I've spent most of my career—that's 35 years—living and working overseas for the U.S. Department of State Foreign Service. My coworkers and myself were responsible for carrying out U.S. foreign policy and helping U.S. citizens abroad. With this podcast, I'm starting at the beginning - or really slightly before the beginning—to walk through what it was like being 27, with a small child, moving overseas to Africa for the first time. Join my son and I as in each episode, I read my story and we ...
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Newsweek's Foreign Service is a weekly podcast that takes a look at the big stories in the U.S. and what they mean for the rest of the world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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In this episode we get a look at what living through an economic collapse looks like, and the connection between campaign finance and ambassadorship.Christine
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In this episode, we learn the advantages of the French school system as young Gabe gets an invitation to the Dictator's house. Not knowing it was an invitation that should have been refused, Christine and family head over for a party.Christine
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In this episode, Christine and family move to a new post in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). She gets into how schools worked for diplomatic expats and the pain of moving throughout your childhood when email wasn't a thing.Christine
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Christine learns that living in a small community of expat means if you mess up, it affects everyone. And this was the 80's so a VCR was involved.Christine
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Though Christine absconded to Africa a single woman with a small child, she left Burundi married. She talks about the effort to navigate the Burundi matrimonial system as well as building a family as an ex-pat.Christine
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Spending the first weekend on post partying has it's consequences! Choices were made, bosses were encountered, and we all learn about Duty Officers. In this episode Christine has a wild weekend on her first weekend on post and was not prepared to get home.Christine
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Christine's first day in Bujumbura was hectic and filled with surprises, especially for someone not used to the bonuses of a hardship post. In this episode Christine discusses the perks of going to a small post, hardship posts, and feeling fancy.Christine
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Arriving at her first diplomatic post in Bujumbura, Burundi, Christine didn't know what to expect and it lead to some misunderstandings. Welcome to Africa!Christine
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Getting the call that you are going to a country you've never heard of is an adventure for sure. So is living in a world where you have to find an atlas to figure out where that country is. Oh, the 80's. In this episode Christine talks about the expectations of those in Brooksville, FL, upon the news of her imminent travel to Africa.…
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Despite thirteen months of waiting, weeks of invasive tests, and a hiring freeze, Christine finally gets the call she's been waiting for - to join the Foreign Service. But first she had to answer an important question: Where would she least like to go? She discusses her first assignment in the Foreign Service and how that process works, as well as …
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Join Christine in the beginning of her journey as she moves to Bujumbura, Burundi at 27, single, with a young child. Learning the ropes of the Service, being on post, and navigating a new country.Emily
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Newsweek's Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda spoke to Chatham House's Xenia Wickett and the LSE's Brian Klaas to discuss. Obamacare has become more than a policy for the U.S. right. It has become a symbol of everything they hate about big government—and the man who gave the policy its name. But after seven years of railing against it, when the party final…
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Regular contributor, Leslie Vinjamuri from Chatham House and Executive Director of the Overseas Development Institute, Alex Thier, join Newsweek's Mirren Gidda and Josh Lowe for this week's episode. Donald Trump has announced proposals for his first budget, and they're predictably proving controversial. From hikes in America's already large defense…
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Jason Murdock from the International Business Times joins Mirren and Josh to discuss the eponymous WikiLeaks, who's latest leak involved the C.I.A. and their espionage practices. Wikileaks was the future, once. Bursting onto the scene in 2006, the platform for whistleblowers and hackers, fronted by its charismatic Australian-born publisher Julian A…
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Cristina Varriale from The Royal United Services Institute's and Newsweek's Asia Reporter, Eleanor Ross, join hosts Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda to discuss the current hive of activity in North Korea, including the murder of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's half brother, Kim Jong Nam, who is in most danger from North Korea, what the U.S. can do and …
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Empire Magazine's Helen O'Hara and Newsweek's Tufayel Ahmed join Mirren Gidda and Josh Lowe to discuss this years Oscars. The Academy Awards are never without surprises, but this year was more surprising than most. After Faye Dunaway declared La La Land winner of the Best Picture category, an Oscars' producer dashed onto the stage to inform the fil…
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The Guardian's Alex Hern and Newsweek's Anthony Cuthbertson join Mirren and Josh this week to discuss the media behemoth that is Facebook—what it really is in 2017 and whether it can be a force for good.With the U.S. election and its onslaught of "fake news," people began to question whether Facebook might be harmful to its users.Last week founder,…
