A IS FOR ABUSE: THE SAGA OF FOR-PROFIT SCHOOLING IN AFRICA – Deconstructed, The Intercept
March 28, 2023Radio
A startup tried to revolutionize education in Africa. But did children pay the price?
Neha Wadekar
Reporting in the Occupied West Bank – Project Brazen
September 29, 2023Radio
For my latest episode for Project Brazen, I spoke with Ahmed Shihab Eldin about reporting stories the authorities don’t want told from dangerous places around the world. We also remembered the late Shireen Abu Akleh, a prolific journalist who was killed while reporting in the Occupied West Bank. Ahmed says democratic governments and the Western media are partially responsible for the increasingly hostile conditions the media faces while doing its work.
Two Journalists, Two Regimes, Two Trumped-Up Arrests – Project Brazen
July 5, 2023Radio
We recently released a podcast about Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent who was arrested by Russian authorities back in March. Evan was falsely accused of espionage, and he’s being held in a Moscow prison until his trial date in August.
In that episode, we explored questions around press freedom, journalist safety and security, and the future of foreign correspondence in an increasingly polarized and hostile world. For this bonus episode, I spoke to another journalist – one who probably can relate to Evan’s situation better than anyone.
Jason Rezaian moved to Tehran in 2009 and became the Washington Post correspondent and Tehran bureau chief there. In 2014, Jason and his wife – who is also a journalist – were arrested on charges of espionage. Jason was held for 544 days and convicted of espionage, before finally being released and returning to the United States.
He has documented his experience in a book, as well as his podcast, 544 Days. It’s a gripping story that also includes Jason’s reflections on and analysis of the events – hyperlocal, regional, and global – that surrounded his arrest.
Sudan’s Failed Democracy Is a Disaster for Women – Foreign Policy
August 4, 2023Articles
Women helped bring down the country’s Islamist dictator—and are still stuck with fundamentalism.
‘Women bear the biggest brunt of climate change,’ says climate scientist Susan Chomba – The Guardian
June 21, 2023Articles
She leads a team of 100 at a non-profit with operations across Africa and says climate has been seen through a male perspective for too long.
Free Evan Gershkovich: How a US reporter was imprisoned in Putin’s Russia – Project Brazen
May 18, 2023Radio
How did Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich end up wrongfully imprisoned in Russia, and what happens now? On March 29, Russian authorities arrested Evan and accused him of spying on Russia on behalf of the US government. Evan was imprisoned in Moscow’s Lefortovo prison, where he remains today. In this special episode from Project Brazen, you’ll hear from those close to Evan — his friends, newsroom colleagues, even his former soccer coach — about his shocking arrest, efforts to bring him home, and how he became the journalist he is today. Evan is the first American reporter to be charged with espionage in Russia since the Cold War. The charge, which The Journal vehemently denies, can carry a sentence of up to 20 years.
Dynamite Doug Bonus: Kenya Wants Its Missing Artifacts Back – Project Brazen
April 19, 2023Radio
In this bonus episode of Dynamite Doug, I traveled to Kenya to see how it is responding to the loss of its own cultural heritage to traders and colonizers. More than 32,000 Kenyan cultural artifacts, ranging from drinking gourds to tribal belts and ceremonial shields, live in museums around the world, and are largely inaccessible to Kenyan people. Kenyan artists and technologists are working to digitally catalog these items and bring them to life through 3D printing and virtual reality – but critics say it’s no replacement for repatriation.
A IS FOR ABUSE – The Intercept
March 23, 2023Articles
Two Harvard Grads Saw Big Profits in African Education. Children Paid the Price.
For six months, The Intercept’s Ryan Grim and I investigated horrendous child sex abuse allegations at Bridge International Academies, a chain of low-cost, for-profit private schools started by two former Harvard graduates and funded by Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Pierre Omidyar, as well as the International Finance Corporation, the lending arm of the World Bank.
Refugees, art and healing with Me We International – Project Brazen
February 16, 2023Radio
In this bonus episode of Kabul Falling, I interviewed Mohsin Mohi Ud Din, the founder of Me We International, an international organization that uses art – like poetry, creative writing, song, dance, and theater – to help refugees heal from trauma and author their futures.
Thailand Is a Global Capital of (Illegal) Sex Work – Foreign Policy
February 15, 2023Articles
Thailand has long been one of the world’s major sex tourism destinations. Estimates of sex work’s contribution to GDP vary widely because the industry operates almost entirely underground. But in 2015, the black market research company Havocscope valued it at $6.4 billion per year—about 1.5 percent of the country’s GDP that year.
Despite earning billions annually, the industry is effectively illegal, controversial among Thais, and highly stigmatized. Now, the debate over sex work is spilling into public forums, with a progressive lawmaker introducing a bill in parliament to legalize it. Its proponents argue that criminalization has deprived sex workers of basic labor rights and protections enjoyed by other workers, making them more vulnerable to health risks, harassment, exploitation, and violence—while making sex work itself no less visible.