Podcast appearances and mentions of alexis okeowo

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie recaps the books she read and loved in February. You get 10% off your books when you order your February Reading Recap. Each month, we offer a Reading Recap bundle, which features Annie's favorite books she read that month. To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, stop by The Bookshelf in Thomasville, visit our website (search “Episode 518”), or download and shop on The Bookshelf's official app: How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris Tilt by Emma Pattee (releases 3/25/25) The Road to Tender Hearts by Annie Hartnett (releases 4/29/25) Blessings and Disasters by Alexis Okeowo (releases 8/5/25) Among Friends by Hal Ebbott (releases 6/24/25) Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy (releases 3/4/25) Annie's February Reading Recap Pairing - $52 How to Sleep at Night by Elizabeth Harris Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram, Tiktok, and Facebook, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Elon Musk by Walter Isaacson. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Beth, Stephanie Dean, Linda Lee Drozt, Ashley Ferrell, Wendi Jenkins, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Gene Queens, Cammy Tidwell, Jammie Treadwell, and Amanda Whigham.

In How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023), Jonathan D. Fitzgerald examines a mode of journalistic storytelling dating back nearly two centuries. Literary journalism arose in the decades before the U.S. Civil War alongside the era's sentimental literature. Combining fact-based reporting with the sentimentality of popular fiction, literary journalism encouraged readers to empathize with subjects by presenting more nuanced and engaging stories than typical news coverage. While women writers were central to the formation and ongoing significance of the genre, literary journalism scholarship has largely ignored their contributions. How the News Feels re-centers the work of a range of writers who were active from the 1830s until today, including Catharine Williams, Margaret Fuller, Nellie Bly, Winifred Black, Zora Neale Hurston, Joan Didion, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Alexis Okeowo. Offering intimate access to their subjects' thoughts, motivations, and yearnings, these journalists encouraged readers to empathize with society's outcasts, from asylum inmates and murder suspects to "fallen women" and the working poor. As this carefully researched study shows, these writers succeeded in defining and developing the genre of literary journalism, with stories that inspire action, engender empathy, and narrow the gap between writer, subject, and audience. James Kates is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has worked as an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023), Jonathan D. Fitzgerald examines a mode of journalistic storytelling dating back nearly two centuries. Literary journalism arose in the decades before the U.S. Civil War alongside the era's sentimental literature. Combining fact-based reporting with the sentimentality of popular fiction, literary journalism encouraged readers to empathize with subjects by presenting more nuanced and engaging stories than typical news coverage. While women writers were central to the formation and ongoing significance of the genre, literary journalism scholarship has largely ignored their contributions. How the News Feels re-centers the work of a range of writers who were active from the 1830s until today, including Catharine Williams, Margaret Fuller, Nellie Bly, Winifred Black, Zora Neale Hurston, Joan Didion, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Alexis Okeowo. Offering intimate access to their subjects' thoughts, motivations, and yearnings, these journalists encouraged readers to empathize with society's outcasts, from asylum inmates and murder suspects to "fallen women" and the working poor. As this carefully researched study shows, these writers succeeded in defining and developing the genre of literary journalism, with stories that inspire action, engender empathy, and narrow the gap between writer, subject, and audience. James Kates is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has worked as an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

In How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023), Jonathan D. Fitzgerald examines a mode of journalistic storytelling dating back nearly two centuries. Literary journalism arose in the decades before the U.S. Civil War alongside the era's sentimental literature. Combining fact-based reporting with the sentimentality of popular fiction, literary journalism encouraged readers to empathize with subjects by presenting more nuanced and engaging stories than typical news coverage. While women writers were central to the formation and ongoing significance of the genre, literary journalism scholarship has largely ignored their contributions. How the News Feels re-centers the work of a range of writers who were active from the 1830s until today, including Catharine Williams, Margaret Fuller, Nellie Bly, Winifred Black, Zora Neale Hurston, Joan Didion, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Alexis Okeowo. Offering intimate access to their subjects' thoughts, motivations, and yearnings, these journalists encouraged readers to empathize with society's outcasts, from asylum inmates and murder suspects to "fallen women" and the working poor. As this carefully researched study shows, these writers succeeded in defining and developing the genre of literary journalism, with stories that inspire action, engender empathy, and narrow the gap between writer, subject, and audience. James Kates is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has worked as an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

