What actually changes when people stop talking at each other and start truly listening? In Part 2 of this two-part series, host Matt Levinger continues his conversation with Merissa Khurma, Founder and President of the AMENA Foundation and a strategic communications expert, to move from breaking down the idea of listening to understanding what makes it effective in practice. Through real-world examples—from a funding negotiation to a FIFA policy debate—Khurma shows how listening shifts conversations from assumptions to trust, and from conflict to problem-solving. The discussion highlights how reframing, cultural context, and attention to personal narratives can turn stalled or polarized interactions into meaningful progress. This episode closes the series by showing how listening, when practiced intentionally, becomes a tool for building outcomes that last.

Host: Matthew Levinger – Host of the America’s Why Podcast and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Guest: Merissa Khurma – Founder and President of AMENA Foundation.

Explore more of Merissa Khurma’s work at AMENA Strategies:
https://www.amenastrategies.com/

Follow AMENA Foundation and AMENA Strategies for more insights and updates:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amena-foundation-inc/posts/?feedView=all
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amena-strategies/posts/?feedView=all

Visit our website to learn more about the America’s Why Project and join the conversation: americaswhyproject.com

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

The views expressed in the podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent those held by the America's Why Project team or the George Washington University.

In a world where everyone is talking, why does it feel like no one is truly being heard? In Part 1 of this two-part series, host Matt Levinger sits down with Merissa Khurma, Founder and President of the AMENA Foundation and a strategic communications expert, to explore a critical question: why do people stop listening in the first place? Drawing on experiences from global diplomacy to deeply personal moments, Khurma unpacks how emotion, identity, and narrative can distort understanding, fuel division, and even dehumanize those on the other side. From high-stakes geopolitical conflicts to everyday conversations, this episode reveals the hidden barriers that prevent us from truly hearing one another, and sets the stage for what it might take to overcome them.

Host: Matthew Levinger – Host of the America’s Why Podcast and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Guest: Merissa Khurma – Founder and President of AMENA Foundation.

Explore more of Merissa Khurma’s work at AMENA Strategies:
https://www.amenastrategies.com/

Follow AMENA Foundation and AMENA Strategies for more insights and updates:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amena-foundation-inc/posts/?feedView=all
https://www.linkedin.com/company/amena-strategies/posts/?feedView=all

Visit our website to learn more about the America’s Why Project and join the conversation: americaswhyproject.com

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

The views expressed in the podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent those held by the America's Why Project team or the George Washington University.

In this opening episode of Chapter 2, host Matt Levinger brings together the team behind the project to reflect on their journey so far and where they believe they should go next. Through personal stories from multiple continents, cultures, and backgrounds, this episode explores why listening is more than a skill; it is a method and a path toward rebuilding trust and mutual respect. As the podcast expands beyond interviewing experts to include voices from all walks of life, this conversation sets the stage for a more open, curious, and grounded exploration of America's story—one that asks: what becomes possible if we start truly listening to one another?

Host: Matthew Levinger – Host of the America’s Why Podcast and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Guest

Seda Guneş – Project Manager.
Amy McCampbell – Creative Director.
Jason Bogovich – International Correspondent.
Lakshmi Dev – Digital Media Manager.
Blake Nicholas – Correspondent.

Visit our website to learn more about the America’s Why Project and join the conversation: americaswhyproject.com

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

The views expressed in the podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent those held by the America's Why Project team or the George Washington University.

In Part 2 of our deep-dive on migration, writer Sohrab Ahmari continues to explore the future of global mobility and what it means for democracy, culture, and the American common good. As climate shocks, conflict, and economic pressures displace millions worldwide, Ahmari and host Matt Levinger ask a sharp, urgent question: How do we manage a world on the move without losing our political sanity? This conversation ranges from climate-driven displacement to party polarization, from the limits of technocratic solutions to why genuine democratic debate, not executive orders or expert decrees, may be the only path forward. What this discussion ultimately delivers is not agreement, but orientation, and a renewed sense of how to navigate a future shaped by movement, memory, and hard choices.

Host: Matthew Levinger – Host of the America’s Why Podcast and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Guest: Sohrab Ahmari – Writer, public intellectual, and U.S. Editor of UnHerd.

Explore more of Sohrab Ahmari’s writing at UnHerd:
https://unherd.com/author/sohrab-ahmariunherd-com/?edition=us

Visit our website to learn more about the America’s Why Project and join the conversation: americaswhyproject.com

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

The views expressed in the podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent those held by the America's Why Project team or the George Washington University.

