The Delve

[BRIEFING] That's Not a Decolonization Conference

As a junior at Allderdice High School in Pittsburgh, Chalin took an African Liberation Movements class at the University of Pittsburgh. It changed how he saw the world. This week, a conference called the World Decolonization Forum opens in Istanbul — organized by a Turkish think tank, partnered with Al Jazeera and a Chinese government-adjacent university, held in the former capital of the Ottoman Empire. Its agenda dedicates a roundtable exclusively to Palestine. The Uyghurs don't have one. The Kurds don't have one. The Rohingya don't have one. The Sahrawi — whose cause is being actively undermined by the conference's own funders — don't have one. The question this episode asks is simple: if decolonization is the cause, why are tens of millions of colonized people missing from the conversation?

[BRIEFING] The Pope vs. The President: A 1,500-Year Pattern

When Pope Leo XIV — the first American pope in history — entered a public dispute with the White House over the war in the Middle East, Chalin was surprised. When JD Vance, a Catholic convert, started citing Catholic just war doctrine to justify a war the head of the Catholic Church says doesn't qualify, he was floored. Then he found an article. Turns out popes have been going toe to toe with the most powerful leaders of their era for fifteen centuries. From Attila the Hun to Napoleon to Hitler — the pattern is remarkably consistent. And it doesn't tend to end well for the world leader.

[BRIEFING] Lebanon, Israel... and France?

Two French soldiers killed in Lebanon by Hezbollah sends Chalin down a rabbit hole. France has had troops in Lebanon since 1978. In those 48 years, Hezbollah went from a nascent militia to the most powerful non-state armed group in the Middle East. France was there for all of it. This is the story of a country that designed Lebanon, embedded its language and laws into its DNA, and then watched from the sidelines as everyone else tore it apart. With Hezbollah at its weakest in 40 years, Lebanon's government declaring its military actions illegal, and Israel and Lebanon talking for the first time since 1983 — the window is open. The question isn't whether France should leave. The question is whether France has the will to finally show up.

Inside the Machine with Kerry Healey

Chalin talks with former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor and Forward Party Chairwoman Kerry Healey about what it actually looks like to govern from inside a broken system — and why she finally walked away from the Republican Party on January 7th. They dig into how primaries have been engineered to reward extremism, why 50,000 elected offices in America are sitting completely empty, and what the Forward Party is building to fill the gap. Plus: what John Adams understood about democracy in 1780 that we've somehow managed to forget.

Who Governs a “Freedom City”? with Rick McGahey

“Freedom Cities” are being sold as a way to unlock innovation: fewer rules, faster building, and a clean-slate approach to growth. But what is a Freedom City—really—and who would it answer to? In this episode, Chalin is joined by Rick McGahey, economist at The New School and former Clinton-era Assistant Secretary of Labor, to break down the Freedom Cities idea and the paradox at the center of it: cities are governed by states, so why is this being pushed at the federal level? Rick argues the answer is the point—Freedom City proponents want zones that can dodge not only state constraints, but also wide swaths of federal rules, from taxation to labor protections to environmental regulation. We also zoom out to the bigger story Rick explores in his work on inequality: metro areas generate the overwhelming share of U.S. GDP, yet both federal and state policy often treat cities with suspicion or hostility—making it harder for them to deliver the basics (schools, housing, transit, safety) that keep a city healthy. If “Freedom Cities” are built near thriving metros to siphon their economic gravity—while trying to opt out of the rules that protect the people living around them—what exactly are we building: a housing solution, an innovation lab… or a modern company town?