In How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023), Jonathan D. Fitzgerald examines a mode of journalistic storytelling dating back nearly two centuries. Literary journalism arose in the decades before the U.S. Civil War alongside the era's sentimental literature. Combining fact-based reporting with the sentimentality of popular fiction, literary journalism encouraged readers to empathize with subjects by presenting more nuanced and engaging stories than typical news coverage. While women writers were central to the formation and ongoing significance of the genre, literary journalism scholarship has largely ignored their contributions. How the News Feels re-centers the work of a range of writers who were active from the 1830s until today, including Catharine Williams, Margaret Fuller, Nellie Bly, Winifred Black, Zora Neale Hurston, Joan Didion, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Alexis Okeowo. Offering intimate access to their subjects' thoughts, motivations, and yearnings, these journalists encouraged readers to empathize with society's outcasts, from asylum inmates and murder suspects to "fallen women" and the working poor. As this carefully researched study shows, these writers succeeded in defining and developing the genre of literary journalism, with stories that inspire action, engender empathy, and narrow the gap between writer, subject, and audience. James Kates is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has worked as an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

In How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023), Jonathan D. Fitzgerald examines a mode of journalistic storytelling dating back nearly two centuries. Literary journalism arose in the decades before the U.S. Civil War alongside the era's sentimental literature. Combining fact-based reporting with the sentimentality of popular fiction, literary journalism encouraged readers to empathize with subjects by presenting more nuanced and engaging stories than typical news coverage. While women writers were central to the formation and ongoing significance of the genre, literary journalism scholarship has largely ignored their contributions. How the News Feels re-centers the work of a range of writers who were active from the 1830s until today, including Catharine Williams, Margaret Fuller, Nellie Bly, Winifred Black, Zora Neale Hurston, Joan Didion, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Alexis Okeowo. Offering intimate access to their subjects' thoughts, motivations, and yearnings, these journalists encouraged readers to empathize with society's outcasts, from asylum inmates and murder suspects to "fallen women" and the working poor. As this carefully researched study shows, these writers succeeded in defining and developing the genre of literary journalism, with stories that inspire action, engender empathy, and narrow the gap between writer, subject, and audience. James Kates is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has worked as an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023), Jonathan D. Fitzgerald examines a mode of journalistic storytelling dating back nearly two centuries. Literary journalism arose in the decades before the U.S. Civil War alongside the era's sentimental literature. Combining fact-based reporting with the sentimentality of popular fiction, literary journalism encouraged readers to empathize with subjects by presenting more nuanced and engaging stories than typical news coverage. While women writers were central to the formation and ongoing significance of the genre, literary journalism scholarship has largely ignored their contributions. How the News Feels re-centers the work of a range of writers who were active from the 1830s until today, including Catharine Williams, Margaret Fuller, Nellie Bly, Winifred Black, Zora Neale Hurston, Joan Didion, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Alexis Okeowo. Offering intimate access to their subjects' thoughts, motivations, and yearnings, these journalists encouraged readers to empathize with society's outcasts, from asylum inmates and murder suspects to "fallen women" and the working poor. As this carefully researched study shows, these writers succeeded in defining and developing the genre of literary journalism, with stories that inspire action, engender empathy, and narrow the gap between writer, subject, and audience. James Kates is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has worked as an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

In How the News Feels: The Empathic Power of Literary Journalists (University of Massachusetts Press, 2023), Jonathan D. Fitzgerald examines a mode of journalistic storytelling dating back nearly two centuries. Literary journalism arose in the decades before the U.S. Civil War alongside the era's sentimental literature. Combining fact-based reporting with the sentimentality of popular fiction, literary journalism encouraged readers to empathize with subjects by presenting more nuanced and engaging stories than typical news coverage. While women writers were central to the formation and ongoing significance of the genre, literary journalism scholarship has largely ignored their contributions. How the News Feels re-centers the work of a range of writers who were active from the 1830s until today, including Catharine Williams, Margaret Fuller, Nellie Bly, Winifred Black, Zora Neale Hurston, Joan Didion, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, and Alexis Okeowo. Offering intimate access to their subjects' thoughts, motivations, and yearnings, these journalists encouraged readers to empathize with society's outcasts, from asylum inmates and murder suspects to "fallen women" and the working poor. As this carefully researched study shows, these writers succeeded in defining and developing the genre of literary journalism, with stories that inspire action, engender empathy, and narrow the gap between writer, subject, and audience. James Kates is a professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. He has worked as an editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other publications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/journalism

Conflict, repression, economic circumstances, drought, and famine have driven the migration of nearly 2 million people from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to Southern Europe in the last decade. Migrants all over the world have died and gone missing at alarming rates. In the past decade, this endless tragedy has plagued the Mediterranean Sea in particular. Since 2014, over 25,000 migrants have gone missing and presumably died while taking the perilous journey asea. Aid groups like who have been giving life-saving assistance to migrants who cross are now being criminalized. Twenty-four aid workers in Greece stand trial for helping migrants who were crossing through the Mediterranean. We speak with New Yorker staff writer Alexis Okeowo who covers conflict, culture, and human rights across Africa, Mexico, and the American South to better understand the scale and impact of this crisis and what can be done to improve migration conditions.

