A demonstrator in a Freedom for Palestine march in Berlin, November 2023. Photograph by Sean Gallup (permission requested)
I’ve been wanting to say this for a long time.
Donate
Nasser Hospital
Dec 19, 2024
Dr. Nizam Mamode speaking in the British House of Commons, 11/20/24.
A couple days ago I watched a story on Al Jazeera English about how the Israeli military is using small drones mounted with machine guns to kill civilians in Gaza. These drones are 3-5 feet wide, with four or more propellers. They’re called quadcopters. They move like hummingbirds or bumblebees—hovering and darting. They can go inside buildings and tunnels, or chase someone down the street. Besides guns they carry cameras, loudspeakers and bombs. The Al Jazeera story claimed the Israelis are busy building new prototypes and testing them on the trapped civilians in Gaza.
I did a search under 'Israeli Quadcopters' and saw that NPR did a story on November 20th about a British doctor speaking in the House of Commons about operating on Palestinian children who had been shot by quadcopters in Gaza. So I went to the UK Parliament website and found the video of the doctor’s testimony, and I’m going to play the whole thing, because I think the whole thing needs to be heard.
The doctor’s name is Nizam Mamode, 62 years old. In the video, he’s sitting in front of a microphone before 10 members of the Committee for International Development. All the members ask a question, so it’s long interview, over 40 minutes, and it’s not easy to listen to. I had to take breaks and come back to it. Some parts are rather horrifying. It begins with an introduction by committee chairman Sarah Champion.
Militiaman outside the Republican Convention in Cleveland, 2016.
A short essay on what I know about fascism.
Donate
Beirut Epilogue
Oct 27, 2024
I wrote this after I got back home the other night, but it took a few days to get it posted. I had a good trip, thanks very much for your support.
Donate
Beirut Part Six
Oct 21, 2024
Dr. Edward Alam, professor of philosophy and theology at Notre Dame University in Lebanon.
This interview with Dr. Alam gives a very good historical context for the war now going on in Lebanon. I feel lucky to have met him. Here are the links to the book he recommended for more in depth study:
I made a mistake about the date. I meant Friday, October 11th. This is a short piece recorded in my hotel room following last night’s bombing in Central Beirut.
Donate
Beirut Part Two
Oct 09, 2024
Donate
Beirut Part One
Oct 07, 2024
A family camping out along the beach in Beirut to avoid being bombed in their home.
Donate
End of Season Two
Feb 08, 2021
I’m going to take a break for a few months, or at least until the pandemic is over. Thank you very much for your support. This podcast has been the best thing in my life, professionally, and I couldn’t have done it without you. I hope to be back soon with more stories.
Donate
A Photographer's Account of the Insurrection
Jan 11, 2021
The moment the police line breaks. West Portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 6th, 2021.
Many Trump supporters I spoke with before the election said there would be violence after the election, and now here we are. I missed last Wednesday’s insurrection, but my friend photo-journalist Alan Chin was there. So I called him.
You may remember Alan from a previous episode. I met him in 2001 in Afghanistan. We worked together there and he went on to cover the war in Iraq. He’s covered a lot of war zones. His photos are published in the New York Times and Newsweek. I’ve always been amazed by his spot-on verbal descriptions and accounts, his command of history, and his confidence in the role of photo-journalism.
This is a very good report of what it was like at the U.S. Capitol last week.
All photos by Alan Chin.
Donate
Trump in Dalton, Gerogia, January 4th, 2021, railing against fictitious election fraud and ostensibly supporting Kelly Loeffler’s Senate campaign.
At the Trump rally in Dalton Georgia, January 4th, 2021.
West Portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 6th, 2021.
West Portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 6th, 2021.
West Portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 6th, 2021.
West Portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 6th, 2021.
Virginia State Police using tear gas to clear the West Portico of the U.S. Capitol, January 6th, 2021.
How Much Time Has Gone By: Part Two
Dec 31, 2020
The Yellowstone River, Montana.
Following the river was a good idea, especially across the Great Plains, because it’s really easy to get lost out there. The view is the same in all directions—rolling hills of dry grass that resemble giant waves on the open ocean. It seemed I would never find my way across them. I was lost at sea. But the river knows where it’s going, downhill to the sea, and it has cottonwood trees and green meadows along its shore. Animals and birds live along the river. People come to hang out and fish. Following the river kept me sane and grounded.
The music is from Neil Young’s soundtrack to “Deadman,” a film by Jim Jarmusch. I highly recommend it.
Donate
On the Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota.
Gabe Romo, Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota.
