Focus
Interviews on global affairs and daily life
Monday thru Friday, 10 am to noon on WILL-AM 580
Interview Archives: Asia
Tuesday May 22, 2012, 10:06 AM
Current Events in Burma/Myanmar
Christina Fink, Ph.D., Professor of Practice of International Affairs, The Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University
Host: David Inge
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Friday April 06, 2012, 10:06 AM
Eating Bitterness: Stories from the Front Lines of China's Great Urban Migration
Michelle Dammon Loyalka, Freelance Journalist and Editor
Host: David Inge
China is developing at a pace never before seen in human history. Journalist Michelle Loyalka says that rapid growth has been made possible by the millions of people who have left the countryside and flocked to China’s urban centers. She says they are overworked and underpaid and that there isn’t a single Chinese city that can function without them. We’ll explore China's great urban migration, the subject of Loyalka’s book "Eating Bitterness."
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Monday April 02, 2012, 11:06 AM
"The Power Geometry of Globalized Parenting: The Case of Taiwan"
Pei-Chia Lan, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, National Taiwan University; Radcliffe-Harvard Yenching Institute Fellow
Host: David Inge
2nd Biennial Symposium on Vulnerable Families
Author Amy Chua caused a stir in this country last year with her book on the parenting styles of Chinese mothers. But sociologist Pei-Chia Lan says when the book was published in China, it clearly identified the author as “American.” How does culture shape ideas about parenting? How do ideas about parenting travel in a globalized world?
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Categories: Family • Asia • Afghanistan
Monday April 02, 2012, 10:06 AM
The Afghan Solution: The Inside Story of Abdul Haq, the CIA and How Western Hubris Lost Afghanistan
Lucy Morgan Edwards, Former Political Advisor to the EU Ambassador in Kabul; Writer
Host: David Inge
In 2001, a group of Afghan tribal leaders agreed to work together to overthrow the Taliban. They would be led by Abdul Haq, a famous leader of the war against the Soviets. The U.S. didn’t believe in this approach. It failed to support Abdul Haq, and he was assassinated by the Taliban. We’ll get the story from Lucy Edwards. In her book "The Afghan Solution," she examines the Afghan policy of the West after 9-11, and argues that it failed because it was imposed from outside.
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Categories: Asia • Afghanistan
Wednesday February 22, 2012, 10:06 AM
The Dark Defile: Britain's Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842
Diana Preston, Historian, Writer, Broadcaster
Host: David Inge
In 1838, the government of Britain became convinced that its empire in India was threatened. To secure a potential invasion route, troops were sent into Afghanistan to remove one ruler and install another. The British expected a quick campaign, but the result was a military disaster. Historian Diana Preston tells the story of the First Afghan War ... what it meant for Afghanistan and for European politics.
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Categories: History • Asia • Afghanistan • Europe • United Kingdom
Tuesday February 21, 2012, 11:06 AM
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity
Katherine Boo, Staff Writer, The New Yorker; Pulitzer Prize Winner
Host: David Inge
Pulitzer Prize-winner Katherine Boo has written about the dramatic and sometimes heartbreaking story of families striving toward a better life in one of the 21st century’s great, unequal cities. Her book "Behind the Beautiful Forevers" is based on three years of uncompromising reporting.
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Categories: Cultural Studies • Asia • India
Monday January 30, 2012, 10:06 AM
Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China
Ezra F. Vogel, Ph.D., Henry Ford II Research Professor of the Social Sciences, Emeritus, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University
Host: David Inge
This interview was recorded on January 26, 2012
We’ll bring you a conversation with one of America’s leading scholars of East Asia, Ezra Vogel, emeritus professor of social sciences at Harvard. His 1979 best-selling book "Japan as Number One," predicted the rise of Japan as an economic powerhouse. His most recent book looks at China’s development and role Deng Xiaoping played in that country’s modernization. The first book, he says, played a role in educating America about Japan. His hope is that the new book will do the same for China.
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Categories: Economics • History • International Affairs • Politics • Asia • China • Japan
Monday January 09, 2012, 11:06 AM
Current Events in North Korea
Bruce Cumings, Ph.D., Department of History Chairperson; the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in History and the College, University of Chicago
Host: David Inge
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Categories: History • International Affairs • Asia • Korea • North Korea • South Korea
Thursday December 08, 2011, 10:06 AM
"Land and Power": The Growing Scandal Surrounding the New Wave of Investments in Land in Uganda, Indonesia, Guatemala, Honduras, and South Sudan" September 22, 2011 Oxfam Report
Rohit Malpani, J.D., Senior Campaigns Advisor, Oxfam America
Host: David Inge
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Categories: Asia • Indonesia • Africa • Sudan • Central America • Guatemala • Honduras
Thursday November 17, 2011, 10:06 AM
The Beautiful and the Damned: A Portrait of India
Siddhartha Deb, M Phil, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, The New School; Novelist; Journalist
Host: David Inge
