Dispatches with Hollie McKay

Growing up in rural Iceland, raising a daughter as a young, single mom brings unique challenges and rewards. In this episode, I sit down with Asa Porsteinsdottir to explore the balance between isolation and community, the impact of Iceland’s progressive maternity and paternity leave policies, and the benefits of fresh, albeit expensive, local foods. We also delve into the pros and cons of parentin...

In this enlightening episode, we sit down with New York-based, German publicist Nadja Atwal to discuss the challenges and triumphs of juggling motherhood and a thriving career. Nadja shares her unique insights on integrating children into daily work life, how the German parenting and disciplinary style compares to American approaches, and her personal experiences navigating the U.S. and German hea...

Join me in an illuminating conversation with Anna McMahon, an international educator, coaching psychologist, and founder of Enhanced Wellbeing. Anna shares her journey from growing up in Ireland to living in London, China, Sri Lanka, and now Vietnam, offering deep insights into international education, Asian family values, and the beauty of cross-cultural connection. In this episode, Anna takes us...

In this eye-opening episode, I speak with Cameroonian father of four NCHE Sam Tako, a mental health advocate and founder of FOMCAM who sheds light on the harsh realities of raising a family in a country torn apart by violence over French and English language divisions. Sam opens up about the impact of postpartum depression and poverty on mental health, the tireless effort to reduce the stigma, and...

Hollie McKay shares her firsthand experience from her recent trip to the Darfurian refugee camps on the Chad/Sudan border. She provides a heartbreaking and eye-opening account of the women enduring unimaginable hardship in the wake of wartime sexual violence, loss of loved ones, and the depletion of resources in the camps. Hollie delves into the devastating human toll of the ongoing conflict, offe...

In this compelling episode, I sit down with a U.S. Army Ranger veteran and ER doctor Matt Tipton who shares his extraordinary journey from rural East Tennessee to the U.S Army and emergency medicine. Matt opens up about raising three children post-divorce, the complexities of male mental health, and navigating the realities of school shootings in today’s America. Our conversation delves into the p...

In this powerful and heart-wrenching episode, I sit down with my dear friend and war reporting buddy, Steven Nabil, an Iraqi Christian father who shares his harrowing journey of surviving war as a child and years later enduring a terrorist attack by ISIS at Istanbul airport while returning from his honeymoon. Steven opens up about the lasting trauma of these experiences and how it has shaped his f...

In this powerful episode, Kris "Tanto" Paronto, former Army Ranger and Benghazi survivor, opens up about the challenges and triumphs of fatherhood. From juggling overseas deployments to learning how to be a present father later in life and endeavoring to make up for lost time, Kris shares his journey of shunning ego, stepping back from the spotlight, divorcing and re-marrying his wife, and simplif...

Join me for a powerful conversation with Rebecca Deng, a remarkable woman and mother who has defied all odds. Growing up in the midst of war in Sudan, Rebecca lost her father in the war and her mother and baby sibling died during childbirth. After evading a pending child marriage, at just 15, she gave birth to her first daughter, a heartbreaking consequence of wartime rape in a Kenyan refugee camp...

In this powerful episode, I sit down with my dear friend Naweed, a father of two young girls in Afghanistan to hear his extraordinary story, from being born and raised in a refugee camp in Pakistan to becoming the provider for his family in Kabul. We explore the unique responsibilities placed on sons to care for their extended families in Afghan culture, the strength found in large families despit...

In this episode, I sit down with my god sister, Annalise Stephens, who was raised as an only child in rural Queensland, Australia, and developed a deep desire to explore the world. Now a mother of two, Annalise has lived in China, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia, raising her daughters across diverse cultures. We dive into her experiences navigating language barriers, adapting to different educat...

In this episode, I sit down with German-born actress Kami Manns, a remarkable mother of four, whose journey spans decades and countries. Born to a German mother and Haaka Chinese father, whom she met for the first time as an adult, Kami has raised her children in three different countries—Germany, France, and Switzerland—each offering unique experiences in postpartum care and child-rearing. With c...

Rubby Singh, the daughter of a child bride in India, shares her family's harrowing experiences and the broader impact of child marriage in the region. India has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with an estimated 27% of girls married before the age of 18. Rubby's mother was forced into marriage at just 13, a fate shared by millions of young girls each year. Rubby discusses h...