South Dakota
How Much Time Has Gone By: Part One
Dec 06, 2020
Back in the beginning of September, two months before the election, I set out on a trip driving across the country talking to people about the candidates and the issues. I collected a lot of interviews and I think now is the time to play them, at length.
Most of the interviews are with Trump supporters and some of the things they say may trigger you. You don’t have to listen. You may feel the time for listening is over.
This is the first of three parts.
The music is from Neil Young’s soundtrack to “Deadman,” a film by Jim Jarmusch. I highly recommend it.
Donate
South Pass, Wyoming
Atlantic City, Wyoming
Arthur “Junior” Hernandez
Don Metzger
Culture War: War Zone
Oct 15, 2020
Kansas City, Missouri, September 20, 2020. I came upon this man who was unconscious but still breathing. I called 9/11 and an ambulance came. He was able to get up on the stretcher by himself. I think he’ll be ok.
I went to New Orleans but didn’t interview anyone because I thought things were getting too sketchy with the spreading virus. So I drove home. And I’m sort of beat. It was an exhausting trip. But I recorded a lot of good interviews, maybe the best ever. Thanks very much for supporting this series.
Downtown St. Louis, Missouri, September 26, 2020. I asked them, “What’s up?” One said, “We’re just standing by.”
Kaufmann Center for the Performing Arts, Kansas City, Missouri.
Culture War: Home of the Blues
Oct 05, 2020
I’ve been driving around talking to people in the Mississippi Delta, small towns like Clarksdale, Sumner, Greenwood, and Elaine. I heard a lot of stories that I should have known already. People were very friendly.
Donate
The Mississippi near Mayersville.
Near Onward, Mississippi.
The courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where the men who killed Emmett Till in 1955 were found not guilty. That’s a monument to the Confederate Soldier.
Culture War: St. Louis
Sep 28, 2020
The Missouri River meets the Mississippi River a few miles north of St. Louis. The river is like a half mile wide at this point with tug boats pushing long barges to oil refineries and railroad shipping yards. I was in St. Louis the first couple days after the Breonna Taylor decision came down in Louisville. I went to Ferguson where Michael Brown was killed by police in 2014 and no charges were brought. But it was difficult to find people who would talk to me.
Donate
Culture War: Creeped Out
Sep 22, 2020
After following the Missouri across the low plains, I have come to a better understanding of Trump supporters.
Donate
Culture War: Standing Rock
Sep 18, 2020
Monument in Fort Yates, North Dakota.
I’m following the Missouri River now, heading south down through the Dakotas. I stopped at Standing Rock and talked to some people about the protest four years ago.
Donate
Along the river/reservoir at Standing Rock.
Culture War: Trump Country
Sep 14, 2020
I’ve been following some roads through deeply red voting districts in Wyoming and Montana. I thought I would not enjoy talking to Trump supporters, but I was wrong.
Donate
The Yellowstone River near the confluence with the Bighorn River in Montana.
Culture War: Introduction
Sep 08, 2020
I’m starting a new series of reports from a long trip across the country. I think we used to have a cultural divide, now we have a cultural war.
Donate
The Round River
Aug 09, 2020
I went fishing in some beautiful mountains I first visited in 1968 when I was a Boy Scout. When I was older, we took our kids there so they could see it as well. It’s still very beautiful, but things have changed due to global warming.
Donate
Time To Get My News From A River
Jul 05, 2020
Photo by Kristi Jone Jones
My thinking has been off, my approach has been wrong, I need to go fishing for a while.
Donate
Coming To Ground
Jun 04, 2020
I recorded these interviews with my family two weeks ago, before George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis. Now they seem unimportant, like from another era. Except that in my family it’s the younger folk who have been mostly fucked by the virus pandemic, and it’s been young people, mostly, who’ve been out on the streets protesting. I hope their efforts lead to real change in our society.
Donate
Coming to Ground: Introduction
May 22, 2020
Following the news is like watching a competition for the worst case scenario and I’ve grown weary of all the blaming and shaming. Now we can’t trust anyone, not even ourselves. But at some point we’re going to have to come together in order to survive.
I’m working on a story where I interview people in my family about how they’re coping with the pandemic. Not everyone is doing well, and it’s pretty emotional for me, so I need to take some more time putting it together.
In the meantime, thanks very much for your support.
It seems more of us are paying attention to our neighborhoods lately, so perhaps this is a good time to replay this story, produced in 1988. I still live in the same neighborhood, but it feels different now. It’s like there was a tall tree in my front yard but now the tree is gone and only a stump remains. I am stumped. I used to depend on trust—standing or sitting close to strangers and holding a microphone less than a foot from their faces. Now that’s not going to happen again for a while.
In the meantime, here’s to remembering the good old days.
