SoftPower/FulStories

Claire St. Amant left her beloved Texas to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, halfway across the world. When she was finished, she was ready to return to Texas. But what she learned in between--in the classroom of the Peace Corps--were the skills that propelled her success as a reporter, then a producer on the television show 48 Hours, then as a podcast host and producer for Final Days on Earth (a true crime program that has us hooked), and now as an author. This week: From Texas to Tysmenytsya and back to Texas.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

Even though her classmates may have recognized her as a future ambassador before she did herself, Kate Byrnes' swift ascent from the U.S. Information Agency to the Department of State to, yes, becoming a U.S. Ambassador, left little to doubt. A big part of her success was learning at a young age (a very young age, in her case) the value of showing up, being present, listening, and finding the ever-present opportunities that present themselves daily as diplomats interact with people around the globe.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

In the face of ICE's sweeping detention and deportation push, Minnesotans are responding not with panic or illegal action, but with a steady, deeply-rooted ethic of neighborliness--quietly organizing, opening their homes and houses of worship, showing up in public to bear witness, and drawing on the State's long traditions of civic engagement and moral seriousness, to insist that dignity, due process and basic human decency remain stronger than fear. And it is with every one of these sentiments that we introduce "Jane" from Minneapolis. She is a loving mother of three and an entrepreneur, juggling an equally full-time commitment to her community's needs. She is one of 1.5 million U.S. citizens who have no pathway through marriage to offer their spouses legal status or citizenship. All of this while her mixed-status family finds itself in a present-day occupation.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

Everybody assumed that Marian Rivman would grow out of her high school fascination with the Peace Corps. She did not. But her early experiences in the Peace Corps left a lot to be desired. Dangerous areas, bats, rats, and snakes, and even a dead body in her living room, were enough for her to question what she had gotten herself into. Enter the Diaz family. And Marian Rivman's life would never be the same.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

(Note: This is the second of a two-part episode. We strongly recommend you start with Part 1.)Mark Ward is a committed humanitarian who led teams to provide critical help after natural or man-made disasters. He saved lives and restored hope to communities affected by many disasters over two decades, including the 2004 tsunami and the Syrian Civil War. In (so-called) retirement, he returned to Afghanistan to lead a humanitarian organization. None other than George H.W. Bush dubbed him "Mr. Disaster." He is--in short--a guy whose stories cannot be contained in a single episode.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

Mark Ward is a committed humanitarian who led teams to provide critical help after natural or man-made disasters. He saved lives and restored hope to communities affected by many disasters over two decades, including the 2004 tsunami and the Syrian Civil War. In (so-called) retirement, he returned to Afghanistan to lead a humanitarian organization. None other than George H.W. Bush dubbed him "Mr. Disaster." He is--in short--a guy whose stories cannot be contained in a single episode.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

From the time of her childhood, Christine Herbert seemed destined to follow those Saturday morning TV commercials proclaiming "the toughest job you'll ever love." In her case, it meant rural Zambia and, far more than the snakes, "flat dogs," or baby owls, it was the people she came to treasure. And they, in turn, loved the muzungu who kept them all entertained.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

PLEASE LEND YOUR EARS: This inaugural episode of 'Powerful Stories" (PS1) features a chorus of Minnesota voices—frontline witnesses, supportive neighbors, community leaders—bearing witness to the unprecedented and antagonistic ICE surge in the Twin Cities. Their impressions are raw, immediate, and very personal. Together, they help form a portrait of a deep, diverse community refusing to fracture under pressure. To a person, this is a moment unlike any they have ever experienced. From my seat on the other side of the Atlantic, I wanted to see and hear through their eyes and ears, and to explore the sense I have that this Administration picked the wrong place to visit with retribution and heavy-handed cruelty. Minnesota voices: Jacques Harvieux, Bill Moseley, Lenny Russo, Brent Snyder, Jerry Thom, Dmitri Wurst, Aidan Zielske, Cathy (“Dubious Aunt Deb”) Zielske, Daniel Zielske, & thoseothers who know who they are.Ambient protest sounds recorded in Minneapolis on January 24 and January 31, 2026. Voices recorded between January 15– February 1, 2026Please share this with people you think should hear it, and don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly if you have stories you feel need to be told. 'Powerful Stories' is an offshoot of 'SoftPower/FulStories' (SP/FS), focusing on inspirational community leaders and stories within the United States. SP/FS uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing. But forget politics, policy, or punditry; this is all about the stories.

Cy Kuckenbaker is an award-winning American filmmaker, video artist, and arts professor. He is also something of an expert on Lithuania and its tortured past. First as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a Fulbright scholar, his immersion in the small Baltic country was profound. The lessons he's learned echo powerfully in the present.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

Chris Thomas remembers well where he came from and how he got to where he is. As a young Peace Corps volunteer in rural Sierra Leone, he quickly understood that the people who had so warmly welcomed him into the village were rapidly teaching him valuable lessons about life and community. It's fair to say that Chris has spent the rest of his life paying those lessons forward and helping to unleash human ingenuity all over the world.'SoftPower/FulStories' uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing. But forget politics, policy, or punditry; this is all about the stories.

