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Whose Century is it?
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Whose Century Is It?

"Whose Century Is It?" is a biweekly podcast, exploring the ideas, trends and twists shaping the 21st century. Is this century China's, or once again America's, or someone else's entirely? It's too early to say; but creator and host Mary Kay Magistad offers interviews, stories and perspectives from around the world that provide informative — and often surprising — ways to think about the question. "Whose Century Is It?" is a coproduction between PRI's The World and Magistad, a former foreign correspondent and Asia hand who has reported from some 40 countries, on both sides of the turn of the 21st century.  "Whose Century Is It?" is funded by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Riding bicycles in Beijing's Houhai neighborhood
Global Politics
Are young Chinese liberalizing as China’s political leaders crack down?
Chinese graduates at Columbia University
Young China
Full Episode
Street scene in Rio de Janeiro
Economics
Brazil defies (positive) expectations
Rebuilding Brazil’s economy requires more than BRICS and China
Full Episode
Economics
South Africa’s cautionary tale
Cape Town, South Africa, waterfront
Bumps along South Africa’s yellow BRIC road
Full Episode
Liu Xiaobo's empty chair at 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway; Liu was in a Chinese prison.
Culture
Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo remembered
Requiem for Liu Xiaobo
Full Episode
Economics
It’s carpe diem time for China. What that might mean for the world.
How China’s past shapes dreams of future power
Full Episode
Solar panels collect energy on a building in Dezhou, Shandong Province, China.
Economics
Why China’s embrace of renewable energy matters, and is more complicated than you think
Employees row a boat as they examine solar panel boards at a pond in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, China, in this March 16, 2016 photo.
Can Chinese pragmatism help save the planet?
Full Episode
Vision test, as part of VisionSpring's efforts to reach people in remote areas who need glasses.
Business
Bringing the world into focus for some of the 2 billion people globally who need glasses but don’t have them
Woman with glasses
Seeing into the future
Full Episode
A picture taken on April 3, 2014 in Maine-Soroa, eastern Niger, shows Nigerian people gathered at a camp for refugees who fled the fighting between the Nigerian army and Boko Haram.
Media
How a shortwave radio network is helping to counter Boko Haram
Dandal Kura Radio International Logo
Radio Free(ing) Africa
Full Episode
Chinese offer incense at a Buddhist temple in Wutaishan, China
Global Politics
If money can’t buy happiness, many Chinese now seek spiritiual meaning
Mary Kay Magistad (left),host of the Whose Century Is It? podcast, with Ian Johnson, author of "The Souls of China," and Jennifer Lin, author of "Shanghai Faithful," at The Mechanics Institute in San Francisco.
Soul searching in China
Full Episode
Drew Sullivan, founder and editor of the Organized Crime & Corruption Project
Media
Disrupting the Kleptocrat’s Playbook, one investigative report at a time
Enemies of the (Corrupt) People
Full Episode
Truth and Reconciliation
Culture
South Africa’s imperfect progress, 20 years after the Truth & Reconciliation Commission
Scene in Elsie's River, one of the Cape Flats communities on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa
Truth & reconciliation in South Africa, revisited
Full Episode
Jedwabne
Culture
How a massacre of a village’s Jews by their neighbors in WWII Poland is remembered — and misremembered
Jedwabne, Poland synagogue in 19th century
Atrocity amnesia
Full Episode
Street scene in Amman, Jordan
Jobs
Why do so few women work (for pay) in Jordan?
Jordanian lawyer and human rights activist Asma Khader, left, with The World's Shirin Jaafari
Women’s work
Full Episode
Internet Archive staff in San Francisco
Badass librarians of the Internet Archive
Full Episode
Drones
Keeping up with killer technology
Full Episode
A crew chief completes a post flight inspection of a Predator drone on Sept. 15, 2004 at Balad Air Base, Iraq.
Conflict
How drones and robotics may shape the future of conflict under President Trump
Saiko and Max Reynard, joining the San Francisco Women's March
Global Politics
Trump’s vision of America in the world isn’t so great, say critics at home and abroad
Women's March in Oakland, CA on 1-21-17  drew more than 60,000 people
Make America Kind Again
Full Episode
A man holds a sign for Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson
Global Politics
America is divided — and that’s by design
How trust eroded within America’s democracy
Full Episode
The exhibition showcased the 30th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's historic visit to China in 1972.
Culture
Few love/hate relationships matter more than America’s with China
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping dons cowboy hat during his 1979 US visit, at the start of a new era in US-China relations
China, the US and the lessons of history
Full Episode
The World's team gathers in March 2003 to talk strategy in covering the war in Iraq
Media
Think you can predict the future? In the age of Trump, journalists offer a cautionary tale.
The World early team in the newsroom
A newsroom looks at future past
Full Episode
At the University of Michigan Engineering Center
Education
Why having more black leaders in science and tech will boost America’s future
Executives meet at an IT Senior Management Forum gathering, a group that mentors senior African-American managers in STEM fields
Black Lives Rising (in STEM)
Full Episode
Students' post-election sentiments on Northwestern University rock
Global Politics
In (?) We Trust
Trust, Faith & Trump
Full Episode
David Carroll, head of the Carter Center's Democracy Program
Global Politics
Echoes abroad of US election challenges at home
Voters casting ballots
How do US elections stack up?
Full Episode
Dublin street scene
Conflict
Borders, belonging, identity, immigration and refugees in Ireland and Germany
Berlin Wall remnant at Bernhardstrasse, where the wall once ran down the middle of a street
Borders and belonging
Full Episode
East London street scene
Economics
Britain’s undergoing an identity crisis
Brexit-EU
Rule Britannia
Full Episode
Many of us take borders for granted,
Culture
An argument for (more) open borders
Who are ‘we’?
Full Episode
Nina Khrushcheva, great-granddaughter of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, teaches propaganda at the New School in New York
Culture
Propaganda, American style: A Khrushchev’s perspective
Scene from Nina Khrushcheva's New School office
Propaganda primer for post-War on Terror America
Full Episode
Kochi (formerly Cochin), part of Kerala, which has embraced the Fab City movement
Development
India’s Kerala embraces Fab Labs and an ‘Internet of Things’ future
Kerala Technology Innovation Zone, coming soon, aims to be an Internet of Things hub
Fab Labs, Fab Cities, & an Indian dream of becoming an Internet of Things hub
Full Episode
Shenzhen Maker Faire mobile display
Technology
The Maker Movement that was born in the USA has taken on Chinese characteristics
Shenzhen Maker Faire, June 2015
Maker Movement meets China
Full Episode
China's PLA
Conflict
An uneasy history of US-China conspiracy theories
John Birch
Conspiracy theories, China & the real John Birch
Full Episode
Scene from Minnesota State Fair
Economics
What the rise of the gig economy means for the American Dream
Summer scene
The precarious American Dream
Full Episode
A man carries an EU flag after Britain voted to leave the European Union, outside Downing Street in London.
Global Politics
Three smart takes on Europe’s future, from people living the change