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Jan 18, 2023Liked by Matt Armstrong

Listened to both the podcast and your discussion with Dr. Rangappa's class and always enjoy the points made and brought up. I thought the last questioner in the class was close to a point discussed often in the past which is one difficulty we have in our international info programs is expressing a common understanding of what we, as Americans, believe. This used to be a no-brainer but now everything is up for debate (so it seems) which is partially a problem of the many-on-many debates online using unfiltered strawmen, ad hominim attacks, etc and also, as you persistently point out a problem of leadership.

Another podcast worth listening to was one on the 60's public diplomacy efforts as part of the Apollo program that brought the US space program to the world and highlighted its importance to all of mankind and not just to Americans. https://information-professionals.org/episode/cognitive-crucible-episode-130/

It's hard to imagine us gathering around something like that now though we could cite many instances of American leadership in areas that benefit everyone. Again, we can trace this back to not just having failing to plan and resource PD efforts but who would champion it?

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