Tracks From Abroad

On episode 84 of Tracks From Abroad we visit Azerbaijan, a country situated at a crossroads of cultures. Our TFA hosts spoke with Matin Muradli, an Azerbaijani exchange student studying biology with a focus on stem cells. Matin tells us about car racing in Baku, Azerbaijani cuisine, and his experience as a two-time Biology Olympiad. Later on the broadcast we chatted with Artemis Sadeghi, founder o...

On episode 83 of Tracks From Abroad we visited Scotland, a country with an especially strong cultural influence on eastern Canadian provinces like Prince Edward Island where 41% of the population is Scottish!  TFA's hosts spoke with Megan, an exchange student studying linguistics with a special interest in sign language. She is most familiar with British Sign Language, although she plans to take a...

For episode 82 of Tracks From Abroad we finally visited South Korea! TFA hosts Alex and Seth spoke with Ryan Cho, a student of Ethics, Society, & Law at U of T. Ryan talked about the appeal of K-pop, the changing values in Korean culture, and how he maintains his connection to the country. You will also hear from Bill Ju, a human biology professor at U of T. We talked to Bill about his parent'...

For episode 81 of Tracks From Abroad we speak with Phaedra Archi, a Theatre and Performance & Cinema Studies student in U of T's drama department.  Phaedra talked about the Greek mythology that inspired her name, being bilingual, her love of the Greek mountains, Toronto's Greektown (does their food compare to authentic Greek food in Greece?), and her interest in the Performing Arts.  The music...

We have been around the world in 80 episodes on Tracks From Abroad, and this week our outgoing host, Jesse, finished off with an episode on Spain. Jesse visited Bilbao in the Basque part of Spain this summer, and today's episode you will hear music with traditional influences of the Basque Country. You will also hear music on this show played with traditional Basque instruments like the Txistu flu...

For episode 79 of Tracks From Abroad we speak with Isabella Milano, a classical voice performance student in U of T's music department.  Isabella performed her original song, Up In the Air , at Youth Day this summer at Yonge and Dundas Square, and on this episode you will hear about how that project came together.  Isabella's family is Italian and Colombian, so we chatted about the kind of music s...

After last week's show in Slovenia, Tracks From Abroad is crossing to eastern Asia to visit the island of Taiwan. We are approaching episode 80 of TFA while entering into a new chapter of our show as we bring together a team of talented CIUT volunteers to carry the show for the next 8 months.  First on the episode we speak with Simon, a U of T student who lived in Taiwan from age 4 until age 18 be...

Ever wanted to travel to Slovenia? Now is your chance, because this week on Tracks From Abroad you will hear an interview from a Slovenian exchange student and some fantastic Balkan music.  We welcomed Andrej to our show who studied abroad in Toronto during the last winter semester. Andrej talks about Slovenian folk music, the languages he speaks (ever heard of Serbo-Croatian?) and of his family b...

We head back to Vermont this week on Tracks From Abroad--the home state of TFA's founder, Jesse McDougall. On the cover of this week's show you'll see a timeless Vermont treat, the maple creemee!  On this episode you'll hear reporting from David Goodman's radio show, the Vermont Conversation. David spoke with Vermonters in the aftermath of a devastating flood which hit central Vermont on July 9th,...

Bonjour - Hi! For this episode of Tracks From Abroad we jump one province over to Québec to listen to some folk music and chat with Simply Chloe the Band, a student band based in Montreal.  The host of this show is Rosa Caramazza who selected some great Quebec tracks from across the decades, and the host of the interview was Elizabeth Chernyak. Elizabeth and her partner Bo Hong Fu speak with Chloe...

At the start of June, 2023, Tracks From Abroad was recognized with the Excellence in Student Programming award by the National Campus and Community Radio Association.  The recognition took place in Calgary at the CRABO Awards (Campus Radio Awards in Broadcasting and Online), and you can see a video of the event here: https://youtu.be/6WiCwUBqVbk A big thank you goes out to TFA listeners for suppor...

This week on Tracks From Abroad you'll get a taste of Japan with two special interviews and a wide range of international and Canadian music.  We start the show with Masayo and Kate of the University of Toronto Japan Association. They introduce us to vocaloid music, the chaos of Tokyo's streets, and the respectful traditions of Japanese society.  Our second interview is with Sugar Brown (Ken Kawas...

