Amidst federal cuts by the Trump administration, Health Secretary RFK Jr.'s mass firing of federal workers has led to a halt to data collection on health issues such as abortion, cancer, HIV, and more. To discuss, we FEATURE Dr. Kristyn Brandi, Medical Director at Women’s Choice Medical Center.. Brandi is an obstetrician-gynecologist who is a former board member and the past Board Chair of Physicians for Reproductive Health, sits on several sub-committees for the Society of Family Planning and is a founding member of Centering Equity, Racial and Cultural Literacy in Family Planning (CERCL-FP). She has published research on contraceptive coercion by doctors to patients seeking abortion. Her master's degree concentration focused on Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights, which she has focused her educational pursuits around abortion policy, contraceptive decision-making, and racial justice within medical education. Media includes: The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Vox.

As the U.S.-China trade war continues, Chinese President Xi Jingping has begun a diplomatic tour of Southeast Asia to strengthen trade partnerships there. To discuss, we FEATURE Astrid Nordin. Nordin holds the Lau Chair of Chinese International Relations in the Lau China Institute, King’s College London. Her research draws on Chinese sources, traditions, and cultural phenomena, to understand current Chinese affairs, as well as broader questions about China’s role in future world relations. She is especially interested in how Chinese political rhetoric and identity is shaped in relation to 'Western' identities, politics, and concepts, and its great power competition with the U.S. Media includes: South China Morning Post, France 24, BBC, ABC Australia.

On Saturday, the U.S. and Iran will meet in Rome for a second round of nuclear talks. To discuss, we FEATURE Barbara Slavin. Slavin is a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center. Previously, she was a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center and author of Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S. and the Twisted Path to Confrontation. She has covered such key foreign policy issues as the U.S.-led war on terrorism, policy toward "rogue" states, the Iran-Iraq war, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. She has traveled to Iran nine times, most recently to report on the inauguration of Iran's president Hassan Rouhani. Slavin also served as a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and as a senior fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she researched and wrote the report Mullahs, Money and Militias: How Iran Exerts Its Influence in the Middle East. Media includes: The Washington Times, USA Today, The Economist, BBC, NPR.

The Trump administration has made a decision to end some of the federal Medicaid funds the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provides for certain state health programs. To discuss, we FEATURE Susan L. Parish, president of Mercy University. Parish previously served as dean of the College of Health Professions and Sentara Professor of Health Administration at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). Over the course of her career, Parish has been a prolific researcher primarily investigating the health and well-being of children and adults with disabilities and their caregiving families. Parish’s disability, health, and poverty policy expertise is widely sought. She has testified in state and federal lawsuits, and she has been quoted by PBS NewsHour, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Psychology Today, and the Huffington Post.

Sunday, Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian city of Sumy, killing 35 people. While Russia has stated that the attack targeted Ukrainian military officals, Ukraine has stated that it was a deliberate attack on civilians. To discuss, we FEATURE Nina Jankowicz. Jankowicz is co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project. From March to May 2022 she served as the head of the Disinformation Board of the U.S. Homeland Security. Previously, Jankowicz was a Global Fellow at the Kennan Institute where she studied the intersection of democracy and technology in Central and Eastern Europe and a senior advisor at the Centre for Information Resilience. She is the author of How To Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict. Previously, she advised the Ukrainian government on strategic communications under the auspices of a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship. Prior to her Fulbright grant in Ukraine, Jankowicz managed democracy assistance programs to Russia and Belarus at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, Foreign Policy, The Wilson Quarterly.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. To discuss, we FEATURE Aishah Shahidah Simmons. Simmons is an award-winning Black feminist lesbian documentary filmmaker, activist, cultural worker, writer, and international lecturer whose work, for the past 25-years, examines the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and sexual violence. Her work is informed by her lived experiences as a child sexual abuse and adult rape survivor. Simmons is the editor of love WITH accountability: Digging Up the Roots of Child Sexual Abuse (AK Press | Fall 2019). The collection features compelling writings by forty diasporic Black child sexual abuse survivors, advocates, and Simmons's mother who underscores the detrimental impact of parents/caregivers not believing their children when they disclose their sexual abuse. Love WITH Accountability explores disrupting the inhumane epidemic of child sexual abuse, humanely. Media includes: Essence, In the Family, Colorlines, NBC News.