A personal reflection from Sanam on two weeks of war in Iran. What it is like watching the bombardment of her childhood neighborhood from afar. — We also wanted to celebrate our former guests, Women of the Sun from Palestine, who won the 2025 Vigdís Prize for Women’s Empowerment. So we re-uploaded our conversation with Marwa Hammad of Women of the Sun in Palestine and Yael Braudo-Bahat of Women Wage Peace in Israel two remarkable women who refuse to give in to despair, and who refuse to give up ...
Jun 25, 2025•46 min
Dr. Jessie Stone, a six-time U.S. freestyle team member, shares her journey of how an illness to one of her team during a kayaking trip led her to establish a health clinic in Uganda. Now she is on the front line as USAID cuts mean millions can no longer access life-saving care. Welcome to If You Were In Charge with Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. In the last ten years, Dr. Jessie Stone's clinic has served hundreds of thousands of patients and helped address critical health issues like malaria and comm...
Jun 10, 2025•42 min
The fall of the Assad regime came swiftly in the end, with far less violence than anyone imagined. How did this happen? Can Syria emerge from its decades of brutality and bloodshed to become a bastion of hope in the Middle East? Sanam talks to Abir Hajibrahim, co-founder of Mobaderoon and one of Syria’s leading peacebuilders, who has built a network of dedicated peacebuilders and volunteers—preventing violence, reconciling communities, and mobilizing people to be active, engaged citizens determi...
May 27, 2025•1 hr
Politics and poetry may seem like an odd couple. But throughout history, and across cultures, through symbolism and story telling, writers and poets have captured the spirit of their age and shared them with us through time and geography - helping us make sense of human foibles, and the events of our our own world. In Episode 6 of If You were in Charge Sanam takes a different tack in her conversation with Christine Van Ruymbeke, The Soudavar Professor of Persian literature and culture at Cambrid...
May 13, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 6
With the war on Gaza raging and violence escalating in the West Bank, few see hope for peace in the Middle East. But Marwa Hammad of Woman of the Sun in Palestine and Yael Braudo-Bahat of Women Wage Peace of Israel, refuse to give in to such despair, and they refuse to give up on the future. In Episode 5 of If You Were in Charge, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini takes on the toughest conflict of our times, offering a slice of hope and a glimpse into the resilience and courage of the women Peacebuilders w...
Apr 29, 2025•54 min
This week on the podcast, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini is joined by two distinguished voices in global diplomacy to examine the United Nations at a critical juncture. Richard Gowan, Director for UN and Multilateral Diplomacy at the International Crisis Group, and María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, former President of the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister of Ecuador, and poet, delve into the mounting pressures facing the UN amid intensifying great power rivalries. Their conversation explores the urge...
Apr 15, 2025•58 min•Season 2Ep. 4
What would have happened, if the US had heeded Afghan women's warnings about the Taliban, and supported their solutions before 2021? What if the international community supported Afghan women's strategies for ending violence and building peace - then and now? This week on #IfYouWereInCharge, Sanam speaks with Wazhma Frogh, Afghan woman peacebuilder and lawyer specializing in international human rights law and Afghanistan, and recipient of the International Women of Courage Award. Despite the Tal...
Apr 07, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Welcome to If You Were in Charge Season 2, a podcast featuring global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. This week, Sanam speaks with Chris Worman, Chief Global Strategy & Partnership Officer at GivingTuesday. Together, they discuss the critical role of civil society and philanthropy at a time when the sector is facing significant funding challenges. Their conversation explores the importance of generosity, civic engagement, and the impact of initiatives like GivingTuesday in fosterin...
Apr 01, 2025•49 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Welcome to If You Were in Charge Season 2, a podcast featuring global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. This week, Sanam speaks with Ece Temelkuran, renowned author of How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship, which explores the mechanisms of autocracy and the decline of democratic principles. Each week, Sanam tackles a major global challenge and hosts leading practitioners and innovators to share their work and solutions—if they were in charge with the necessary...
Mar 25, 2025•59 min•Season 2Ep. 1
Welcome to If You Were in Charge, We are back for season 2 of your favorite show as always featuring global peace strategist, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. Each week Sanam takes on a major global challenge and hosts leading practitioners and innovators to share their work and their solutions - if they were in charge with the necessary political and financial resources. Episode 1 coming Tuesday March 25th! If You Were In Charge is brought to you by the Bijan Ghaisar Foundation And ICAN International C...
Mar 18, 2025•2 min
Hi, good news we are working on season 2 of 'If You Were in Charge' But in the meantime something a little different this week. We’re partnering with Houses of the Moon Theater Company to share this special episode from their three-part podcast series “De Novo.” It’s adapted from an acclaimed documentary play of the same name. It tells the true story of Edgar Chocoy, a Guatemalan teenager who faces deportation after fleeing to the U.S. In 2002, fourteen-year-old Edgar Chocoy Guzman fled his barr...
