Episodes

"You can't help people from a distance." - Sergio Viera de Mello When it comes to overseas experiences, Keith Mines has seen a lot, from a remarkable set of vantage points: from LDS missionary work to active-duty assignments ...

If you are a six-foot-six white guy in Liberia, you are going to stick out--and Glenn Ivers did stand out. But, if you add to that infectious enthusiasm, humor, and maybe throw in a new soccer pitch, you might become unforget...

"If we don't fight hard enough for the things we stand for, at some point we have to recognize that we don't really stand for them." --Paul Wellstone Her name in Ojibwe is Anisiiwiikwe , which means "woman made of stone," an ...

"Come as a visitor, not as a spy." -Zambian proverb "Eliza" is better known as Beth Jere, who is cheered in her old Zambian village and the surrounding areas for good reason. She was the first American her village ever knew, ...

As a young man, Mike Tidwell traveled halfway across the globe to teach rural Africans a potential new livelihood. As with most Peace Corps volunteers, he found himself on the receiving end of the most prominent lessons. Deca...

Pro tip: If an adversarial country's primary rhetorical strategy is "What Aboutism," maybe don't give them so much ammunition... This special bonus episode of SP/FS features Troy University professor Michael Slobodchikoff, an...

Raised in a Ghanian-American family, Katherine Ntiamoah's parents instilled within her the idea that her only limits would be self-imposed. She took that to heart and has been expanding her limits throughout her life--with Am...

"No human is more human than another human" -General Romeo Dallaire. John Berry's long overseas career, spanning the Peace Corps, USAID, and the United Nations, took him to nearly 100 countries, benefiting countless people. B...

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced." - James Baldwin Ka Vang is a Hmong-American writer born in Laos and raised in Minnesota. Her work moves between memory and migration...

Less than 24 hours after he graduated from college, Paul Barker was on a plane, en route to Iran, where he would spend the next five years as a Peace Corps volunteer, immersed in Iranian culture and history. And though he fol...

John Dinkelman--or "Dink" as he is known to countless current and former U.S. Foreign Service Officers--is something of a legend. He spent nearly four decades serving his country as a diplomat--and now he serves those same di...

As a child, growing up in South Minneapolis, Medaria Arradondo--or, "Rondo"-- was aware that the adults in his neighborhood were watching. They had the kids' backs, but their expectations were very high. Flash forward. After ...

Claire St. Amant left her beloved Texas to serve as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, halfway across the world. When she was finished, she was ready to return to Texas. But what she learned in between--in the classroom of t...

Even though her classmates may have recognized her as a future ambassador before she did herself, Kate Byrnes' swift ascent from the U.S. Information Agency to the Department of State to, yes, becoming a U.S. Ambassador, left...

In the face of ICE's sweeping detention and deportation push, Minnesotans are responding not with panic or illegal action, but with a steady, deeply-rooted ethic of neighborliness--quietly organizing, opening their homes and ...

Everybody assumed that Marian Rivman would grow out of her high school fascination with the Peace Corps. She did not. But her early experiences in the Peace Corps left a lot to be desired. Dangerous areas, bats, rats, and sna...

(Note: This is the second of a two-part episode. We strongly recommend you start with Part 1.) The continuing story of Mark Ward, a committed humanitarian who led teams to provide critical help after natural or man-made disas...

Mark Ward is a committed humanitarian who led teams to provide critical help after natural or man-made disasters. He saved lives and restored hope to communities affected by many disasters over two decades, including the 2004...

From the time of her childhood, Christine Herbert seemed destined to follow those Saturday morning TV commercials proclaiming "the toughest job you'll ever love." In her case, it meant rural Zambia and, far more than the snak...

PLEASE LEND YOUR EARS: This inaugural episode of 'Powerful Stories" (PS1) features a chorus of Minnesotavoices—frontline witnesses, supportive neighbors, community leaders—bearing witness to the unprecedented and antagonistic...

Cy Kuckenbaker is an award-winning American filmmaker, video artist, and arts professor. He is also something of an expert on Lithuania and its tortured past. First as a Peace Corps volunteer, then as a Fulbright scholar, his...

Chris Thomas remembers well where he came from and how he got to where he is. As a young Peace Corps volunteer in rural Sierra Leone, he quickly understood that the people who had so warmly welcomed him into the village were ...

Hamse Warfa is the CEO of World Savvy, a non-profit organization that equips educators and students with the skills, perspectives, and global awareness needed to thrive in an interconnected world and drive positive change. In...

SP/FS is proud to share the new episode of Global Development Interrupted , a podcast and Substack page we follow enthusiastically. You may remember that GDI's founder and host, Leah Petit, was featured on SP/FS #18 (go find ...