CFR Launches New Podcast on Why Global Issues Matter

Why It Matters, a new podcast from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), tells the stories behind the most compelling—and least understood—questions shaping the world and explains how these issues relate to people’s daily lives: How can the gender gap be bridged in technology and engineering? Who presses the big red button to launch a nuclear strike? What will happen to all the junk in space?

The podcast takes a deep dive on these questions and topics including election security, artificial intelligence, and the future of antibiotics. Host Gabrielle Sierra, CFR producer and editor, asks guests—including government officials, scientists, military leaders, and CFR fellows—to paint a narrative about these real-life issues and illustrate their effect on lives at home.

“CFR has long provided resources to understand foreign policy through informed analysis and explainers. This new podcast will equip non-experts and experts alike with a better grasp of global issues and why they are relevant to them,” says CFR President Richard N. Haass.

Upcoming guests of the podcast will include Megan J. Smith, former U.S. chief technology officer; Lieutenant General David D. Thompson, vice commander of Air Force Space Command; and Richard K. Betts, Arnold A. Saltzman professor of war and peace studies at Columbia University and an adjunct fellow at CFR.

“The sheer amount of news about global issues can sometimes be overwhelming. Why It Matters brings these stories straight to the listener in an accessible way,” says Sierra.

Subscribe to Why It Matters wherever you listen to podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher, and be sure to rate and review. A new episode of Why It Matters is released every other Wednesday.

Why It Matters joins CFR’s other podcast offerings that include The President's Inbox, an examination of the most critical foreign policy concerns facing the United States, and The World Next Week, a preview of world events in the week ahead.