Donate
Echo People by Trent Harris
Apr 10, 2020
My friend Trent Harris has a problem caused by the coronavirus. It’s not a big problem compared to a lot of other things that have come up recently, like the possible collapse of the economy and thousands of people dying. Trent’s problem is more like a temporary embarrassment. Basically, his reputation is on the line.
The cast and crew of Echo People, with Mystery Mountain in the background.
Harvey Harris upon seeing Mystery Mountain.
Trent Harris wondering what he has done.
Our Show by Erica Heilman
Mar 28, 2020
Shana from Achterarder, Scotland.
My friend Erica Heilman has a podcast called Rumblestrip. She drives around Vermont and talks to people about their lives. Last week she was sitting at home, like everybody, trying to figure out what to do, and she decided to ask her listeners to send her audio recordings of what and how they’re doing under self isolation. A lot of people responded, quickly, and within a couple days Erica posted the first episode of a series she’s calling Our Show.
If you’d like to send Erica an audio recording of what’s happening where you are, here’s the email address: rumblestripourshow@gmail.com.
The song at the end is Atlantic City by Bruce Springsteen, performed by The Band.
Donate
Looking out Erica Heilman’s apartment in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
Recording ambience from Erica Heilman’s window in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
The Dry Wall
Mar 17, 2020
This story was originally broadcast on All Things Considered in 1993. The ground was shifting under my feet back then and I had to figure out what to do. Now it’s shifting again, this time everybody’s in it together. There are things we can do, stories to tell, that can make us feel better.
Thanks for listening and supporting this show.
Donate
Anti-War Stories: Adrienne Kinne and Douglas Peacock
Feb 26, 2020
Adrienne Kinne just after basic training in 1994.
Adrienne Kinne, 2020
I should confess that I have a personal interest in listening to veterans talk about how they recover from war. I was never in the military, but I spent some time overseas as a war correspondent for Esquire, Harper’s, and Mother Jones magazines. I was never in a battle or close to a bomb going off. I saw the aftermath—bodies on the ground, neighborhoods turned to rubble, people silent and in shock. The main thing I have to deal with is knowing that a couple times people who were helping me with my stories were punished, severely, after I left. I got to fly home to America and they had to stay there and suffer the consequences for helping me. I carry this guilt. So when veterans speak of their experiences recovering from war I listen very carefully.
And the link to the video of Brandi Carlile performing live on KEXP.
Donate
Douglas Peacock in 1967
Douglas Peacock south of Ajo, Arizona, 2020
Anti-War Stories: Elliott Woods
Feb 12, 2020
Elliott Woods as a soldier in Iraq, 2004
Today I have a conversation with Elliott Woods, a veteran who is also a very fine writer. He served a year as a combat engineer in northern Iraq. Then he came home and went to school at the University of Virginia, graduating with a degree in English literature. He thought about staying in school and becoming a professor, but he decided he wanted to go back to war, this time as a journalist.
Elliott Woods as a journalist in Afghanistan, 2009
Elliott Woods at Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, 2019
Anti-War Stories: Garett Reppenhagen
Feb 02, 2020
Garett Reppenhagen in Iraq, 2004
I believe that sometime in the future, sooner or later, people in the United States will admit and accept that we have lost the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and demand that our troops be brought back home. Now we are in denial, which is dangerous because when you’re in denial you keep making the same mistake over and over again. I believe we need to talk about what we’ve done, the mistakes we’ve made, the crimes we’ve committed in order to move from denial to acceptance and then figure out how to change the way we respond to terrorism. This interview is the first in a series with veterans who fought in our wars and now are working for peace.
Last spring I was invited to speak at the Oorzaken Audio Festival in Amsterdam. I remember seeing leaves come out on the trees along the canals and tulips blooming on the bridges. The first night I was there i was interviewed on stage at the Torpedo Theater by the hosts of the Podcastclub, a Dutch podcast hosted by Lieven Heeremans and Misha Melita.
This time I’m the one answering the questions.
Donate
The Wordshaker
Jan 03, 2020
His real name is Alissandru Francesco Caldiero, born into the old world on the island of Sicily, he came to the U.S. on a boat when he was nine years old, sailing past the Statue of Liberty. When I first met him, nearly 30 years later, he was screaming a Dada poem at a sandstone wall in southern Utah—repeating the same line, “This is not it,” over and over, faster and faster in a near epileptic seizure. In that moment our lives became intertwined.
I think of this story as a song, a lament for not fitting in and feeling like you can’t make sense of the world around you, which is how I’ve been feeling lately. The story was originally broadcast on NPR’s Day to Day in 2003, right around the time we went to war in Iraq.
