Borderline

One Lane Bridge (Isabelle Roughol)

Borderline is a podcast for defiant global citizens covering geopolitics, immigration and lives that straddle borders, with host Isabelle Roughol. read less
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Episodes

Ukraine's other battlefield, with Thierry Cruvellier
05-05-2022
Ukraine'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 episode🇺🇦 Ukraine's aggressive lawfare strategy⚖️ International justice finally comes for the West🤐 Why former great powers can't cope with their colonial crimes🇫🇷 Reckoning with the Algerian War🇨🇩 The DR Congo schools us on prosecuting environmental destruction🇨🇴 Transitional justice lessons from Colombia, New Zealand, Scandinavia and more🕊 Restitutions, reparations and truth commissions – justice beyond the courtsShow notes[00:00:16] Intro[00:01:42] "There is a before Ukraine and an after Ukraine"[00:07:18] "Justice has become the third weapon of Ukraine's strategy"[00:11:46] Is lawfare a communication tool?``[00:15:39] The slow wheels of the ICC[00:18:43] Justice gets much more pragmatic at the local level: the example of environmental crimes in the DRC[00:25:52] A renewed interest in justice for indigenous people[00:28:58] Colombia, a case study for all-encompassing transitional justice[00:30:14] Why are some countries better than other at looking into their colonial past?[00:32:26] The restitution of pillaged objects[00:34:28] A generational reckoning with colonial crimes: the French Algerian war[00:40:13] Statues, history vs memory and the new frontline of transitional justice[00:42:53] Outro🌍 justiceinfo.net 📚 The Master of Confessions, by Thierry Cruvellier. Ecco Press. 2015. Find it here.🧬 Check out The Guardian's Science Weekly podcast, where I'm executive producer for the next few weeks.  ★ Support this podcast ★
Jose Antonio Vargas on telling the full, messy story of immigration
19-04-2022
Jose Antonio Vargas on telling the full, messy story of immigration
A 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 📺 Trafficking in empathy and the power of story to change minds😢 Why he regrets his mom sending him away to the US 🇺🇸 Reaching America's "moveable middle"💸 How the economic argument for immigration backfired😰 Why progressives abandoned the fight📖 Stories as the last place for nuance and complexityShow notes[00:00:16] Intro[00:02:27] "Home is where I can do my work"[00:04:05] "Being a journalist is the identity I figured out before all others"[00:05:22] "All definitions are suspect"[00:07:28] "Why is it that only a certain portion of the population gets to be an activist?"[00:09:52] "Legalizing pot is a higher priority than legalizing people"[00:10:33] "Imprisoned by the language we use on immigrants"[00:14:09] "We can call immigrants essential labor, but we don't think of them as essential people"[00:16:16] "Storytelling is trafficking in empathy"[00:18:09] "The only time many white Americans meet a person of color or an immigrant is through the media they consume"[00:24:51] "We work on shows that reach the movable middle"[00:28:23] "We have yet to find some sort of language that talks about how borderless business and money is and how people are still very much, you know, locked up by these borders"[00:32:55] "If I had a say in the matter as a 12 year old, I would have told my mom, don't do that"[00:35:39] "That's the power of story"[00:37:51] "Narrative is not a slice of the pie. It's actually the pan."[00:39:39] "Storytelling is the only place where nuance can happen"[00:42:38] "White is not a country"[00:49:05] "I traded a life of being in the closet as undocumented in limbo to being a public undocumented person whose life is still in limbo"[00:52:46] OutroJose Antonio Vargas's works🇺🇸 Define American, a culture change organization that uses the power of narrative to humanize conversations about immigrants.📚 Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen (2018, Harper Collins). Upcoming: White is Not a Country (2023, Pantheon Books)🎬 Documented: A film by an undocumented American (2014, CNN)🎭 What the Constitution Means to Me, a play by Heidi Schreck (producer)Works referenced📚 Beloved, Toni Morrison📺 Superstore (NBC)📺 Roswell, New Mexico (CW)🎬 The Lost Daughter (Netflix)🎬 Drive my Car ★ Support this podcast ★
Donald Trump's lingering immigration legacy, with Susan J. Cohen
08-12-2021
Donald Trump's lingering immigration legacy, with Susan J. Cohen
Susan 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 Mintz, an author and a songwriter. In 2017 she was part of a small band of legal minds who fought the so-called "Muslim ban" in court and won a short-lived victory.📚 Journeys from There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs and Contributions. Susan J Cohen, with Steven Taylor. River Grove Books, 2021. Buy it here. (This affiliate link supports Borderline.) 🎶 Beyond the Borders and Looking for the Angels, written by Susan Cohen and performed by students and alumni of the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachussetts.  Show notes[00:00:16] Intro[00:01:32] The immigration situation Joe Biden inherited[00:05:21] Title 42 and Remain in Mexico: How the US keeps lawful asylum-seekers at bay[00:08:49] What it's like to wait at the US Southern border[00:12:43] A historical record for arrests at the Southern border[00:15:13] What's happening in Central America and Haiti to push people north[00:18:42] The massive problems we'd need to solve to stem migration flows[00:22:27] Patterns of discrimination and aggression at the border[00:26:58] How the American public feels about immigration[00:29:46] Changing the perception of immigrants ★ Support this podcast ★
Busting myths about refugees and Channel crossings, with Daniel Sohege
01-12-2021
Busting myths about refugees and Channel crossings, with Daniel Sohege
