Shows
BorderlineUkraine's other battlefield, with Thierry Cruvellier"Ukraine has provided us with, I think, the most striking, the most rapid, the most swift and complete legal offensive or lawfare strategy that has ever been implemented."In this episodeđşđŚ Ukraine's aggressive lawfare strategyâď¸ International justice finally comes for the Westđ¤ Why former great powers can't cope with their colonial crimesđŤđˇ Reckoning with the Algerian Warđ¨đŠ The DR Congo schools us on prosecuting environmental destructionđ¨đ´ Transitional justice lessons from Colombia, New Zealand, Scandinavia and moređ Restitutions, reparations and truth commissions â justice beyond the courtsShow notes[00:00:16] Intro[00:01:42] "There is a befo...2022-05-0644 min
BorderlineJose Antonio Vargas on telling the full, messy story of immigrationA decade ago, journalist and "American without papers" Jose Antonio Vargas outed himself as an undocumented immigrant in a national magazine. Today he works with Hollywood and TV studios to humanise the immigrant story through pop culture. In this episode đş Trafficking in empathy and the power of story to change mindsđ˘ Why he regrets his mom sending him away to the US đşđ¸ Reaching America's "moveable middle"đ¸ How the economic argument for immigration backfiredđ° Why progressives abandoned the fightđ Stories as the last place for nuance and complexityShow notes[00:00:16] Intro2022-04-1954 min
BorderlineCould the hostile environment turn on you? (with Sonita Gale)It starts with unauthorised migrants and doesn't end there. Filmmaker Sonita Gale follows professionals, students and British citizens whose lives were upended by the UK's immigration system.Sonita Gale is the director and executive producer of Hostile, a documentary film about the UK hostile environment, now in cinemas. Â Show notes[00:00:09] Intro[00:03:54] "The home of my parents is the home of the migrant story."[00:07:29] "A film about the migrant struggle"[00:13:08] "Different experiences, all interlinked by the hostile environment"[00:16:27] "People will start having more empathy, love and understanding"[00:21:04] "Where have you b...2022-03-2834 min
BorderlineThe UK's very low bar on Ukrainian refugees, with Colin YeoAn emergency podcast with immigration lawyer and founder of freemovement.org Colin Yeo on the British government's bare minimum help to Ukrainian refugees, the gap between pronouncements and practice, and how Europe's own programme is putting Britain to shame. Plus:- the Nationality and Borders bill under scrutiny, - non-white refugees discriminated at the border, - lessons from last summer's Afghanistan promises, and - can we trust the EU long-term on this? Show notes[00:00:10] Intro[00:00:42] "Half a million people have fled"[00:03:10] "The UK has done almost nothing"[00:11:01] "...2022-03-0129 min
BorderlineMulticulturalism is a superpower, with Michael RainShow notes[00:00:20] Intro[00:03:22] "A large number of first-generation people"[00:04:54] "Fufu is a far superior lunch"[00:09:09] "It's three identities I'm juggling"[00:11:43] âThe tension between the collectivist culture of most of the world and this very individualistic American cultureâ[00:13:54] "People raised in that context approach the world with a different eye"[00:16:23] "If I was not (multicultural) and I was saying the same things, it would be received much differently"[00:18:27] "You can't be an expert of your own experience"[00:22:05] "The people in charge are worried about everyone else's biases when the core problem is t...2022-02-2340 min
Borderline[Essay] The burnout crisis is a workload crisisSure, burnout is not *just* about overwork. But it *is* about overwork.2022-02-1608 min
Borderline[Essay] We don't need a global news brand. We need a globally literate media.Read the essay and find all links at www.isabelleroughol.com.When New York Times media columnist Ben Smith and Bloomberg CEO Justin Smith quit to start âa new kind of global news media company,â many of us sniggered at the thought that two middle-aged white American men with literally the same last name could be the ones to bring together all of the worldâs news consumers. The Smiths may not be the ones to do it. But can anyone create a truly global news source? And most vitally, would there be an audience for it?2022-01-1613 min
Borderline[Replay] How the UK turned hostile to immigrants, with Colin YeoIn 2012, then Home Secretary Theresa May announced the plan: "The aim is to create, here in Britain, a really hostile environment for illegal immigrants." The idea, borrowed from counterterrorism, was to make life so difficult for unwanted visitors that they would give up and go home. Instead, the hostile environment became a policy of systemic discrimination against all immigrants, authorised or not, their British families and any person that could be mistaken for an immigrant. And rather than leaving, many were pushed into illegality by changing rules, long waits and exorbitant fees. Colin Yeo, immigration lawyer, author of Welcome...2021-12-2353 min
Borderline[Replay] The end of the American century, with Wade DavisA conversation with anthropologist and National Geographic explorer Wade Davis about the unraveling of America. The full-length and unedited interview from September 2020.
