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Outside In
Every week, two hosts break down the biggest global stories from a perspective Western media misses: the rest of the world's.
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Episodes
The archive
19 episodes, newest first.
- Who Actually Runs Caracas NowEight months after US forces captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's National Assembly has quietly handed Washington access to seventeen oilfields — about a fifth of the country's reserves — with Chevron and Italy's Eni already signing deals in Caracas. Grant and Miles trace the story from the January raid through the March embassy reopening to August's Panama talks, where opposition leader María Corina Machado, still governing from exile, refused to sit down with interim president Delcy Rodríguez's government. They ask whether this is the liberation Washington describes or a de facto receivership, with Rodríguez managing Chavista holdovers while US Southern Command keeps striking targets in the Caribbean. Next week: what happens to the oil contract terms opposition lawmakers say they still haven't seen.
- Bangkok Isn't MarrakeshThe IMF and World Bank return to Asia for the first time since 1991, holding their 2026 Annual Meetings in Bangkok from October 12-18 — but Grant and Miles find the venue is the only thing that changed. The 17th quota review, meant to give the Global South more voting power, isn't due to finish until 2028, even as emerging economies hold 60% of world GDP and only 40% of the vote. Debt relief through the G20 Common Framework is still, per civil society groups on the ground, too slow to stop austerity. And the same broken-promise math shows up in the loss-and-damage fund, where only 55% of the original $820 million COP28 pledge has actually been delivered. The hosts trace one institutional pattern across three multilateral tracks, then flag what's next: BRICS de-dollarization mechanics and Chinese bilateral debt restructuring, largely absent from the Washington press pool's Bangkok coverage.
- The UN's Loss-and-Damage Fund Is Already BrokeThe Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage has already allocated more than a third of its pledges and one recent estimate puts it at $431 million against at least $724 billion in annual need — and that's the real story of UNGA81, not the General Debate speeches. Grant and Miles open on official development aid's steepest drop on record, then track Bangladesh's Khalilur Rahman presiding as the first Asia-Pacific president in years over a polycrisis agenda that squeezes smaller states out of the room. They dig into a July 2026 Manila board meeting where the Loss and Damage Fund faced a $2.8 billion ask against $250 million on hand, Nepal's push for an emergency meeting after $2.56 billion in flood damage, and the Global South-led UN tax convention fight that Western coverage treats as a footnote. Next week: whether that tax convention text survives to 2027.
- The Junta That Called MoscowWhen mutinous soldiers seized Base 101 in Niamey, the junta that expelled France and the US to reclaim sovereignty didn't call its own reserves first — it turned to Russia's Africa Corps to get the base back. Grant and Miles trace the mutiny from the Niamey base itself outward, through the Bravia Hotel where Russian and Alliance of Sahel States personnel were staying, to the ambassador's own confirmation that Niger's authorities asked Russian soldiers for help. They dig into AP reporting on 1,700 to 2,000 Russian mercenaries now spread across Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, and why this was Africa Corps' second regime-saving intervention this year. They close on state TV blaming France with no evidence, and what an unraveling junta means for the wider Alliance of Sahel States going into next week.
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- Sudan's War Has a Russian AccentSudan's allied Joint Force says it smashed an RSF convoy near the Libyan border, seizing drone batteries and detaining dozens of fighters, but the bigger story is who's supplying that convoy. Grant and Miles trace a mercenary and weapons pipeline running from Colombian recruits flown through a UAE-linked airbase in Bosaso to Russia's rebranded Africa Corps allegedly moving UAE-origin arms through the Central African Republic. Then the turn: Sudanese army drones have now struck more than 100km inside Chadian territory, and Chad is accusing Khartoum's rivals of routing supplies through its own airports. The hosts widen the lens to Africa Corps activity in Mali before closing on what Critical Threats' Africa File is tracking next as RSF counters recent army gains.
- El Obeid Can't Be Saved by One RoadGrant and Miles return to Sudan as the army reopens the Omdurman to El Obeid export corridor while RSF drones keep hitting a city of half a million people. They follow the gold, the Libyan fuel route and the gum arabic trade to explain why this siege outlasts the battlefield.
- Colombia's Aid Came With a TariffA magnitude 7.4 quake, the strongest on record in Colombia, killed more than 160 people across Cali, Pereira and Manizales. Grant and Miles look at what Washington's pledges actually deliver in Chocó, and who in the region showed up first.
- El Obeid Is the Next El FasherGrant and Miles pick the Sudan thread back up as RSF drones knock out El Obeid's power, fuel and water, trapping half a million people in North Kordofan. Why Kordofan, not Darfur, is now the war's most dangerous front.
- Chad Is In Sudan's War NowSudan's civil war has stopped respecting borders: RSF drones are hitting markets inside Chad, Kordofan has become the war's fiercest front, and JNIM keeps squeezing Mali while Western coverage looks elsewhere.
- New York's ICE Surge Outlives the World CupSpain beat Argentina in the World Cup final at MetLife Stadium, but Grant and Miles argue the real story is the ICE surge, the silent sponsors, and the surveillance infrastructure now permanently installed in host cities.
About
What the show is
Trade wars, tech regulation, military conflicts, climate policy. When the US or Europe makes a move, billions of people feel the consequences long before CNN books a panel about it. Outside In covers what happened, who it affects, and how it looks from Lagos, Jakarta, São Paulo, and Delhi. Built for globally curious listeners who are tired of hearing about the world through a single lens.
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