Talk World Radio

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.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the damage that's done when Donald Trump opens his mouth or uses social media, in this case to make confused and ignorant utterances about nuclear testing. Our guest, Greg Mello, is executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about the collapse of societies with the author of one of the best books I've read in a long time. The book is called Goliath's Curse. The author is Luke Kemp, who is also a Research Affiliate & Former Research Associate at the Center for the Study of Existential Risk at the University of Cambridge.

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking with Guy Feugap who is Africa Organizer for World BEYOND War. He is a secondary school teacher, writer, and peace activist, based in Cameroon. He has long worked to educate youths for peace and non-violence. His work has put young girls in particular at the heart of crisis resolution and awareness raising on several issues in their communities. He joined WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) in 2014 and founded the Cameroon Chapter of World BEYOND War in 2020. The upcoming Imagine Africa Beyond War conference is here https://worldbeyondwar.org/africa2025

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking with Sam Husseini who writes at husseini.substack.com and one of whose recent articles was titled "They Have Torn Down the East Wing of the White House. They Should Keep Going." See https://husseini.substack.com/p/they-have-torn-down-the-east-wing You can find all kinds of projects Sam is working on at http://husseini.org

This week on Talk World Radio we're talking about military bases and the law with Martha Schmidt who is a co-chair of the Human Rights Framework Project and member of the Anti-Militarism Working Group of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). Martha Schmidt holds law degrees from the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin. She wrote a thesis was on the illegality of nuclear weapons in the oceans. Before “retirement”, she practiced labor rights, equal employment and juvenile law in Washington and Illinois. She chaired the World Peace Through Law Section of the Washington State Bar Association several times and led a successful effort for a Bar resolution supporting US ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. She also co-chaired NLG subcommittees on Peace and Disarmament, the Hawaiian Kingdom (illegally occupied by the US), and the Task Force on the Americas. She is also part of the Task Force of the People’s Academy of International Law, which was created by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, which is the NLG’s affiliate organization. They have been providing free courses on various topics of international peace and humanitarian and human rights law. She also serves as a board member of the Center for World Indigenous Studies.

This week on Talk World Radio we are talking about so-called authorizations to use force. Brett Heinz is a policy researcher and freelance writer based in Washington, DC, where his work focuses on economic justice, political inequality, corruption, and U.S. foreign policy. He is currently the Global Policy Coordinator for Economic and Climate Justice at the American Friends Service Committee. You can find his writings at brettheinz.com.