A World of Possibilities differs from other public affairs programs in several ways. It features:

• Breakthrough conversations that take guests, host, and listener to places where none has been before, using wit and wisdom to dissolve our preconceptions about the limits of the possible.
  
  
• Both a national and global focus: In the course of each hour, the program features a balanced blend of both U.S. and international voices, providing complementary and contrasting perspectives and approaches to the same issue.
  
  
• Global perspectives on events that consider but are not confined to American concerns. A conversation in which Americans participate but do not dominate.
  
  
• In-depth exploration of issues: The full hour is committed to one topic, unlike programs that shift focus every five or six minutes. A World of Possibilities concentrates on one issue for the entire program in order to achieve deep understanding but uses a brightly textured format and a rich mix of world music to hold the interest of listeners.
  
  
• Foreign analysts and leading innovators native to the regions on which they report: Unlike programs that depend on correspondents from the home country who often see the world through the lens of their own cultural bias, we feature leading figures in the countries on which they are reporting - social movement leaders, groundbreaking journalists and others with an insider's understanding of the issues and situations in their home countries.
  
  
• Music from the regions of the guests being featured: Roots music from United States (folk, blues, jazz) and from around the world, pegged to the regions where the program's guests are located.
  
  
• Success stories from practical social innovators: Balancing policy analysis and big-picture thinking will be pathfinders telling their own stories, individuals who are not just protesting current conditions but creating ground-level experiments to test the viability of the changes they advocate.
  
  
• Solution-oriented programming: With an emphasis on alternatives rather than critique, the practical rather than the purely rhetorical. Visionary and pragmatic.
  
  
  
• Asks the hard questions: Will it work? What are the tradeoffs? Is this strategy consistent with our values?
  
  
  
• Draws key links between issues: Just as the problems we face reinforce one another in a downward spiral, so the solutions are connected. Work on one opens up possibilities for others. Making the connections between issues and movements is essential to achieving breakthroughs.
  
  
• Enables civil society movements to gain greater voice and visibility - to forge common cause with one another and become a more vital and vibrant presence in the larger world.