Global Development Interrupted Podcast

About the show

Latest episodes

• What Do Markets Have to Do with It?

  September 10, 2026 · 38 min

  Life stops when the electricity goes out, and that’s not just how it feels. The International Energy Agency says electricity consumption and GDP growth have historically gone hand in hand, particularly in emerging and developing…

• We've Set Fire to a Bunch of Our Ships

  August 27, 2026 · 55 min

  What happens when environmental work that has taken decades to build suddenly disappears? For years, USAID supported efforts around the world to protect forests and wildlife, reduce pollution, strengthen local communities, and address the…

• Demography Is Destiny. But Whose?

  August 13, 2026 · 35 min

  Can demography — the study of how populations grow, move, and change — offer a window into a country’s future? That’s what Leah talks about with Dr. Apoorva Jadhav, former USAID senior demographer and statistician, in this episode of…

• Democracy Is Never Finished

  July 30, 2026 · 31 min

  Democracy is never finished. No country has gotten it perfect—not even here at home. In this episode of Global Development Interrupted, Leah talks with Amy Hamelin, a former USAID Democracy Officer who spent her career working across South…

• She Spent 16 Years Communicating for USAID. Then She Started Talking to Americans.

  July 16, 2026 · 31 min

  For 16 years, Sara Sullivan helped USAID tell its story around the world. She never imagined she’d have to explain it to Americans. When the agency was dismantled in early 2025, she watched misinformation spread through the Republican and…

• A Kid from Queens

  July 2, 2026 · 31 min

  When Jen Erie published her memoir, she expected her global development colleagues to connect with it. She didn’t expect older white men to message her saying they saw their own lives in hers. Jen Erie grew up the daughter of Haitian…

• The Name That Got It Killed

  June 18, 2026 · 34 min

  A scholarship program training the next generation of democratic leaders was named “Diversity and Inclusion” specifically to hide it from a military dictatorship. On day nine of the Trump presidency, that name got it canceled. Matt Pietz…

• We Are the Work

  June 4, 2026 · 30 min

  Keisha Effiom sat at her dining room table in Rwanda, read the email about USAID’s final mission, and started writing. The result is a memoir — and this conversation. Keisha, former USAID Mission Director for Rwanda and Burundi, joins…