Hamse Warfa's remarkable life has taken him from war-torn Somalia to currently-torn Minnesota. A small list of his stops between these two locations includes refugee camps in Kenya, Harvard, the Minnesota State Government, and the U.S. Department of State, as the highest-ranking Somali-American Presidential appointee ever. He did not regularly receive formal education until he entered high school in the United States, yet he now possesses a Bachelor's degree, and Masters of Science, and a PhD. Currently, he's the CEO of World Savvy, an educational non-profit. Oh, and he's the author of two (going on three) books and the co-founder of a blockchain technology company. He is, by any estimation, remarkable.Unlike many SP/FS programs, this one is particularly of the moment. I was born and raised in Minnesota; it is my hometown. What is happening there right now is as chilling as it is unprecedented. And, though I live away from there now, I spend every day feeling Minnesota--as, I hope, you do too.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

SP/FS is proud to share the new episode of Global Development Interrupted, a podcast and Substack page we follow enthusiastically. You may remember that GDI's founder and host, Leah Petit, was featured on SP/FS #18 (go find it if you haven't yet listened — she's great), talking about her long career in global health work. GDI shares the voices of people whose work was upended when USAID was dismantled and foreign aid was cut, revealing what the loss means for America and progress worldwide. Leah's experience, wit, and stellar guest choices make GDI a must-listen here at SP/FS HQ. Even when that guest is SP/FS creator Christopher Wurst...For more info, go to: https://globaldevinterrupted.substack.com/

He left the U.S. as Allan J. Wind, but by the time his Peace Corps stint in Ecuador ended, he had been rechristened as "Dr. Alonzo" - which is what his driver's license now says. From being an unlikely radio star, to a health minister's good luck charm, to a series of NGO roles worldwide, and eventually to Gaza in the midst of a war, Allen J. Alonzo Wind has had an incredible journey.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

Jody Olsen called her Peace Corps memoir 'A Million Miles' - and while the distance from her traditional Mormon upbringing in Utah and a rural Tunisian health clinic may not have been a literal million miles, it likely felt like even more. But those miles brought countless lessons, all of which she put to good use when, after decades of leadership roles within the Peace Corps, she became its 20th Director.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

Let's face it, 2025, things could have gone a whole lot better. But it was the birth year for SP/FS, and on this special bonus episode, virtually the entire SP/FS Class of '25 storytellers return with reflections on the year past and wishes for 2026. Join us for a special cup of kindness.Guest voices: Steve Herman, Pamela White, Jack & Sarah Seybold, Fred de Sam Lazaro, Warren Acuncius, Julia Irwin, Steve Callahan, Roland Merullo, Betsy Small, Keith Mines, Florence Reed, Mark D. Walker, Jon Cebra, Michael Varga, Noelle Ojo, Lewis Lucke, Denise Deneaux, Ben East, Evelyn LaTorre, Skip Waskin, Aunt Deb (aka Cathy Zielske), and Carl Henn.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

As a young boy, dreaming of becoming an archeologist, Lewis Lucke wanted to visit the Holy Lands to see if the Bible stories he'd read were true. Indeed, his career did lead him overseas, though as a diplomat with USAID--from West Africa to Central America, finally the Middle East, and eventually as a US ambassador. Along the way, he confirmed many times over there are many stories that you just can't make up.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

Another holiday meal means more time at the table with Aunt Deb (who was kind enough to share her own fruitcake recipe--drenched in attitude and bourbon). And yes, she came with questions. But our guests handled her with brilliance and finesse. Featuring long-time USAID veteran Julius Coles; returned Peace Corps volunteer E. Scott Osbourne; US military, State Department, and Institute of Peace veteran Keith Mines: former US diplomat and USAID alumna Noelle Ojo; and Jack and Sarah Seybold, who served as Peace Corps volunteers together in Brazil.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

He calls his enterprise "Million Mile Walker," which is both a pun (his name, after all, is Mark Walker) and a description of a decades-long journey that has taken him all over the world, always searching for ways to improve the lives of people less fortunate than himself. SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

As a Peace Corps volunteer and then as a public health specialist, including with USAID, Leah Petit has seen firsthand the impact of global health programs. Not only in lives saved--full stop--but in global stability and security. And when she saw these programs being dismantled and former colleagues' motives questioned, she took action, starting 'Global Development Interrupted,' a podcast and Substack platform that documents the lives and work of those affected when US foreign assistance was cut, and, tragically, the suffering around the world that is becoming impossible to ignore. It is a project we strongly believe in.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.

It makes sense that one of Denise Deneaux's early literary heroes was a woman who traveled the world with utter fearlessness. Because later, as a Peace Corps volunteer assigned to Chile during Pinochet’s repressive rule, she dealt with guns, danger, threats, and harassment--once sitting in a police station with her new baby on her lap. Her takeaways: tolerance, resilience, and greater empathy for people everywhere who are repressed. For this episode, Denise reads a letter to her mother that she hadn’t seen in more than 40 years.SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.