Podcast #012: International Borders

Standing barefoot on the metal circular plaque that marks the old Iron Curtain boundary between Italy and Slovenia, in the towns of Gorizia/Nova Gorica.

Welcome to Episode 12 of my “Travel Tales From Beyond The Brochure” podcast.

I actually issued this pod a couple of weeks ago, but seem to have neglected to post it on my website – indeed I’ve done a podcast since this one too, in my current efficient and hard-working ways. Or something.

This is the second part of my pods around international borders; whereas the previous episode looked at experiences when crossing international borders, this episode looks more at the borders themselves (both international and domestic), how sometimes they don’t really exist, and about what they mean to the people on the wrong side of them. It’s quite a political, opinionated, and forthright episode with not as much of the humour as previous episodes, but the subject matter is a bit too important to pass over lightly.

So, in the pod, I talk about:
* Future episodes of my podcast, and the subjects I’ll be covering
* The book I’m writing about my West African adventures
* Finding my ‘tribe’ for a couple of outside hobbies/interests of mine
* Crossing the border into Transnistria
* Other countries that don’t exist, and why they don’t exist, even though they do
* What even makes a country – is Guernsey a country? Is Kosovo?
* The Principle Of Territorial Integrity
* How many of the world’s borders are, essentially, fake – especially in Africa
* What happens when internal borders change, with specific reference to the former Soviet Union
* Are people that different either side of a border

You can listen via the feed above, or via Spotify, or on your podcast app of choice 🙂 Let me know if it isn’t, by the way, and I’ll see what I can do.

As always, if you have anything to say about the topic, or indeed about my podcasting in general, leave a comment or let me know. There is a Facebook group for my podcast that you’re free to join: Click here!

There is only one contribution in this podcast – Laura at ‘Tumbleweed Chronicles’ provides an extended contribution covering almost half the episod, where she talks about her experience of what borders mean to her, and looking at them from the point of view of an immigrant.

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