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.

Join us at the Thanksgiving table when Aunt Deb brings both her green jello mold (the celery is a must) and, of course, her dubious questions. Over four hearty courses, she has four barbed questions--for former USAID veteran Steve Callahan, returned Peace Corps volunteers Evelyn LaTorre and Sarah Quinn, and Foreign Service Officer Jon Cebra. Their responses (and some pumpkin pie) provide the perfect dessert.

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.

As a young man, Aaron Williams challenged the norms of his peers by aspiring to broaden his horizons as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was something they hadn't seen coming. But then, Aaron likely even surprised himself when, after two decades of work in the private sector and with USAID, he became the Peace Corps' 18th Director—something his college self certainly did not see coming.

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.

MaryAnn Shank is a writer and former teacher who, despite growing up surrounded by the birth of Silicon Valley, found her deepest inspiration among the women of Somalia, half a world away. She has been celebrating strong and passionate women ever since.

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.

This is less a bonus episode than it is a bookend. (We recommend you start with Episode #13.) Last time around, Skip Waskin barely survived his first-ever USAID assignment in then-Zaire. Flash forward, and he is now leading USAID's biggest mission in Afghanistan. There are perilous echoes to Zaire, but on a much larger stage with life and death consequences.

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.

Skip Waskin's long career at USAID involved leading some of the Agency's largest and most important missions, including Russia and Afghanistan. But these illustrious roles almost eluded him — because he almost didn't make it past his very first assignment, as an embassy intern and a beginner contractor in a country formerly known as Zaire.

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.