Citizen Reporter
200 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsThe podcast that listens to people around the world.
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Episodes
From the Basement Studio Where It All Began
February 14, 2012 08:18 - 19 minutes - 13.6 MBIn the late 80's and early 90's, my parents built a studio in the basement of our home. This plywood and carpet creation would become the home for The Voice of Portugal, which proudly served the Portuguese of New Jersey for almost a decade. It was this very spot where I first spoke into a microphone as a child. 20 years later I'm standing on that same spot, recording a podcast update about this current journey in the United States, and the new projects I have launched this year.
The Shiny New Shame of Africa
February 01, 2012 22:29 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBThis week leaders of the African Union celebrated the completion of their state-of-the-art headquarters in Addis Ababa. A gift from China, built with Chinese money and Chinese Labor. Recently the Indian government completed work on the Ghanian State-House. Everywhere you turn on the continent of Africa, leaders continue to make deals and accept gifts that look like progress but in fact, as Chika Ezeanya explains it, is an insult and a crime against Africa. Through her work, writing and teachi...
Honduras: The Most Dangerous Country
January 23, 2012 14:09 - 27.5 MBIn 2011 the Republic of Honduras became the most dangerous country in the world. With the murder rate rising and wages plummeting, the miitary have now been granted extraordinary police powers. Multinational mining, agribusness, and textile corporations pay poverty wages while the government cooperates closely with the objectives of the US military. The result is what human rights observers like Gilda Batista have described as an unsustainable situation where something big is about to happen....
A West African Journey
January 18, 2012 22:01 - 36 minutes - 25.2 MBWhen three friends set out on a journey through West Africa, they knew an unpredictable but potentially wonderful adventure awaited them. And sure enough from Senegal through Mali, BurkinaFaso to Ghana and finally to Togo, they experienced the joy and witnessed the struggles of everyday life there. As radio journalists and documentary film makers, they observed and reported, but some things even an interview can't capture properly. The following conversation was recorded in Berlin just a f...
On the Front Lines with the German Military
January 09, 2012 23:24 - 54 minutes - 37.3 MBThomas Wiegold was there in Somalia even before the German military arrived back in 1993. And he has been there ever since, reporting on what is a unique situation for both a country and its military. As the decades have passed, as an independent journalist Thomas has continued to both report about as well as look critically at the decisions that are made and how those decisions are carried out by a military that has quietly engaged in a significant number of international interventions over ...
Personal Media Empires Strike Back
January 03, 2012 02:43 - 46 minutes - 31.8 MBPersonal media empires aren't a new concept, but with every year that goes by and every advancement that helps individuals produce original content- they rise. Media commentators used to predict a media revolution or the collapse of traditional media institutions, but recent history shows us that it won't exactly unfold that way. Instead, personal media producers like Tim Pritlove are hard at work producing programs, exploring topics, engaging with audiences in ways that a big media outlet ...
Fear and Rumors in Kosovo
December 27, 2011 19:49 - 38 minutes - 26.5 MB"If my grandmother knows Kosovo is a country… everyone knows Kosovo is a country" Flekitza repeats in an attempt to help me understand what is going on in the Serbian community of Kosovo. In her home city in Kosovo, public school teachers get pay checks from the Serbian government, which are substantially larger the the salary Kosovo pays them. A confusing situation that you'll hear me get lost in several times as Flekitza explains how even her university diploma is now considered worthles...
The Youth of Kosovo
December 19, 2011 22:49 - 26 minutes - 18.5 MBGent Thaçi is a rare bird in Kosovo, even he would admit it. At 17 years old he devotes most of his energy to making Kosovo a better place, speci
Brain Gain and Starting Up in Kosovo
December 12, 2011 22:42 - 32 minutes - 22.1 MBÇelik Nimani is well aware of the difficulties his young country faces. He is also well aware of the tremendous creativity and potential that can be found here as well as throughout the international Kosovar diaspora. His goal is to help unleash that potential with a resounding call for everyone to get involved, take initiative, and be the change the nation needs to see. He's not just a business man, he's an ideas guy who enjoys being inspired just as much as he himself inspires. In this ...