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2021-12-1452 min
BorderlineDonald Trump's lingering immigration legacy, with Susan J. CohenSusan J Cohen is an American immigration lawyer who has seen the last few decades of US immigration policy. She talks about the situation Joe Biden has inherited, after Donald Trump changed more than 400 immigration laws, rules and processes; why a record number of arrests has been made at the US Southern border; what is happening in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala or Haiti that is making people move north; and what the impact of the Trump presidency has been on immigrants, lawyers and activists. Cohen is the founding partner of the immigration law practice at Boston firm M...2021-12-0844 min
BorderlineBusting myths about refugees and Channel crossings, with Daniel SohegeCrossing the Channel without preauthorisation is legal, the vast majority of people crossing are rightful asylum seekers and there is no such thing as the "first safe country" rule. Also, there is no queue to wait in or to jump, most people aren't trafficked or smuggled, and only a trickle of the world's refugees arrive in rich countries. Refugee rights consultant Daniel Sohege breaks down the false arguments about asylum seekers making the rounds in media and on Twitter. Show notes[00:00:22] Intro[00:03:05] Is this a migrant crisis?[00:06:01] Channel crossings are for many the only...2021-12-0143 min
BorderlineWhy we go back to where we come from, with Kamal al-SolayleeImmigration isn't a one-way ticket. For many, the homeland calls back. From the Basque region to Israel, Jamaica to Taiwan, Kamal al-Solaylee talks to those who've chosen to make their way home as he plans his own return. Will reality match the fantasy? Why is the call of home so powerful? And what if you're still a foreigner there? Show notes[00:00:30] Intro[00:01:29] Migration isn't just a one-way ticket[00:05:27] Ghana's Year of Return[00:07:25] Return is big business, politics and emotion all mixed up[00:09:08] Can reality match the fantasy?[00:13:44] Return is not a...2021-11-2438 min
BorderlineWhy mass migration is inevitable, with Parag KhannaClimate change and economic inequality are pushing people of the Global South to move north. Countries in the North are depopulating, losing their workforce and their tax base. It shouldn't be that hard to put two and two together and create migration policies that benefit all of humanity. So why won't we? đ "Move: The Forces Uprooting Us." Parag Khanna. 2021. Scribner. Buy it here. Show notes00:00 Intro02:41 We are a migratory species04:57 Domestic migrants are migrants too07:55 Lockdown was actually a massive migration09:35 Reverse migration is also migration11:08 Britain's immigration pol...2021-11-1145 min
BorderlineA conversation on (not quite) everything, with Jonn ElledgeHow World War II is a British psychosis. Why we don't talk about empire. French universalism vs. British multiculturalism. How the nation state was made up. And a geopolitical utopia out of Star Trek. A freewheeling conversation with author and journalist Jonn Elledge. đ The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything, by Jonn Elledge. Headline, 2021. Buy it here and support Borderline. đŹ Sign up for the Newsletter of (Not Quite) Everything.đ Listen to the Podcast of (Not Quite) Everything.Show notes00:00 Intro02:52 How one of the world's largest countries dumps its migrants on one of the wo...2021-10-2859 min
BorderlineLiving stateless, with Christiana BukaloWho are you when no nation claims you? Millions of stateless people navigate daily life and personal identity unrecognised by any country. They are the literal citizens of nowhere.Show notes[00:00:00] Intro [00:01:42] What is statelessness?[00:04:51] Born in Germany but not German[00:09:48] Turned around at the airport[00:13:31] Creating a source of truth for stateless people[00:15:24] How one falls through the nationality cracks...[00:22:07] Ad[00:23:00] ... and other ways of becoming stateless[00:26:06] Belonging and self-worth without a national identity[00:32:04] Is citizenship owed or earned?[00:35:34] How "passported" people can help[00:41:14...2021-10-2142 min
