Colombia Calling - The English Voice in Colombia

Episode 309 is an entertaining look at the Colombia Calling podcast as Richard McColl moves from being the host to the interviewee and Joseph Czikk takes over. Long-time listener of the Colombia Calling podcast and self-declared "Colombia Evangelist,"Joseph Czikk made a suggestion over email to me that he be permitted to record a podcast episode with him as the host talking to me and having me reflect on some of the more memorable shows over the years dating back to 2016.

Jim Davies may have the midas touch for storytelling, that or he has an innate ability to find himself in the most peculiar of situations. Revisiting the Colombia Calling podcast - the first time being Ep79 in 204 when he spoke of his friendship with Danya (of secret service fame) and the legendary footballer Tino Asprilla - this time he manages to fit some of the most amusing anecdates, all true, about his life in Cali

Our guest on Ep307 of the Colombia Calling podcast is Dr Julia Zulver (PhD Oxford), who is a political sociologist whose work focuses on women’s mobilisation in high risk contexts, mainly in Latin America, and of course, including Colombia. We'll be discussing the "precarious peace" in Colombia which the country is now experiencing and indeed some of the different gender-based issues which she has had the opportunity to study whilst here.

On the first episode of 2020, the Colombia Calling podcast speaks to hiker and guide Gabriel Torres who is based in the breathtaking colonial setting of Barichar, Santander. The reason for having Gabriel on the show is not only to promote Colombia's oft-voted most beautiful colonial town, but also to hear about his project to map large parts of the country's Camino Reales

In the final episode of the Colombia Calling podcast for 2019, we welcome Bogotana Juliana Cuccaro on the show to speak to us about some of the environmental challenges facing Colombia. Juliana Cuccaro is fresh from completing her MA in Science Communication at the University of the West of England in Bristol - no she hasn't developed a west-country accent - and she is keen to start working on reporting on environmental and science issues affecting Colombia.

Michael Sichenzia is looking out for the underdog and as an investor in a small furniture business in Yumbo, southwest Colombia, close to the city of Cali, he has a vested interest in the stability and economy of the country. We get him on the line from Florida and speak to him about various topics, most importantly and timely are of course the way in which the current protests in Colombia could affect business and foreign direct investment

You'll all remember Daniel Eggington from Ep277 where, from his home in Birmingham, England, he told us of his plans to cross the Darien Gap between Colombia and Panama in December 2019. Well, Eggington is back and in Medellin and speaks to us on the line to keep us updated about his plans

It is a great pleasure to welcome seasoned conflict correspondent Toby Muse on to the Colombia Calling podcast this week to talk about his new book, "Kilo: Inside the Deadliest Cocaine Cartels―from the Jungles to the Streets."

With Adriaan Alsema, the director of Colombia Reports, we discuss some of the reasons behind the protests and some of the events and scandals which have taken place and why. Tune in to this episode to understand the current unrest in Colombia.

In a critique of the pornographic webcam industry, Maud Madlyn and Andres Montes Zuluaga go where many have never even considered going, they sign up to become webcam models in order to better understand the dynamics behind this business to open a debate around sexual violence and gender violence in Colombia. Tune in to hear about the darker side of the webcam world in Colombia, from a man and a woman, who decided to explore it for themselves, as the observed.

Charles Massey from Ottawa joins us once again (hear his Bollywood in Barranquilla Ep215) to entertain the colombia calling podcast listeners with a Kishore Kumar bollywood song, sung live for us here in Bogota. But, while we discuss Massey's life since he moved back to Canada after his time as a teacher in Barranquilla, we get to know our interviewee a little more and are even privy to an exclusive reading of one of his poems.

Hailing from Texas, Dulan Baddour cut his teeth in journalism before heading down south to Colombia. Here, he reports on issues talking place in Colombia and the fall out from the humanitarian tragedy currently on-going in Venezuela. Perhaps my favourite piece written by Baddour is about former FARC guerrillas, who are trying to make a life of it beyond the reintegration camps run by the government.

Adam Isacson of WOLA (The Washington Office on Latin America) needs no introduction to the latin americanists amongst us, but, suffice it to say that it was an honour to invite him on the Colombia Calling podcast and hear his thoughts about recent events here in Colombia

We are incredibly fortunate to welcome freelance foreign correspondent Steven Grattan on the Colombia Calling podcast this week as we managed to snare him before he was off into the wilds reporting on the latest story from Colombia Grattan has been based in Bogotá since 2013 and he's been incredibly busy

Ervin Liz has appeared on the Colombia Calling podcast on two previous occiasions, firstly discussing the Colombian Coffee Connection (Ep201) and then the protests in southwestern Colombia in April (Ep267) and now he's back, as the President of the Colombian National Committee for the United World College (UWC), and sharing with us a little about how his experience of international travel and education broadened his mind and made him the person he is today