Learning without Schools
December 06, 2011 21:26 - 21.6 MBIt is often assumed that in order to be successful and realize your dreams you must go to university. Year after year people of all ages apply to institutions of higher education and go to great lengths to afford the high costs that come with such schools. Increasingly people are realizing that the costs to attend such schools far outweigh the benefits. Beyond that, with the dawn of interest networks online and the availability of information and instruction, there is a real opportunity to ...
Tackling the Big Issues in Kosovo
November 29, 2011 22:45 - 24.4 MBUnrecognized by many countries, unable to secure their borders, a struggling economy in a world already in crisis- the laundry list of problems that Kosovo faces can easily be called daunting. But in the face of so much adversity there are some exciting things happening and one source of excitement in Prishtina is the new media project called Kosovo 2.0
A New Media Conversation with Global Attitude
November 21, 2011 22:34 - 43 MBHe was podcasting before there was podcasting. Looking to the online conversations and connections between old and new media long before any media company understood what was going on. He's a global citizen who has a talent for finding inspiring voices and teaching us about our world. His is a voice I hear in my head whenever I turn on a microphone or ask a question. Who better to talk about the past, present, and future of this thing we do on this website and beyond, than Christopher Lydon. ...
Madge, Live in Paris
November 15, 2011 00:53 - 44 minutes - 30.7 MBMadge Weinstein is an internet celebrity, a culinary pioneer, and an extremely irritable elderly lesbian. Beyond all that, she is an inspiration to several generations of children around the world. After surviving many tragedies, including 3 Bush presidential terms and the current socio-political disaster that has gripped the United States, this podcasting diva has moved her life to Paris where she is sharing her talents with the people of France who already hate her.
Making Change by Moving Your Money
November 07, 2011 22:03 - 33 minutes - 23.4 MBBank Transfer Day was this past weekend. Even now, people around the world are looking at their bank account thinking, maybe I dont want my money with these guys. What are the alternatives? Many will say "all banks are the same" as a way of justifying not doing anything. But what a little investigation can easily reveal is that not all banks are the same. In the US much of the focus is on community banks and credit unions. In Europe, in the Netherlands for example, we have two small banks th...
Voices from Occupy Amsterdam
October 31, 2011 21:57 - 38 minutes - 26.2 MBOccupy Amsterdam has just entered into its 3rd week. 3 weeks of building a community where people have come together and occupied a public space, where debates are an almost 24 hour phenomenon and cooperation is currency. Over the first 7 days of occupyamsterdam I was there checking in with people and observing how things developed. During those days I observed meetings of the General Assembly, as well as work groups that are dedicated to different aspects of the movement. I observed teach...
Students Take on the Gov in Chile
October 24, 2011 22:55 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MBMy guest on this edition of Citizenreporter.org is Chilean-American, community organizer, world citizen Nick Farr who has been traveling around Chile observing many of the activities connected with the student protests demanding education reform in that country. For several months students throughout Chile have been holding mass rallies, protests as well as occupying university and high school buildings, demanding the government take action to address inequality in the education system and t...
Behind the Famine in Somalia
October 17, 2011 22:22 - 33.1 MBEarlier this year a famine was declared in Somalia. It was not the first time the world had heard about a humanitarian crisis in that struggling country. How did the world respond? How did Somalia get to the state it is in today and who was involved in getting it that way?
Education, Portugal, and the World
October 10, 2011 22:24 - 42 MBJohn Howard Wolf doesn't know how to fix the global economy, but he can teach us a thing or two about education. Its been his business and passion for most of his adult life. Having immigrated from the US to Portugal in the late 1970's, even back then he was a swimming against the current, setting up a primary school in a country still getting over its post-fascist hangover. As a Americano-Luso (American-Portuguese) he has a unique perspective based on the kind of experiences most of us onl...