BorderlineWhy you should leave the door open to strangers, with Will BuckinghamWill Buckingham gave me my new favourite word. He's a philosopher so it's only right the word should be Greek. Philoxenia is the word. Love of the foreign. It's that sense of curiosity, desire to connect and good will that make us seek out those we don't know and invite them to share our hearth. It's the cat that runs up to a house guest to smell his hand and rub against new legs. But we fear the stranger too as much as we wish for him. The cat hisses, scratches and hides under the sofa. You know that...2021-10-1442 min
BorderlineGrowing up undocumented in America, with Qian Julie WangWhen she was 7, Qian Julie Wang â just Qian Wang then â landed at JFK airport in New York City. Her airsick mother leaned on her for support. Her father, whom she hadn't seen in two years, had skimped on food to afford the cab driving them from the airport. Thus started her life as an undocumented child in America. Show notes00:00 Intro02:32 "A privilege, power and responsibility to share my secret"06:13 "What it means to be a writer"07:56 "At bottom we're all not really that different"09:49 "The before and after of my childhood and m...2021-10-0739 min
BorderlineTfw you lead a team you've never seen, with Ariane BernardAriane Bernard founded Helio in 2020. Her startup has never known a world where you could network in person, meet clients and investors easily or work from a common space with your employees. How do you lead a team you've never seen? And in a multinational startup, how do you work past cultural barriers and incomprehensions when you can't look your coworkers in the eye? She had to find out the hard way. Highlights- "A lot of good team culture is safety, ultimately. You want a culture whose first achievement is the ability to say the...2021-09-3045 min
BorderlineThe US reopens to foreign visitors* (*terms and conditions apply), with Anna Lekas MillerTravelers from 33 countries â nearly half the planet â were long barred from entry into the United States for pandemic reasons. Theyâll be allowed in again from early November as long as they can prove they are fully vaccinated and provide a negative Covid-19 test. People who do not have access to the vaccine, however, can add one more item to the list of reasons why they may never set foot in the worldâs richest country. Journalist Anna Lekas Miller discusses how the United Statesâ pandemic travel restrictions fit into the larger historical and political picture of American borders, from white...2021-09-2337 min
BorderlineHow China built the perfect police state, with Geoffrey CainItâs got the Big Brother and Newspeak of 1984, the predictive policing of Minority Report, the monitoring and neighbourly delation of the Stasi and the cultural erasure of the Khmer Rouge. And concentration camps. In Xinjiang, the Chinese Communist Party may well have created the perfect police state. Journalist Geoffrey Cain investigates the Uyghur genocide and reveals what happens in the real world when you combine totalitarian ideology with artificial intelligence.Show notes00:17 Intro02:26 A day in the life of a Uyghur woman07:28 Every totalitarian dystopia wrapped into one10:16 A...2021-09-1640 min
BorderlineManifesto for a new nomadism, with Felix MarquardtMovement is core to the human experience and to the emancipation of ambitious young people all over the world. Leaving home â really leaving â is the final step of one's education, says Felix Marquardt, author of The New Nomads. But globetrotters must leave another place â La La Land, the magical world where their privilege isolates them from the world as it really is for most of humanity. And just as important as the moment we leave, is the moment we come home. For the first episode of the new season, a wide-ranging conversation about belonging, climate...2021-09-0941 min
Borderline[Extra] LinkedIn Live: How to make remote, hybrid and distributed work actually work, with Lauren RazaviTips from a digital nomad and a global team manager on how to work from anywhere successfully. (Audio from a LinkedIn livestream on 7 July 2021)See it on LinkedIn. See it on Youtube.
