Season Two Trailer

Is China exporting its authoritarian model to other countries? Is the “fast fashion” industry accelerating climate change? In season two, Why It Matters explores a new series of issues that are flying under the radar now, but won’t be for long.

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Host
  • Gabrielle Sierra
    Director, Podcasting
Credits

Asher Ross - Supervising Producer

Markus Zakaria - Audio Producer and Sound Designer

Rafaela Siewert - Associate Podcast Producer

Energy and Climate Policy

What powers artificial intelligence (AI)? As global electricity use is surging, with unprecedented demand coming from an increase in data centers, AI’s dependence on fossil fuels presents a serious issue for the planet. In the United States, data center power usage is on track to double by 2030, largely due to the proliferation of AI technology. But while the application of AI shows potential to mitigate climate problems through modeling or predicting weather events, will its power grab stall the clean energy transition?

Election 2024

Why It Matters sits down with the hosts of The World Next Week to talk about what the United States–and a closely watching world–should expect in the weeks and months to come as incoming President Trump takes office.

Technology and Innovation

For most of our history, the realm of international relations was dominated by nation-states. They waged wars and signed treaties through the framework of governance. But today, more so than ever before, tech titans are acting as unilateral decision makers, upsetting the balance and structure of global power around the world.

Top Stories on CFR

Syria

China

Zoe Liu, the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies at CFR, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss how Trump’s victory is being viewed in China and what his presidency will mean for the future of U.S.-China economic relations. This episode is the seventh in a special TPI series on the U.S. 2025 presidential transition and is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

France

The fall of the French government, along with political uncertainty in Germany, has upped the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron amid growing European tensions over migration, Ukraine, and energy policy.