Michael Maren - The Road to Hell and the Pitfalls of Food Aid

In Development as Freedom, Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen calls for a radical rethinking of the way we view poverty and economic development. Pulling from more than five decades of his own research, Sen argues that economic development goes beyond increasing wealth—it’s about expanding freedom.

In this guide, we examine the five types of freedom that Sen argues are integral to development. We explore how empowering women helps communities, how democracy prevents famine, and how capitalist values lead to the greater good.

This guide explains Sen’s reasoning—from what it means to be poor to his idea of justice and the role that markets play in development. Additionally, we examine different perspectives on the substance and practicality of Sen’s “development as freedom” approach.

Since the 1980s, short-term mission trips have become a popular form of ministry for many evangelical Christian churches throughout North America. The purpose of these missions is ostensibly to spread the gospel and help the poor, particularly in developing nations. But Christian economic development experts Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert express concern that many of these missions actually do more harm than good because the people who organize them misunderstand the true nature and causes of poverty.

In this guide, we’ll examine their concerns, their exposition of the essence of poverty, and their suggestions for helping the poor effectively—whether by restructuring mission trips or canceling them in order to support other, more effective forms of poverty alleviation. We’ll also provide additional resources for applying some of their advice and compare their perspective to other poverty alleviation experts, such as Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Amartya Sen.

The human race has left a mark on our planet, sometimes through carelessness and sometimes by design, but how permanent are the changes we’ve made? In The World Without Us, science journalist Alan Weisman asks what would happen if the human race vanished overnight. What effects, positive or negative, would our disappearance have on the world? Weisman’s goal is to address humanity’s environmental impact by imagining a world in which nature is allowed to flourish. In many ways, the world that follows us would be significantly different than what came before.

In this guide, we’ll examine Weisman’s portrayal of humanity’s footprint and what Weisman claims would happen if we suddenly disappeared. Also, we’ll look at other views on climate change, nature’s resilience, and the human race’s impact. We’ll list suggestions for how our species might adapt to a greener world, as well as scenarios that might cause our extinction.

In The White Man’s Burden, economist, NYU professor, and Brookings Institution senior fellow William Easterly argues that the global humanitarian aid system is fundamentally flawed. His main critique is that the international aid system prioritizes top-down, centralized, and tightly directed aid distribution—all controlled by people in rich countries (primarily the United States and those in Western Europe), far away from the developing world that they're meant to be serving. Because the aid community is so disconnected, it creates big plans and sweeping missions that are overly ambitious and completely unsuited for the reality on the ground, it overlooks local needs and concerns, and it rarely holds itself accountable for its failures.

In this guide, we’ve updated some of Easterly’s statistics, supplemented his ideas with more recent examples, and incorporated alternative and opposing viewpoints from leading experts in the fields of economics, political theory, and business.

Since the 1980s, short-term mission trips have become a popular form of ministry for many evangelical Christian churches throughout North America. The purpose of these missions is ostensibly to spread the gospel and help the poor, particularly in developing nations. But Christian economic development experts Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert express concern that many of these missions actually do more harm than good because the people who organize them misunderstand the true nature and causes of poverty.

In this guide, we’ll examine their concerns, their exposition of the essence of poverty, and their suggestions for helping the poor effectively—whether by restructuring mission trips or canceling them in order to support other, more effective forms of poverty alleviation. We’ll also provide additional resources for applying some of their advice and compare their perspective to other poverty alleviation experts, such as Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo, and Amartya Sen.

Delve into the complex interplay of race, diplomacy, and conflict in "Rachel Maddow Presents: Déjà News," featuring Rachel Maddow and a host of insightful reporters including Isaac-Davy Aronson and Anne Applebaum. The series' sixth installment uncovers the echoes of the 1935 Ethiopian struggle against Italy's fascists— a battle that not only shaped the course of American foreign policy but also the sense of unity within Harlem's African American community. As the show navigates the landscape of 1930s diplomacy, it reveals a world grappling with the ethical quandaries that come with international conflicts and the powerful influence of racial dynamics in shaping the global response.

Fast forward to modern times, this episode draws striking parallels between Ethiopia's defiance and Ukraine's contemporary resistance, with President Joe Biden firmly at NATO's helm reinforcing support amid echoes of past reluctances. From the streets of Harlem to the chambers of global summits, personal narratives and strategic choices collide, prompting listeners to reflect on the balance between self-interest and collective action. This ambitious retrospective not only honors the legacy of historic figures like Emperor Haile Selassie but also calls on us to use these lessons to forge a stronger, united front against today's tyrannies.

In Manufacturing Consent, authors Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman explore how the American media frames events and creates narratives that serve the interests of the nation’s political, economic, and social elite. They argue that control of the media in the United States does not take the form of direct state censorship or a formal conspiracy to manage the news. Rather, there is a powerful set of informal restrictions and controls that limit what journalists cover—and how they cover it.

In this guide, we’ve streamlined and updated the authors’ 1988 analysis of the mainstream media to incorporate themes, topics, and examples that are more relevant for today’s audience, including the internet, social media, and the rise of “fake news.”

What do the Iraq War, investment banks, and the American Red Cross have in common? According to intellectual provocateur Nassim Nicholas Taleb, they all lack “skin in the game”: something to lose if they don’t achieve their goals. We ignore this simple failsafe far too often, but, according to Taleb, it’s the single most important contributor to human progress.

Skin in the Game is the fifth book in former options trader Nassim Taleb’s acclaimed Incerto series, in which the controversial thinker explains how skin in the game has shaped the world as we know it and why humanity’s biggest problems are due to the fact that we don’t have enough of it.

In our guide, we’ll provide a more complete picture of Taleb’s unique philosophy using ideas from his other writings, and we’ll compare his complex and controversial beliefs to those of detractors such as Richard H. Thaler (Nudge) and Steven Pinker (The Better Angels of Our Nature).