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2021-07-0946 min
BorderlineWhat immigrants never tell you, with Dina NayeriRefugees are modern Scheherazades. They trade their story for another chance at life. The sultan is an indifferent asylum officer behind her desk, a well-meaning charity worker or a hostile native citizen. But so much truth goes untold. The exhausting expectations of gratitude, the long wait that douses your inner fire, the battle for dignity and the big impact of small acts⌠Iranian American novelist Dina Nayeri lifts the veil in The Ungrateful Refugee, her first memoir, weaving her personal story with reporting in Greek refugee camps. 02:18 Why she made...2021-07-0648 min
BorderlineThe unkept promises of the Windrush scandal, with Amelia GentlemanThrough dogged reporting in The Guardian, Amelia Gentleman showed that British residents and citizens who had arrived from the Caribbean in the 1950s and 60s had been mistakenly classified as unauthorized immigrants. That came to be known as the Windrush Scandal. Three years on, I caught up with Amelia Gentleman ahead of Windrush Day to talk about its aging victims, the compensation scheme and the Home Officeâs promises of reform. And in the waning days of the EU settlement scheme, we ask: Just as the Windrush generation was caught out by the end of...2021-06-2246 min
BorderlineWtf is going on inside the Home Office? with Daniel TrillingHow can one institution be so universally criticised, not just by the immigrants and citizens who at one point or another must use its services, but by all those who encounter it, whether lawyers, judges, activists, journalists, or even those who work there. Daniel Trilling, a journalist who has been covering immigration for a decade, spent six months investigating for The Guardian the organisational culture and history of the Home Office to answer this simple question: wtf is going on there? He talked to me about what he found. Sources & further readingđ° Cruel, paranoid, failing: insi...2021-06-0841 min
BorderlineRaising global teens, with Dr Anisha AbrahamKids who grow up between cultures develop invaluable skills. But having to figure out oneâs cultural identity, on top of the usual teenage challenges, can make adolescence even harder. Mental health, belonging, conflict, rites of passage⌠A pediatrician who specializes in multicultural teenagers helps parents navigate a challenging decade. 00:32 Intro02:26 What is a teenager?07:00 Inside the teenage brain09:38 Global living makes adolescence trickier11:24 The importance of telling your story14:08 The mental health challenges of global teens20:47 Conflict resolution, prolonged adolescence and grief...2021-05-2533 min
Borderline[Replay] The century-long project to build a global nation, with Hassan DamlujiIf globalists want to build a more united world, they need to look at how nation-states did it â at a smaller scale â in the last couple centuries, says Hassan Damluji, author of The Responsible Globalist. Itâs a 100-year project, but one we can start now with concrete steps, he adds. Note: this episode is a rerun of a June 2020 interview, in a new edit. 00:00 Introduction01:42 How the nation brought people together04:48 Nationalism vs. patriotism vs. globalism08:45 How to create a global sense of belon...2021-05-1835 min
BorderlineHow tech entrepreneurship exploded beyond Silicon Valley, with Christopher SchroederVenture capitalist Chris Schroeder travels the world to invest in emerging markets. To the entrepreneurs he meets, Silicon Valley is just one of many models, China is everywhere and South-to-South exchanges are constant. To succeed in this distributed world takes humility, agility and a certain comfort with the uncomfortable. Show notes00:00 Intro01:33 Can you travel over Zoom?03:11 What's been on global entrepreneurs' minds?05:51 How technology unleashed talent08:01 Silicon Valley isn't exactly irrelevant, just less central10:23 Why it made sense for so long for Silicon Valley t...2021-05-1146 min
BorderlineShould we abolish borders? with Leah CowanThe border isnât a line on the periphery of the country, says Leah Cowan, author of Border Nation. It is a fog that covers all of society and can descend upon you at any time if youâre an immigrant or racialized as âother.â It wasnât always thus and it can be ended, she insists. 00:43 Intro02:06 What are borders for?04:12 Borders, capitalism and racism08:41 Did borders ever truly disappear?10:15 The border isn't on the periphery, it's everywhere13:07 Immigration enforcement is invisible to the rest of society2021-05-0436 min
