Home of the Brave

Elliott Woods as a soldier in Iraq, 2004 Anti-War Stories: Elliott Woods Scott Carrier Download 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 bec...

Garett Reppenhagen in Iraq, 2004 Anti-War Stories: Garett Reppenhagen Scott Carrier Download 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 mista...

Interview in Amsterdam Scott Carrier Download 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. T...

The Wordshaker Scott Carrier Download 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, fa...

Re-Play: The Rebel Yell Scott Carrier Download 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 abo...

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 in...

Encountering the Other, Part Two Scott Carrier Download 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. Music:...

Encountering the Other Scott Carrier Download 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

Yellowstone Lake, August 2019 Fund Drive Scott Carrier Download 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 a...

Solidod in Bozeman, Montana, 2012. Photo by Jake Warga . The Life and Times of Solidod Larry Massett Download 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 a...

The Strait of Hormuz Scott Carrier Download 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...

Alan Chin talks about his experience covering wars since 9/11.

For the solstice, the sun tunnels in the West Desert of Utah. An Interview with William J. Astore Scott Carrier Download 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 b...

Maybe like the Phoenix rising from the ashes following a drawing by M.S. Escher.

Interviews with taxi and ride share drivers from New Orleans to Jacksonville.

Some Spring Time Stories Scott Carrier Download 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...

The Pacific Northwest Trail Scott Carrier Download 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 Pa...

Chamelecon Scott Carrier Download 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: A Tour of the City Scott Carrier Download Donate

An introduction to a series about social conditions in Honduras

Ruth Pena and her daughter, from El Salvador, at the beach in Tijuana. That’s the border wall in the background. Tijuana Scott Carrier and Katie Davis Download 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. Ins...

A sticker on one of the steel columns of the border wall south of Las Cruces, NM. Across the Desert Scott Carrier and Katie Davis Download Donate Another sticker on the wall,south of Las Cruces. Katie Davis and Molly Molloy at the wall south of Las Cruces.

Juana and Estela talk about why they left their homes in Guatemala to seek asylum in the United States.

Immigrants crossing the border near Agua Prieta, Sonora, 2005. Photo by Julian Cardona . No Solution Scott Carrier Download 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...

End of Season One: A Walk On the Beach Scott Carrier Download 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...