Episode 23 -- Roger Petersen

How many civil wars were there in Iraq after the U.S. invasion – and how did they really end?  Roger Petersen of MIT describes a life of immersion, from road construction to honchoing a network of scholar-soldiers as they unspooled the complexity of a decade of war in Iraq.  How does one get honest answers out of warlords in situations where they (and their entourage) have all the power?  Is it possible to be a neutral observer in an ongoing war?  Can ethnographicsensibility be taught -- and if not, as the profession incentivizes students to become technically-oriented in our training sequences, what is lost?  Provocative, funny, blunt, and always thoughtful, Petersen's slow-rolled delivery is calibrated to get you wondering what you might learn if you got serious about active listening.