I’ve been in Armenia teaching a podcasting workshop sponsored by the U.S. State Department. I think it went well, overall, and the students were exceptional. Perhaps I will write about it someday, but not now.
I’ve come back to impeachment week before Christmas, a double whammy to go with my jet lag. So I’m going to re-play The Rebel Yell, a story about the 2004 Republican Convention in New York City, first podcast on this program in April of 2015.
Music by the Icelandic group Mum (We Have a Map of the Piano, The Land Between Solar Systems, Slow Bicycle) and Kid Rock (All Summer Long).
Donate
Encountering the Other, Part Three
Nov 22, 2019
My operating hypothesis is that our cultural divide is a function of our oligarchic government. If a relatively few super-rich people control our wealth and power then it would be in their interest to keep the masses angry and blaming each other, fighting amongst themselves. In this way Donald Trump is a tool of the oligarchy, dividing us by twitters—so efficient and profitable and addicting—he incites fear of the other.
So, if this is true, the most effective method of fighting oligarchic control might be to give up our fear of the other. I’ve been trying to practice this method by driving around Trump Country and talking to people, listening to people, because I find that listening dissolves fear.
Donate
Encountering the Other, Part Two
Oct 26, 2019
I was driving around rural western Colorado, near the border with Utah, near where Jack Kerouac saw a vision of God in the clouds that looked like Pooh Bear. I was looking for people I was a little afraid of—Republicans, Trump supporters—and there on the side of the highway were three signs that made me think I was in the right place.
It’s not easy for me to walk up to people and ask if they want to be interviewed for my podcast. I’m afraid they will think I’m a fool, or an idiot, or be suspicious of the whole thing—fake news, etc. But on this trip, more often than not, it was other people who came up to me. Pretty much everybody wanted to talk about the cultural divide.
Donate
Fund Drive
Sep 13, 2019
Yellowstone Lake, August 2019
This show is a request for funding, a responsibility for which I am ill-suited.
I’m not interested in marketing and promotion. I’m opposed to advertising. I’m against monetizing my product. I don’t want my stories to go viral, I want them to go fungal like the underground network of mycorrhizal fibers that connect the roots of trees and plants in a forest, sharing food and information, a natural internet of physical connections on a cellular level. I’d rather think of my audience as trees than as data points on a graph, I’d rather grow my audience by word of mouth than by click bait.
Home of the Brave is 100% funded by listener contributions. Please donate a one-time contribution through Stripe (below), or subscribe with a monthly donation through Pay Pal (in the menu bar above), or maybe you’d like to shop for a very cool Home of the Brave t-shirt or patch (in the the menu bar).
Thank you very much for listening and supporting this show.
Music by Bob Moss and Pat King, recorded in 1991.
Donate
The Life and Times of Solidod
Aug 23, 2019
Solidod in Bozeman, Montana, 2012. Photo by Jake Warga.
Larry met Solidod by chance, or happenstance. He happened to be in Florida on vacation and he happened to be walking through an apartment complex in Vero Beach looking for another guy and he ended up meeting Solidod. She invited him into her apartment and then she told him her life story and they became friends. Shortly after that, Larry and Solidod went into a recording studio and made this story for Hearing Voices.
Solidod in the recording studio, Bozeman, Montana, 2012. Photo by Jake Warga.
Solidod’s wedding belt. Solidod makes beaded belts and bracelets. She asked me to post her phone number so you can call and order a special design: 772-538-9701.
The Strait of Hormuz
Aug 10, 2019
I wanted to see the place where a war between the United States and Iran may begin. It turned out people over there couldn’t talk to me on tape because they live in countries without a tradition of free speech and they all feel they are being watched, and I didn’t want to get anybody in trouble. So this is a travelogue, a story about what it’s like to be there.
The psychedelic Persian Gulf surf music is by Hayvanlar Alemi (he’s actually from Turkey). Here’s the link to his website.
Donate
Abu Dabi
Workers taking a break in Khasab, Oman.
On the boat heading out to the Strait of Hormuz.
Near Kumzar, Oman, in the Strait of Hormuz.
Fujairah, UAE.
Tuna and Sardines, Muscat, Oman.
Muscat, Oman
The call-in-for-spiritual-advice show. She has a white pen in her hand.
In the dunes near Dubai, UAE.
Alan Chin--Photographer
Jul 09, 2019
Baghdad, Iraq
May 7, 2005
A suicide car bomb in Baghdad's downtown Tahrir Square killed at least 5 and wounded at least 31.
PHOTOGRAPH by ALAN CHIN
I worked with photographer Alan Chin covering the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in November of 2001, but then I didn’t see him again until recently, at his apartment in New York City. I wanted to know what he’d learned from being a war correspondent.
