You know that trope of movies about space-faring civilizations?

The scene where diplomats gather in a grand auditorium or around a horseshoe-shaped

conference table to hammer out intergalactic agreements,

the obvious inspiration there is the United Nations, the extraordinary institution founded

to give our planet's leaders a venue in which every country, large or small, rich or poor,

can have a voice in matters of international importance.

The space version is fiction, of course, and upon closer examination, the real thing is more

symbolic than successful often in making the world a safer place.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think.

I'm Chris Boyd.

Journalist Amanda Chicago-Lewis had to jump through some maddening bureaucratic hoops

to gain her credentialed access to the UN for a period of several months. And as we'll hear,

that turned out to be an unexpected preview of what she would discover once she was allowed

to observe the United Nations up close. Her article about this appears in Harper's Magazine,

titled Wishful Thinking. Amanda,

welcome back to think. Thanks for having me, Chris. Many people, I think, associate the UN with

gravitas. So the scene you share at the very beginning of this story was kind of a revelation.

It was a holiday season concert held at a church in Manhattan.

What was the vibe there?

So this was a UN recreational staff, UN staff recreational council singer group.

So that means people who work at the UN and a couple of their friends performing holiday songs at a church in Manhattan. You know, it had a very multicultural, what we would associate with the UN energy.

If you looked at the program in terms of the songs they chose, it felt very politically neutral.

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