China’s economic strategy has evolved significantly over the past decade. Where once the PRC served as “the world’s factory,” today Chinese companies are increasingly looking to internationalize their operations. Latin America has been emblematic of these changes, in particular Chinese investment flows into regional electric vehicle manufacturing h…

On today’s episode, Jessica talks with Dr. Jessica Black (Gwich’in; Associate Vice Chancellor and Associate Professor in the College of Indigenous Studies at the University of Alaska Fairbanks) and Dr. Courtney Carothers (Professor of Fisheries in the College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks). Dr. Black and Dr. …

Throughout the Western Hemisphere ports play a critical role in fostering economic growth, and serving as gateways through which the region engages a world that is eager for it to play a greater role in global value chains. At the same time, the region’s ports have made headlines for their role in the burgeoning trans-oceanic trade in illicit narco…

Space has long been colored by divides between the “haves” who possess the economic and technological wherewithal to make it to orbit and beyond, and the “have-nots” who lack these capabilities. This divide in turn has historically played out between the Global North and the Global South, with the latter grouping feeling as if they have been exclud…

On today’s episode, Jessica talks with Tuula Sharma Vassvik (Sámi activist, land protector, musician, podcast host, and freelance contractor in Heritage and Indigenous Methodologies) about their journey through archaeology to Indigenous methodologies and land protection in Sápmi. Tuula’s work focuses on solidarity across cultures and class, as well…

Firearms trafficking is fueling violence across the hemisphere by providing criminal groups the arms and means necessary to violently expand their businesses, threaten citizens, and even challenge government forces. While the United States is by far the largest single supplier of firearms to Latin America and the Caribbean, a plethora of other sour…

Almost every corner of the Western Hemisphere has been touched by the monumental challenge of irregular migration. However, addressing the multifaceted and context-specific manifestations of irregular migration is no small feat. An effective response to the migratory movements we are observing therefore hinges on cooperation with partners in the re…

In this episode, Director Hodges and Ben discuss the nature of children's stories and how they offer another world for contemplation, a world beyond our own that lives on in our minds long into adulthood.

The global energy transition will require a simultaneous mining revolution. However, reaching the levels of production needed to achieve net zero goals is no small feat, while China’s dominance in the midstream of critical minerals supply chains presents risks to both the United States and minerals producers in the Western Hemisphere alike. In this…

On today’s episode, Jessica talks with Maura Sullivan (PhD student in Linguistics at Tulane University; Irish-American, Chumash and Mexican heritage, and an enrolled member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation). Maura gives Jessica a crash course in many different language topics such as the difference between language work and linguistics, wh…

Are there similarities between the decline of the West today and the decline of the Republic of Rome after the Punic Wars? Director Hodges muses about the similarities, and comments on an article written by H. A. Scott Trask, in Chronicles Magazine. Other important recommendations: Tom Holland's book RUBICON, Will and Ariel Durant's CAESAR AND CHRI…

On June 2, nearly 60 million people cast their votes for the next president of Mexico, making it the largest election in Mexico’s history. However, the race was also marred by electoral violence, with more than three dozen candidates or prospective candidates murdered over the electoral season. Intimidation, coercion, and threats to family members …

This episode of 35 West originally aired on December 20, 2023. Now, just days away from the election, many of topics discussed have only grown in relevance over the course of the official campaign season. Mexico's general election on June 2 of 2024 promises to be a seminal moment for Mexican politics and society on a number of fronts, in particular…

As we continue to consider the cultural works of the West, this is another of our Director's live conference lectures, given in 2011, just months after the death of the composer Henryk Gorecki, a Polish Catholic, who's Symphony #3 became an international hit on the popular song charts of 1993. In this work, Gorecki departs from his more avant-garde…

On today’s episode, Jessica goes more in depth with Joseph Gazing Wolf (Executive Director, Heritage Lands Collective [formerly Living Heritage Research Council]; Lakota, Nubian, and Amazigh) from Episode 84 on the Boulder Ethnographic-Education Project. On this episode, Joseph talks about how his childhood in Egypt and on the Standing Rock reserva…

