Episode 22: Third World Country - Why Ranking Countries is Dumb

Ever heard the phrase "third world country"? How about "first world problems"? What do these phrases really mean? Do we really need to rank each other? Honestly, it’s dumb.

Hostion and Andrea will unpack the 72-year-old term “third world country” (yes, folks, it's that old and ready for retirement), the origin of the phrase, how it evolved and what it means to this day. They'll discuss the ways in which words and language can be used to divide nations and form unnecessary hierarchies. Just like humans evolve and adapt to survive, so does language. So join your two immigrant buddies and be ready to embrace a more dignifying lens to see the world.

Episode Sources

Alfred Sauvy’s 1952 Cold War Paper ‘Three Worlds. One Planet.”
‘Toward a Definition of the Third World’- Boston Law School
‘The Global South’ - American Sociological Association
National Public Radio Interview- ’If you shouldn’t call it the Third World, what should you call it?’
’How We Classify Countries and People - and Why it Matters’ - National Library of Medicine
Homelessness by Country - World Population Review
World Prison Population List, Eleventh Edition - National Institute of Corrections

Quiz Sources

Founding Members of NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Timeline of National Independence