Hillel Neuer has made a career out of giving a voice to the voiceless; his leadership in fighting for human rights, justice, and peace has been internationally lauded. Now, as the Executive Director of UN Watch, Neuer is focused on keeping the United Nations honest and ensuring that the international body is held accountable to its founding princip…

Azar Nafisi, who is the critically acclaimed author of Reading Lolita in Tehran, a New York Times bestseller that is published in thirty-two languages. Nafisi reflects on the effect of education, ideology, and the corporate mentality on the preservation of democracy, focusing particularly on political divides in the US. Mariam and Azar dive into th…

Independent Ukrainian journalist Olga Tokariuk joins us today to discuss her wartime journalism, stories coming from the frontline, the greater meaning of Ukraine’s fight for freedom and democracy, and to debunk Russia’s narratives about Ukraine.By Mariam Memarsadeghi

Nury Turkel, author of No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs, speaks to us today about China’s use of technology in the Uyghur genocide and the threat of such technologies to global democracy and freedom. Turkel highlights what the international community needs to do to support the Uyghur people and hold authoritarians to acc…

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on April 22, 2022. Danielle Pletka joins us today to discuss how the US can institute a Pro-Democracy foreign policy, which she argues has been lacking. Danielle Pletka is a distinguished senior fellow in foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where sh…

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on March 25, 2022. "The End of Europe" author Jamie Kirchick on rising threats to freedom in democracies.By Mariam Memarsadeghi

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on February 24, 2022. Eli Lake joins Mariam Memarsadeghi to discuss how the West can stand up to Russian aggression and stand up for its core values on the international stage. Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national…

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on February 8, 2022. Mariam Memarsadeghi interviews Bill Browder, author of Red Notice, investor, and anti-corruption activist, to discuss the role of sanctions in influencing oligarchs. Mr. Browder was the largest foreign investor in Russia until 2005, when he was denied entry to the countr…

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on November 1, 2021. Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow Kaveh Shahrooz on how a prison massacre was formative to his worldview and his career in pursuit of human rights, about the nefarious influence of Iran's regime in the free world, the downing of flight PS752, Oberlin College's em…

This program was originally recorded as Democracy Matters on October 28, 2021. Iran expert Alireza Nader joins Mariam Memarsadeghi to discuss what democracies must do to hold the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps accountable for its global terror and crimes against humanity. Mr. Nader was an International Policy Analyst at the Rand Corporation and …