Colombia Calling - Living And Working In Colombia

It has become a cultural phenomenon in Colombia, beginning first in Bogota before branching out to Medellin, Cali, Lima (Peru) and now Cartagena...everyone knows all about Gringo Tuesdays. So, this week, coinciding with the launch of Gringo Tuesdays in Cartagena, we speak to co-founder Travis Crockett about how the business has grown, the differences in running events in each location, how they survived Covid and where they plan to expand to next...hint, two more overseas locations. This is a good news story about some entrepreneurs that took a punt on an idea and it worked, becoming one of the most unmissable nights for language exchange and then latin-style partying in Colombia. Tune in to hear about "bio pong," yes, you read that right, not "beer pong," but "bio pong," and other anecdotes from 13 years of running Gringo Tuesdays.  We wish them all the best on this next venture in Cartagena. The Colombia Briefing is reported by Grace Brennan.  https://www.gringotuesdays.co  and support us https://www.

After nine years away, Tim Buendia, has made it back to the town of Aracataca - birthplace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - and it seems timely with a new series based on the author's opus: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" due to be aired on 11 December 2024 on Netflix. Tim, an adopted son of Aracataca, is perhaps singlehandedly responsible for his tireless work in bringing international tourism to the birthplace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, the Colombian Nobel Prize winning author. And it was all falling into place with tours, a steady stream of visitors and significant press coverage...and then he left.  We discuss what this return to "Macondo" or Aracataca means to Tim, how he has been working diligently in the interim years to continue promoting Aracataca, about his poetry and a new art gallery he is inaugurating in the town. Check out the website: https://www.thegypsyresidence.com The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. 

Hello and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling – I’m Emily Hart and this week we have something a little bit different – the radical linguistic technique which is building peace - personal and political - all over the world, and the inspiring woman bringing it to Colombia.    This week, I have with me Camila Reyes Azcuénaga – the founder of Resuena, the organisation bringing the school of thought known as ‘Nonviolent Communication’ (NVC) to Colombia, a way of structuring our thoughts and communications to prevent and heal conflict, breaching the divides of culture, politics, and identity.    Developed in the late 20th Century by psychologist Marshall Rosenberg, NVC now has trainers and centres in more than 60 countries around the world. This simple technique aims to humanise the ‘other’, and forge communication, collaboration, and trust – from our daily life, to our work, and well beyond.    Camila studied law and political science and worked with indigenous communities and landmines here in Colombi

On Episode 541 of the Colombia Calling podcast, and given the current COP16 in Cali, we revisit our conversation with special guest Ole Reidar Bergum - Counsellor for Climate and Forests/ Consejero de Clima y Bosque - Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bogotá, who joined us to speak in-depth and openly about the tragedy of the rampant deforestation taking place at the moment in Colombia. We discuss the causes and results and what the Norwegian government, along with other collaborators, are trying to do to prevent an area the size of Bogotá being deforested each year. The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Be sure to check out her substack: https://substack.com/@ehart

Colombia stands out for its excellent healthcare and is rapidly becoming another destination for medical healthcare. Thinking of a tummy tuck, a hair implant, some dentistry or more? Take a look at the options, go through a reputable agency and take a holiday at the same time. This week, we speak to Kirby Braddell of Medical Tourism Packages, to talk about what is offered in Colombia. https://www.medicaltourismpackages.com/ The Colombia Briefing is reported by Grace Brennan.

This week we get on the line to Naresh Dahal in Kathmandu to compare and contrast the tourism practices and politics in both Nepal and Colombia. Naresh is local travel specialist in Nepal and can assist with customising and tailor-making a tour and holiday suiting your travel needs, so he’s a man in the know. Whilst the countries may seem incredibly different from one another, we discover there to be some striking similarities as well. Join us for a pleasant conversation from Bogota to Kathmandu.

"South London has a serious problem with knife crime." This week we discuss how Henry May arrived in Colombia and ended up being a mover and shaker in the education world here. After a life-changing experience involving a tragedy relating to one of his students in South London, Henry questioned his life choices in education, leading him to consider other avenues. Read on to find out more about Henry. Henry May is a Social Entrepreneur from the UK currently living in Colombia where he currently serves as the CEO of Coschool, an education business focused on Social & Emotional learning in K-12 education. Henry has been recognised as a “rising star” of Colombian business by Dinero magazine and as “The teacher closing the inequality gap” by El Tiempo newspaper. Coschool is a social enterprise in Colombia that designs and implements methodologies for developing social & emotional skills in youth & teachers in the post-conflict country Henry's Coschool seeks to generate an impact on people through i