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What is Putin's plan for the Middle East? How will he and President Donald Trump work with—or against—each other there? For the inside track on the issue, Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda spoke to Newsweek reporters Damien Sharkov and Jack Moore, who've just published a cover story on Putin's activities. Newsweek's Foreign Service is recorded and edited …
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Chatham House's Jacob Parakilas and writer Abi Wilkinson join Newsweek's Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda to discuss the so-called "special relationship" between the U.K. and U.S.British Prime Minister Theresa May has made much of the fact that she got the first post-inauguration meeting with President Donald Trump. But how pleased should she be? Hosted …
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Women's Equality Party leader Sophie Walker and Fiorella Nash from the SPUC pro-life group join Newsweek's Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda this week as they discuss Trump's reintroduction of the so-called "global gag rule" which denies U.S. funding to NGOs that promote or discuss abortion, will reverberate across the globe.. What will the impact of Trum…
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Sarah Churchwell and Leslie Vinjamuri join Newsweek's Mirren Gidda and Josh Lowe to tackle this week's topic. Donald Trump rode a tide of rage into office: rage at a "Washington elite" that he said had been ignoring the problems of "ordinary people" and failing to "get anything done."In so doing, he made big promises: to bring back jobs, put up wal…
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January 17th marks the start of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. Over the few days it runs world leaders, economists, politicians and celebrities will address attendees at the summit, hoping to tackle some of the biggest problems facing us today.For Newsweek's Davos special issue, Mirren Gidda interviewed Malala Yous…
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The Guardian columnists join Newsweek's Mirren Gidda to discuss the hot topic of fake news. In the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, fake news abounded, with false stories about both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spreading across social media.The problem has not abated. On December 4, a gunman walked into the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in …
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Comedians and commentators Ayesha Hazarika and Jon Holmes join Newsweek's Josh Lowe for a look ahead to what might happen next. It's back to work, and time to face a year set to be every bit as seismic as the one that preceded it.With major elections scheduled in France and Germany, the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, Putin on manoeuv…
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Will Smith, comedian and writer on Veep and The Thick of It, and Richard Smith, editor of satirical news site Newsthump join Newsweek's Mirren Gidda and Josh Lowe to discuss: How do satirists ridicule the ridiculous?Donald Trump won the U.S. presidential election in a stunningly rude manner with an "anything goes" approach to publicity and jokes ab…
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Newsweek’s own Bill Powell joins us from Shanghai while Kerry Brown from King’s College joined us in London. Can Trump sustain his forceful stance on China? How will Beijing react to continued antagonism? And are there ways the President-elect can actually improve life for American workers? Newsweek's Foreign Service is presented by Josh Lowe and M…
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Heather Williams and Matthew Harries are the guests with Josh Lowe to discuss Trump’s appointments to his transition defense team.The president-elect has now appointed two retired generals—Michael Flynn and James Mattis— as national security adviser and defense secretary, respectively. But it might bring cause for concern. Both men served distingui…
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Stacy Hilliard and Newsweek’s own Leah McGrath Goodman join regular host, Mirren Gidda and guest-host, Lucy Clarke-Billings, to ask why so many women voted for Trump. Donald Trump does not have the best record with women. During the presidential race, video footage emerged of Trump engaging in what he described as "locker room banter" with TV host …
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Newsweek’s Owen Matthews joins hosts Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda to talk the rise of populism across Europe. Donald Trump's policy platform is unlike that of any U.S. President in recent times. His nationalist, anti-Islam and Russia-sympathetic ideas are likely to usher in massive changes in American policy at home and abroad.But to observers of Eur…
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It's been another chaotic year for global politics. The rise of Trump and the U.K.'s departure from the EU have both unsettled the established order, while the refugee crisis that has helped define European politics for the past three years is far from over.Newsweek sat down to try and make sense of it all with a man who once helped shaped the worl…
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Leslie Vinjamuri and Jacob Parakilas speak with Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda explore the biggest news story of 2016. Donald Trump didn't win the election on policy. His rhetoric spoke to sections of the electorate who felt they had been ignored. He promised these people he would "make America great again." They thought that was a great idea and put h…
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Chad Wilcox and Margo Miller are this week’s guests as Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda discuss the Second-in-command. The 2016 U.S. Presidential election has been the loudest and angriest in living memory, with two presidential candidates who each have plenty of baggage and are both ready and willing to dial the rhetoric up to 11. Amid the noise, its be…
