Podcasting since 2004; Conversations, conflicts, adventures and monologues from around the world.
Tag Archives: Voices from Afghanistan
In the summer of 2010 and again in 2011 I traveled to Afghanistan to work as a teacher and a reporter on issues relating to elections observation and media production. During that time I traveled to several cities and saw amazing and beautiful sides of this complicated country. The following are the conversations I recorded, with Afghans, ex-pats and journalists who know and care a great deal about the past, present and future of the nation.
Getting the world to listen through photos is a big part of Massoud Hossaini’s work as a photographer in Afghanistan. Even in a moment where he receives compliments and awards from around the world- including the Pulitzer prize– for his tragic photo “Heartbreak”, his message remains the same – the world must know what is happening here, because what happens in Afghanistan always has and always will spill beyond its borders and reach us in some way, no matter where we live on the planet. Photography, media, conflict, beauty, and art; a followup on a conversation that started on a rooftop in Kabul back in 2010- we spend the hour with photographer and citizen of the world, Massoud Hossaini.
Since the beginning of 2011 Juan Rodriguez has been working in Afghanistan with the mission to help this country communicate. This has meant bringing internet connectivity to schools, mobile phones for farmers, and an array of crowdsource projects for health, security, and agriculture. On one beautiful and relaxed Friday afternoon in Jalalabad, Juan and I sat in the garden of the wonderful Taj to record this program and tell this story.
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, and more.
It wasn’t some childhood dream that led Mariam to photography, instead it was a series of encounters and encouragement that led her to become a professional photographer in her home country of Afghanistan.
In this podcast interview, recorded on my last day in Kabul, Mariam explains her experience as a photographer working throughout Afghanistan over the last few years. She tells about her training, the different jobs she has done, and all the challenges that have arisen along the way.
In Sept. 1996 the Taliban had just taken over Kabul and Jeremy Wagstaff was working as a journalist for Reuters in Hong Kong when the unexpected happened. He was told they needed him in Kabul, without much preperation or explanation he eventually found his way there and found his way to the front lines of the war in Afghanistan.
In this podcast, recorded one calm sunny afternoon in Kabul, Jeremy recalls what the city was like in those days, what you could and couldn’t do, and what dealing with the Taliban was like for a foreign journalist.