BorderlineVaccine nationalism is winning, with Tania CernuschiMore than half of Covid-19 vaccines administered so far have been in high-income countries, which account for just 15% of the world population. Four out of five doses are purchased outside COVAX, the UN-backed procurement scheme that had attempted to set up fair and equal access for all countries. The most successful vaccination campaigns, in the US, UK and Israel, were unabashed us-first operations. Has vaccine nationalism definitely won? I caught up with Tania Cernuschi, team lead for global access in the World Health Organizationâs vaccine department, to understand how things got so unequal and whether thereâs hope to c...2021-04-2628 min
BorderlineThe psychology of borderless thinking, with Steve TaylorNationalist or globalist? It may come down to psychological health.Strong attachment to group identity is born out of insecurity, explains psychologist Dr Steve Taylor. Psychologically healthy people feel connected to all humans and are able to think beyond borders. Could we lessen nationalistic stife by promoting psychological health? Show notes00:29 Intro03:17 Are humans naturally tribal? 05:04 When humans developed individualism08:55 "Psychologically healthy people are not nationalistic"10:42 The theory of terror management12:07 Post-traumatic transformation and identity15:18 Could we attenuate na...2021-04-2031 min
BorderlineFor transnational families, lockdown has no endThe UK is reopening, but not transnational families. Visiting friends or relatives abroad is the second most frequent reason for foreign travel. It's about one in four trips out of the UK, twice the volume of business travel. Travel restrictions have reduced these trips to a trickle. For millions who love across borders, spending time together has been impossible for most of the past year. Even illegal. Yet, media coverage of travel restrictions has had a near pathological focus on foreign holidays. This week, we hear the voices of those who wait, still, to reunite. ...2021-04-1322 min
BorderlineOne familyâs 30-year quest for home, with Ty McCormickAsad and Marianâs family fled conflict in Somalia and found refuge in eastern Kenya, one of the worldâs largest refugee camps. That was in 1991. Three decades later, the family still hasnât been allowed to build a permanent home together anywhere. Their story, like a novel you couldnât make up, is that of the broken refugee resettlement system and of responsibilities no one wants to take. American journalist Ty McCormick tells it.Â
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2021-04-0641 min
BorderlineThe Year 1000: When globalisation began, with Dr Valerie HansenGlobalisation isnât just the stuff of airplanes and container ships. Itâs not colonisation and circumnavigation alone. It started much sooner. Dr Valerie Hansen, professor of Chinese history at Yale University, points to the year 1000 as one early watershed era when the world expanded and became smaller at once. Trade routes criss-crossed the Americas, Islamic scholars mapped the globe and major religions spread across Asia. In large cities, exotic merchants set up shop, black and white people lived together⌠and sometimes mobs descended on reviled foreigners.01:38 A convergence of global events in 100006:26 250 million people and an...2021-03-3036 min
Borderline"We have a deeply unfeminist immigration system," with Zoe GardnerIn this conversation, Zoe Gardner, policy advisor at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, covers:Â How immigration exposes women to a higher risk of violence and abuseWhy policing and immigration enforcement must be decoupledWTF âno recourse to public fundsâ and the âhostile environmentâ areHow legal migrants are pushed into undocumented statusGetting your COVID vaccine even if youâre undocumentedThe exodus of European migrants from the UK & the post-Brexit settlement schemeHow US immigration activists inspire the British movementWhat a safe and constructive immigration system would look likeShow notes00:00 Intro02:18 "All women understand...2021-03-2338 min
BorderlineIran: When your passport locks you in, with Selda ShamlooSelda Shamloo is taking the Home Office to court. Her mother, whoâs Iranian, has been repeatedly denied a simple tourist visa to visit her. This is life on an ostracized passport.For many of us, our passport is a symbol of our wanderlust, a badge of our freedom. Itâs been gathering dust for the past year and we canât wait to get it out. But if youâre Iranian or from any other country at the bottom of the passport power rankings, pandemic or not, it wonât get you anywhere. The Passport Index ranks Iran...2021-03-1639 min
