Michael Mandelbaum has written a fascinating book examining the role of major political leaders in shaping our recent history, for better or for worse. He is a highly regarded author with an insightful understanding of the factors that have shaped conflict and progress over the past century. Some of the titans featured in this podcast based on his book operated within democratic settings and left democracy stronger than they had found it, while others, tyrants with diseased minds, tended towards coercion rather than persuasion when exercising power and contributed to making the 20th century a blood-soaked century, without parallel in terms of human suffering. In an age of rising authoritarianism, this podcast delivers important warnings for our collective future.

You can find Michael Mandelbaum's new book on Amazon or your local bookstore.

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Wendy Broadgate is a distinguished scientist who has worked in Earth system science and the science-policy interface for two decades. She is therefore singularly well-qualified to address the question of the dangers we face because of inadequate action to set our climate system within safe and just boundaries. Public support for more robust action to put the Earth on a more sustainable path is broad-based; what is lacking is political will and a better understanding of our collective intergenerational responsibilities. The costs of inaction will be orders of magnitude larger than acting now, including by rethinking the economic growth imperative of our current economic paradigm. Action is needed now; there is no shortage of knowledge. It needs to be complemented by enlightened political leadership.

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Anthony Annett is an economist who spent two decades at the International Monetary Fund, including as speechwriter to the Managing Director. In an insightful podcast based on his book Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy he argues that we need to take a fresh look at the policies, priorities, and institutions that underpin our current economic system. These are no longer working for the common good. Inequality is corroding the foundations of our societies and beginning to have harmful consequences for our social and political order. On many fronts, our economic systems are on an unsustainable path, and this is in part due to the absence of moral principles and an ethic of solidarity that might be guiding lights when designing policies and approaches to economics aiming for the common good.

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As the most recent Chief Scientist at the World Health Organization Soumya Swaminathan was on the forefront of the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of her distinguished background in policymaking spanning more than 30 years of experience bringing science and evidence into the formulation of effective actions to address fundamental issues of public health, Dr Swaminathan brings a wealth of insights into a conversation about the lessons learned from the pandemic and how to prepare for the next one. Viruses against which we have no natural immunity will continue to be a major risk factor in coming years and, against the huge human and economic costs of COVID-19, we need to internalize those lessons and come together as one whole human family, preparing responses that will be science-based but that will also leave no one behind because we live in an interconnected world in which our health and the health of others are fully interdependent.

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Daniel Perell currently serves as a co-chair of the Steering Group of the Coalition for the UN We Need, an umbrella group of civil society organizations that are collaborating to modernize the UN system, to better adapt it to the needs of the 21st century. He is thus extremely well-qualified to share insights into the forthcoming UN Summit of the Future and the extent to which it might become a catalyst for future transformational innovations, desperately needed in a world increasingly destabilized by climate change, entrenched nationalisms, persistent poverty and inequality and other such global challenges. In this wide-ranging podcast, he shares keen insights on the way forward and how to make the transition from reaffirming important principles embedded in the UN Charter to implementing a broader and more ambitious vision of reforms that will deliver actual solutions to the problems we face.

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As co-president of the Club of Rome Sandrine Dixson-Declève is singularly well-qualified to speak to the major challenges we confront today and on which, in the search for solutions, we need much stronger levels of international cooperation. Widening income disparities have started to undermine social and political stability, the needs of the extremely poor are not being met, and we are failing to stem the worst consequences of climate change. There is no shortage of solutions, from better use of the tax system to lower income inequality, to the phasing out of wasteful energy and other subsidies, to the use of innovative instruments to finance the transition to a green economy. What is lacking is enlightened leadership, more in tune with the needs of the many, a greater focus on longer-term solutions not driven by short-term profit considerations, and the recognition that the economic and political empowerment of women is vital for the creation of a more secure and stable world.

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Sundeep Waslekar is a distinguished social scientist who has thought a great deal about the causes and the instruments of war and the risks they pose to the future of humankind. He is the recent author of A World Without War, a book published by HarperCollins in which he argues that while the risks of nuclear holocaust have perhaps never been higher, we can reverse course and not commit collective suicide. We need to abandon narrow-minded nationalisms and develop dual loyalties to our nation and the world, where the problems we face required a renewed unity of purpose. In this podcast he convincingly makes the case that “It is possible to turn death into life. It is possible to convert violence into peace. It is possible to transform darkness into light. It is possible to change despair into hope. It is possible to end wars and unite the world.”

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Arunabha Ghosh, an internationally recognized public policy expert, author and columnist is the founder-CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), one of Asia's top climate think-tanks. In numerous reports, articles and speeches, Dr. Ghosh has convincingly argued that confronting the challenges of climate change will require better policies at the national level and massive levels of cooperation between government and businesses and between nation states across international borders. We will need to address the linkages between the growth of renewable energy and our changing geopolitical landscapes, the role of investment and finance in creating a green future, and persuade ourselves that pessimism at the lack of progress in reducing emissions is not an option. A green future is not an end in itself, but rather the means to an end: a more prosperous and secure future for all. The time to act is now.

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