In the aftermath of the Second World War, political leaders built a global system of free trade because they believed it was crucial to world peace. Like so much of the post-war order, that belief is under assault in the 21st century. Guest Karen Tramontano argues that free trade agreements can serve their original purpose even while helping workers.

As long as there has been live theater, artists have grappled with the public issues of their day. From the ancient Greeks to today, theater has had the power to provoke, inspire, and challenge authorities and orthodoxies. This week, playwright-director Kevin Doyle and actor Sauda Jackson help us explore the power of theater.

According to the U.S. intelligence community, Russia intervened in America’s 2016 presidential campaign to benefit one candidate. As shocking as that revelation was, guest Alina Polyakova warns it’s all part of a broader pattern of Russian efforts directed against the West.

Chemicals weapons are in the news again following their use against civilians in Syria. Western audiences might most commonly associate chemical weapons with the first World War a century ago, but this week’s guest Narges Bajoghli shares stories from veterans of a more recent conflict – the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980’s.

University professors and intellectuals are often dismissed as elites, divorced from real life and disconnected from the problems of real people. Guest Michael Kennedy sees their role differently and argues, in fact, that intellectuals and universities are agents of global change.

In 1958, Danny and the Juniors told us “Rock and Roll is Here to Stay,” and by the 1970s, punk had celebrated the triumvirate of “sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.” Guest Sean Kay says rock and roll played a more substantial role in the history of the last half-century. It changed America and spread the values of freedom, equality, human rights and peace across the globe.

For every new regulation his administration issues, President Trump has said two regulations have to be eliminated – but what about the ordinary Americans many of these regulations were designed to protect? Are we heading back to the days of predatory lenders? Hosts Jim Ludes and G. Wayne Miller sit down with Michael Corkery, a New York Times financial journalist, to try to make sense of the financial stories affecting Americans everywhere.

From Richard Nixon to Donald Trump, leaders on both sides of the political aisle have described the state of American healthcare in terms intended to scare and mobilize voters. Guest Bob Hackey argues that those cries of crisis have warped the healthcare debate.

With the transfer of power in Washington, the stories the United States tells the world are changing, too. Hosts Jim Ludes and G. Wayne Miller are joined by Katherine Brown, a public diplomacy professional who has served the United States from the corridors of Foggy Bottom to Kabul Afghanistan.