BorderlineLiberalism is in a fight for its life, with Ian DuntLiberalism â a belief in the primacy of individual liberty â has built modern democracies. Now itâs in an existential crisis, caught between rising authoritarianism and identity politics. I look back and ahead for liberals with British political journalist Ian Dunt.00:14 Intro01:24 Another TCK childhood04:19 Why write a book that goes back 400 years?08:48 What is a liberal?14:16 How liberalism failed to stand for the liberty of most individuals19:28 Identity politics are both a threat and a gift23:00 How to become a Borderline member23:41 âThe peopleâ...2021-03-0938 min
BorderlineExpatriating while Black, with Amanda BatesPeople of all kinds â yes, people of color too â go abroad to live, love and learn. They study a language, they follow a partner, they go just for the heck of it or for a midlife crisis. Sometimes, they flee war or poverty, but not usually. Tired of not seeing her story represented, Amanda Bates created The Black Expat â a media centering the stories of Black global citizens. In this episode, she discusses her TCK childhood between Cameroon and the US, the challenges of life in-between and who gets to be called an expat vs. an...2021-03-0240 min
BorderlineWhy every child should spend a year abroad, with Katherine Alexander-DobrovolskaiaExchange students arenât just the butt of jokes in American teen comedies. Theyâre young people going through one of the most transformative experiences life has to offer. Expanding it to more children â dare we say, to all children? â could change not just them, but the world.Katherine Alexander-Dobrovolskaia was dropped in Iowa from the newly broken-up Soviet Union in 1993. Borderline host Isabelle Roughol landed in New Jersey two weeks before 9/11. They reminisce and reflect on the impact of those formative years and share guidance for young people leaving home now â or returning, changed. 2021-02-2341 min
BorderlineBeing British and European after Brexit, with Peter GumbelWhen they narrowly escaped the Third Reich and found refuge in Britain, Peter Gumbelâs parents and grandparents cast off their German Jewish heritage to become a perfectly British family. Cricket, Marmite and Church of England. Two generations later, deeply unsettled by Brexit, Gumbel reaches out to Germany again in search of a new passport â and a reckoning with history. In conversation with Isabelle Roughol, Gumbel explores the fragility of identity and who we still are when we can no longer recognize the nations we call home. Itâs the story of one family and the story of Euro...2021-02-1634 min
BorderlineReasons to hope (a 2020 review)To close out Borderline's first calendar year, which will I hope not soon be matched in hardship and heartbreak, I looked back through the first 17 episodes to pick out moments of hope for what lays ahead. Because if there's ever a moment for an absolutely not rational belief that things might be okay, it's surely the new year.Â
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2020-12-2909 min
BorderlineHow to become an explorer, with Reza PakravanReza Pakravan has everyone's dream job title â explorer. He just released on Amazon Prime, his latest travel series "The World's Most Dangerous Borders" for which he traveled uninterrupted the width of Africa, across areas any foreign ministry generally tells you to keep clear of and which rarely see a film crew. It's full of stories and chance encounters, of the magic and the messes that we make on the road. It's everything we've missed in 2020 and why I wanted to end the year on this episode.Â
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2020-12-1830 min
BorderlineThe world in 2021, with Ian BremmerA continued pandemic and fresh vaccines, a new US president with old problems, China triumphant and mistrusted, Brexit done at last, and global institutions on the fritz... Let's take a world tour of the geopolitics we can expect in 2021, with Eurasia Group founder and president Ian Bremmer.Â
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2020-12-1135 min
