from attending school. Dorani is a regular commentator on TV and radio and has been the subject of articles and profiles in PBS, BBC, and Elle magazine. Dorani has also been named a Global Education Champion by the Malala Fund for her outstanding work to advance Afghan girls’ education. The BBC nominated her as one of its 100 most influential women in 2021 and she was additionally included in the #Times100talks in 2022. Dorani is a member of UNGEI’s Feminist Education Coalition, is an Aspen New Voices Fellow and she also received the 2021 Tällberg-SNF-Eliasson Emerging Leader prize. She previously served as a global youth representative for Amnesty International and as a board member of the steering committee for the Global Environment Facility. Dorani’s biography, Last to Eat, Last to Learn, will be published in the United States and Italy in 2023.
     
    Stay tuned for our next episode and don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter which you can do by visiting our website genzglobalaffairs.com. Questions, comments, feedback, or requests for future episodes and topics? Send us an email at genzglobalaffairs@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and Twitter!

    • 51 min

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