He does what? – People often ask whenever I mention Lewis Gordon Pugh. He swims the arctic, I tell them again. Why? – is always the next question.
When you sit across from Lewis Gordon Pugh for just a few minutes, you understand why immediately. You also understand you’re in the presence of someone who puts his entire life on the line for a global problem he is passionate about tackling.
Lewis’s concern about climate change and the urgent need to do something about it take him beyond the freezing waters of the arctic, as he explains in this interview, he is also concerned for the rapidly melting ice in the Himalayas, water that 1/5 of the world’s population lives on. Thus setting the stage for his next swim, a lake formed from a melting glacier on Mount Everest.
If you enjoyed this interview and want to learn more about Lewis’ work, visit his website. I highly recommend seeing the video of his arctic swim.
You’ve heard the story before, especially over the past decade: a European university announces sweeping reforms because of the legendary Bologna Process and EU requirements. This discussion often comes with the introductions of new fee’s for students, tighter controls on how long a student can study, and the move into a bachelor-masters structure. While all these changes come into effect, students as well as faculty are told that it has to be this way, with limited if any, consultation.
Recently it was the University of Fine Arts in Vienna that tried to make this move. But unlike many Universities where students might have disagreed, protested, and eventually gave up the fight – students in Austria have taken matters into their own hands; They have occupied their school. Highy organized, their occupation is now more than 24 days old and has spread beyond the borders of Autria into Germany and other neighboring countries.
My friend and uni student Marty joins me on this podcast from Vienna, to explain how this all started, how the occupation works, what the demands are, and what we can expect in the coming days and weeks.
Check out the website where you can find links to every aspect of the student protests and occupations.
Emin and Adnan were having dinner in downtown restaurant in Baku over the summer, when suddenly the two video bloggers were attacked, later wound up in jail, and they remain behind bars today awaiting trial for the charge of “hooliganism”.
What happened in that restaurant that night? Who would be targetting video bloggers and grassroots youth acitivists in Azerbaijan? What is the situation for a journalist, blogger or a citizen reporter in that nation?
My guest is Azeri blogger Ali Novruzov, a friend of both Emin and Adnan who was among the first to hear what had happened. He has written and continues to write about their case and joins me in this podcast to discuss this issue.
Sitting in as far East as geographic Europe goes, questions about where we are and how things here differ from things over there arise. While in Western Europe issues regarding climate change are high on the public agenda, how does that issue fair in the East? On this particular night in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, I sit down with Sergio of Eurotopics.net to hear about what their project is about and how he sees the concerns of Europe, from West to East and everything in between.
Two Dutch municipalities decided last year that all their coffeeshops must be closed down. While in other cities, like nearby Breda, city governments have no intention of going back to the days of street dealing in back alleys and dark corners. Selçuk Akinci is a blogging–tweeting digital native, not to mention the chairperson of the Green Party Delegation for the city council of Breda. He has also spoken out and written over the last few years on the topic of coffeeshops and the attempts to shut them down or instate pass-card systems where only card carrying members could make purchases. When in 2008, neighboring municipalities to Breda decided to close down their coffeeshops in effort to chase away drug tourism and other alleged undesireable elements, Selçuk was a vocal part of the effort to serve the influx of customers by setting up more coffeeshops in strategic locations.
From Breda, to the national level, to the European Court of Justice, Selçuk and I discuss drug policy in the Netherlands and just which way the political and social wind is blowing.
People around the world admire, hate, or giggle at what they think they know about drug policies in the Netherlands. But how much do they really know? To get beyond the tall tales and the half-baked explanation you’ll get from enthusiasts on both sides of the drug issue, it is important to not only look at the facts, but to hear real experience and analysis. Not to mention to learn the details of just what the political and social climate aims to do with the future of Dutch drug policy.
As part of a running series of podcasts on the Reality of Drug Policy in the Netherlands, I begin with this program featuring a conversation with Freek Polak of the Netherlands Drug Policy Foundation.
During the program Freek mentions this video of his face-off with the Executive Director of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime.
He does what? – People often ask whenever I mention Lewis Gordon Pugh. He swims the arctic, I tell them again. Why? – is always the next question.
Emin and Adnan were having dinner in downtown restaurant in Baku over the summer, when suddenly the two video bloggers were attacked, later wound up in jail, and 
Sitting in as far East as geographic Europe goes, questions about where we are and how things here differ from things over there arise. While in Western Europe issues regarding climate change are high on the public agenda, how does that issue fair in the East? On this particular night in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, I sit down with Sergio of 
Two Dutch municipalities decided last year that all their coffeeshops must be closed down. While in other cities, like nearby Breda, city governments have no intention of going back to the days of street dealing in back alleys and dark corners. Selçuk Akinci is a 
People around the world admire, hate, or giggle at what they think they know about drug policies in the Netherlands. But how much do they really know? To get beyond the tall tales and the half-baked explanation you’ll get from enthusiasts on both sides of the drug issue, it is important to not only look at the facts, but to hear real experience and analysis. Not to mention to learn the details of just what the political and social climate aims to do with the future of Dutch drug policy.