The Michelangelo Signorile Show on SiriusXM PROGRESS ch.127

Recently, Saudi Arabia executed the Shiite cleric and political dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, which caused out-rage throughout Shiite dominated Iran and led to protesters in Tehran attacking the Saudi embassy; and in retaliation for the embassy attack, Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with Iran.  Joining me today to talk all about the ongoing Saudi-Iranian conflict as well as the political and historical background of the tensions is Toby Craig Jones an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University who wrote all about the conflict in an op-ed for The New York Times last week.

Not surprisingly, when you look at the often depressing nature of the news coverage coming out of developing countries, most people do not have a very positive image of the progress being made there.  However, according to Steven Radelet, a distinguished Professor and Director of the Global Human Development Program at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service who also serves as an economic adviser to the President of Liberia, the past few decades have in fact seen the most “progress among the global poor in the history of the world.”  In his new book The Great Surge: The Ascent of the Developing World he argues that the story of global development is more complex, and positive, than many believe  and he joins me today on the show to talk all out the book and this remarkable story of unprecedented economic, social, and political transformation.  

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