It’s not that simple
It’s not that simple is a podcast by Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation dedicated to major interviews with international personalities linked to politics, economy, and society. Conducted by renowned journalist Pedro Mendonça Pinto, the conversations with our special guests aim to demystify and simplify some of the most fascinating and relevant topics of our time. They will be objective, frontal, informal and informed dialogues to clarify why some issues «are not that simple».
The Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation was founded in 2009 by Alexandre Soares dos Santos and his family to study the country’s major hindrances and bring them to the attention of the Portuguese people. The Foundation’s mission is to promote and expand the objective knowledge of Portugal today, thereby helping to develop society, strengthen the rights of citizens and improve public institutions and to cooperate in endeavors to identify, study and resolve society's problems. The Foundation is independent of political organizations and has no ideological affiliation with any political party. Its work is guided by the principles of human dignity and social solidarity and the values of democracy, freedom, equal opportunities, merit, and pluralism. www.ffms.pt
It’s not that simple
GEOGRAPHY, with Tim Marshall
British journalist and bestselling author Tim Marshall, known for the book «Prisoners of Geography», takes us on a journey through the real world: the one shaped by mountains, rivers, seas and natural borders that define how nations behave.
«Geography doesn’t explain everything, but it explains almost everything», he says, and he says it with the clarity of someone who’s reported from twelve war zones, been jailed in Damascus, shot in Cairo and bombed in Belgrade.
For Marshall, geography isn’t a detail, it’s the invisible structure that defines who can thrive, who gets blocked, and who ends up in conflict. «If you’ve got wide navigable rivers, deep ports and sea access, you can build ships, trade goods and project power. If you’re surrounded by mountains, shallow coasts or deserts, you’re limited from the start».
That structural inequality helps explain the success of the United States, «the most blessed country by geography», and Russia’s defensive mindset: «trapped on an exposed plain where the only defense is controlling buffer zones».
Portugal also comes under the lens: «You don’t have direct access to the Mediterranean or the major rivers of Central Europe. You face the sea, and, for a long time, the sea was your power».
Throughout the conversation, Marshall discusses climate, migration, populism and emerging tensions. And he’s blunt: climate change is already reshaping global politics. «When a Latin American farmer can no longer grow coffee, he moves north. That kind of mass migration helped elect Trump».
The geopolitics of the future, he says, won’t just play out between states, but between zones of despair and zones of opportunity. That means we have to look at the planet as a whole.
More on the topic:
«The What & The Why», Tim Marshall's podcast
Intelligence Squared: «How does geography explain the world?», with Tim Marshall