Petro's first two years as president have been marked by tension between him and various media sectors. He has repeatedly denigrated journalism critical of his government, labelling those responsible as “liars” and “scumbags” who are just trying to undermine his administration.   Petro’s attacks began after the Bogotá-based news magazine Cambio published an article by political reporter Maria Jimena Duzán on 23 June in which she raised questions about the possibly fraudulent manner in which the brother of the president’s chief of staff had obtained public contracts.    The president responded on his X account by branding Duzán’s reporting as “Mossad journalism” and suggesting that she was involved in a disinformation campaign designed to hurt his government. Duzán said she received threats after this post by the president.   Since the start of the year, Reporters Without Borders has registered two journalists killed in Colombia in connection with out their reporting. while FLIP (Colombian Foundation for Press

Angela Alvarez is a natural-born storyteller, her latest venture of the podcast: "When Home is a Foreign Word" is testament to this. In fact, there's no way we can keep on topic - is there ever one? - and we enjoy a far-reaching conversation, a great deal of laughs about life and death in Colombia (the funny side), the origins of the word syphilis, identity and witchcraft. Angela states, when we discuss what it means to be an immigrant, "humans are reliable narrators of their own existence," and then we plunge into a conversation which I count as one of my favourite in over 500 episodes broadcast on the Colombia Calling podcast. The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Her Substack can be found: https://harte.substack.com/ Please consider supporting our podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling   Tune in, you'll not regret it.

As the United States prepares for its pivotal presidential election on November 5, 2024, we join our friends at Colombia Risk Analysis to discuss their new report: "The Future of U.S.-Colombia Partnership: Impact of the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election" which delves into how the election results—whether a second term for former President Donald Trump or a first term for current Vice President Kamala Harris—will reshape U.S.-Colombia relations and influence Colombia's political and economic landscape.   We discuss the potential scenarios and outcomes with Sergio Guzman and Amelia Thoreson of Colombia Risk Analysis.    The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. 

With a hypnotising mix of charming coastal cities, world-class cuisine, and lush landscapes hiding immense biodiversity have made the bicoastal country of Colombia one of the most sought-after destinations in the Americas. We speak to Simon Faulkner, Lecturer in International Tourism Management at University College Birmingham about regenerative tourism, how it differs to sustainable tourism and where Colombia fits into this. Regenerative Travel is a relatively new term in travel circles that aims to go beyond sustainable travel practices. While sustainable travel focuses on minimising negative impacts and returning a net neutrality on the environment and local communities, Regenerative Travel aims to have a positive and transformative effect on those environments and communities. Put simply, the core principle of Regenerative Travel urges travellers to have a positive impact by giving back more than they take from the destinations they visit. The term was born during the Covid pandemic, when locations typ

Nadya Ortiz is Colombia's first woman chess grandmaster. Hailing from humble origins in Ibague, chess became a conduit for her success. By succeeding in the chess world, she won a scholarship to study at university in Texas, later another one to go to Purdue and then by virtue of her excellence in computer science now works for Apple in San Francisco. We hear Nadya's story on episode 533 of the Colombia Calling podcast. As a woman from the provinces, playing an unpopular sport, she made it all happen for her. We discuss her life, politics in Colombia and much more in what is an inspirational story. The Colombia Briefing is reported by Emily Hart. Please support her Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart and the Colombia Calling podcast: https://patreon.com/colombiacalling 

Hallo and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling - I’m Emily Hart and this week I’ll be chatting to Nubia Rojas about journalism at war – how journalists fell victim to, but also took part in, Colombia’s civil conflict. Nubia is a journalist and researcher who has worked on conflicts across the world both as a correspondent and an analyst, working for the United Nations, Doctors without Borders, and Oxfam, as well as numerous Colombian outlets. Most recently, Nubia authored a chapter of the final report of Colombia’s Truth Commission – a historic publication which was the outcome of an unprecedented investigation into the causes and consequences of Colombia's internal armed conflict – the final report was the result of nearly four years’ work and tens of thousands of interviews. Today we’ll be chatting about Nubia’s chapter – digging in to the historical and present relationship between journalism and Colombia’s political elites, paramilitary PR, rebel elites, corporate takeovers and more. Please

"From Ambition to Stagnation: the road ahead for Petro's administration," is the title of a new report by Eitan Casaverde and Sergio Guzman of Colombia Risk Analysis and this is what we are discussing this week on the podcast. There are questions that abound: Is the Colombian system structured for radical change? What have been the success stories of the Petro presidency so far? What is this strategic ambiguity towards the situation in Venezuela? Who will be Petro's successor? How is the list of potential candidates for the elections in 2026 shaping up? And, hear the Colombia Briefing by Emily Hart and subscribe to her Substack: https://harte.substack.com Support us: https://www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