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Mark Bergman and Diana Shaw Clark join hosts Josh Lowe and Mirren as they figure out how important an issue the Supreme Court is in the 2016 election.What with Muslim bans and "locker room talk" on one side and a plethora of leaked emails on the other, the 2016 U.S. presidential election has had plenty of scandals. So many, in fact, that they've so…
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Nina Burleigh and Michele Gorman from Newsweek’s U.S. Office join Mirren Gidda and Josh Lowe to discuss what women want from this year’s election. The choice before women at the 2016 U.S. Presidential election is absurdly polarised. On the one hand, they have Hillary Clinton, who not only places issues like childcare at the heart of her platform, b…
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Elizabeth Linder and Charlie Wolf join Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda discuss the future of the Republican Party as the election hots up. The U.S. Presidential election is far from over, and Donald Trump is not yet out. But after horrified reactions to the emergence of a tape in which Trump could be heard condoning sexual assault, as well as lackluster…
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Donald Trump is a whole new phenomenon; a larger-than-life public personality for decades, but only recently a major politician. The success of his wildcard bid for the presidency took political journalists by surprise—his previous flirtation with politics as the Reform Party candidate was cut short far earlier. Trump courted public controversy wit…
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David Hawkins and Stacy Hilliard join Mirren Gidda and Josh Lowe as the foreshadow the possibility of Donald Trump winning the election. Few people ever thought he'd get here. And yet, with weeks to go until the U.S. presidential election, Donald Trump, the property mogul who was thought of as variously too lightweight, too rich, too erratic, too r…
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Sarah Churchwell and Joseph Downing are this week’s guests as Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda tackle the thorny issue of privacy within politics. All week, the U.S. has talked of little but Hillary Clinton's health, after a bout of pneumonia led Donald Trump to demand that the Democratic presidential nominee release her medical records. Meanwhile, the c…
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Alicia Barrett and Sunder Katwala join Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda as they address Immigration. The Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has long railed against immigration, threatening to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and ban Muslims from entering the country. His extreme stance has won him supporters. Anxieties over immigration…
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Elizabeth Cotton and Doug Segal join Mirren Gidda and Josh Lowe to discuss how governments across the world should be treating mental health.Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is turning mental health into a core part of her campaign platform. She wants, she says, those who have a mental illness to get the same standard of treatment as…
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Katie Ghose and Mark Bergman join Newsweek’s Josh Lowe and Mirren Gidda as they discuss changing spending regulations and whether they can change the underlying political cultures that have cultivated it. Donald Trump has often sought to damage Hillary Clinton with allegations that she's trying to spend her way to victory, backed by Wall Street don…
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Hussein Kesvani and Baroness Shaista Ahmad Sheehan joins host Josh Lowe to discuss the rise of Islamophobia in the U.S. and Europe and how we can combat it?On Saturday, Imam Maulama Akonjee and his assistant Thara Uddin were shot and killed as they walked through Queens, New York, after prayers. The incident, at the time of recording, was not forma…
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Larry Sanders, George Galloway, James Schnedier, Isabel Oakeshott and Robert Rowland Smith were guests on Newsweek’s Outsider Politics panel at the Wilderness Festival on August 6 and was chaired by Newsweek Europe's Digital Editor Serena Kutchinsky.Politics is changing, possibly forever. On both sides of the Atlantic, establishment politicians and…
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Heather Williams and Jacob Parakilas are on Newsweek's Foreign Service this week as they look at Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempts to influence the political processes in Europe and the U.S.Much has been made of Donald Trump's support for Putin, though the pair maintain that they have no direct relationship, their seeming closeness has pr…
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Brian Klaas and Stacy Hilliard join Newsweek to explore what happens when voters are fed up of traditional parties and candidates. Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Cato Institute, has calculated that if an independent candidate wants to run for U.S. President he or she has until next week, August 2, to register, to be …
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Hilary Hurd and Erin Marie Saltman join Newsweek's Josh Lowe as he asks how governments can prevent erratic and unpredictable attacks by so-called “lone wolf” extremists.Gavin Long, the man who killed three police officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, had past links with radical groups. But in politically charged YouTube videos infused with violent r…
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Leslie Vinjamuri and Charlie Wolf joins Newsweek's Josh Lowe to debate the question—what happens when populists face off against the professionals? July 18 marks the start of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. For Donald Trump, the party's presumptive presidential candidate, this has to be the moment when he unites his fellow Re…
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