Joyce Hackel

Producer

Joyce Hackel is a producer at The World who aims to find the right voice for stories that will make you stop and listen.

Joyce Hackel spends much of her day tracking down the right person to tell the nuanced stories that help explain the world today.  
Joyce started out writing deadline copy from a DC sweatshop called States News Service in the mid-80s.  After reporting one story too many about Congressional dysfunction (it was bad even then) , she ditched the Capitol Hill press pass and bought a one-way ticket to El Salvador. There she wrote for The Christian Science Monitor and filed freelance radio pieces from a closet lined with egg cartons.  (She also met a British guy she’d eventually marry, but that’s another story…) Eventually she became a staff correspondent for Monitor Radio and was dispatched to Africa for four years.  She filed from more than a dozen African countries, reporting on clan warfare in Somalia,  genocide in Rwanda, and Nelson Mandela's landmark election.  She won a few awards for her Africa radio pieces, and in 1996 headed to the University of Michigan as a journalism fellow.   Since then,  Joyce has worked as a Senior Editor at Living on Earth, and has edited WBUR’s Morning Edition. Some day she and her journalist hubby vow they'll get back on the road.

A portrait of the owner of private military company Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin lays at an informal memorial next to the former 'PMC Wagner Centre' in St. Petersburg, Russia, Aug. 24, 2023.

Reported death of Wagner Group leader 'strengthens Putin's hold on power,' analyst says

Many questions remain a day after the reported death of Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin in a plane crash. The World's host Marco Werman speaks with Kimberly Marten, who has studied the Wagner Group and testified about it on Capitol Hill. She is also a professor at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Reported death of Wagner Group leader 'strengthens Putin's hold on power,' analyst says
The site at Campus Galli near the German-Swiss border where carpenters are erecting a medieval utopia.

A group of carpenters in Germany is erecting a medieval utopia using only 9th-century tools

A group of carpenters in Germany is erecting a medieval utopia using only 9th-century tools
grain facility in Ukraine

US Amb to UN: ‘We’re hopeful’ the Black Sea Grain Initiative can be revived

US Amb to UN: ‘We’re hopeful’ the Black Sea Grain Initiative can be revived
Maroon silhouette of two people performing in front of a crowd of people

Mahraganat artists in Egypt are defining hip-hop culture, despite government crackdowns

Mahraganat artists in Egypt are defining hip-hop culture, despite government crackdowns
USAID Administrator Samantha Power is interviewed by the AP at USAID Headquarters in Washington, Aug. 4, 2022.

USAID chief says she's haunted by how many people are unable to leave Sudan

USAID chief says she's haunted by how many people are unable to leave Sudan
three diplomats shake hands in front of an embassy building

‘Open lines of communication’ are crucial to improving relations with Beijing, Amb Nicholas Burns says

US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns was in the room this week when Secretary of State Antony Blinken sat down with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Amb. Burns spoke with The World’s Marco Werman about Taiwan, Ukraine and why US and Chinese military leaders have stopped talking to one another.

‘Open lines of communication’ are crucial to improving relations with Beijing, Amb Nicholas Burns says
Nelson Mandela, left, and his wife Winnie, raise clenched fists as they walk hand-in-hand from the Victor Verster prison near Cape Town, South Africa on Feb. 11, 1990.

'Winnie and Nelson': A new book explores a fraught political partnership

Author Jonny Steinberg’s new book, "Winnie and Nelson: Portrait of a Marriage," explores the complex relationship between Nelson Mandela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, two of the world’s best-known freedom fighters. Steinberg joined The World’s host Marco Werman to discuss the fraught political partnership of these iconic revolutionaries.

'Winnie and Nelson': A new book explores a fraught political partnership
COVID-19 antigen home tests indicating a positive result are photographed in New York, April 5, 2023.

Pandemic recovery will require much focus and attention, Dr. Atul Gawande says

The COVID-19 pandemic has killed about 7 million people worldwide, ravaging health care systems and economies. Dr. Atul Gawande, head of global health at the US Agency for International Development, spoke with The World's Carolyn Beeler about how pandemic recovery "will require as much focus and attention as it did when it first started."

Pandemic recovery will require much focus and attention, Dr. Atul Gawande says
The World

In Sudan, global powers fuel conflict

Outside powers are propping up the rival generals who have plunged Sudan into chaos in recent days. E

In Sudan, global powers fuel conflict
As a photo of her husband Chinese human rights activist Ding Jiaxi is on display in the background, Sophie Luo testifies during a hearing before The Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) at Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Fe

Wife of jailed Chinese dissident denounces sentence

Chinese authorities have sentenced two of the country’s most prominent human rights lawyers to more than a decade in prison, each on subversion charges. Sophie Luo Shengchun, the wife of jailed dissident Ding Jiaxi, speaks with The World’s Marco Werman.

Wife of jailed Chinese dissident denounces sentence
A woman walks outside of a COVID-19 testing center at the Incheon International Airport In Incheon, South Korea, on Feb. 10, 2023. 

'The pandemic is still with us': The bumpy road to the end of COVID

Pinpointing the “end” of the coronavirus pandemic depends on the vantage point. The World's host Marco Werman spoke with Dr. Michael Mina, a leading epidemiologist and the chief science officer at EMed, a digital health care company, along with Zeynep Tufekci, a sociologist and professor at Columbia University, to learn more about the "bumpy, difficult off-ramp" from COVID-19.

'The pandemic is still with us': The bumpy road to the end of COVID
Trump in court

Trump’s arraignment has ‘serious implications’ for good governance in Africa

Chris Maroleng, executive director of Good Governance Africa, talks with The World’s host Marco Werman about how Trump’s legal woes impact the rule of law in the sub-Saharan region of the continent.

Trump’s arraignment has ‘serious implications’ for good governance in Africa
The sword of the Royal House of Avis on a stylized cross decorates the 56-meter high Monument to the Discoveries by the Tagus river in Lisbon, Thursday, March 30, 2023. 

Vatican rejects Doctrine of Discovery after years of pressure from Indigenous activists

The 15th-century Doctrine of Discovery provided the legal basis for the colonial-era seizure of Native lands. Sociology professor Cora Voyageur, who is also a member of the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, joined The World's host Carol Hills to discuss the significance of the Vatican's repudiation of the doctrine.

Vatican rejects Doctrine of Discovery after years of pressure from Indigenous activists
Smoke rises from the Trade Ministry in Baghdad after it was hit by a missile during US-led attacks, March 20, 2003.

An Iraq vet grapples with lingering toll of war

Former US Army Sgt. Kayla Williams, who is currently a senior policy researcher at RAND Corporation, was among the 160,000 coalition troops who were deployed for the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Now, 20 years later, she reflects on her experiences with The World's host Marco Werman.

An Iraq vet grapples with lingering toll of war
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, author of the book, "A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War," in Istanbul, Turkey.

Iraqi author Ghaith Abdul-Ahad on the 'unbuilding' of Baghdad

Iraqi author Ghaith Abdul-Ahad has a new book called, "A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East’s Long War." It's an ode to a city shattered by war. Abdul-Ahad speaks with The World’s Marco Werman about his childhood home, the cycle of sectarian violence set in motion by the US-led invasion in 2003 and what might lie ahead for the centuries-old, cosmopolitan city.

Iraqi author Ghaith Abdul-Ahad on the 'unbuilding' of Baghdad