Dec 24, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Yasmin Radjy, CEO of Swing Left, argues that Donald Trump is a transformative president and part of a global populist arc. So, how does the left find its own voice in an age of populism, and what possibilities does this trend offer the progressive movement to create radical change? Welcome to If You Were in Charge, A podcast featuring global peace strategist, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. Each week Sanam takes on a major global challenge and hosts leading practitioners and innovators to share their w...
Dec 17, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Welcome to If You Were in Charge, A podcast featuring global peace strategist, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. Each week Sanam takes on a major global challenge and hosts leading practitioners and innovators to share their work and their solutions - if they were in charge with the necessary political and financial resources. This week, we're doing something a little different. Sanam is joined by her twin daughters, Soleh and Lydia, to reflect on their podcast journey so far, the insights gained from va...
Dec 10, 2024•22 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Welcome to If You Were in Charge, A podcast featuring global peace strategist, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. Each week Sanam takes on a major global challenge and hosts leading practitioners and innovators to share their work and their solutions - if they were in charge with the necessary political and financial resources. After each discussion, Sanam is joined by one of her twin daughters, Soleh, to hear her reaction and gain a different generational perspective. In Episode 9, Sanam interviews Steph...
Dec 03, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Welcome to If You Were in Charge, A podcast featuring global peace strategist, Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. Each week Sanam takes on a major global challenge and hosts leading practitioners and innovators to share their work and their solutions - if they were in charge with the necessary political and financial resources. In episode 8, Sanam speaks with Meredith Whittaker, president of Signal, about critical issues surrounding data privacy, surveillance, and the role of technology in society. They d...
Nov 26, 2024•59 min•Season 1Ep. 8
Welcome to If You Were In Charge, a podcast with renowned global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. In each episode, we invite global thought leaders to share the radical solutions they would implement if given unlimited political and financial power. In this seventh episode, Sanam speaks with Mohammad Darawshe a leading political analyst and expert on Jewish-Arab relations inside Israel. After the conversation Sanam is joined as usual by her daughter Soleh to reflect on the conversation....
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 1Ep. 7
Welcome to If You Were In Charge, a podcast with renowned global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. In each episode, we invite global thought leaders to share the radical solutions they would implement if given unlimited political and financial power. In this sixth episode, Sanam speaks with Rabbi Hanan Schlesinger about the escalating violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. How to create a lasting peace in the region and the hard road to achieving tha...
Nov 12, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 6
Welcome to If You Were In Charge, a podcast with renowned global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini. In each episode, we invite global thought leaders to share the radical solutions they would implement if given unlimited political and financial power. In this fifth episode, Sanam is on the road in Asia, and we’re taking a pause for the U.S. elections. Stay tuned for exciting episodes to come, including a double special on the Middle East and an election review, exploring what the results ...
Nov 05, 2024•3 min•Season 1Ep. 5
Welcome to If You Were In Charge, a podcast with renowned global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, where we invite global thought leaders to share the radical solutions they would implement if given unlimited political and financial power.In this this fourth episode, Kavita Ramdas a globally-recognized advocate for gender equity and justice. She currently serves as the Director of the Women’s Rights Program at the Open Society Foundations after completing her tenure as Strategy Advisor f...
Oct 29, 2024•45 min•Season 1Ep. 4
Welcome to If You Were In Charge, a podcast with renowned global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, where we invite global thought leaders to share the radical solutions they would implement if given unlimited political and financial power.In this third episode, Dame Eleanor Jane Milner-Gulland DBE on the power of optimism in the battle to preserve biodiversity, addressing the urgent need for action to save our planet’s ecosystems. This isn't your typical podcast about problems - it's abo...
Oct 22, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 3
Welcome to If You Were In Charge, a podcast with renowned global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, where we invite global thought leaders to share the radical solutions they would implement if given unlimited political and financial power. In this second episode, we feature Kelly Ghaisar, Founder of the Bijan Ghaisar Foundation sharing her plan to reduce police impunity for violence, following her heartbreaking journey of fighting for justice after her son was unlawfully killed by park p...
Oct 15, 2024•36 min•Season 1Ep. 2
Welcome to If You Were In Charge, a podcast with renowned global peace strategist Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, where we invite global thought leaders to share the radical solutions they would implement if given unlimited political and financial power. In this first episode, we feature Abigail Disney, heiress to the Disney empire, discussing wealth inequality and offering bold ideas to challenge the billionaire class. This episode also includes Sanam's daughter, Soleh, who shares her perspective on h...
Oct 08, 2024•51 min•Season 1Ep. 1
Launching 8th October, If You Were In Charge. What would you do if you had unlimited power to solve the world's toughest problems? Sanam Naraghi Anderlini, MBE, asks global experts this very question in her new podcast. From climate change to police violence, wealth inequality, and feminism, each episode takes a deep dive into the pressing issues of today and offers real solutions from those making a difference. Join Sanam and her twin daughters as they reimagine a better future, with thought-pr...
Sep 30, 2024•3 min