Here are a some links to look at more of his work:
Northern Alliance soldiers wait in a snowstorm while their commanders negotiate the surrender of a group of Taliban still holding out in Balkh, Afghanistan.
PHOTOGRAPH by ALAN CHIN
Seberghan, Afghanistan
December 2001
Thousands of Taliban soldiers were transported to a prison in Seberghan controlled by Northern Alliance general Abdul-Rashid Dostum.
At least a thousand of those prisoners died en route to prison, either suffocated in overcrowded trucks or helplessly massacred by vengeful Northern Alliance soldiers.
PHOTOGRAPH by ALAN CHIN
BAGHDAD, IRAQ
June 13, 2005
A car bomb, a white Mercedes, exploded next to a primary school in the Yarmouk neighborhood, targeting US vehicles that were carrying an embassy official. 2 US soldiers and 8 Iraqi civilians were wounded. 2 Iraqi police and an Iraqi 12-year old girl, ATHRA ZUGHAYR, were killed. She was the daughter of the school guard; the family lives on site; here her sister (with child) learns the bad news.
PHOTOGRAPH by ALAN CHIN
Baghdad, Iraq
April 18, 2003
Iraqis ride a head of Saddam Hussein being dragged by a truck. They are also beating it with shoes, which is considered to be the most insulting gesture in Iraqi society.
Photograph by Alan Chin
BAGHDAD, IRAQ
May 5, 2005
Remains of suicide bomber who killed 15 people in front of Iraqi Army base, of potential recruits awaiting entry.
PHOTOGRAPH by ALAN CHIN
Let's Talk About Not Going To War
Jun 23, 2019
For the solstice, the sun tunnels in the West Desert of Utah.
Stories about going to war come from the top down, from media corporations that manufacture consent for war among the people. Stories about not going to war move from the bottom up, starting in conversations between family and friends, people speaking out for no money but just because they feel obligated to speak. In this approach there’s a shift in context where fear is taken out of the narrative—we are not being attacked, maybe these people are not our enemy. Maybe the real enemy is our government and our media that are being controlled by the military industrial complex. I believe bottom up stories can break apart the power structure coming down from above, so this is one of them.
Donate
Scott Carrier and William J. Astore on the house raft in Woods Hole Harbor.
Dreamers by Joe Frank
May 31, 2019
photo by Michal Story
Trump’s threats to go to war with Iran made me feel powerless and lonely because I’m afraid there’s nothing to stop it. I tried to produce an anti-war story, but then realized this one by Joe is much better.
This is maybe what you’d call a pilot episode for a series that would be separate from Home of the Brave. I don’t have a title for it yet, but it would involve traveling around the world by taxi, or ride share, or just hiring drivers who can function as guides and translators. I think this is the best way to travel, but it’s expensive, so the series would need a big sponsor. Western Sound, a new podcast company in Los Angeles, sponsored this test run of the idea.
Here are some links to the music used in this story:
Ray Charles,Sweet Sixteen Bars from the album The Best of Ray Charles, Atlantic SD 1543
Greg Allen Jones, Monticello Rose and Boll Weevil from the album Crossing the Willamette
A very good place for crawfish jambalaya, New Orleans.
Donate
One of the buildings in New Orleans that was flooded after Katrina broke the levee.
Gulf Shore
Gulf Shore
One of the places in Florida where there are no taxis or ride share drivers.
Some Spring Time Stories
Apr 16, 2019
I just got back from speaking at two radio conferences in Europe. I saw the leaves come out on the trees along the canals in Amsterdam. I woke up in Ireland next to a pasture with four wooly alpacas, one just a baby. I spent days talking about how podcasting works from the bottom up, forming a lattice of connections that reach around the skin of the earth. This is better than the top-down fear-mongering of the corporate media. I said these things with confidence, because of you. I get letters from every continent including Antartica and they all sound like they were written by the same person...because we’re all in the same lattice.
This is a story I produced last summer for The New Yorker Radio Hour. It’s about a controversy over one of the newest long-distance hiking trails in the United States. It was a difficult story to cover and explain, but I had excellent help from the NYRH producers and editors. I’d like to work for them again.
Donate
Ron Strickland, father of the Pacific Northwest Trail.
The PNT crosses the Kootenai River Valley, north of Sandpoint, Idaho.
Warriors Zulu Nation Honduras
Feb 19, 2019
A day inside the gang-ridden community of Chamelecon, Honduras.
Donate
The ceiba tree in the park where the rap battle took place. Chamelecon, Honduras.
The playing field under the tree.
Rapper 23 is “Yosie,” who reads history for inspiration.
