Home of the Brave

Reports from the Sonoran Desert, sixty miles south of Tucson, in March of 2005.

A trip to Afghanistan in November of 2001.

My first overseas story.

Swim lessons at the Sandwich Aquatic Center in Sandwich, New Hampshire.

An attempt to forget who I am.

a short stint in commercial radio

My first story for This American Life.

A story about trying to make a home during hard times.

A radio play about how we, as a culture, deal with death and dying.

A canoe trip down the Green River, from the top in Wyoming to the confluence with the Colorado River in southern Utah.

A tragic day in the Wasatch Mountains.

A cultural history of the Great Salt Lake Desert.

An audio essay of my neighborhood.

Testing my brother's theory of human evolution by trying to run down a pronghorn antelope in Wyoming.

About being afraid to criticize Israel.

Dr. Nizam Mamode describes his experiences while volunteering at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza last August and September.

My take on what happened in the election.

A short essay on what I know about fascism.

I wrote this after I got back home Wednesday night, but it took a few days to get it posted. Thanks very much for your support.

An Interview with Dr. Edward Alam, professor of philosophy and theology at Notre Dame University in Lebanon.

Four more interviews with people on the street in Beirut.

An interview with Yehya Youness, owner of Electrip, an electric scooter company in Beirut.

I lifted this image from a L'Orient Today story. I made a mistake about the date. I meant Friday, October 11th. This is a short piece recorded in my hotel room following last night's bombing in Central Beirut. Donate

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A family camping out along the beach in Beirut to avoid being bombed in their home. Donate

A family camping along the beach in Beirut to avoid being bombed in their home.

A photo-journalist's account of the first days of the war in Ukraine.

I'm going to take a break for awhile, at least until the pandemic is over. Thanks very much for your support and letters. I will be back with more stories soon.

Alan Chin describes what it was like at the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday.

Part Two of a trip across the country two months before the 2020 election.

Interviews from a road trip across the country.

The seventh and final report from a long trip across the country before the 2020 Presidential Election.

The sixth report from a long trip across the country.

The fifth report from a long trip across the country.

The fourth report from a long trip across the country.

Third report from a long road trip across the country.

Second report from a long trip across the country.

A new series of reports from a long trip across the country.

I went fishing in some beautiful mountains I first visited in 1968 when I was a Boy Scout. When I was older, we took our kids there so they could see it as well. It’s still very beautiful, but things have changed due to global warming.

My thinking is off, my approach is wrong...time to go fishing.

I recorded these interviews with my family two weeks ago, before George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis. Now they seem unimportant, like from another era. Except that in my family it’s the younger folk who have been mostly fucked by the virus pandemic, and it’s been young people, mostly, who’ve been out on the streets protesting. I hope their efforts lead to real change in our society. Donate

Following the news is like watching a competition for the worst case scenario and I’ve grown weary of all the blaming and shaming. Now we can’t trust anyone, not even ourselves. But at some point we’re going to have to come together in order to survive. I’m working on a story where I interview people in my family about how they’re coping with the pandemic. Not everyone is doing well, and it’s pretty emotional for me, so I need to take some more time putting it together. In the meantime, thanks very much for your support.A link to an excellent documentary about Alex Caldiero. Donate

It seems more of us are paying attention to our neighborhoods lately, so perhaps this is a good time to replay this story, produced in 1988. I still live in the same neighborhood, but it feels different now. It’s like there was a tall tree in my front yard but now the tree is gone and only a stump remains. I am stumped. I used to depend on trust—standing or sitting close to strangers and holding a microphone less than a foot from their faces. Now that’s not going to happen again for a while. In the meantime, here’s to remembering the good old days. Donate

My friend Trent Harris has a problem caused by the coronavirus. It’s not a big problem compared to a lot of other things that have come up recently, like the possible collapse of the economy and thousands of people dying. Trent’s problem is more like a temporary embarrassment. Basically, his reputation is on the line. Donate Swackhamma tells Harvey a secret. Echo People Episode One on You Tube.Echo People Episode Two on You Tube.Trent Harris’ website is called the Echo Cave.Here’s the This American Life episode about Trent’s film, the Beaver Triology. The cast and crew of Echo People, with Mystery Mountain in the background. Harvey Harris upon seeing Mystery Mountain. Trent Harris wondering what he has done.

