Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the capture of the Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” (shorty) Guzman in a luxury hotel in the tourist resort of Mazatlan. Mexico City-based journalist Ioan Grillo, the author of “El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency” joins us to discuss the role of Mexican Marines in recapturing the fugitive drug lord who Forbes magazine has named number 67 on its list of the world’s most powerful people, and what role U.S. intelligence might have played in nabbing Chicago’s public enemy number one.

Part 2

Then we speak with the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer, who is now director of the Brookings Institution’s Arms Control Initiative where he focuses on arms control, Ukraine and Russian issues.  We discuss the sudden collapse of the kleptocratic Yanukovych regime and what might follow it to fill the political vacuum, as well as who might pony up to help the almost bankrupt country recover now that Russia’s $15 billion loan is likely to be put on hold as the “spoiler” Putin decides his next move now that his puppet has fled his palace.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with a Ukrainian scholar Mykola Riabchuk, a senior research fellow at the Ukrainian Center for Cultural Studies in Kyiv, and co-founder and member of the editorial board of Krytyka, a leading Ukrainian intellectual magazine. We discuss the future of a divided country that has just undergone its third post-Soviet revolution, and whether another kleptocrat, Yulia Tymoshenko, who was just released from prison, will fill the void or whether the country could be rebooted in a less corrupt and more lawful direction.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the grave situation in Ukraine that appears to be on the brink of civil war in spite of President Yanukovich’s announcement of a truce with the opposition. Anders Aslund, the co-chairman of the board of trustees of the Kyiv School of Economics and a former Swedish diplomat and economic advisor to the governments of Russia and Ukraine, joins us to discuss the opposition takeover of police stations and the surrender of security forces to the opposition as the European Union discusses sanctions and Russian President Putin warns against Western interference.

Part 2

Then we go to Toluca, Mexico to speak with Tim Johnson, the Mexico City Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers who is covering the so-called “Three Amigos” North American Summit where President Obama is meeting with Mexican President Pena Nieto and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss trade, immigration, energy and other issues. We discuss what the Mexican and American leaders, who are more popular abroad than they are at home can come to an agreement on, and whether Prime Minister Harper has succeeded in pressuring President Obama to agree to the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Ian Haney Lopez, a Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley and author of the new book “Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class”. We discuss his ground-breaking analysis of how politicians and plutocrats use veiled racist appeals to persuade white voters to support policies that favor the extremely rich while threatening the real interests of middle class and working Americans. We also examine the extent to which identity politics on the left play into the hands of these reactionary politicians and plutocrats.