Whose Century Is It?
Ideas, Trends & Twists Shaping the 21st Century.
Latest Episodes
Whose Century Is It?
May 06, 2016
Heads up, Silicon Valley, Bangalore's not just for outsourcing anymore. It's rising fast as a world-class hub of tech and biotech innovation, pulling successful Indian entrepreneurs back from Silicon Valley, and from around India. It's part of the story of how the other Asian giant, India, with half its population under age 25, is just getting going in seeing what it can do in this century.
Whose Century Is It?
April 22, 2016
China's rise has thrown new challenges at Southeast Asia — how to find strength in numbers to counter China's economic clout, and political and military muscle. One solution? The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has started a new ASEAN Economic Community, with the goal of turning it into a 10-nation, 630-million person common market. The challenges? Where to start? That's especially true if you're Thailand, once a star in the region for economic growth and stability, now, slipping down the list, but not remotely giving up.
Whose Century Is It?
April 08, 2016
Japan's economic growth is anemic, its population is aging and shrinking, and some Japanese wonder if Japan will still matter, as the century moves ahead. One way it does is as an example to China of what works and what doesn't, in managing an economy at home and power projection abroad. Japan also stands as an object lesson: A rise that looks inevitable may not be.
Whose Century Is It?
March 24, 2016
If the arc of history bends toward justice, the needs of the nation during World War II sped the process — not by design, but by necessity. With men off at war, US shipyards and factories started recruiting women and African Americans, who previously couldn't get such jobs. The story of how the reverberations from that era transformed America are told here by America's oldest park ranger, 94-year-old African-American Betty Soskin, who worked as a 20-year-old clerk in a segregated boiler makers union hall near the shipyards in Richmond, California, during the water. She now tells the story of segregation and social change in that era at Richmond's Rosie the Riveter Museum.
Whose Century Is It?
March 11, 2016
Is the world facing an ebb in democracy and a rise of authoritarianism? Seems so when you look at some countries, but it all depends on your frame and expectations. Listen in and challenge your assumptions, with two guys who study this for a living: Harvard's Steven Levitsky and Northwestern University's Bill Hurst.
About the show
"Whose Century Is It?" is a biweekly podcast, exploring the ideas, trends and twists shaping the 21st century. Is this century China's, or once again America's, or someone else's entirely? It's too early to say; but creator and host Mary Kay Magistad offers interviews, stories and perspectives from around the world that provide informative — and often surprising — ways to think about the question. "Whose Century Is It?" is a coproduction between PRI's The World and Magistad, a former foreign correspondent and Asia hand who has reported from some 40 countries, on both sides of the turn of the 21st century.
"Whose Century Is It?" is funded by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
