Ash Gallagher

Corey Cottrell

With Trump surprising everyone with the troops pullout in Syria she's really the best person we can hear from! Turns out it the retreat was decided after a call with Erdoğan (the President of Turkey), and likely pressure from Russia. While we all hate endless war my biggest concern right now is the fate of the Kurds. Its being reported that Erdogan said specifically the reason he wants US military forces out of Syria is that they are in the way of him crushing the Kurds, our allies. Ash was in Turkey during the military coup in 2016 where Erdogan barely held on to power and actually got detained because she ran outside with her camera. (she's a badass) And she was embedded with the Kurds as they trained before re-taking the city of Mosul from ISIS. There is no one I can think of better positioned to help us understand this part of the world better. AND... she is writing a book examining things like human belonging, tribe, PTSD (her own included). Being able to talk about the titanic shifts going on in the world... Syria, Russia, Iraq, Climate Change, Climate Refugees, through the lens of tribe and trauma feels pretty important.