Conflict, repression, economic circumstances, drought, and famine have driven the migration of nearly 2 million people from Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East to Southern Europe in the last decade. Migrants all over the world have died and gone missing at alarming rates. In the past decade, this endless tragedy has plagued the Mediterranean Sea in particular. Since 2014, over 25,000 migrants have gone missing and presumably died while taking the perilous journey asea. Aid groups like who have been giving life-saving assistance to migrants who cross are now being criminalized. Twenty-four aid workers in Greece stand trial for helping migrants who were crossing through the Mediterranean. We speak with New Yorker staff writer Alexis Okeowo who covers conflict, culture, and human rights across Africa, Mexico, and the American South to better understand the scale and impact of this crisis and what can be done to improve migration conditions.

Last week, a draft opinion was leaked which suggests that a majority of Supreme Court Justices are ready to overturn the precedents of Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey—the decisions that have guaranteed a right to abortion at the federal level.  The case in question is Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, in which Mississippi officials seek to close the state's last remaining abortion clinic under a law that bans performing an abortion after the fifteenth week of pregnancy—a point well before the time of fetal viability.  In November, Rachel Monroe visited the Jackson abortion clinic, speaking to its director, Shannon Brewer; a physician who asked to remain anonymous, describing the risks to abortion providers; and a patient, who had driven all night from Texas, where she was not able to obtain an abortion. “Somebody else is telling me what I should do with my body, and it's not right,” she said. “It's my body. It's my decision. It's my choice. It's my life. It's my soul, if it's going to Hell.” Produced with assistance from Ezekiel Bandy and Kim Green. This segment originally aired November 19, 2021.   Plus, the staff writer Alexis Okeowo talks with the producer Ngofeen Mputubwele about why the Ukrainian refugee crisis seems both familiar and startlingly different from conflicts in other parts of the world.

Jonathan Bastian talks with George Makari, historian and author of “Of Fear and Strangers: A History of Xenophobia,” about the origins of xenophobia and why people get gratification from hate. Later, Alexis Okeowo, staff writer at The New Yorker and author of “A Moonless, Starless Sky,” and Danish documentary filmmaker Simon Lereng Wilmont discuss the reality of refugee camps and children stuck in war zones.

Subscribe to Quotomania on Simplecast or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast app!Poet and activist Warsan Shire grew up in London. She is the author of the collections Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (flipped eye, 2011), Her Blue Body (flipped eye, 2015), Our Men Do Not Belong to Us (Slapering Hol Press and Poetry Foundation, 2015), and Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head (Random House, forthcoming 2021). Her poems have appeared in journals and magazines, including Poetry Review, Wasafiri, and Sable LitMag; in the anthologies Salt Book of Younger Poets (2011), Long Journeys: African Migrants on the Road (2013), and Poems That Make Grown Women Cry (2016); as well as in Beyoncé's visual album Lemonade (2016) and film Black Is King (2020).According to Alexis Okeowo in the New Yorker, Shire's work “embodies the kind of shape-shifting, culture-juggling spirit lurking in most people who can't trace their ancestors to their country's founding fathers, or whose ancestors look nothing like those fathers. In that limbo, Shire conjures up a new language for belonging and displacement.” Shire's poems connect gender, war, sex, and cultural assumptions; in her work, poetry is a healing agent for the trauma of exile and suffering. In an interview, Shire noted, “Character driven poetry is important for me—it's being able to tell the stories of those people, especially refugees and immigrants, that otherwise wouldn't be told, or they'll be told really inaccurately. And I don't want to write victims, or martyrs, or vacuous stereotypes … my family are really amazing—they'll tell me, ‘I have a new story for you,' and I'll get my Dictaphone and record it, so I can stay as true as possible to the story before I make it into a poem.”Shire has read her work in South Africa, Italy, Germany, and the United States. In 2013, she won Brunel University's first African Poetry Prize. In 2014, she was named the first Young Poet Laureate for London and chosen as poet-in-residence for Queensland, Australia. In 2017 she was included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. In 2019 she wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising,narrated by Tess Thompson and David Oyelowo, and became the youngest person to ever be inducted into the Royal Society of Literature.Shire is poetry editor of Spook Magazine and guest edited Young Sable LitMag.For more information about Warsan Shire:Previously on The Quarantine Tapes:Suketu Mehta on Shire, at 09:18: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-079-suketu-mehtaTim Robbins on Shire, at 07:10: https://quarantine-tapes.simplecast.com/episodes/the-quarantine-tapes-113-tim-robbinsHome read by Warsan Shire: "Home" by Warsan ShireNY Times: Warsan Shire, the Woman Who Gave Poetry to Beyoncé's ‘Lemonade'https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/28/arts/music/warsan-shire-who-gave-poetry-to-beyonces-lemonade.html

