Citizen Reporter

You don't often hear from poets in Afghanistan, but beyond all the politics and violence that gets all the press, they've been there all along, writing, reciting, performing... My guest is Wida Sharifi, a poet and writer based here in Herat. She joins me to tell me about how she got her start in poetry and how the world of poetry works in Afghanistan. We also get into literacy, television, work, a...

The violence and threats occasionally are reported about in the mainstream media. The threats to funding have also grabbed headlines this year. Almost two years since the murder of Dr. Tiller, what is the state of abortion in the United States? For those who perform the procedure. For those who need or want the procedure. How have things been changing for all the actors involved over the past few...

The way people talk and think about poverty has a major influence in how it is addressed in society. The problem is that there is a limited amount of research regarding perceptions of poverty in different parts of the world and throughout history. Armando Barrientos, Professor and Research Director at the Brooks World Poverty Institute (Manchester),  has extensive experience with research and poli...

Driving outside of Tbilisi on the way to the ancient city Mtskheta, my hosts and I talk about Georgian language and how it has been effected by decades of Soviet Occupation and migration patterns. We also delve into Russian-Georgian relations today and how war is still very much part of the language and memory of the nation. You can follow one of the guests on this episode via his twitter account....

I suddenly find myself in the republic of Georgia and the first thing one needs when arriving in a new country such as Georgia is a guide. Mark Mullen knows Georgia, he has been here since the late 90's and pays close attention to what is going on in the present. Who better to sit down with on my first night in Tbilisi, to talk about this country. Mark's Podcast about Georgia

As I travel around the Northeast of the United States, I am also struggling to keep up with events unfolding in Spain. Disturbing events as protesters throughout the country suffer the wrath of a police force out of control. While millions throughout the country assemble in city squares demanding political and social reform, their story goes mostly unreported and downplayed by many international m...

As a designer, at some point David Kousemaker became interested in finding where our old phones and electronics in general end up once we in the western world throw them away.  His interest took him to parts of Indonesia, China, Brazil and Thailand, among other places. There he observed not only how things like mobile phones are broken down, recycled, rebuilt etc, he also saw how entire industries...

Eleanor Saitta

Nadia Plesner is a concerned citizen of the world as well as an artist, and she's deeply troubled by what has been happening in Darfur. She's also frustrated with the lack of media coverage the topic recieves, while showbiz news has no such shortage of attention.  In her painting "Darfurnica" as well as her other work, Nadia has been depicting images of  the horrors that people live in Darfur, the...

In post Katrina New Orleans, prisons and the justice system suffer from a long list of problems, many of which were there before the floods. They're also the subject of a battle being fought by community leaders to change and fix how crime is addressed in a city fighting to rise again. My guest for this podcast is Jordan Flaherty, a journalist and community organizer based in New Orleans, where he...

Several weeks following our initial interview with Matthew Dons following the Earthquake-Tsumani and subsequent Nuclear Accident in Japan; we're back again to do an update. Together we discuss the Japanese media, food supply, the rescue-emergency workers, and the behavior of the nuclear industry since this disaster.

Citizenreporter.org's West Africa correspondant isn't too keen on walking the streets of Abidjan these days and she has to watch what she says, as the country is sharply divided by a political standoff. The standoff is between two presidents and their supporters. One the incumbent with his own dedicated citizenry, the other elected several months ago, internationally certified and recognized. How...

2011 is the year where many observers and so called experts around the world scramble to understand how it is that so many dictatorships suddenly arrived at a crisis. As people take to the streets and battles take place in city squares throughout the middle east, we discover that in fact many of the dictators of these regions have not been well studied or understood. Natasha Ezrow, Director of the...

You may think the media and the social networks have told you all that needs to be known about conditions on the ground in Japan, but hearing it first hand gives you a far greater understanding.  In the days following the massive earthquake and tsunami, Karamoon contacted me from his home in Tokyo. He wasn't sure how much longer he could remain in his home, or on the other hand, if he wouldn't hav...

ctrp370 Drugs and Treatment in Europe Today

Gerald Mendes was born in Canada and raised with the story of his grandfather Aristides de Sousa Mendes. As he grew up he came to learn not only about the history of his family, but also about those that the actions of his grandfather during WWII helped to save. At a restaurant in Paris we sat down recently to talk about his family, his life experiences, and his activities related to the legacy of...

He died disgraced and impoverished, asking his children to one day clear his name. Decades later, the story of how that man, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, helped save thousands upon thousands of lives during World War II, is finally spreading around the world. Today his family and descendants of those that were saved by his actions are working to restore not only his name, legacy, and to ensure that...

The story is not unique to Newark, all over the United States there are cities that are struggling. But what is unique is how citizens of Newark respond. Led by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a man who loves his gadgets and social networking, groups of volunteers from all walks of life ride the streets of the city in packs of caravans, looking around to see what is going on, who needs help, and what do...

Linguist and citizen of the world Thomas Milo of Decotype joins me to discuss arabic script, working as a translator for UNIFIL, and mind blowing stories from his days as an intercontinental trucker.

The name UNIFIL doesn't often appear on page one of the mainstream newspapers. For many it was last summers invasion of southern Lebanon that caused the media to even mention that there was an international force wedged between Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, given the task of ensuring that all sides respect a peace agreement. Thomas Milo had a very unique roll as one of the only Arabic speakers stati...

bm134 East Timorese Problems and the Bloggers That Observe First-Hand

bm133 Love Letters and Forgotten Secrets; The Words of Ahmadinejad

bm132 Summer of Yeast 2006, Madge Weinstein and the MacDocMan Take on Circumcision

bm131 Tapping, Trolling, and Data Collecting in the EU

bm130 Oil Costs; Iran, Venezuela, Energy Security and the Death of the US Auto Industry