Black Diplomats News Show with Asha Castleberry-Hernandez and Lovely Umayam
Black Diplomats is back for 2021!
Happy new year, and welcome back to Black Diplomats! On this episode host Terrell Starr welcomes National Security expert Asha Castleberry-Hernandez, and nuclear policy analyst Lovely Umayam to talk about what safety means in 2021. For all the bluster of the last four years, not even the US nuclear umbrella can protect us from COVID-19.
Intro:
00:00 Terell, Asha and Lovely talk about what foreign policy hopes they have for 2020.
In the news:
15:02: Mike Pompeo's Swagger tweet about US foreign policy
23:14: The deployment of B-52 bombers to the Middle East and to intimidate Iran
42: 20: Let's debate this article that argues that more American allies need nukes
How has 2020 prepared you for 2021?
55:48: Asha talks about her run for congress
62:55: Lovely talks about the Bombshelltoe project and combining the arts with understanding nuclear policy
What can America learn from the world?
80:00: Examples of what’s working in other countries (can you say bullet train?!)
Closeout:
93:00: What everyone’s looking forward to in 2021
Asha Castleberry-Hernandez
Asha Castleberry is a professor, military advisor and officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. Asha currently serves on the Board of Advisors of Women of Color Advancing Peace & Security, is a 2018 recipient of the Robert Myers Carnegie Council of Ethics and International Affairs Fellows Fund researching populism in the defense community.
Lovely Umayam
Lovely is the founder of Bombshelltoe (www.bombshelltoe.com), a creative incubator linking artists, community organizers, and nuclear experts together to present nuclear policy in a compelling and impactful way to the greater public. Bombshelltoe was the winner of the inaugural US Department of State’s Innovation in Arms Control Challenge. Currently in development at Bombshelltoe is Ways of Knowing, a multimedia project in partnership with Navajo community members that showcases hope and resilience after decades of uranium mining in the American Southwest. Bombshelltoe recently completed the DC installation of The Color Curtain Project, an art book and culinary experience that examines the origins of the Non-Aligned Movement and the interplay between colonialism, racism, and nuclear weapons.
Lovely is also a Non-Resident Fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington DC, where she is the lead researcher exploring potential applications of breakthrough technologies (blockchain) to improve nuclear security. Lovely’s policy research and creative work have been featured in Fast Company, SXSW, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, The Atlantic, Vice, PopTech, The New Republic, MoMA PS1, the Associated Press, among others.