The Latin American Review of Books – LatAmRoB – has been publishing online continuously since 2005 as a small, independent website based in the UK that reviews books and films. And we are very fortunate to have founder Gavin O'Toole here on the Colombia Calling podcast this week. The Latin American Review of Books is commercially and politically independent and value, above all sharp writing and commentary that brings to a wider audience knowledge, understanding and insight about all things Latin American. So, this week we chat about literary offerings from the region, goings on in Venezuela and Colombia, Boris Johnson's bizarre trip to Venezuela and much much more. Check out the website: https://www.latamrob.com Support the Colombia Briefing and Emily Hart on Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart and support us: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling

I’m Emily Hart and today, I’ll be speaking to two experts and campaigners on Colombia’s San Agustín Statues – getting into what they might mean and why they matter, as well as how so many of them ended up not in Colombia, and how important it is to get them back here. In San Agustín, Huila, hundreds of ancient megalithic statues have been found, the region’s largest collection of pre-Hispanic sculptures, dating back to the 9th century BC. Some are human-ish figures, but with fangs and wings, others are simian, some combination of animal and man - some are carved in situ, others onto single rock slabs 15 feet tall – the statues both invite and totally defy interpretation and theories about them abound, from burial rights, shamans, and psychedelic drugs to aliens. These statues were made by the Sculptor People, the Pueblo Escultor, an enigmatic community we are still trying to decipher. Surprisingly little is known about the people who created the mounds in which most of the statues were found – what they rep

“Petro.” Watch the documentary by Sean Mattison and Trevor Martin following Gustavo Petro during his run for the presidency of Colombia in 2022. "Petro" begins in September 2021 at the launch event of Gustavo Petro's campaign. The documentary makers enjoy unprecedented access to Colombia's most charismatic and polarizing politician, the film follows the highs and lows of the Colombian progressive movement and Petro's historic campaign for president through Election Day. On the Colombia Calling podcast this week, we speak to Sean Mattison about the documentary, how it came to be, what Petro is like behind the scenes and with his family, why the president is so polarizing and accusations of propaganda. Check out: https://seanmattison.com

From the author of El Narco, Ioan Grillo presents us with a searing investigation into the enormous black market for firearms, essential to cartels and gangs in the drug trade and contributing to the epidemic of mass shootings. The gun control debate is revived with every mass shooting. But far more people die from gun deaths on the street corners of inner city America and across the border as Mexico’s powerful cartels battle to control the drug trade. Guns and drugs aren’t often connected in our heated discussions of gun control-but they should be. In Ioan Grillo’s groundbreaking new work of investigative journalism, he shows us this connection by following the market for guns in the Americas and how it has made the continent the most murderous on earth. On the Colombia Calling podcast, we discuss the arms trade, the drugs trade, the so-called war on drugs and how this all affects Colombia. Grillo is one of the foremost experts on these topics as he is based in Mexico and appears in the world's press repo

On the Colombia Calling podcast this week, we welcome back both Ervin Liz and Simon Winograd and discuss Native Root, their coffee-growing company based in rural Colombia. Check out the page: www.nativerootcoffee.com Colombia, the land of coffee...but which coffee should you choose? My advice - completely uncalled for and unwarranted - is to do a little bit of research and source a coffee where the money returns to the growers, with no middle-men and enables social change. This is where Native Root comes in. I have had the pleasure of hosting both Ervin Liz and Simon Winograd of Native Root on the Colombia Calling podcast on various previous occasions. What I love about Native Root is that it is a family-run outfit, based in Tierradentro, Cauca and between 12 and 30 per cent of all proceeds return to the community. This is an important detail, as Cauca is one of the most complex and conflicted departments in Colombia at the moment. There are warring criminal groups, splinter guerrilla groups, dissident gr

On the Colombia Calling podcast this week we discuss Pablo Escobar's influence on Colombian football in the early 1990's with David Arrowamith, author of a new book: "Narcoball: Love, Death and Football in Escobar's Colombia." In a far-reaching conversation David and I discuss Pablo Escobar, his role in politics, the reality of Colombia in the 1990's, Colombian football in general and much more. If you like the true crime genre and have a smattering of interest in football, then this one's for you! Buy the book: https://a.co/d/0hZPJRF0 Support the podcast: www.patreon.com/colombiacalling Sign up to Emily Hart's Substack: https://substack.com/@ehart