As a Peace Corps volunteer and then as a public health specialist, including with USAID, Leah Petit has seen firsthand the impact of global health programs. Not only in lives saved--full stop--but in global stability and security. And when she saw these programs being dismantled and former colleagues' motives questioned, she took action, starting 'Global Development Interrupted,' a podcast and Substack platform that documents the lives and work of those affected when US foreign assistance was cut, and, tragically, the suffering around the world that is becoming impossible to ignore. It is a project we strongly believe in.

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.

It makes sense that one of Denise Deneaux's early literary heroes was a woman who traveled the world with utter fearlessness. Because later, as a Peace Corps volunteer assigned to Chile during Pinochet’s repressive rule, she dealt with guns, danger, threats, and harassment--once sitting in a police station with her new baby on her lap. Her takeaways: tolerance, resilience, and greater empathy for people everywhere who are repressed. For this episode, Denise reads a letter to her mother that she hadn’t seen in more than 40 years.

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.

Peter Hessler knew from an early age that he wanted to be a writer. He was also vividly aware that he needed something to write about. It turned out that the thing was China, where he was sent as a Peace Corps volunteer. It became the subject of a trio of books and a series of New Yorker articles. He was among the first groups of Peace Corps volunteers allowed in China, and later recounted their departure. And he knows this much: It is better to be there than to be absent.

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.