#59 - Hannah Peterson

When Hannah Peterson’s college friends were going off to jobs in business and finance, she chose a slightly different path. That is to say, she chose to go to work in a garbage dump—a literal garbage dump—in Nicaragua. And later, when she couldn’t find accurate stories about the lives of the people she was getting to know, she took it upon herself to write them. And, as USAID was being fed into a wood chipper, she was finishing her play. And when numerous colleagues found themselves suddenly jobless, her play suddenly had a cast.

'SoftPower/FulStories' uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing. But forget politics, policy, or punditry; this is all about the stories.