Habib Khan Totakhil is an Afghan journalist who has reported on the Afghan conflict for more than a decade with the Wall Street Journal, becoming one of the few reporters to have embedded with both government forces and the Taliban. His reporting has come at a steep personal cost, including being abducted and held by the Taliban. Totakhil was honored for "Courageous Journalism" by the East West Center in 2016 and won the Rumi Award for "Best International Reporter in Afghanistan" in 2014.

Beyond journalism, Totakhil is also the founder of the non-profit Afghan Peace Watch, which aims to deliver reliable research and information on what’s happening on the ground in Afghanistan. Notably, he was also a restaurant owner. His first business was a Mexican restaurant in Kabul’s green zone, and his other restaurant was the Cabul Meat House, a popular steakhouse in the Shahr-e-Naw neighborhood.

Join us for a conversation with Habib Khan Totakhil and Ramesh Srinivasan on the realities of living and reporting from inside a decades-long conflict, the ethics and risks of embedded journalism, and what two decades of war have meant for Afghanistan's future.

This episode was recorded in December of 2023.

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Richard Wolff is an economist and professor emeritus of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Described by The New York Times Magazine as "America's most prominent Marxist economist," Wolff is known for his critiques of contemporary capitalism and his advocacy for alternative economic models, particularly worker-owned enterprises. Wolff is also a cofounder of Democracy At Work, a nonprofit that produces the program Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff.

His prominent publications include books like Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism; Contending Economic Theories: Neoclassical, Keynesian, and Marxian; Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism; and Understanding Marxism.

Join us for a conversation on the state of the global economy, inequality, labor, and the enduring relevance of Marxist thought in the twenty-first century.

This episode was recorded on June 4, 2025.

Follow Richard Wolff on X, TikTok, and YouTube. Follow Ramesh on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, X, YouTube, LinkedIn, and on his website.

Questions or comments? Email podcastutopias@gmail.com.

This podcast may contain explicit language and content that is not suitable for all audiences.

Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age. His twenty books include Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires and Team Human, which is also the name of his podcast. Douglas was named one of the "world’s ten most influential intellectuals" by MIT.

This conversation was recorded on June 6, 2025.

Follow Team Human on Instagram and X. Follow Ramesh on Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky, X, YouTube, LinkedIn, and on his website.

Questions or comments? Email podcastutopias@gmail.com.

This podcast may contain explicit language and content that is not suitable for all audiences.

Ethan Zuckerman is a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he teaches public policy, communication and information. He founded the Initiative for Digital Public Infrastructure, an organization that studies the civic and social role of internet platforms, and advocates for approaches to digital infrastructures that treat platforms as public goods, not purely as profit-making ventures. He is the author of Mistrust: Why Losing Faith in Institutions Provides the Tools to Transform Them and Digital Cosmopolitans: Why We Think the Internet Connects Us, Why It Doesn't, and How to Rewire It.

This conversation was recorded on April 18, 2025

Follow Ethan on Bluesky, X, LinkedIn, and his website. Follow Ramesh on Bluesky, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and his website.

Questions or comments? Email podcastutopias@gmail.com.

This podcast may contain explicit language and content that is not suitable for all audiences.

Yanis Varoufakis is a renowned Greek economist and bestselling author. He served as the Minister of Finance in Greece and co-founded the political party Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25). His books include Another Now and Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism. This is Yanis’ second time coming on the show.

This conversation – moderated by CNN Arabic Editor-in-Chief Caroline Faraj – was featured at Web Summit Qatar on February 3, 2026.

Learn more about Yanis and Caroline. Follow me on Bluesky, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and on my website.

Questions or comments? Email podcastutopias@gmail.com.

This podcast may contain explicit language and content that is not suitable for all audiences.

Kaiser Kuo is the founder and host of Sinica Podcast. He is a journalist for Beijinger magazine and a senior manager in public communications at Baidu. Kaiser also cofounded the Chinese rock band Tang Dynasty.

Tulin Chang Maltepe joined me as a co-host for this interview. Tulin is a third-year undergraduate student at UCLA pursuing a Bachelor's Degree in Public Affairs with a minor in Chinese Languages and Cultures. She is also the Director of Outreach for the show.

This conversation was recorded on November 14, 2025.

Follow Kaiser on Bluesky, X, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Follow me on Bluesky, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and on my website.

Questions or comments? Email podcastutopias@gmail.com.

This podcast may contain explicit language and content that is not suitable for all audiences.

Peter Bloom is the founder and general coordinator of Rhizomatica, an organization that promotes new communication technologies that are community owned and managed. He is also the founder and ex-director of Juntos, a human rights organization for latino immigrants, and the founder of the Media for Justice Project in Nigeria. In 2015, he was named to the MIT Technology Review's "Innovators Under 35" list and Foreign Policy’s "100 Leading Global Thinkers" list.

Erick Huerta serves as policy and advocacy coordinator at Rhizomatica and is an expert of the International Telecommunication Union for connectivity issues in remote and indigenous communities.

This conversation was recorded on July 6, 2023.

Keep up with me on Bluesky, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and on my website.

Questions or comments? Email podcastutopias@gmail.com.

This podcast may contain explicit language and content that is not suitable for all audiences.

Daron Acemoglu is an acclaimed economist, author, and professor at MIT. In 2024, he received the Nobel Prize in Economics and the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences. His research focuses on the field of political and economic development and the relationships between political power and institutions and prosperity. He has written six award-winning books about the intersection between economic institutions, statehood, democracy, and technology.

Nishat Anjum joined me as co-host for this interview. Nishat holds a PhD and MA in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She currently serves as a fellow in the National Data Innovation Centre at the National Council of Applied Economic Research.

This conversation was recorded on September 23, 2025.

Keep up with Daron and Ramesh. Follow Daron on Bluesky and X. Follow me on Bluesky, X, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and on my website.

Questions or comments? Email podcastutopias@gmail.com.

This podcast may contain explicit language and content that is not suitable for all audiences.