Shana from Achterarder, Scotland. My friend Erica Heilman has a podcast called Rumblestrip. She drives around Vermont and talks to people about their lives. Last week she was sitting at home, like everybody, trying to figure out what to do, and she decided to ask her listeners to send her audio recordings of what and how they’re doing under self isolation. A lot of people responded, quickly, and within a couple days Erica posted the first episode of a series she’s calling Our Show. If you’d like to send Erica an audio recording of what’s happening where you are, here’s the email address: rumblestripourshow@gmail.com.Rumblestrip websiteThe song at the end is Atlantic City by Bruce Springsteen, performed by The Band. Donate Looking out Erica Heilman’s apartment in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. Recording ambience from Erica Heilman’s window in St. Johnsbury, Vermont.

This story was originally broadcast on All Things Considered in 1993. The ground was shifting under my feet back then and I had to figure out what to do. Now it’s shifting again, this time everybody’s in it together. There are things we can do, stories to tell, that can make us feel better. Thanks for listening and supporting this show. Donate

Adrienne Kinne just after basic training in 1994. Adrienne Kinne, 2020 I should confess that I have a personal interest in listening to veterans talk about how they recover from war. I was never in the military, but I spent some time overseas as a war correspondent for Esquire, Harper’s, and Mother Jones magazines. I was never in a battle or close to a bomb going off. I saw the aftermath—bodies on the ground, neighborhoods turned to rubble, people silent and in shock. The main thing I have to deal with is knowing that a couple times people who were helping me with my stories were punished, severely, after I left. I got to fly home to America and they had to stay there and suffer the consequences for helping me. I carry this guilt. So when veterans speak of their experiences recovering from war I listen very carefully.Check out the Veterans for Peace website.Here’s a link to Doug Peacock’s website. And a link to Save the Yellowstone Grizzly.And the link to the video of Brandi Carlile performing live on KEXP. Donate Douglas Peacock in 1967 Douglas Peacock south of Ajo, Arizona, 2020

Elliott Woods as a soldier in Iraq, 2004 Today I have a conversation with Elliott Woods, a veteran who is also a very fine writer. He served a year as a combat engineer in northern Iraq. Then he came home and went to school at the University of Virginia, graduating with a degree in English literature. He thought about staying in school and becoming a professor, but he decided he wanted to go back to war, this time as a journalist.Check out Elliott’s website. Donate Elliott Woods as a journalist in Afghanistan, 2009 Elliott Woods at Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, 2019

Garett Reppenhagen in Iraq, 2004 I believe that sometime in the future, sooner or later, people in the United States will admit and accept that we have lost the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and demand that our troops be brought back home. Now we are in denial, which is dangerous because when you’re in denial you keep making the same mistake over and over again. I believe we need to talk about what we’ve done, the mistakes we’ve made, the crimes we’ve committed in order to move from denial to acceptance and then figure out how to change the way we respond to terrorism. This interview is the first in a series with veterans who fought in our wars and now are working for peace. Here’s a link to Veterans for Peace. Donate Garett Reppenhagen, 2008

Last spring I was invited to speak at the Oorzaken Audio Festival in Amsterdam. I remember seeing leaves come out on the trees along the canals and tulips blooming on the bridges. The first night I was there i was interviewed on stage at the Torpedo Theater by the hosts of the Podcastclub, a Dutch podcast hosted by Lieven Heeremans and Misha Melita. This time I’m the one answering the questions. Donate

His real name is Alissandru Francesco Caldiero, born into the old world on the island of Sicily, he came to the U.S. on a boat when he was nine years old, sailing past the Statue of Liberty. When I first met him, nearly 30 years later, he was screaming a Dada poem at a sandstone wall in southern Utah—repeating the same line, “This is not it,” over and over, faster and faster in a near epileptic seizure. In that moment our lives became intertwined.I think of this story as a song, a lament for not fitting in and feeling like you can’t make sense of the world around you, which is how I’ve been feeling lately. The story was originally broadcast on NPR’s Day to Day in 2003, right around the time we went to war in Iraq.To learn more about Alex Caldiero, check out this excellent documentary, The Sonosopher. Photos by Ashley Thalman. Donate