Far From Home

Latest Episodes:

COVID Stories Part 1 Aug 17, 2020

Show notes

On this episode of Far From Home, I’m beginning an occasional series where I’m checking in with friends and colleagues around the world to get a sense of the many ways COVID-19 is affecting people and how their governments are handling the pandemic. This time we hear voices from France, Haiti, Brazil, the UK, Peru, the United Arab Emirates, and Japan.

I’m hoping to do more shows like this, and I’d love to hear from listeners in far flung places! If you’re living somewhere outside of the continental U.S. or Canada and you have a unique perspective, story, or experience you want to share about what’s going on where you are or in your life, please drop me a line at info@farfromhomepodcast.org, and I’ll send you some instructions on what I’m looking for and how to send me a recording from your cell phone.

Thanks to radio producer Neil Sandell, who generously allowed me to share his confinement diary recordings with my listeners. Check out his Soundcloud page if you’d like to hear more of his work.

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On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian documents fascinating stories from far-flung places like Iran, Chernobyl, and Mongolia. For more info, visit farfromhomepodcast.org

The Island No One Owns Jul 29, 2020

Show notes

If you want to build a house on the Caribbean island of Barbuda, you can just put up a fence wherever you want, and have it. You don’t pay for it. You don’t sign for anything. You just have to be Barbudan. Barbudans have held their pink sand paradise “in common” since the 1800s. No titles. No paperwork.

But on the heels of a major disaster, the Prime Minister has come up with a new plan. He wants to sell Barbudans the plot of land they’ve been living on for one Eastern Caribbean dollar and give them legally binding property titles they can take to a bank, to help rebuild. A lot of Barbudans don’t want the deal, though. I team up with reporter Sarah Gonzalez from NPR’s Planet Money podcast to tell the story.

Visit my website to see some photos from our trip to Barbuda.

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Green Book Jul 21, 2020

Show notes

From the 1930s to the 1960s, Black motorists driving across the United States and Canada often brought along a copy of The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, which was a sort of AAA guide that told them which gas stations, hotels, restaurants, and other businesses were safe for them to stop at, and which areas they should avoid. Publication eventually ended after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, when things seemed to be improving. But now two Colorado women are trying to revive it in digital form. Parker McMullen-Bushman and Crystal Egli join me to talk about their GoFundMe campaign and explain why they think we need a new Green Book. You can read more about their project at inclusivejourneys.com.

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Double Your Bubble, Double Your Fun Jul 09, 2020

Show notes

If you were forced to quarantine as a result of COVID-19 and could only hang out with members of one other household, who would you choose? On the latest episode of Far From Home, writer and filmmaker Mike Hickey tells me how a government experiment that limited the number of people he and his fellow residents of Newfoundland, Canada could interact with forced many people to make difficult and stressful choices. I also play some excerpts from Mike’s Double Your Bubble podcast, where he speaks to his friends about how they made their decisions.

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Traveling While Black Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

In light of the recent protests for racial justice across the United States and around the world, I chat with two African American friends about what it’s like to travel as a Black person, both in their own country and abroad. The stories they tell are sometimes funny and sometimes sad, but always eye-opening, and they shed light on what it’s like to constantly stick out from the crowd, even when you’re just trying your best to fit in.

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Pandemic Diary (with On Spec) May 24, 2020

Show notes

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, I speak with Istanbul-based author and journalist Fariba Nawa about what the situation is like where she lives in Turkey. Then I play a recent episode of her podcast, On Spec, where she tells the story of her photographer friend Hilaneh Mahmoudi’s personal experience battling the virus.

If you enjoy this episode, check out Hilaneh’s photo essay of what she went through. And listen to other shows in the On Spec archive wherever you get your podcasts.

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Finding the Helpers (with The Bittersweet Life) Apr 21, 2020

Show notes

As the world is consumed by COVID-19, I check in with author and American expat Tiffany Parks, who lives on the outskirts of Rome, to get a sense of what things are like in Italy right now. Then, in my quest to find positive stories to share in this dispiriting time, I play an episode of The Bittersweet Life — the travel podcast Tiffany co-hosts with her friend Katy Sewall — about so-called travel angels, the unsung, everyday heroes who assist in small and not-so-small ways when we’re in a foreign place and need a helping hand.

This episode includes the song “Impromptu in Blue,” which was licensed from composer Kevin MacLeod under a Creative Commons Attribution license.

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No Place Like Home Mar 25, 2020

Show notes

With a global pandemic, canceled flights, and closed borders, many travelers suddenly found themselves trapped in foreign countries, trying to figure out how to get home, even if they thought they were taking all the necessary precautions. I share the story of one of them. And I tell what happened when the virus recently came to my own household.

Select music in this episode was licensed from composer Anthony Kozar under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

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Touring North Korea with The Radio Vagabond (bonus episode) Mar 03, 2020

Show notes

While Far From Home is on a break between seasons, I’m popping into your feed from time to time to share segments from other shows I’ve enjoyed that I think all of you might like as well. Today I’m featuring an episode from The Radio Vagabond podcast, where Danish radio producer Palle Bo tells stories from his travels, kind of like I do. This time he goes to a place I’m not quite brave enough to go myself, at least not right now, and not as a journalist: North Korea. You can read more about Palle’s journey and see some picture he took on his website.

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Revisiting Iran Feb 06, 2020

Show notes

In light of the recent political developments that briefly brought the US and Iran to the brink of war, I’m re-releasing an excerpt of a story I produced for the first season of Far From Home. It’s about the time a few years ago when I drove through Iran with my brother Drew and our friends Jane and Rosi as part of an 11,000 mile road trip we took across Europe and Asia, raising money for charity. Along the way, we had enlightening conversations with average Iranians that made us see their country in a totally new light.

You can read more and see photos that accompany this episode on my website. To listen to this complete story, as well as my other stories from Iran and the rest of my road trip, go back and check out the first season of this podcast. Note that it’s a series, so it’s best to start at the very beginning and listen to all the episodes in order for the story to make the most sense.

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