Tegucigalpa
Feb 05, 2019
Donate
Honduras Part One: A New Caravan
Jan 20, 2019
Some of the new caravan before departing from the bus station in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. January 14, 2019.
Donate
A single mom with kids waiting to leave from the bus station in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. January 14, 2019.
He said he was too old to walk all the way to the United States, but would accompany the caravan to the border with Guatemala. January 14, 2019.
Tijuana
Dec 22, 2018
Ruth Pena and her daughter, from El Salvador, at the beach in Tijuana. That’s the border wall in the background.
Donate
The outfield at the ball park in Tijuana.
Near second base at the ball park in Tijuana.
Scar from eight bullets on the thigh of one of the Honduran men.
Leaving the ball park.
Standing in line for breakfast outside the ball park.
Inside one of the Evangelical refuges in the hills surrounding Tijuana.
Outside one of the Evangelical refuges in the hills surrounding Tijuana.
Across the Desert
Dec 12, 2018
A sticker on one of the steel columns of the border wall south of Las Cruces, NM.
Donate
Another sticker on the wall,south of Las Cruces.
Katie Davis and Molly Molloy at the wall south of Las Cruces.
Casa del Migrante
Dec 04, 2018
At Casa del Migrante in Juarez, the wrists of Estela Magdalena Simon Esteban, 23 years old, and her three-year-old daughter, Zaida. These numbers are their place in line to apply for political asylum at the El Paso port of entry. Photo by Julian Cardona.
Estela Magdalena Simon Esteban and her three-year old daughter, Zaida, at Casa del Migrante in Juarez, Chihuahua. After her husband crossed to the US without documents, a man made constant attempts of sexual assault against Estela and she decided to leave her town, Playa Grande, Guatemala. Now she seeks to apply for political asylum to reunite with her husband in Salisbury, Maryland. Photo by Julian Cardona.
Juana Machenaquenich, 34, at Casa del Migrante. She was forced to leave Guatemala because several men were constantly trying to rape her 16-year-old daughter, Andrea Patricia. With Andrea and her two-year-old daughter Zuly Raquel (pictured) she will try to cross the border to reunite with her husband who lives undocumented near Washington D.C. Photo by Julian Cardona.
A girl plays in a courtyard of Casa del Migrante behind Juana Machenaquenich and her two-year-old daughter Zuly Raquel. Many of the migrants or refugees from Central America are now coming to the United States with their children. Photo by Julian Cardona.
Donate
No Solution
Nov 14, 2018
Immigrants crossing the border near Agua Prieta, Sonora, 2005. Photo by Julian Cardona.
Welcome to Season Two of Home of the Brave. This is the first of a series about the US/Mexico border and the present immigration situation. For background, I replay an interview with Charles Bowden recorded just a couple hundred yards from the barbed wire fence separating the two countries in the spring of 2005.
Donate
Migrants from Mexico crossing into the United States at the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge near Sasabe, Arizona, 2005. Photo by Julian Cardona.
End of Season One: A Walk On the Beach
May 08, 2018
I need to take a break so let's call this the end of season one. And I'd like to play the second story I produced for the show, an interview with Alex Chadwick.
Thank you very much for your support. I'm going to turn off the subscription service (Pay Pal), but you can still donate and buy tee-shirts, tote bags, and patches. I hope to be back soon.
Erica Heilman produces Rumble Strip from her home in Calais, Vermont. I like it because I never know what she's going to do next. This is a satire about modern life in America.
Donate
Lick the Crickets by Larry Massett
Apr 18, 2018
Collage by Charles Hope
From following the news lately I feel like I don't know who to believe or who to trust, like I don't know what's going on or why and things are only going to get worse and there's nothing I can do about it. In times like this maybe surrealistic poetry and Dada make more sense than realism.
Donate
Collage by Charles Hope
Bear's Ears, Part Six: Industrial Tourism
Mar 31, 2018
Which is worse--a campground or an oil well?
Donate
Bear's Ears, Part Five: Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Mar 15, 2018
Firewood in Monument Valley, collected on Cedar Mesa to heat Navajo homes.
A story about the origin of the Bear's Ears proposal.
Bears Ears from the west. In the foreground is one of the many sandstone canyons draining Cedar Mesa. Elevation 5000 feet.
The bridge over the Colorado River where it becomes Lake Powell, Hite Crossing. Elevation 4000 feet.
Bear's Ears, Part One
Jan 16, 2018
Looking south towards the Navajo Reservation from the top of Cedar Ridge, Utah.
The first in a series of reports about the controversy over public land in southern Utah, plus a story by radio genius Joe Frank, who passed away January 15, 2018.