Immigration is the hottest flashpoint in American politics, but far too often, the conversation skips past the most important question: why do people leave home in the first place? In this first episode of a two-part series, writer and thinker Sohrab Ahmari joins host Matt Levinger for a candid, surprising, and deeply personal conversation about global migration. Drawing on his own journey from revolutionary Iran to rural Utah, Ahmari opens up about the forces that push people across borders, the economic realities often overlooked in partisan debates, and how his own thinking has evolved over a decade of reporting and reflection. Honest, nuanced, and refreshingly un-TV-ready, this episode peels back the layers on one of the toughest issues of our time and sets the stage for a wider exploration of migration’s future in the second part.

Host: Matthew Levinger – Host of the America’s Why Podcast and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Guest: Sohrab Ahmari – Writer, public intellectual, and U.S. Editor of UnHerd.

Explore more of Sohrab Ahmari’s writing at UnHerd:
https://unherd.com/author/sohrab-ahmariunherd-com/?edition=us

Visit our website to learn more about the America’s Why Project and join the conversation: americaswhyproject.com

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

The views expressed in the podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent those held by the America's Why Project team or the George Washington University.

What happens when a handful of corporations hold the power to shape everything: what we buy, how we work, even how we connect with each other? In this episode, anti-monopoly expert Matt Stoller joins host Matt Levinger to break down how decades of consolidation have reshaped American life far beyond consumer prices. From defense and tech to baby formula and dating apps, Stoller exposes the hidden ways concentrated corporate power undermines competition, weakens communities, and erodes democratic self-government. But he also makes the case that the anti-monopoly tradition is one of America’s oldest, and most hopeful, paths forward. A sharp, accessible, and urgent conversation about reclaiming the economy for the public good.

Host: Matthew Levinger – Host of the America’s Why Podcast and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Guest: Matt Stoller – Director of Research at the American Economic Liberties Project and author of Goliath: The 100-Year War Between Monopoly Power and Democracy.

Explore Matt Stoller’s work and analysis on monopoly power and economic policy: https://mattstoller.com/

Visit our website to learn more about the America’s Why Project and join the conversation: americaswhyproject.com

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

The views expressed in the podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent those held by the America's Why Project team or the George Washington University.

In this second installment of our two-part series with Brian Katulis and Danielle Pletka, the conversation shifts from the craft of foreign-policy storytelling to the pressures that warp it. They discuss how algorithms reward confrontation, how outside actors manipulate division, and how the simple fear of standing apart from one’s peers can reshape what experts are willing to say. Katulis and Pletka illuminate not just what drives polarization, but what can soften it: curiosity, humility, and the willingness to stay in the room when disagreements arise. This episode offers a thoughtful look at how we might rebuild spaces for debate, that informs rather than divides and how stronger public narratives can help restore a healthier democratic culture.

Host: Matthew Levinger – Host of the America’s Why Podcast and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Guests

• Danielle Pletka – Distinguished Senior Fellow in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
• Brian Katulis – Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Explore Taking the Edge Off the Middle East, the Middle East Institute podcast hosted by MEI Senior Fellow Brian Katulis: https://mei.edu/taking-the-edge-off/

Visit our website to learn more about the America’s Why Project and join the conversation: americaswhyproject.com

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

The views expressed in the podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent those held by the America's Why Project team or the George Washington University.

Leadership depends not only on power and policy, but also on the stories that give them meaning. In this first episode of a two-part series, Brian Katulis, Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute, and Danielle Pletka, Distinguished Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, dig into why America’s national narrative has fractured. They discuss how social media’s attention economy distorts foreign-policy debates and why fear-driven storytelling so often overwhelms clarity, purpose, and moral vision. Drawing on decades of experience in foreign policy analysis, they explore what effective leadership and compelling national narratives once looked like—and what it would take to recover America’s sense of “why” on the global stage. This energetic, thought-provoking conversation models how to argue, listen, and think across divides.

Host: Matthew Levinger – Host of the America’s Why Podcast and Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the George Washington University.

Guests

• Danielle Pletka – Distinguished Senior Fellow in Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.
• Brian Katulis – Senior Fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Explore Taking the Edge Off the Middle East, the Middle East Institute podcast hosted by MEI Senior Fellow Brian Katulis: https://mei.edu/taking-the-edge-off/

Visit our website to learn more about the America’s Why Project and join the conversation: americaswhyproject.com

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon Music

The views expressed in the podcast are those of the speakers and do not necessarily represent those held by the America's Why Project team or the George Washington University.