SoftPower/FulStories

06/15/2026

PART TWO OUT NOW: Ambassador John Limbert talks in detail about his ordeal as an American hostage in Iran for 444 days, from 1979-1981. It is a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain of an event that gripped the United States. His perspective--about the situation in Iran, then and now--highlights the importance of diplomacy and the disastrous implications of its failure.
https://www.softpowerfulstories.org/ambassador-john.../

06/12/2026

Are you looking for another, much more well-informed perspective on Iran?

OUT NOW: Ambassador John Limbert has a long history with Iran: as a visiting student, a Peace Corps volunteer, a husband (he met his future wife, Parvaneh, while volunteering there, when she challenged him to a game of ping pong), as a diplomat, and for 444 days, as an American hostage. Later, he also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. In this first of a double episode, he recounts his youth in Washington, D.C. (where he was VP Richard Nixon's paperboy), his immersion into Iranian culture, and the lead-up to the Iranian Revolution--which changed his life forever and continues to reverberate worldwide.

06/05/2026

OUT NOW: Andrea Cristancho's lifelong journey of service began as a little girl in a tiny town square in Corrales, Colombia, watching a group of American doctors who had gone to great lengths to bring care to the people there. The impression left on Andrea led to Peace Corps service, international development work, and, finally, the Foreign Service with USAID. And just when she was on the cusp of returning to Colombia to serve--a full-circle moment--USAID was destroyed. In her final act of service to her country, she joined a select group in bearing witness and receiving the William R. Rivkin Award for Constructive Dissent from the American Foreign Service Association.

06/01/2026

OUT NOW: As a young Peace Corps volunteer in Romania, Sean Cotter saw the reverence given to poets and philosophers and suspected he had found his people. But at first, he couldn't even understand a child's spoken words. Flash forward to the present, where Sean, as the world's preeminent translator of Romanian literature into English, now helps shine a light on a place — and a people — he has loved for a very long time.

(Sean Cotter's translation of Mircea Cǎrtǎrescu's 'Solenoid' was awarded the Dublin Literary Award in 2024 and was also long-listed by the International Booker Prize.)

05/27/2026

File under: You need to hear this. Kao Kalia Yang, one of our best contemporary storytellers, shares the incredible story of her family's journey--as Hmong refugees escaping the CIA's Secret War in Laos, barely surviving in a camp in Thailand, and finally as newcomers to St. Paul, Minnesota, learning English and starting from scratch. Her stories are harrowing, reflective, and ultimately inspiring. In this unprecedented year, as many Minnesotans have demonstrated the verb "neighboring," it's essential that everyone hears and appreciates stories like Kalia's and those of the immigrants and refugees around them.

Kao Kalia Yang was the Minnesota Star Tribune's 2024 Artist of the Year, and has been awarded an unprecedented 7 Minnesota Books Awards, in addition to numerous other awards.

05/24/2026

The (short) wait is over: Part 2 of Paul E. White's epic stories about learning development work, working with Hmong people affected by the CIA's Secret War in Laos--in the middle of the war itself!--is out now. Life-long lessons about development, deep connections to Hmong culture, and a perilous mission alongside a deeply racist pilot.

05/22/2026

OUT NOW: We have a USAID legend alert and a must-listen! Because Paul E. White's stories cannot be contained in a single episode, this is the first of a two-part episode in which neither progresses past his very first assignment, in Laos in the 1960s. From there, over the course of four decades, he went on to become a legend in the USAID ranks--and it's easy to see why. In this episode, we meet Paul as a brand new International Voluntary Services teacher doing development work in the middle of a hot war zone. A journey from tiny Brazil, Indiana, to Sam Thong, Laos, a good-hearted development worker at ground zero of the U.S. Secret War.

05/15/2026

OUT NOW: Diane Raleigh had a unique entry into the Peace Corps. She was asked to join by the first Director, Sargent Shriver, on behalf of President John F. Kennedy. (She said yes.) From that auspicious beginning, she has not yet stopped helping others. From saving the lives of dying babies to overseeing a clinic for thousands of Masaai girls in Tanzania, she has gone from being a force for good to a force of nature.

05/08/2026

OUT NOW: "You can't help people from a distance." - Sergio Viera de Mello

When it comes to overseas experiences, Keith Mines has seen a lot, and from a remarkable variety of vantage points: from LDS missionary work to active-duty assignments as a soldier to various leadership roles as a diplomat, and finally serving at the United States Institute of Peace. Through it all, he never stopped fighting for the little guy, and he never stopped showing up--which, when all is said and done, truly is the secret of success.

05/02/2026