In a new UN climate report, scientists have outlined a survival guide to avert climate disaster. To discuss, we FEATURE Farhana Yamin. Yamin is a leading international environmental lawyer and climate change and development policy expert. She has provided legal and policy advice to many different countries and constituencies over the last 30 years working as an adviser to developing countries especially the Alliance of Small Island States and least developed countries. She represented the Marshall Islands in the negotiations of the 2015 Paris Agreement and helped create the High Ambition Coalition. As CEO of Track 0, she is widely credited with getting the goal of net zero emissions by mid-century into the Paris Agreement. Farhana is the Deputy Chair of the Climate Vulnerable Forum Expert Advisory Group. Media includes: Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post.

The Supreme Court has heard arguments in a Navajo Nation lawsuit that claims based on a 1868 treaty, the federal government has a duty to ensure that the reservation has access to water. The tribe is seeking the rights to the Lower Colorado River. To discuss, we FEATURE Emma Robbins. Robbins is the Executive Director of the Navajo Water Project, which provides infrastructure for families to access clean running water in their homes on the Navajo Nation. The project is a part of the human rights nonprofit DigDeep. She was a 2020 Aspen Institute Healthy Communities Fellow and is a Diné artist, using her work to raise awareness about the need for clean water across all Native Nations. Robbins grew up on the reservation, in one of the areas with the largest concentrations of water poverty, and always knew the importance of water. She then went on to lead the Navajo Water Project. To date, the Navajo Water Project has installed running water in approximately 300 homes, and is continuing their work to ensure families on the Navajo Nation have access to safe water to drink and stay clean by delivering bottled and trucked water to homes during the COVID pandemic. Media includes: PBS Democracy Now, Nylon, Marie Claire, Vox, NBC, NPR.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made a trip to Russia in order to show his support for Vladimir Putin and solidify the relationship between China and Russia. To discuss, we FEATURE Bonnie Glaser. Glaser is managing director of German Marchall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program. She is also a nonresident fellow with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, Australia, and a senior associate with the Pacific Forum. She was previously director of GMF’s Asia program, and senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. From 2008 to mid-2015, she was a senior adviser with the CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies, and from 2003 to 2008, she was a senior associate in the CSIS International Security Program. Prior to joining CSIS, she served as a consultant for various U.S. government offices, including the Departments of Defense and State. Media includes: The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, CNN, BBC, ABC, CBS, PBS, NPR.

On Friday, Wyoming became the first state to outlaw abortion pills. To discuss, we FEATURE Dr. Kristyn Brandi. Dr. Brandi, the Darney-Landy Fellow at the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, is an Obstetrician-Gynecologist with a fellowship training in Family Planning (contraception and abortion services). Dr. Brandi is a board member and the immediate 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, Elite Daily, Newsweek.

U.S. Army Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz was found dead after telling family about sexual harassment. Ruiz was based in Fort Hood, a military base with a history of high rates of sexual assault. To discuss, we FEATURE Stephanie Szitanyi. Szitanyi is an Associate Dean at The New School and is author of Gender Trouble in the U.S. Military. Her research and clips focus on female political representation, veterans running for office, the military and gender policies (sexual assault, transgender ban, women in combat, etc), and the militarization of American culture. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Rutgers University. She is also an op-ed contributor for The Hill and the NY Daily News.

On Sunday, UBS agreed to buy Credit Suisse for $3.2 billion. To discuss, we FEATURE Anne MacGregor. An antitrust lawyer for 25 years in large law firms in Brussels, Anne launched the Brussels Bureau of the DC-based specialist antitrust investigatory news service The Capitol Forum in 2018, to report on EU regulatory risk in international transactions. Over the course of her career, Anne has acted for merging companies, third party interveners, and event-driven merger arb hedge fund investors in a series of high-profile global deals, including Deutsche Boerse/NYSE Euronext, UPS/TNT Express, FedEx/TNT Express, and Bayer/Monsanto. She has significant experience in EU and multijurisdictional merger control, and is adept at explaining both substantive competition problems as well as timing considerations in regulatory reviews of pending transactions. Media includes: EuroNews, Bloomberg, Reuters, Wall Street Journal.

From March 22-24, hundreds of world leaders will gather in New York for the UN Water Conference. To discuss, we FEATURE Catarina de Albuquerque, the CEO of SWA, the United Nations-hosted partnership, Sanitation and Water for All. de Albuquerque joined Sanitation and Water for All in 2014 and has since increased political will in favor of water, sanitation and hygiene, and positioned SWA as a vital contributor to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6. Through her strategic leadership as CEO, she is an influential and powerful advocate for SWA and the human rights to water and sanitation. In 2008, de Albuquerque was appointed by the Human Rights Council to become the first UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights to safe drinking water and sanitation. In 2010, she played a pivotal role in the recognition of water and sanitation as human rights by the UN General Assembly. Media includes: LA Times, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Reuters, CNN.

March 20th was the 20 year anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. To discuss, we FEATURE Graciela Tiscareño-Sato. Tiscareño-Sato is a bilingual Latina military veteran. She is frequently interviewed, in English and Spanish, about her experience as a military aviator who earned an Air Medal during combat operations over Iraq and how the daughter of Mexican immigrants ended up serving onboard Air Force aircraft as an officer. Tiscareño-Sato also regularly serves her fellow veterans with her marketing expertise as a “Personal Branding for Veterans” instructor at universities to help them market their best assets via stories and successfully transition into the civilian world. She’s lent this expertise to Syracuse University’s V-WISE program, empowering women veterans to become entrepreneurs. For her entrepreneurial work, in 2014 the White House recognized Graciela as a Champion of Change, Woman Veteran Leader, Congressman Swalwell (CA-15) honored her on the Floor of the House of Representatives and she received a National Business Woman Week award. Media includes: Redbook, The New York Times, Costco Connection, La Opinión, Fox News, NBC News, NPR.

Thursday is the 13th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. To discuss, we FEATURE Laura Packard. Laura, health care advocate and stage 4 cancer survivor, is an expert on the Affordable Care Act, health care reform, health insurance, Medicaid expansion, prescription drug costs, public option, surprise medical bills, and junk insurance. She founded a non-profit, Health Care Voices, to organize adults with serious medical conditions for affordable comprehensive health care. Laura is Executive Director of Health Care Voter, a national campaign to hold elected officials accountable for their votes on health care, and support those who fight to protect our care. She also hosts CareTalk, a weekly consumer call-in TV show on act.tv and podcast, tackling health care and health insurance questions and topics. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, US News & World Report, MSNBC.

March is Women's History Month. To commemorate, we FEATURE Kirsten Swinth. Swinth is Professor of History and American Studies at Fordham University in New York and has a Ph.D. from Yale University. She specializes in the history of women, work, and family as well as the history of feminism and the women’s movement. She comments on issues of work-life balance; care work and emotional labor; labor in the U.S.; and women in the workforce. She the author of Feminism’s Forgotten Fight: The Unfinished Struggle for Work and Family, a book on the 1960s and 70s U.S. women's movement, and Painting Professionals: Women Artists and the Development of Modern American Art, 1870-1930, looking at the careers of women painters in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. Media includes: The New York Times, The Washington Post, New York Daily News, Huffington Post, Christian Science Monitor, CNN.