One of Marco Werman's favorite albums this summer is from New Zealand's Fat Freddy's Drop. Well, he's been unable to stop listening to it. And he wants you to hear another track.

Funky Tracks from Fat Freddy's Drop Album 'Blackbird'

Some 40,000 humpback whales are migrating from Antarctica to the Great Barrier Reef, in numbers that rival historic highs. The seasonal migration is happening as Australia considers removing humpback whales from its threatened species list. Eleanor Whitehead from our partners at Economist Radio has the story.

Save the whales

Isaiah Katumwa is a star in Uganda. Not only is he an accomplished saxophonist, but he has his own TV show on jazz. And then, there's that reputation as the Kenny G of Africa.

The Kenny G of Africa? Fans say it's saxophonist Isaiah Katumwa

The song is titled “N’yanyan,” based on an old song passed down over time. Rokia Koné recorded it in one take on a night when the world around her was in upheaval — August 2020, when there was a coup d'etat in Mali. You can hear how she found solace in the words: “Things may be bad now, but it's only a moment in time.”

A musical message of hope in a new single from Mali’s Rokia Koné

Dozens of people have been killed in a violent fight between rival gangs inside of a prison in Santo Domingo, Ecuador. It has happened multiple times in the past two years. Experts say systemic problems plague the country's prisons. Tibisay Zea has the story.

In Ecuador, gangs rule the prisons

The full theme music for public radio's PRI's The World, composed by Eric Goldberg.

PRI's The World: Theme Song

The World's Nina Porzucki has the story of Hong Kong Film and TV Mogul, Run Run Shaw, who helped popular Chinese martial arts movies in the West.  He died at his home in Hong Kong today at the age of 106.


Remembering Hong Kong movie mogul Run Run Shaw

A small Norwegian town in the Arctic is developing a reputation for fine dining. Reporter Emily Haavik talked to some local chefs who explained how the town of Longyearbyen — with a population of about 2,000 people — has become a destination for foodies.

Fine dining at the top of the world

That's what the girls in the Star Feminine Band sing about in their song, "We Are Star Feminine Band." The members of the group are between the ages of 12 and 18, and they hail from Natitingou, a tiny village in the country of Benin. They sing for their rights with the hope for a brighter future for young girls everywhere.

‘We are small. We are strong.’

Years of war interrupted and undermined Iraq’s music scene. The World’s Shirin Jaafari reports on how the current relative stability has created a space for its revival.

Iraq's revived music scene helps wounds heal

The inspiration for the album title 'Traveling Medicine Man' comes from Bai Kamara, Jr.'s maternal grandfather who was born in Sierra Leone. He was educated by Protestant missionaries and later traveled with them to help provide medical care to villagers and townspeople. Host Marco Werman plays us a track from the new album.

Bai Kamara, Jr. is the ‘traveling medicine man’

In 1989, the Ukrainian punk rock band Vopli Vidopliassova released a semi-official cassette tape called “Tantsi,” or “Dances.” In 2019, the original session tape was rediscovered, and in 2023, Tantsi was finally officially released. It now serves as a time capsule from late-Soviet Kyiv, where Ukrainian punks were rebelling against repressive rule from the Kremlin, and imagining new possibilities. The World’s Daniel Ofman reports from Kyiv.

Ukrainian rock band Vopli Vidopliassova

When fighting broke out in Gaza, Hamas recorded a music video to encourage its fighters and scare Israelis. Instead, the song has become a huge hit in Israel.

A Hamas terror anthem is Israel's biggest summer hit

Migrants from African countries represent a very small fraction of the people crossing the US southern border, but their numbers have dramatically increased in the past year. The World’s Tibisay Zea reports on the multiple factors driving African migrants to America.

More Africans are choosing to migrate to the US

“Leopoldstadt” is a gripping play about the changing fortunes of a Jewish family in wartime Austria. In 2023, it won a number of Tony Awards, including for best play. Now, a new production of “Leopoldstadt” is being performed in Riga, Latvia. And the choice of director has helped it make headlines. The World's Daniel Ofman reports from Riga.