Donate
Two More Stories About Mountains
Jan 01, 2018
A stitched panorama of the Salt Lake valley, from the north end.
Ski Lesson
Dec 06, 2017
I don't know who took this photo, but it sure is a good one. Maybe it's Thor.
Something to get your mind off the sorry state of affairs these days.
You can make a one-time donation by Stripe, below, or hit the Pay Pal button in the menu bar to subscribe for as little as on dollar a month. Thanks for listening.
Donate
The Bicycle Artist
Nov 22, 2017
One of Grant Petersen's personal bicycles.
An interview with Grant Petersen of Rivendell Bicycles Works in Walnut Creek, California.
This is a Halloween special for people who have not heard the original 1938 CBS broadcast.
Basin and Range
Oct 22, 2017
Donate
We Thought It Was a Movie
Oct 08, 2017
NFL Sunday
Sep 29, 2017
A short commentary on the protests.
Donate
The Oracle
Sep 01, 2017
My friend Alex and I try to visit the Utah Data Center, 20 miles south of my house in Salt Lake City.
DONATE BY TEXT 801-876-1913
Check out The Sonosopher, a documentary about Alex Caldiero.
James Bamford's article on the Utah Data Center in Wired Magazine.
Music from the film The Day the Earth Stood Still.
The Continental Divide, Part Two
Jul 07, 2017
I try it again, this time with some respect.
The short clip of music in the middle of the story is by the Icelandic group MUM.
The music at the end is a North Vietnamese boys' choir, a recording given to me by Alex Chadwick.
Donate
The Continental Divide
Jun 16, 2017
The top of the highway through Rocky Mountain National Park.
The day before it snowed three inches.
Donate
The Green River
May 26, 2017
Paul Brennan, Creighton King, and myself at the Green River Lakes in the summer of 1991.
I thought, considering the recent mind-fuck of news, it would be good to play a relaxing story. This is a re-run from a couple summers ago, although I originally produced it in 1991 for Weekend All Things Considered.
Donate
Trump's Wall: Your Neighbor
May 10, 2017
An undocumented farm worker in New England, USA. Photo by Erica Heilman.
Donald Trump promised to build a wall along the border with Mexico but at this point there is little support in Congress to actually fund the construction. And there's been a sharp decline in illegal immigration since Trump took office, even without an actual wall.
Perhaps the reason for the decline is the fear generated by Trump's deportation policy. So this story is an interview with an undocumented farm worker. He talks about why he left home and what it's like working 16 hours a day, and how he's afraid to leave the farm for fear of being deported.
And there's about 12 million other people here who feel the same way.
Donate
Trump's Wall, Part Two
Apr 21, 2017
The opening of Santa Elena's Canyon, Big Bend National Park. The left side of the canyon is in Mexico, the right side is in the United States.
Interviews with people on both sides of the border in and around Big Bend National Park, Texas.
Donate
Tourists crossing the Rio Grande at Boquillas del Carmen.
Float trips on the Rio Grande are very popular. You're not supposed to get out of your boat on the Mexico side, but there's no one down there to stop you.
In the village of Boquillas del Carmen
Boquillas del Carmen
Photo by Simone Rubi, south of Marfa, Texas.
Trump's Wall, Part One
Apr 06, 2017
The Rio Grande in Bend Bend Ranch State Park, Texas, just west of Big Bend National Park.
The first part of a series about the proposed wall along the border. A visit to Big Bend National Park.
What's Happening at Standing Rock: An Interview with Jenni Monet
Feb 16, 2017
Photo from jennimonet.com. (Her name is misspelled in the photo.)
On February 8th, the Army Corps of Engineers approved the permit for the Dakota Access Pipeline to cross under the Missouri River. This is an interview with Jenni Monet, an independent journalist who's been embedded at Standing Rock since the first week of December. She was arrested February 1st along with 75 protestors/water protectors. Her many news reports and the account of her arrest are at jennimonet.com.
Donate
i thought i'd throw out this idea and see if it has legs
Feb 08, 2017
drawing by Creighton King
I started to work on a new story, then decided to change tactics.
Donald Trump is a manifestation of our collective fear and anger. We created him. This show is a collection of interviews with people who supported Trump leading up to the election. They are not easy to listen to, but I think we should try in order to better understand what happened, and what is happening now.
A peaceful demonstration on Highway 1806, next to the Oceti Sakowin camp.
Ladonna Brave Bull Allard
Celebrating after the Army Corps announcement.
Monday, December 5th, the blizzard begins.
The front entrance to the Oceti Sakowin camp.
On Highway 1806, with the bridge in the distance.