This week we welcome Julien to Tracks From Abroad for an episode about France and Italy. Julien is an engineering student at U of T, and he's lived in several European countries including Luxembourg, the Netherlands, France, and Italy!  With Julien we talk about French protests, about the short WWII film he acted in, and he shares some of his favorite music from classic Euro artists.  You can chec...

For episode 72 of Tracks From Abroad we sample some chicken pilau while visiting Trinidad for the third time.  On this episode you'll hear from Shameel, a U of T graduate who first joined TFA in 2022. Along with co-host Quinn Carlisle we talk about Trini slang, curry chicken, and why the hummingbird had been made a symbol in Trinidad. As always on TFA you'll hear some music from the country in que...

Welcome to the 8th season of Tracks From Abroad, a student-made radio show broadcast on CIUT 89.5 FM where we talk about countries around the world in order to learn about the diverse city of Toronto.  This week we visit Nigeria for the 3rd time welcoming Stella-Maris as our guest. She is going into her second year as an international relations student at the University of Toronto, and together we...

Tracks From Abroad is finishing off our 7th season with an episode about Indonesia. This episode is full of guests, and we started the show talking to Adeline. She taught us about the dark side of tourism, language learning from airport magazines, and the best Indonesian street food Rupiah can buy. Jesse’s co-host on this episode was Ayesha. Later in the episode you’ll hear from percussionist Chri...

We welcome Jelle to the show this week as we talk about the Netherlands! Tracks From Abroad is nearly at episode number 70, and there's lots of great Dutch music to find on this episode from artists like Froukje and de Jeugd Van Tegenwoordig.  Jelle shares stories about evading Dutch bike thieves, university music competitions, and we discuss competition in Canadian schools. If you would like TFA...

Tracks From Abroad needs your help during CIUT's Spring Funding Drive ! Each donation goes towards strengthening independent student voices on the radio waves and towards the production of fantastic radio episodes like the one TFA is releasing today.  On this episode #68 we visit South America to hear music and stories from Colombia. Alejandra Ballestas Medina joines TFA for a conversation about o...

CIUT 89.5 FM begins it's Spring Funding Drive this week , so Tracks From Abroad conjured up the best episode possible! Today you'll hear Tsetsen from Mongolia who is the president of the Mongolian Students Association at U of T.  On this show Jesse was joined by Elizabeth, a previous guest from TFA Lithuania. We talked with Tsetsen about traditional 'ger' houses, about Mongolian political assassin...

In just a few days I will fly to Malaysia for the month of May. I'm going there to visit my girlfriend's family, to explore Kuala Lumpur, and we have several other adventures planned around the peninsula.  This episode of Tracks From Abroad is a modified rebroadcast which takes us back to March of last year when I interviewed my girlfriend, Zoë. She grew up in Malaysia, and for this show she picke...

School’s out for summer, and Tracks From Abroad is bringing you to tropical Equatorial Guinea for the next hour. We welcome to the show Andrea from Talks for Students, a podcast featuring international discussions from Saint Mary's University in Halifax, NS. Andrea discusses visiting Equatorial Guinea from Madrid, her work with The Africville Museum in Halifax , and the lessons she’s learned from...

This week Tracks From Abroad checks Bolivia off of the world map with two students and a CIUT DJ.   First on the show we talk with Itzal and Imanol, two Bolivian students at U of T. They discuss how to avoid pick-pockets, traditions surrounding coca leaves, and the many kinds of indigenous dances found in Bolivia. This is a must-listen interview for fans of Latin American music and stories.   Next...

TFA GIVEAWAY ALERT The 11-piece collective Kuné is giving away 2 tickets to their upcoming performance as well as their newly released CD. To enter the drawing, like this post and tag three friends in the comments.   The show will take place at the Lula Lounge at 8pm on April 5th, and the ticket drawing closes the day off at 12 noon.  -- This week Tracks From Abroad touches down in Zambia🇿🇲 for a...

Tracks From Abroad took a visit to Guatemala this week with two special guests. Hugo, a biomedical engineering student at U of T, joined first to discuss getting up close and personal with lava, how to eat mango as a snack, and we reflected on the presidency of Jimmy Morales. Next on the episode you’ll hear Paula Sofía, a terrific singer songwriter from Guatemala. On the episode we play her full a...

Today Tracks From Abroad visits the long-awaited country of Japan with three special guests. We start TFA’s 62nd episode speaking with Masayo and Kate of the University of Toronto Japan Association. You will learn about Japan’s Anime scene, the White Day Celebration, and UTJA’s language exchange events where students can practice speaking Japanese. Next we speak with Taro, a TikTok video maker and...