Hello and welcome to outrage and optimism. I'm Tom Ravittkanik.

I'm Christiana Figuered.

Hi, I'm Paul Dickinson.

This week we bring you a special conversation with former Deputy National Security Advisory of the United States, Ben Rhodes.

Thanks for being here.

Okay, friends, so for a long time, we have wanted to do a deep dive into the changing foreign policy landscape that is going to be occurring with the change of leadership in the US after the inauguration of Donald Trump in about six weeks' time. And today we are bringing you that conversation. We had a fantastic discussion with Ben Rhodes, former guest on this podcast, and the majority of this week's episode is going to be focused on that. And we will come back afterwards and bring a bit more

analysis and reflections based on what we said. But is there any news that either of you

would like to share as we kick off before we go to our special interview? I can share how I'm sort

of feeling. That would be lovely, Paul. How are you feeling? No, in all seriousness, there's a kind of, there's a little bit of a funny thing about, you know, the mood in the climate community since the US election.

And I think it's, if I'm, my personal story, I think is that in the first Trump administration, I was kind of getting through it by watching Stephen Colbert and laughing.

I stopped watching Fox News.

I want to give Stephen Colbert a hug one day for taking me through. But then when Biden got in,

I sort of carried on watching Stephen Colbert and I didn't go back to watching Fox News. And that was

probably a mistake. And so it was sort of more of a shock. It's almost like the meds don't work

this time. But actually, as we now settle into the new

situation, I'm noticing the political process is kind of working, you know, some sort of strange

appointments for the Trump cabinet are being kind of rejected and, you know, the sky doesn't fall in.

And I'm sort of settling into a new world. And that was me and that's what I wanted to share.

What about you,

Christiana? So I think the most exciting and interesting thing precisely because of the changes

that are occurring in the United States domestically and their international repercussions

that we will speak to Ben Rhodes about, the most interesting thing that is happening is actually happening in

...