John Malkovich directs Latvian production of 'Leopoldstadt'

Some US border states have been sending newly arrived immigrants north. Many have come by bus through Colorado. That's where Aspen Public Radio reporters met Asdrubal Alvarado. He shared his story of why he left the violence and insecurity of Venezuela and headed to what he hoped would be a better life in the US.

Venezuela postcard: The journey of a man to a Colorado town

Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, announced a ban on the use and distribution of Styrofoam and other single-use plastics this week. Similar bans have been implemented in other sub-Saharan African nations like Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Pritish Behuria, a senior lecturer with the Global Development Institute, about the effectiveness of these plastics bans across the African continent. 

Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, is banning single-use plastics

Soon after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin established a group of allied countries to support the besieged nation. Now, for the first time, the Pentagon is out of money for Ukraine. Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler have more on how the US is looking to raise funds.

The Pentagon has no money for Ukraine

Violence continues to flare in the west Sudan region of Darfur. A new UN report estimates up to 15,000 people were killed last year in just one Darfur city. It’s all too familiar to Mutasim Ali, a former Darfur resident and a legal adviser for Montreal’s Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. Ali speaks with host Marco Werman about the roots of the crisis. 

Darfur's 2nd genocide

The Biden administration wants the Israelis and Palestinians to get serious about restarting a long-stalled plan for a two-state solution. The European Union is saying the same, and so are Arab leaders, along with others across the international community. But Israel is digging in its heels. The World's Matthew Bell reports on the disconnect between Israel and its most-important allies on long-term plans for ending the conflict. 

Israel says 'no' to a 2-state solution

Hosts Marco Werman and Carolyn Beeler give a quick synopsis of global stories that might have slipped by you.

A few things you might have missed

Global cocaine production is at historic highs, and cartels are developing new trade routes to get it to market. There are also new patterns of consumption, and Latin America is one region where use of cocaine is on the rise. Host Carolyn Beeler speaks with Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly, on why much of the rise in cocaine use in Latin America is in one country: Brazil. 

Brazil sees rise in cocaine use

Host Marco Werman tells us about the unprecedented career of Annie Nightingale, the first woman DJ on the BBC's pop music station BBC1, and the longest-serving presenter on the BBC. Her magic was all about keeping her ears young.

1st woman DJ on BBC Radio 1 dies

The Nepal Mountaineering Association says human waste is a bigger problem than trash on Mt. Everest. But the climbers aren't going away, so we asked an Everest expedition leader how he plans to safely heed the call of nature atop the world's tallest mountain.

How to poop on top of the world

In the wake of the Paris Attack French President François Hollande was quick to denounce the alleged attackers, 'Daesh.' Many people call this same jihadist group ISIS. Alternatively they've been called ISIL and even the Islamic State.  But many in the Arab speaking world and increasingly Western leaders have taken to calling the group 'Daesh.'  In this mini-episode of the podcast we explore the meaning of the term 'Daesh.' How do you pronounce it? Who coined it? And why does the group previously referred to as ISIS or ISIL dislike it so much?

383: ISIS, ISIL or Daesh?

After the Taliban fell from power in Afghanistan in the winter of 2001, the hunt for Osama bin Laden began in earnest. One American in particular led the search. He was CIA commander, Gary Berntsen, who had been tracking the al-Qaeda leader for years. In December 2001 he ordered a small group of special forces soldiers and Afghan fighters into the White Mountains close to Pakistan in the hope of cornering bin Laden in the caves of Tora Bora.

Remembering the battle of Tora Bora in 2001

In Iraq, US assistance to Kurdish forces goes beyond advisors and trainers. The Obama administration says the US provides support in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq by sending advisors and trainers. It has made it clear that there won’t be "boots on the ground." But as Mike Giglio of BuzzFeed has reported, Americans are involved in operations on the frontline in Iraq.

The US against ISIS

On Christmas day 20 years ago, news reports around the world announced the resignation of Mikhail Gorbachev, the last President of the Soviet Union. With his departure, the USSR dissolved, and the first socialist state was consigned to the dustbin of history. It was the end of an ideology, and an empire.  Brigid McCarthy reports on why it all came crashing down.

The End of the USSR

Photo: BBC
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Next time on The World... when one passport is not enough.
 
Some people pay big to get a SECOND citizenship.
 