Today's Daily Quotation:Home by Warsan Shireno one leaves home unlesshome is the mouth of a sharkyou only run for the borderwhen you see the whole city running as wellyour neighbors running faster than youbreath bloody in their throatsthe boy you went to school withwho kissed you dizzy behind the old tin factoryis holding a gun bigger than his bodyyou only leave homewhen home won't let you stay.no one leaves home unless home chases youfire under feethot blood in your bellyit's not something you ever thought of doinguntil the blade burnt threats intoyour neckand even then you carried the anthem underyour breathonly tearing up your passport in an airport toiletsobbing as each mouthful of papermade it clear that you wouldn't be going back.you have to understand,that no one puts their children in a boatunless the water is safer than the landno one burns their palmsunder trainsbeneath carriagesno one spends days and nights in the stomach of a truckfeeding on newspaper unless the miles travelledmeans something more than journey.no one crawls under fencesno one wants to be beatenpitiedno one chooses refugee campsor strip searches where yourbody is left achingor prison,because prison is saferthan a city of fireand one prison guardin the nightis better than a truckloadof men who look like your fatherno one could take itno one could stomach itno one skin would be tough enoughthego home blacksrefugeesdirty immigrantsasylum seekerssucking our country dryniggers with their hands outthey smell strangesavagemessed up their country and now they wantto mess ours uphow do the wordsthe dirty looksroll off your backsmaybe because the blow is softerthan a limb torn offor the words are more tenderthan fourteen men betweenyour legsor the insults are easierto swallowthan rubblethan bonethan your child bodyin pieces.i want to go home,but home is the mouth of a sharkhome is the barrel of the gunand no one would leave homeunless home chased you to the shoreunless home told youto quicken your legsleave your clothes behindcrawl through the desertwade through the oceansdrownsavebe hungerbegforget prideyour survival is more importantno one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your earsaying-leave,run away from me nowi don't know what i've becomebut i know that anywhereis safer than here__________________________________________ Poet and activist Warsan Shire grew up in London. She is the author of the collections Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth (flipped eye, 2011), Her Blue Body (flipped eye, 2015), Our Men Do Not Belong to Us (Slapering Hol Press and Poetry Foundation, 2015), and Bless The Daughter Raised By A Voice In Her Head (Random House, forthcoming 2021). Her poems have appeared in journals and magazines, including Poetry Review, Wasafiri, and Sable LitMag; in the anthologies Salt Book of Younger Poets (2011), Long Journeys: African Migrants on the Road (2013), and Poems That Make Grown Women Cry (2016); as well as in Beyoncé's visual album Lemonade (2016) and film Black Is King (2020).According to Alexis Okeowo in the New Yorker, Shire's work “embodies the kind of shape-shifting, culture-juggling spirit lurking in most people who can't trace their ancestors to their country's founding fathers, or whose ancestors look nothing like those fathers. In that limbo, Shire conjures up a new language for belonging and displacement.” Shire's poems connect gender, war, sex, and cultural assumptions; in her work, poetry is a healing agent for the trauma of exile and suffering. In an interview, Shire noted, “Character driven poetry is important for me—it's being able to tell the stories of those people, especially refugees and immigrants, that otherwise wouldn't be told, or they'll be told really inaccurately. And I don't want to write victims, or martyrs, or vacuous stereotypes … my family are really amazing—they'll tell me, ‘I have a new story for you,' and I'll get my Dictaphone and record it, so I can stay as true as possible to the story before I make it into a poem.”Shire has read her work in South Africa, Italy, Germany, and the United States. In 2013, she won Brunel University's first African Poetry Prize. In 2014, she was named the first Young Poet Laureate for London and chosen as poet-in-residence for Queensland, Australia. In 2017 she was included in the Penguin Modern Poets series. In 2019 she wrote the short film Brave Girl Rising,narrated by Tess Thompson and David Oyelowo, and became the youngest person to ever be inducted into the Royal Society of Literature.Shire is poetry editor of Spook Magazine and guest edited Young Sable LitMag.