Borderline"Shame stops you from trying" with Marcela Kunova"The hostility that you feel, one of the purposes is to make you feel ashamed and to hinder you, to make sure you don't act, or you don't aspire, or you don't fight back."Â Marcela Kunova has been an immigrant in four countries in the last 20 years. She's had time to deconstruct xenophobia. In a deeply personal conversation, we discussed how shame can be internalized and weaponized against immigrants, how it limits us, but also how we can rise in spite of it. We chatted about mental health, vulnerability, belonging, language barriers and how the tide is t...2020-11-1938 min
BorderlineAmericans abroad after Trump, with Sarah Browne, Geoffrey Cain & Lauren TormeyWhat was it like being an American abroad during the Trump years? How do they feel about the election and the years ahead? Is it time to go back and give back? This week, I brought together three American expats to talk about politics, home, what was broken and what remains. Sarah Browne is veteran innovation catalyst based in London. She is a proud member of IDEALondon, a partnership of UCL, EDF and Capital Enterprise. She is from Wisconsin and California. Geoffrey Cain is a writer and journalist based in Istanbul. He is the a...2020-11-0944 min
Borderlineđşđ¸ An election night invitation đł (This is not an episode)Join me on November 3rd (and 4th) to watch US election results come in together. Or not come in. Bring your own pizza. Sign up here to receive the call link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/a-very-borderline-election-night-tickets-127128864857Â
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2020-11-0102 min
BorderlineAre travel restrictions effective against Covid-19?If we all can't travel or see loved ones across borders, please tell me at least itâs working. In May, I found myself in tears when the British government decided to impose quarantines on anyone returning from France in order to combat covid-19. That was the last straw. How dare they close *my* border? Did it even serve a purpose? When in doubt, go to the library. I turned to science to find out if I had been right to cry or if indeed, the government was doing the right thing. What I found out is... it...2020-10-2725 min
Borderline"I don't know what you are," with Ferdous al-FaruqueWhy do we feel the need to put people into boxes, to assign categories in order to decipher them? And what happens to those who fit in many... and none at all? I discussed this and other things with Ferdous "Danny" al-Faruque, a third-culture kid all grown up. The second episode in the Borderlives series, exploring the lives and identities of global citizens, and what home even means.Â
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2020-10-1528 min
BorderlineWill Brexit ever end? with Luke McGeeRemember Brexit? That's still in the agenda for 2020. The UK and EU have less than two months to agree a free trade deal and avoid a cliff edge. I caught up with Luke McGee, a journalist at CNN who's covered Brexit for years. We talked about where the negotiations stand, what's at stake, whether the British ever felt truly European and who can most afford to walk away.Â
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2020-10-0826 min
BorderlineWhy Lebanon is fed up with bearing up, with Lynn ChoumanEconomic collapse, political chaos, wildfires, protests, pandemic and then a devastating explosion. Lebanese journalist and expat Lynn Chouman talks about how she and her countrymen are dealing with it all, why resilience is a double-edged sword, and how one relates to a country that keeps pushing you away, yet calling you home.Â
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2020-10-0134 min
Borderline"Living here is a decision other people made for me" with Janet MattaWelcome to a new series of intimate conversations with global citizens, who talk about their identity, their choices and what home even means. This week, Janet Matta, an American working mom from Seattle, talks about leaving the United States and continuing a long American tradition â leaving your country to make a better life for the next generation.Â
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2020-09-2535 min
BorderlineThe end of the American century, with Wade DavisWhat does the mishandling of the covid-19 crisis reveal of the United States?Canadian anthropologist, author, and National Geographic explorer Wade Davis wrote a blockbuster essay this summer, "The unraveling of America," and hit a raw nerve. He joins Borderline to discuss the grandeur and decadence of the United States, and what comes next if America is no longer a superpower.