Re-inventing Ourselves and Our Homes
October 03, 2011 22:17 - 40 minutes - 27.6 MBErik Nelson moved from house to house as an urban dweller, never living in a space that he felt connected to. Until he found forest land that appealed to him and built his own home there. Or as he explains it: "While most people find a job and then live near that job, we picked the place where we really want to live and then made it work with jobs we could get." But approach to work isn't the only thing interesting about how Erik and his family live. In this podcast we talk about the reaso...
New Approaches and Proven Methods for Rural Life
September 27, 2011 22:33 - 38 minutes - 26.3 MBThe goal to live life on their terms took Ryanne and Jay from New York City to San Francisco and eventually to Western Virginia. It is here that this dynamic couple set out to build their own home, grow some of their own food, work on their terms, and generally tinker with life choices that were previously not an option or unaffordable. The result is an inspiring start to healthy, stimulating and more sustainable life at a time where so many feel such goals are unreachable. In this program...
Post Consumer Life and Homesteading
September 19, 2011 22:34 - 27.5 MBWhat happens when two New Yorkers leave their successful careers and fabulous apartments in favor of building their own house and a new kind of life on a former trailer park in New Mexico? 5 years ago Wendy Tremayn and Mikey Sklar set off to live life in a radically different way in Truth and Consequences, New Mexico. Building their own home-compound. Growing a lot of their own food. Using alternative energy and sources for basic needs. And working from home as independent professionals and e...
Power and Uprising in Angola
September 12, 2011 22:23 - 38 minutes - 26.8 MBThis month saw one of the first major uprisings against the government in Angola in recent memory. It was organized, you guessed it- with the help of social media. After Gaddafi, President José Eduardo dos Santos is the longest running leader of an African state (32 years). And just like with the now-fugitive Muammar, many are saying this presidency has gone on for too long. But can change finally come to Angola? Joining me for a podcast conversation about the reports that have come out of ...
The Encroaching Police State in Canada
September 06, 2011 21:42 - 38 minutes - 26.3 MBWhen the city of Vancouver made the push to get the Winter Olympics, Joe Bowser and citizens throughout BC were opposed. Through the ballot box and demonstrations they expressed their disapproval. As a result, they were spied on, targeted, and to this day followed by a Canadian government that knows no limits and sees opposition as terrorism. I caught up with Joe at CCC2011, just a few weeks ago. He had presented his experience as the target of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that has left...
Journalism Under Attack in the Netherlands
August 28, 2011 22:59 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBAn investigative journalist in the Netherlands has exposed major security flaws in a major government project which promised safe and easy travel throughout the country. He has been reporting the results of his work to both the public and the government. The goal was to inform the public while also pressuring decision makers to address this problem before further damage is done. The result, however, is that Brenno de Winter is now being prosecuted for his journalistic investigation. Laws that...
Connecting Electronics and Conflict Minerals
August 18, 2011 21:58 - 29 minutes - 20.5 MBThere is a direct connection between armed conflict in Congo and the minerals we use in our phones and computers. Bibi Bleekemolen has been investigating that connection, in an effort to understand how it works, who is involved, and what can be done about it. Her focus is the role that electronics companies have in the raging conflicts in eastern Congo. Earlier this year she went along as part of the fairphone fact finding mission to Katanga. In this podcast we discuss the aftermath of tha...
Tracing the Strategic Minerals Route in Congo
August 11, 2011 16:50 - 52 minutes - 36.2 MBEarlier this year Michael Schaap went to DRCongo as part of the Fairphone fact finding mission. The goal was to better understand how the minerals that make up our technology, our mobile phones, are mined and how they travel from miners up through all the middle people and eventually to the mobile phone producers. Can this process be carried out ethically? Where people are not taken advantage of or abused while doing their work and earning a living? Michael saw first hand how this process wo...
Bringing Internet to Afghanistan
July 29, 2011 20:46 - 54 minutes - 37.5 MBSince 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.
