Steve Herman had a notion — already as a child, discovering the magical "SW" button on his grandmother's radio — that broadcasting somehow lay in his future. He began his career early and settled into a long tenure as a foreign correspondent and bureau chief with the Voice of America (VOA), eventually landing a position in the White House. Here, he outlines the history of the storied US soft power juggernaut along with a wealth of firsthand stories.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Reverend Jennifer Butler sensed as a young person that she might need to leave her community and her known world in order to find herself. She did. And then she did. And in finding herself, she has also found ways to help countless others.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Nothing has come easy for Michael Varga. In the Peace Corps, he had the toughest assignment in an already difficult country. As a diplomat, he faced huge challenges. And now, in retirement, battling cancer, he is dealing with brutal obstacles. But as an artist--which he also is--he meets the world with unwavering wonder and kindness. In work, as in life, he remains an inspiration.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Journalist Fred de Sam Lazaro created the Undertold Stories Project more than three decades ago, bringing stories from some of the most remote parts of the world into the living rooms of PBS NewsHour viewers and classrooms of journalism students. He has reported from more than 60 countries and numerous US communities, always seeking the small, "under-told" story that compellingly illustrates larger themes. Here, he shares some favorites, weighs in on US soft power, and gives a peek behind the curtain of his long-running project.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Ben East is a writer. His work shows him to be an astute student of soft power. There is a clear through line running between his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Malawi, his experiences as a U.S. diplomat, and his work as a writer and editor. His career has been decidedly exceptional--which, it should be noted, is the opposite of mediocre.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Flo Reed believes--no, she knows--that when people work together, they can overcome challenges and create significant change. Her work in Central America in the Peace Corps allowed her to see the threats that small farmers faced and gain insight into how to confront them, leading eventually to her founding of Sustainable Harvest International. Since then, SHI has helped thousands of rural farming families restore degraded land, increase food security, and build more sustainable livelihoods.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Dr. Julia Irwin is the leading scholar writing about the history and impact of US disaster relief. In this fascinating conversation, she shares some entertaining and little-known stories to outline the evolution of American aid and the implications of American disengagement from disaster efforts around the world. (Note: This episode is a companion piece to SP/FS #8 with Warren Acuncius.)
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Warren Acuncius has seen a lot. His work for USAID as a disaster relief specialist took him all over the world. He saw the aftermath of cataclysmic tragedies and suffering on a scale that most cannot imagine. But he also saw what can be accomplished when humans--from different countries and backgrounds--come together to give each other aid and comfort. It turns out that both earthquakes--and people--can move mountains.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Before Alexa West became the quintessential Solo Girl traveler, inspiring a new generation of women to confidently explore the world on their own, she was a solo girl volunteer--still helping women, but from a very foreign village in remote Bulgaria. It was a vital stop on the journey to becoming a truly badass traveler.
'SoftPower/FulStories' uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing. But forget politics, policy, or punditry; this is all about the stories.
In this short companion piece to novelist Roland Merullo's regular SP/FS episode, he discusses his deeply unique--and even more deeply remote--Peace Corps role, in perhaps the most remote location ever assigned.
In the waning years of the Soviet Union, the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) mounted massive exhibitions about American culture throughout the USSR--with everything from fully equipped American kitchens to a car display featuring a little red Corvette. Roland Merullo managed one such exhibition, "Design USA," and had plenty of stories about it.
Roland Merullo's books are enjoyed worldwide. They blend close observations of regular life with humor and spiritual insight. Many are set in Revere, Massachusetts--the place he grew up. But others are set in far-off places like the former Soviet Union and Micronesia. There's a reason for that--and this episode explains it.
'SoftPower/FulStories' uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing. But forget politics, policy, or punditry; this is all about the stories.
Betsy Small grew up aware of both her privileged place in the world and her family's rapid rise from poverty and persecution. Both left a mark, resulting in decades of empathy and action--at home and in some of the most vulnerable places in the world.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
In this short companion piece to Ambassador Pamela White's regular SP/FS episode, she discusses the art of diplomacy, using her time with The Gambia's fascinating but deeply flawed former President Yahya Jammeh.
Pamela White served as the U.S. Ambassador to The Gambia from 2010 to 2012; her focus was on strengthening governance, health, and development partnerships.
Yahya Jammeh ruled The Gambia from 1994, when he seized power in a coup, until 2017, maintaining control through repression, human rights abuses, and a cult of personality. Jammeh infamously claimed he could cure AIDS and other illnesses with herbal remedies and prayers, a falsehood that endangered patients and drew widespread condemnation. After losing the 2016 election to Adama Barrow, Jammeh initially refused to step down but was forced into exile in Equatorial Guinea under regional and international pressure.
Pamela White has given more than four decades of her life, serving the United States all over the world. As a Peace Corps volunteer, with USAID, and eventually as the U.S. Ambassador to The Gambia and Haiti, she has--and continues to--embody the best of American diplomacy and assistance work overseas.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Glenn Blumhorst is a global citizen who has lived, worked, and travelled in more than 70 countries. Starting as a Peace Corps volunteer in a tiny Guatemalan village, he would grow into a local legend: "Don Glenn de las Luces" -- literally, 'Sir Glenn of the Lights." It also sums up his lifetime pursuit of serving others.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Elizabeth Gore, founder of the hugely successful fintech company Hello Alice, has spent her life breaking down barriers and helping others to help themselves. Whether college classmates seeking independence, Bolivian women farmers seeking empowerment, or a million and a half entrepreneurs seeking business success through her company, Elizabeth's impressive accomplishments are inextricably linked to the progress of others.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
Author Carl Henn likes to claim that he has spent two centuries in Africa. And while it may have only felt like 200 years, his actual decades of life-saving work there--as a Peace Corps volunteer, NGO worker, and USAID health specialist--spanned North, East, South, and West Africa. His stories are fueled by the same compassion and ever-present sense of humor that marked his overseas career. Even through some very dark times.
SoftPower/FulStories uses first-person stories to explore why U.S. engagement in the world matters. Through conversations with diplomats, aid workers, Peace Corps volunteers, authors and artists, influencers, businesspeople, and more, SP/FS highlights how soft power and foreign aid and assistance strengthen America's security, prosperity, and global standing.
SoftPower/FulStories is a storytelling podcast that highlights human connections around the world, featuring a diverse array of accomplished storytellers with decades of experience in soft power. Because no one can go it alone, and everybody needs friends. Even mighty nations. Podcast launches 9/5.
SoftPower/FulStories launches on September 5, 2025.