CLIP: "So at least half of the reason why people are doing citizenship by investment is to get greater mobility, which makes both business and leisure much easier for these individuals."
 
The price of GLOBAL citizenship - and the news - on The World.

PREVIEW: When one passport is not enough

 Residents of Sri Lanka are still struggling to make sense of Sunday's bombings. Reporter Aurora Almendral in Colombo talks with host Marco Werman about the stories of those who rushed to rescue the wounded.

Shock and sadness

Ben Howard covers John Martyn's 'Couldn't Love You More"

Host Marco Werman speaks with Belgian author Fleur Pierets, who wrote a semi-autobiographical children's book about her marriage to her wife, Julian Boom. In 2017, the couple set out to marry in all 22 countries where same-sex marriage is legalized. Seven weeks after their fourth wedding took place in France, however, Boom died from brain cancer. In this book, Pierets finishes her journey around the world with her wife.

Love around the world

This song "Maliko" is making its world premiere on PRI's The World's Soundcloud account. It was written, performed and recorded in the capital Bamako by some of Mali's best known musicians. "Maliko" is their plea for peace in Mali, and for the emancipation of women there. It features Fatoumata Diawara, Habib Koite, Djelimady Tounkara, Toumani Diabate, Oumou Sangare, and many others. If you like what you hear and the mission of these artists, feel free to share.

Fatoumata Diawara's Maliko

Composer and Italian classical piano superstar Ludovico Einaudi teamed up with Greenpeace for a concert in the Arctic Circle in 2016 in support of a campaign for a marine sanctuary in the North Pole’s international waters and to raise awareness about melting glaciers and rising sea levels.

Elegy for the Arctic

From Afghanistan to the Philippines, Scotland to Serbia, Colombia to Pakistan, Zimbabwe to Malawi, and more, environmentalists around the world are connecting online to celebrate Earth Day. 

All around the world, Earth Day celebrations go virtual

[<a href="https://soundcloud.com/theworld/sets/embedded-journalism-in-iraq">This is part of a panel discussion on embedded journalism in Iraq and Afghanistan</a>] 

This is part of a panel discussion on embedded journalism in Iraq and Afghanistan</a>] "(During the 2003 lead up to the Iraq invasion) we were going to bring all of the journalists that were going to go with us, and read them into the entire plan, weeks prior to the invasion.  And the reason this is done is, number one, they're going to be right beside us and deserve to know; and two, it was an extension of trust that says "We are going to let you in, and let you see everything that we're getting ready to do.  And we trust that you're not going to compromise the mission." - US Army Col. Richard "Ross" Coffman

Sebastian Junger, Bob Woodruff, Rita Leistner and Col. Ross Coffman talk with The World's Aaron Schachter on March 15, 2013

How reporters got to the war zone

A record number of fires are burning in the Amazon rainforest. Many were set illegally to clear land for farming and other development. This week on "The Big Fix," The World's weekly look at climate solutions,  environment producer Anna Kusmer reports on the importance of Indigenous rights in protecting the Brazilian Amazon.  

As fires burn in the Amazon, Indigenous land rights are more important than ever

Reporter Anders Kelto of PRI's The World talks about his radio and multimedia series, "School Year." Kelto is spending a year documenting the lives of students at a public high school in Cape Town, South Africa. The Centre of Science and Technology is a magnet school that serves families in the low-income township of Khayelitsha. &#13;
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Visit http://www.pri.org/school-year for more.

School Year

Reporter Phillip Martin has been investigating human trafficking in various parts of the world and in Vietnam he found a glimmer of hope, as a young woman who was kidnapped and sold to a brothel in China, returns to her family.

Duped, Sold into Prostitution, then Rescued: A Vietnamese Girl and the Man Who Saved Her

When the US economy took a nosedive five years ago, Brazil's economy hardly skipped a beat.  With this economic shift in fortunes, migration patterns between the two countries have shifted as well.  But as The World's Jason Margolis found out, not very cleanly. More at <a href="http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/the-revolving-door-of-ex-pat-brazilians/"> The World </a>.

The Revolving Door of Ex-Pat Brazilians

Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is. The World is heard on over 300 stations across North America.

Popular tracks by The World