Poetry in Afghanistan
July 20, 2011 22:12 - 19 minutes - 13.5 MBYou 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.
Abortion in America (2011 Update)
July 11, 2011 22:35 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MBThe violence and threats occasionally are reported about in the mainstream media. The threats to funding have also grabbed headlines this year. Almost two years since the murder of Dr. Tiller, what is the state of abortion in the United States? For those who perform the procedure. For those who need or want the procedure. How have things been changing for all the actors involved over the past few years. To explain the state of things I'm visiting with one of my favorite people, Leah, of the...
How the World Thinks of Poverty
June 27, 2011 22:37 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MBThe way people talk and think about poverty has a major influence in how it is addressed in society. The problem is that there is a limited amount of research regarding perceptions of poverty in different parts of the world and throughout history. Armando Barrientos, Professor and Research Director at the Brooks World Poverty Institute (Manchester), has extensive experience with research and policy related to perception of poverty. He joins me on this podcast to talk about what trends can be...
Language and War in Georgia
June 13, 2011 22:02 - 33 minutes - 23.2 MBDriving outside of Tbilisi on the way to the ancient city Mtskheta, my hosts and I talk about Georgian language and how it has been effected by decades of Soviet Occupation and migration patterns. We also delve into Russian-Georgian relations today and how war is still very much part of the language and memory of the nation. You can follow one of the guests on this episode via his twitter account. The other guest will remain anonymous.
Intro to Georgia
June 05, 2011 23:16 - 35 minutes - 24.1 MBI suddenly find myself in the republic of Georgia and the first thing one needs when arriving in a new country such as Georgia is a guide. Mark Mullen knows Georgia, he has been here since the late 90's and pays close attention to what is going on in the present. Who better to sit down with on my first night in Tbilisi, to talk about this country. Mark's Podcast about Georgia
Police in Spain Terrorize Protesters
May 27, 2011 20:21 - 22 minutes - 15.5 MBAs I travel around the Northeast of the United States, I am also struggling to keep up with events unfolding in Spain. Disturbing events as protesters throughout the country suffer the wrath of a police force out of control. While millions throughout the country assemble in city squares demanding political and social reform, their story goes mostly unreported and downplayed by many international media outlets. What is going on in Spain? On today's podcast I talk about the situation, while al...
Electronic Ecosystems
May 12, 2011 22:50 - 32 minutes - 22.6 MBAs a designer, at some point David Kousemaker became interested in finding where our old phones and electronics in general end up once we in the western world throw them away. His interest took him to parts of Indonesia, China, Brazil and Thailand, among other places. There he observed not only how things like mobile phones are broken down, recycled, rebuilt etc, he also saw how entire industries and ecosystems form around these practices. Through his photos and blog entries you can follow ...
The Story of Darfurnica
April 23, 2011 22:32 - 45 minutes - 31.6 MBNadia Plesner is a concerned citizen of the world as well as an artist, and she's deeply troubled by what has been happening in Darfur. She's also frustrated with the lack of media coverage the topic recieves, while showbiz news has no such shortage of attention. In her painting "Darfurnica" as well as her other work, Nadia has been depicting images of the horrors that people live in Darfur, the political maneuvering that goes on, and images of what makes major media headlines instead of Da...
Jordan Flaherty: Prisons and Justice in New Orleans
April 16, 2011 22:21 - 27 minutes - 19.1 MBIn post Katrina New Orleans, prisons and the justice system suffer from a long list of problems, many of which were there before the floods. They're also the subject of a battle being fought by community leaders to change and fix how crime is addressed in a city fighting to rise again. My guest for this podcast is Jordan Flaherty, a journalist and community organizer based in New Orleans, where he works on an impressive list of social issues. His book, Floodlines: Community and Resistance fr...
Matthew Dons: Aftershocks of Various forms in Japan
April 11, 2011 22:56 - 40 minutes - 28 MBSeveral weeks following our initial interview with Matthew Dons following the Earthquake-Tsumani and subsequent Nuclear Accident in Japan; we're back again to do an update. Together we discuss the Japanese media, food supply, the rescue-emergency workers, and the behavior of the nuclear industry since this disaster.
