#23 - Hamse Warfa
Hamse Warfa is the CEO of World Savvy, a non-profit organization that equips educators and students with the skills, perspectives, and global awareness needed to thrive in an interconnected world and drive positive change. In...
SP/FS Presents: Global Development Interrupted (featuring Christopher Wurst)
SP/FS is proud to share the new episode of Global Development Interrupted , a podcast and Substack page we follow enthusiastically. You may remember that GDI's founder and host, Leah Petit, was featured on SP/FS #18 (go find ...
#22 - Alonzo Wind
He left the U.S. as Allan J. Wind, but by the time his Peace Corps stint in Ecuador ended, he had been rechristened as "Dr. Alonzo" - which is what his driver's license now says. From being an unlikely radio star, to a health...
#21 - Jody Olsen
Josephine (Jody) Olsen called her Peace Corps memoir 'A Million Miles' - and while the distance from her traditional Mormon upbringing in Utah and a rural Tunisian health clinic may not have been a literal million miles, it l...
SP/FS BONUS: Happy 2026 (from the Class of '25)
Let's face it, 2025, things could have gone a whole lot better. But it was the birth year for SP/FS, and on this special bonus episode, virtually the entire SP/FS Class of '25 storytellers return with reflections on the year ...
#20 - Ambassador Lewis Lucke
As a young boy, dreaming of becoming an archeologist, Lewis Lucke wanted to visit the Holy Lands to see if the Bible stories he'd read were true. Indeed, his career did lead him overseas, though as a diplomat with USAID--from...
About the Host
Christopher Wurst
Christopher Wurst is the producer and host of the weekly podcast/radio program SoftPower/FulStories, which uses first-person narrative stories to highlight U.S. soft power efforts around the world for the past 60+ years. Previously, he served more than two decades as a U.S. diplomat, primarily as a cultural and press attaché, in seven countries across four continents—including Ireland, Italy, Slovenia, Zambia, India, Pakistan, and Guatemala. As the Senior Advisor for Innovation in the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs, he produced and hosted the award-winning podcast 22.33, utilizing storytelling to convey the positive impact of international exchange programs. In 2013, he was nominated as the Cultural Expat of the Year in Slovenia; in 2008, his team won the Global PEPFAR Public Diplomacy Award. He also received numerous Meritorious and Superior Honor Awards. Before joining the Foreign Service, he taught high school history and literature in Minneapolis and South Africa. He was a guest writer for the TV comedy show Mystery Science Theater 3000, where he also made his national television debut as a Moleman from outer space. As a photographer, he has had exhibitions in four countries. He currently splits his time between the United States and Slovenia, where his wife, Kjara, is a choreographer. Rex, their beagle-Aussie mix and Good Trouble rally veteran, has chased sticks in 10 different countries.