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2020-09-1732 min
BorderlineThe plight of stranded AustraliansAustralians abroad are stranded: 23,000 have registered their desire to come home urgently, but they can't. Ostensibly to reduce the spread of covid-19 and the burden on the country's quarantine system, the federal government has instituted flight caps that reduce international arrivals to a trickle. Only 4,000 people may enter the country every week, less than two hours' worth of inbound international traffic in the "before world." Getting one of those golden tickets is an expensive and harrowing lottery for Australians left abroad by circumstances beyond their control. Four stranded Australians speak about their fight to get home, the ba...2020-09-1039 min
BorderlineHow to take your job on the road, with Mandy FranszIf we can work from home now, why not work from the road? A laptop and decent wifi is all many of us need. "To be able to work and live wherever you feel happiest and most productive," that's the digital nomad lifestyle as explained to me by Mandy Fransz. She started on that road herself a couple years ago and has become an advocate for remote work. On this week's episode, she explains how she made it work and how you can do it for yourself. With so many us stuck between four walls, the road calls now...2020-07-1926 min
BorderlineHow being hostile to immigrants became UK law, with Colin YeoHow did a concept meant for counterterrorism become an immigration policy? Over the last decade, the UK set out to build a hostile environment that makes daily life a battle for many migrants and pushes even lawful ones into illegality. Colin Yeo lifts the curtain on the British immigration system in his book "Welcome to Britain." He's my guest this week. We talked about the UK, and a bit about the US, but it's really about all of us and how we behave to one another, badly often, which is quite universal. Colin Yeo is an immigration la...2020-07-1340 min
BorderlineThe Trump administration sends foreign students home, with Jamie KankiThe Trump administration has reinstated the rule that forbids international students from staying in the US if they are taking online classes only. The rule had been relaxed in the spring because of the covid-19 pandemic. Now despite institutions such as Harvard planning to go entirely online in 2020-21, the US government is telling students they must be in the classroom or back in their country. I caught up again with Jamie Kanki to understand what that means for the more than 1 million international students in the US and their schools. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor...2020-07-0814 min
BorderlineWhat globalists should learn from nationalists, with Hassan DamlujiThe great divide between nationalists and globalists is the political story of our times. But are they that far apart? "What would a united world look like other than people feeling, on a global level, something like what they do about their countrymen?" asks Hassan Damluji, deputy director at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and author of "The Responsible Globalist: What Citizens of the World Can Learn from Nationalism."The nation was in fact one of humanity's most successful idea, he argues. To create a feeling of global citizenship, the same playbook applies. --- Send in...2020-06-3034 min
BorderlineThe big wooing of international students, with Jamie KankiUniversities have been battling it out to woo international students. Can they survive without them? Schools in the US and UK, but also now China, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea... have been racing to attract international students from Asia, Eastern Europe or Africa, and cash in on a $300 billion market. Then Covid-19 came on the scene. I discuss the new normal with Jamie Kanki, who spent years traveling the world recruiting students and now works for Grok and Concourse, two startups in digital student recruitment. "Universities are furiously looking at their financial model right now," she says. "The value of...2020-06-2129 min
BorderlineThe super weird new way to travel, with Zach HonigZach Honig, editor at large at The Points Guy and ultimate frequent flyer, shares how he plans to stay safe on planes, how airlines have abused customers during the pandemic and why you might want to stay local. "Those of us who are used to enjoying the journey as much as the destination are going to have to keep an open mind." --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/borderlinepod/message
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2020-06-1433 min
BorderlineTrailerA podcast for those whose lives straddle borders, with host Isabelle Roughol. Coming soon on all your favorite podcasting apps. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/borderlinepod/message
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2020-06-1002 min