Join us as we delve into the extraordinary life of my good friend Dennis Santiago, a man whose journey from the post-war streets of Manila to the suburbs of Southern California is as inspiring as it is heartwarming. Growing up amidst the challenges of post-war Philippines, Dennis learned invaluable life lessons that have shaped him into the man he is today. From navigating the bustling streets of...

When Eddy Newton was three years old, he developed a red blotch on his face. Then a lump under his right eye. His mother shuffled him from doctor to doctor, hospital to hospital, until a biopsy finally came back with a diagnosis. “The doctor pulled out a picture of [Joseph] Merrick and told me this is what I will look like,” Eddy Newton told me. “And that I probably wouldn’t live past my eighth bi...

Much like Manal, Ayesha also teaches me what it is to accept life’s curveballs, move forward, and fly in the face of stares and stigmas with a huge smile and an upbeat attitude. “I thought it was going to be weird and scary. At first, I was scared with everyone looking at me,” noted Ayesha, who had just turned nine and was burned almost into oblivion in blood-spattered Idlib when she was only four...

While inexplicable numbers of children have been horribly seared in Syria, BCRF can only accommodate the most relentless burn cases to come to the United States for life-saving medical assistance. And of the severe, the file is overwhelming — at any given moment, more than 1700 burned children linger on the list. Subsequently, not a single day passes when BCRF chairwoman Susan Baaj isn’t flooded w...

After more than a decade of internal war – sparked by a peaceful revolution that soured into violence following brutal, heavy-handed retaliation by authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad – victims of government bombs are left to pick up the pieces of shattered lives. Many of the most gravely injured were children asleep in their beds when bombardment ripped through their homes and scorched their...

I met Arizona-based detective Chris Boughey almost ten years ago while working on a story about a rash of honor killings nationwide. Such murders, which typically involve men victimizing wives and daughters because of behavior that has somehow insulted their faith, are among the most secretive crimes in society and are brushed under the rug as domestic violence-spurred murders. While both issues a...

On a mountain tucked into the Mexican heartland, a Mayan leader sat with me on a jagged rock as I processed the pain and poignancy of a career spent running from heartache to heartache, unable to stalwart the flood of tears that would not stop. “Tears are as necessary as rain,” he whispered. “Both give life.” PURCHASE YOUR COPY OF “WORDS THAT NEVER LEAVE YOU” TO READ MORE REFLECTIONS AND ANECDOTES...

As a war reporter, I have spent countless hours in and out of maternity hospitals worldwide. And I can say wholeheartedly that not even somewhere as impoverished and poorly governed as Afghanistan – despite struggling with its own jarring maternal mortality rate – would deny a pregnant woman medical treatment or force her to hand over the family’s life savings to obtain adequate care. The process...

Chickens pecked at the dust and weathered faces trudged slowly through the makeshift displacement camp on the edges of Erbil, Iraq – their bodies hunched over as if wearing the weight of the world on their shoulders. Wasim, a painfully thin and wounded Iraqi man, crumbled to the floor of his decrepit prefabricated home, having been forced to run with his four children from the lair of terrorists....

It is as old as time and perhaps the most guttering – and least spoken about – component of conflict: sexual violence as a weapon of war. And when it comes to the ongoing Russian-waged war in Ukraine, it is dizzying even to try and comprehend the chilling scale. I’ve heard sordid accounts of everything from gang rape and rapes in front of horrified children to onslaughts at gunpoint and assaults c...

TRANSCRIPT. PODCAST FEATURING HOLLIE MCKAY & DENNIS SANTIAGO. (Please excuse typos, edited for clarity) DS: Welcome back to another “Words that Never Leave You: Fifty Pearls of Wisdom and Reflection from Survivors Across the World” by Hollie McKay, Holly. Today we have a lengthy quote, but a poignant one: “How would you feel if I went to your homeland and started recruiting your countrymen to figh...

“They – all these politicians and Hollywood stars – are stealing the children and doing all sorts of horrible things to them,” an Uber driver informed me out-of-nowhere, the moment I stepped into the car. “They suck their blood, using them for all kinds of Satanic rituals. We have to do something to stop it.” I looked at this older gentleman through the reflection of the rear-view mirror – his bro...