Pauline Bax: A Tale of Two Presidents, Ivory Coast
March 31, 2011 18:01 - 28 minutes - 19.4 MBCitizenreporter.org's West Africa correspondant isn't too keen on walking the streets of Abidjan these days and she has to watch what she says, as the country is sharply divided by a political standoff. The standoff is between two presidents and their supporters. One the incumbent with his own dedicated citizenry, the other elected several months ago, internationally certified and recognized. How long can this standoff last? What can be done or is being done to resolve it? In the meantime, wh...
Natasha Ezrow: Dissecting Dictators
March 26, 2011 22:48 - 21 minutes - 14.6 MB2011 is the year where many observers and so called experts around the world scramble to understand how it is that so many dictatorships suddenly arrived at a crisis. As people take to the streets and battles take place in city squares throughout the middle east, we discover that in fact many of the dictators of these regions have not been well studied or understood. Natasha Ezrow, Director of the International Development Studies Program at the University of Essex and author of Dictators & ...
Matthew Dons in Japan: The Survival Plan
March 16, 2011 22:20 - 46 minutes - 31.6 MBYou may think the media and the social networks have told you all that needs to be known about conditions on the ground in Japan, but hearing it first hand gives you a far greater understanding. In the days following the massive earthquake and tsunami, Karamoon contacted me from his home in Tokyo. He wasn't sure how much longer he could remain in his home, or on the other hand, if he wouldn't have to stay in doors for two weeks to avoid radioactive winds. In the following podcast he describ...
Restoring and Reconnecting: The Legacy of Sousa Mendes
November 15, 2010 22:58 - 30 minutes - 20.9 MBGerald Mendes was born in Canada and raised with the story of his grandfather Aristides de Sousa Mendes. As he grew up he came to learn not only about the history of his family, but also about those that the actions of his grandfather during WWII helped to save. At a restaurant in Paris we sat down recently to talk about his family, his life experiences, and his activities related to the legacy of his grandfather.
Sousa Mendes: Defying Orders to Save Lives
November 07, 2010 22:49 - 46 minutes - 32.1 MBHe died disgraced and impoverished, asking his children to one day clear his name. Decades later, the story of how that man, Aristides de Sousa Mendes, helped save thousands upon thousands of lives during World War II, is finally spreading around the world. Today his family and descendants of those that were saved by his actions are working to restore not only his name, legacy, and to ensure that his story lives on. My guest on this podcast is one of the founders of the Sousa Mendes Foundat...
Newark Night Patrol W/Cory Booker
December 08, 2009 22:45 - 54 minutes - 31.4 MBThe story is not unique to Newark, all over the United States there are cities that are struggling. But what is unique is how citizens of Newark respond. Led by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, a man who loves his gadgets and social networking, groups of volunteers from all walks of life ride the streets of the city in packs of caravans, looking around to see what is going on, who needs help, and what doesn't look right. In cooperation with the police and department of public safety, the objective ...
Thomas Milo on Arabic Script, War in Lebanon, and More
September 29, 2008 22:38 - 55 minutes - 31.7 MBLinguist and citizen of the world Thomas Milo of Decotype joins me to discuss arabic script, working as a translator for UNIFIL, and mind blowing stories from his days as an intercontinental trucker.
Thomas Milo on UNIFIL
May 24, 2007 22:36 - 45 minutes - 26.4 MBThe name UNIFIL doesn't often appear on page one of the mainstream newspapers. For many it was last summers invasion of southern Lebanon that caused the media to even mention that there was an international force wedged between Israel, Lebanon, Hezbollah, given the task of ensuring that all sides respect a peace agreement.Thomas Milo had a very unique roll as one of the only Arabic speakers stationed with the Dutch battalion of UNIFIL back in 1979. We sat together in his kitchen in Amsterdam ...