Standing Rock, Part Two
Nov 29, 2016
The Missouri River at Lake Oahe, one mile downstream from the proposed crossing of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
What it's like at some of the more peaceful anti-pipeline protests or "actions" in North Dakota.
Music by Max Richter from the HBO series The Leftovers.
Donate
Blocking State Highway 6, west of Mandan, North Dakota. November 15, 2016.
Demonstration at the State Capitol in Bismarck, North Dakota, November 14, 2016.
November 14, 2016, at the State Capitol building in Bismarck, North Dakota.
A peaceful demonstration, five miles west of Mandan, North Dakota, blocking a county road leading to a camp for people working on the pipeline. November 12, 2016.
Loud speaker at the November 15 action blocking the county road to the man camp west of Mandan, North Dakota.
November 15, 2016.
At the railroad tracks running parallel to State Highway 6, November 15, 2016.
Leaving the scene, State Highway 6, November 15, 2016.
These are the dump trucks blocking state highway 1806 at the bridge over Cantapeda Creek, less than a mile north of the Sacred Stone Camp, less than a mile south of where the pipeline crosses the highway. The battle on November 20 started as water protecters/protesters were trying to clear the road by pulling the dump trucks out of the way.
Some of Kevin Gilbertt's live-streamed video. You can see more on his Facebook page, Kevin Gilbertt.
Donate
The Greater Yellowstone Grizzly, Part Three
Nov 07, 2016
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is planning to take the Yellowstone grizzly bear off the list of endangered species, perhaps before the end of this year. This is the beginning of a series about the issues surrounding the management of the bear in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
Donate
The South Fork of the Shoshone River near Cody, Wyoming.
The Yellowstone River in Paradise Valley, Montana.
Bill Zanoni and son, looking for bears in Tom Miner Basin, just north of Yellowstone Park.
Donate
The Road
Sep 07, 2016
I-80, Wyoming
Donate
I-10, Texas
I-10, Texas
Hullet, Wyoming
Donate
The End of Hope: Outside the DNC
Aug 20, 2016
What if you threw a protest against the oligarchy and not many people showed up?
Music by Laurie Anderson: "From the Air," Big Science.
Cleveland RNC Part 2
Aug 12, 2016
Public Square, Cleveland, Ohio
The RNC in Cleveland followed two weeks of brutal (YouTubed) shootings in America. Anyone who showed up at the protests was either paid to be there, like the police and the media, or they were for some reason unafraid of the potential for more violence. As it was, things stayed relatively peaceful, except for loud shouting at times.
Some of the West Ohio Minutemen with assault rifles in Public Square.
West Ohio Minuteman
Cops had to protect the religious fanatics, as they were extremely loud and annoying and persistent.
MSNBC set up outside on West 4th Street, a block from the Quicken Loans Arena where the convention was in session.
Those three girls from YouTube performed across from the MSNBC booth on West 4th Street.
Special police at Public Square.
Bicycle cops on The Mall, during the BLM/religious fanatic shout down.
Connie, now residing in Mexico.
Opening Day Outside the RNC in Cleveland
Aug 05, 2016
Sean Whitty and Christopher Traviano.
I went to the Republican and Democratic conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia to see who showed up outside on the streets. This is the first in a short series of reports.
Donate
Sean Whitty's back tattoo.
A quote by Sam Adams on Sean's arm.
The Public Square in downtown Cleveland, where some of the protests took place.
Two anti-Trump protesters in Public Square.
David Patterson speaking just before Kathy Wray Coleman is arrested.
The Cleveland Police handcuff Kathy Wray Coleman.
Taking her away.
Kathy Wray Coleman was arrested on outstanding warrants for assaulting Cleveland Police officers.
The Rev. Pamela M. Pickney Butts scolding the crowd after Coleman's arrest.
Donate
After Thinking About What To Do
Jul 09, 2016
Trent Harris wonders 'what the fuck?' at a gun shop in Salt Lake City.
In a few days I'm getting in my car and driving to the conventions in Cleveland and Philadelphia.
Donate
Reagan's Neighbors
Jun 27, 2016
William Thomas, Lafayette Park, Washington D.C., 1984
Interviews with people occupying Lafayette Park in Washington D.C. in the early 1980s.
Trump and Sanders in South Bend: Part Two
May 12, 2016
Shortly before the Indiana primaries on May 3, 2016, both Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders spoke in South Bend. In this episode I interview people waiting in line to hear Donald Trump.
Donate
Trump and Sanders in South Bend, Indiana
May 07, 2016
Both candidates were speaking in the same place, on consecutive days, just before the Indiana Primary last Tuesday. I thought it would be interesting to compare and contrast the two events.
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