Crossing 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 option. Still, very few take it.[00:07:25] There just isn't a queue to jump to apply for asylum[00:09:43] "First safe country" is a myth[00:11:55] Arriving by boat without pre-authorisation is not illegal[00:12:46] Most border crossings are not arranged by smugglers[00:16:14] Hard border controls can feed smuggling and trafficking businesses[00:19:47] Airlines and other carriers can be fined for unknowingly helping people carry out their legal right to seek asylum[00:21:35] 98% of those people who cross the Channel seek asylum[00:26:22] How French police harasses asylum seekers[00:27:57] What do we prioritise: the border or human life?[00:31:10] There are better ways to spend our countries' money than on draconian border controls[00:33:08] What a better refugee system could look like[00:36:11] Rich nations are not taking their fair share[00:41:43] Outro🐦 Follow Daniel Sohege  at @stand_for_all ★ Support this podcast ★
Why you should leave the door open to strangers, with Will Buckingham
14-10-2021
Why you should leave the door open to strangers, with Will Buckingham
Will 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 word – xenophobia. Will Buckingham explores what the stranger means to us and why philoxenia is worth cultivating. In this episode: 🤝 home is a social network 💪 stranger danger is male danger 🏡  safety at home, danger abroad is a false story 👀 how busy-buddy neighbours keep us safe 👥 sorry introverts: you'll never be rid of strangersAlso backpacking in Pakistan, slow Ubers in Bangalore, Manggarai villages in Indonesia, a vicarage in Norfolk, a foggy morning in Prague, a Lithuanian philosopher called Emmanuel Levinas and paper-thin walls in Paris.Show notes[00:02:38] "You can think about home as a set of social network of belongings"[00:08:48] "I'll never again be lost in a foreign city"[00:11:49] "A split between the safety of the home and the risk of the outside"[00:15:15] Philoxenia vs xenophobia[00:18:31] "That notion of the inviolable home is quite culturally specific"[00:22:25] "Somebody would end up putting me up"[00:24:35] "There's always going to be somebody rocking up to break up your solitude"[00:28:39] Become a Borderline member[00:29:57] "Concentric circles of how we imagine belonging"[00:31:41] "The stranger brings me more than I can contain"[00:32:57] "An inconvenience worth having"[00:34:57] "Fear in the face of strangers is not wholly unreasonable"[00:39:50] Outro📚 Hello, Stranger: How We Find Connection in a Disconnected World, by Will Buckingham. Granta. 2021. Buy it here.📬 Sign up for Will's monthly newsletter🐦 Follow Will on Twitter @willbuckingham ★ Support this podcast ★
Tfw you lead a team you've never seen, with Ariane Bernard
30-09-2021
Tfw you lead a team you've never seen, with Ariane Bernard
Ariane 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 words "I don't understand. I don't agree. I propose that we do X. Has anyone thought about Y?" If all team members, whether they are the most junior all the way to your executive team, equally feel like they have access to these words without risking something, then you have the making of solving for many other problems."- "Everything that helps you understand whether people are connecting with a particular goal, everything that helps you understand whether people understand, everything counts because the distance does not help us."- "The uncertainty is, what am I not getting and what is this company not getting if we are not as fully present and as fully engaged as we could be?"- "The complexity of the distributed team is compounded by our cultural differences." - "I don't have a problem going to an American and being like, "turn on your camera, what the hell!" Because the worst thing that happens is that they'll be like, "no, and here's why." But when you're working with folks who come from cultures that you only know in a much more superficial way, those are exactly the things that become like, what am I actually asking them? It feels like I'm just asking them to turn on the camera. It can't be that much. But I don't actually know this. I don't know what this stands for." Show notes[00:00:00] Intro[00:03:14] Making the jump from intrapreneur to entrepreneur[00:06:57] Anchoring a new company culture without an office[00:10:12] Zoom cameras on, please[00:14:07] Take every opportunity to reduce uncertainty[00:15:52] When physical and culture distance combine[00:19:43] Do we still need culture?[00:25:54] "Do as I say" vs just one man's opinion[00:27:51] The Culture Map by Erin Meyer[00:29:31] Good culture is psychological safety[00:36:03] Resting bitch face and the curse of the screen [00:37:39] The benefits of hiring worldwide[00:41:29] If you had a choice... centralised or distributed? [00:44:32] Outro📺 Watch the full interview on Youtube🔆 Learn about Helio and apply to become an alpha user here ★ Support this podcast ★
How China built the perfect police state, with Geoffrey Cain
16-09-2021
How China built the perfect police state, with Geoffrey Cain
It’s 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 21st-century genocide12:32 The technology doesn't even need to be that good15:48 Why China went after the Uyghurs18:06 Membership ad19:47 How the return of the Taliban might impact the Uyghurs21:45 Dystopia in the dark24:34 How China exports its surveillance27:51 How Western corporations and economies got trapped30:44 The New Cold War32:46 The death of techno utopianism35:23 First let's fix the financial system 38:35 Outro📚The Perfect Police State, by Geoffrey Cain. Public Affairs. 2021. Buy it here.Samsung Rising, by Geoffrey Cain. Penguin Random House. 2020. Buy it here. 🐦 @geoffrey_cain and @iroughol Stories referenced🇦🇺 Facebook’s battle with Australia🇺🇸 Amazon and the NSA🇨🇳 Xinjiang’s cotton and Western brands💻 Apple’s terminated supplier Listen, read, support at borderlinepod.com. Chat with me on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram.  ★ Support this podcast ★