As we continue to investigate the great books, music, and ideas of our Western Civilization, we thought it would be good to offer a live conference lecture from 2010 that Director Hodges gave on Olivier Messiaen's masterful QUARTET FOR THE END OF TIME, for violin, cello, clarinet, and piano. Coming as it did out of his time in a Nazi prison camp du…

In 2023, U.S. trade with Mexico grew to nearly $800 billion, leading Mexico to surpass both Canada and China as the United States’ number one trading partner. While U.S.-Mexico trade has long been a pillar of North American economic competitiveness, Washington’s efforts to move trade away from China in favor of nearshoring and friendshoring in the …

In 1970, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn was awarded the Nobel prize for literature, but due to the repressive regime of the USSR, was not allowed to leave his native Russia to receive it. His speech, written with the intention of reading it in Sweden, was never given -- but it has circulated ever since as a great apology for the true, the good, and the beau…

In this episode, we dive into the second part of the great myth of Cupid and Psyche, told from the perspective of one of her ugly stepsisters -- and we finally come to the meaning of the title.

On Sunday, May 5, Panamanians will cast their votes to determine the next president, as well as all members of the National Assembly. With a crowded field of candidates vying for the presidency, and only a single round to determine the victor, it promises to be a divided field. The elections are also taking place within a deeply polarized context, …

Director Hodges and Ben Cumming discuss CS Lewis' marvelous fiction, TILL WE HAVE FACES, a retelling of the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

Looking across the hemisphere today, crime and insecurity appears on the march, with transnational criminal groups ascendant from Mexico to the Caribbean and southern cone. In light of this, it is important to reflect upon the history of U.S.-LAC security cooperation, where we have seen two major, multi-year security initiatives launched and conclu…

In this episode, our culture samplers dive into another of Flannery O'Connors great short stories, REVELATION. In it we compare Mrs. Turpin with Mrs. May of GREENLEAF, and the point of pride that tempts us all to judge one another.

On today’s episode, Jessica chats with Eric Pinto (Assistant Director at the Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian studies at Washington University in St. Louis; Descendant of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and Pueblo of Zuni). The Buder Center is part of the Brown School of Social Work, Public Health, & Social Policy that offers the…

In this episode, Director Hodges, and co-host Ben discuss the great Flannery O'Connor short story GREENLEAF. If you have not read it, we suggest that you take the 20 minutes to read it before you listen, as we give spoilers...who is this Mrs. May, and does she see the world correctly?

Semiconductors form the building blocks of modern digital life. Chips govern everything from missile guidance systems to the headlights in your car, and the fight for the cutting edge of this technology appears to be entering a new phase. The United States, in partnership with allies like Japan and the Netherlands, has sought to cut off China’s acc…

Director Hodges and co-host Ben Cumming discuss Joseph Conrad's book HEART OF DARKNESS and address the death of Romanticism and the beginning of the 20th century.

In this episode, Director Hodges and Ben finish off the long series that has investigated the elements of civilization, and come to some conclusions about how we might best preserve ours. Hint: it is not by aiming to preserve civilization...

Jordan Peterson doesn't know us from Adam, but he gave a precise rendering of the points we have been making since last October about the need to recognize Faith as the basis for any rational activity. Director Hodges and Ben discuss "those cheeky French" and how their modern ideas have led the West away from the rich legacy of the Middle Ages wher…

Haiti’s years-long political and security crisis entered a new phase last week when Prime Minister Ariel Henry, Haiti’s acting head of state since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, announced his resignation. Now, Haiti faces a period of profound uncertainty, with a serious power vacuum in government, ascendant criminal groups within str…

On today’s episode, Jessica chats with the crew she has been working with on the Boulder Ethnographic-Education Project. The crew includes the amazing Erica Walters (Ethnographer, Living Heritage Anthropology), Reshawn Edison (Ethnographer, Living Heritage Anthropology; Diné; CESC Program Coordinator for Harvest of All First Nations), and Joseph Ga…