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Pushing for peace: A look at the past and future of the United Nations as it marks 80 years

FILE 1966: New York, New York: Portrait of U.N. secretary general U Thant, February 14th, in his office in the U.N. secretariat.
Bettmann Archive
/
via Getty Images
Portrait of U.N. secretary general U Thant, February 14, 1966, in his office in the U.N. secretariat.

The United Nations General Assembly is celebrating the 80th anniversary of its founding this month. This hour we look at the status of the organization today, and the challenges it faces.

Plus, historian Thant Myint-U has a new book out about his grandfather, U Thant, who was the UN’s first non-European secretary-general, and a leading ambassador of peace during the Cold War. Myint-U joins us to talk about his grandfather's role in the history of the United Nations and the lessons we can take from his example for the present.

GUESTS:

  • Thant Myint-U: Author of Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World. He is an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, a Senior Fellow at UN Foundation, and he formerly served on three UN peacekeeping operations
  • Eugene Chen: Senior Fellow at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research. He is a former UN official

Special thanks to our interns Vy Duong and Talei Ricketson.

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Lily is the senior producer for <i>The Colin McEnroe Show</i>. She's also a producer of the narrative podcasts '<a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/podcast/generation-barney">Generation Barney</a>' and '<a href="https://www.ctpublic.org/podcast/generation-gilmore-girls">Generation Gilmore Girls</a>.' She first worked at Connecticut Public as an intern in 2014. She has previously worked for WBUR, KUNC and as a producer for the New England News Collaborative's weekly show <i>Next</i>. Lily can be reached at <a href="mailto:ltyson@ctpublic.org">ltyson@ctpublic.org.</a>
Kevin Chang Barnum is a producer for Connecticut Public Radio’s weekly show Disrupted. Kevin grew up in Connecticut and started his radio work at his graduate university’s radio station, KUCI. He has also worked for HRN, a network of food and beverage podcasts.
Dr. Khalilah L. Brown-Dean is an award-winning scholar at Wesleyan University, author, and host of 'Disrupted' on Connecticut Public.
Erica McIntosh is Senior Regional Editor for Southern Connecticut. Erica was born and raised in Connecticut.
Robyn Doyon-Aitken is the Deputy Director of Audio Storytelling and Talk Shows
Meg Fitzgerald is the senior manager of projects and radio programming.

Funding provided by:
The Connecticut Office of Film, Television and Digital Media