Departures with Robert Amsterdam all Episodes with AI Transcript

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Amsterdam & Partners LLP

Departures is a literary podcast featuring half-hour interviews with nonfiction authors covering a diverse range of subjects, from geopolitics to law, to history, international affairs, and current events. Hosted by international lawyer Robert Amsterdam, founder of Amsterdam & Partners LLP, Departures brings listeners into casual but revealing conversations with our favorite authors, bringing light to new ideas, arguments, and issues deserving of consideration outside of the usual narratives of the news cycle.

Total 103 episodes

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NXIVM and the expanding influence of cults

In "Don't Call it a Cult," Vancouver-based investigative journalist Sarah Berman tells the story of the bizarre cult known as NXIVM. Founded by longtime pyramid scheme mastermind Keith Raniere in 1998 who referred to himself in the group as the "Vanguard," the group roped in many rich and prominent individuals from socialities Buffy and William Cafritz, actress Nicki Clyne, and Clare Bronfman, heir to the Seagram fortune who enabled and funded the cult. Raniere was sentenced last year to 120 years in prison for sex trafficking, racketeering, and forced labor and Berman's book tells the story of the group through Raniere's trial. Many of the women in NXIVM found themselves blackmailed and literally branded with Raniere's initials on their bodies, near-starved, and enslaved. Raniere built a wall of silence and went after enemies and whistleblowers until the very end, and convinced his members that they had joined an "executive coaching" group rather than a dangerous and exploitative cult. Raniere does not just tell the story of NXIVM. She seeks to define what a cult is beyond the colloquial understanding of the term, and focuses on "trying to separate what this concept that we have of what a cult is, and what the actual harms are." Berman also tells the story of NXIVM from the perspective of members on the inside, and how such horrific abuses were initially seen as mentorship and protection. It is a highly readable investigative work that explores the vexxing topic of how such an organization was able to avoid prosecution for decades and should serve as essential reading to anyone interested in cults and how they come to be.

26:1211/08/2021

Why the catastrophes of 2020 should prompt a rethinking of America's role in the world

By many measures, 2020 was a year to forget. With natural disasters, a climate crisis, a vicious pandemic, a massive economic crisis, a cruel and dishonest president, unprecedented demands for racial justice and its corresponding ugly backlash, US society has been taken to the brink. For Prof. Andrew Bacevich of Boston University, these events represent an American Apocalypse, one which requires a thorough rethinking of how Washington engages with the wider world based on the needs of its people and the very different circumstances we face now as compared to the postwar period. Bacevich's book, "After the Apocalypse: America's Role in a World Transformed" argues that American foreign policy has in many ways failed to protect the safety of its people. The insistence on global military primacy and spreading market economy has not delivered a stable world order, but instead has brought endless wars and a succession of moral and material disasters. In his discussion with Robert Amsterdam, Bacevich outlines his theory on US alliances, why we should be drawing down military forces in Europe and the Middle East, and why we should have a greater focus on solving the hardest problems at home and strengthening relations with our immediate neighbors. As the US navigates these struggles over racial injustice for example, Bacevich argues, there is an opportunity to reshape our understanding of the past, and thereby reshape our understanding of our role in the world.

30:0004/08/2021

China's high-tech gulag archipelago

In the Xinjiang region of northwestern China, more than 1.8 million people have been disappeared into a vast network of concentration camps without any clear charges, due process, or fair trial. How are these victims selected? Via state-of-the-art predictive artificial intelligence and surveillance technology systems deployed by Beijing that seek to punish people for political activity they may be profiled to potentially commit in the future. This week on the podcast we're very pleased to feature journalist and author Geoffrey Cain, discussing his excellent new book, "The Perfect Police State: An Undercover Odyssey into China's Terrifying Surveillance Dystopia of the Future." Cain's deep dive into the issues surrounding Xinjiang explores how the hardening of Xi Jinping's positions and adversarial tilt toward foreign powers has influenced this implementation of Big Tech in the service of crushing dissent among Uighur Chinese citizens. The book tells this fascinating story through the eyes of three subjects who survived the "panopticon" and escaped abroad, obtaining impressive government and corporate sources to explain the extent of the police state's technological power and its resulting impact of creating a pervasive culture of fear and paranoia in this region and beyond. Quite a terrifying read, but also an urgently important wake-up call.

26:0928/07/2021