Making history was the first step. Now Vice President Kamala Harris has an even more monumental task: to help heal a fractured America—and lead it out of crisis. This is VOGUE's much-discussed February issue cover story, written by Alexis Okeowo, narrated by Vogue.com editor Chioma Nnadi. Find the full February cover article here, and for more of Alexis, Chioma, and VOGUE, make sure to subscribe to VOGUE Stories on: Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vogue-stories Spotify: open.spotify.com/vogue-stories Google: podcasts.google.com/vogue-stories or wherever you listen to podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alexis Okeowo interviews Ishmael Beah (author of the memoir A Long Way Gone) about his new novel Little Family, a story of the connections we forge to survive the fate we're dealt. The two discuss the novel's origins in several African nations and the US, the development of its characters, and its relation to African politics and corruption, as well as the experiences of people living on the margins, and how much we're all learning about how interconnected we all are. (Recorded May 7, 2020)

On today's episode, we talk to poet Vincent Bristow, part of the Open Doors arts and justice collaborative here in New York City that works mainly with people impacted by street violence. He speaks about how COVID has impacted his community and shares an original poem. Then, we listen in on a conversation from our These Truths podcast between writers Alexis Okeowo and Ishmael Beah. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/penamerica/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/penamerica/support

In this conversation, Sierra Leonean-American author Ishmael Beah and New Yorker staff writer Alexis Okeowo discuss how fiction can help us navigate some of the most unrelenting humanitarian crises of our age. To enjoy more from the writers of the Digital PEN World Voices Festival, visit pen.org/worldvoicesdigital, and stay up to date on our latest offerings by following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @penworldvoices PEN America thanks the following sponsors for their support of the 2020 PEN World Voices Festival: The National Endowment for the Arts New York State Council on the Arts The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs The Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (New York City) Amazon Literary Partnership The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Acton Family Giving

New Yorker writer Alexis Okeowo wants to tell stories differently. Her new book A Moonless Starless Sky, tells the stories of people affected by extremism in Africa.In this episode, Alexis tells us how she came to find two of the main characters of her book: Eunice and Bosco, a couple with a complicated past.Warning: mention of sexual violence.Read all about it:https://www.littlebrown.co.uk/books/detail.page?isbn=9781472153708https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/mar/04/uganda-sudan-trauma-child-soldiers-alexis-okeowo-moonless-starless-sky-book-extract Hosted and produced: Maeve McClenaghanMusic: Dice Muse, Podington Bear, Springtide, Blue Dot Sessions.@MaeveMCC@TipOffPodcast See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

American writer and journalist Alexis Okeowo works for the new yorker as a staff writer and has spent years reporting across Africa, the experience of which she has now chronicled in a new book.   

Welcome, welcome, welcome to episode 198 of the Distraction Pieces Podcast with Scroobius Pip! As always, the entire crew at the DPP Towers wishes you well and trusts that you are in good health. Here’s a powerful episode right here to get your Wednesday off to a fine start, as Pip is joined for a full chat with journalist Alexis Okeowo!Alexis is a journalist for the New Yorker, who has just released her immense book ‘A Moonless, Starless Sky - Ordinary Women And Men Fighting Extremism In Africa’, which details several encounters with the human side of extremism and radicalism in Africa. Approaching from a sober angle, not from an exaggerated ‘Breaking News’ stance that we are so used to in media, Alexis meets the people behind the stories and explores the humanity within, the religious complexities, the security obstacles, gender issues, just an insane amount for one person to deal with. But she has put herself deep in the situations and emerged with some incredible and touching stories which you would possibly never hear otherwise. She chats with Pip about many of these tales, exploring them further and revealing many of the points in her path which shaped and moulded her career. Candid, honest, and hugely interesting, so give this one your attention and discover much about a side of the world that is not always shown to us - Alexis is the woman to do it!––––– ––––– –––––This episode's links:• ALEXIS OKEOWO on TWITTER!• A MOONLESS, STARLESS SKY book!• ALEXIS at THE NEW YORKER!• ALEXIS OKEOWO blog!• SCROOBUS PIP on TWITTER!• SCROOBIUS PIP on INSTAGRAM!• SPEECH DEVELOPMENT RECORDS • DISTRACTION PIECES NETWORK on FACEBOOK• DISTRACTION PIECES NETWORK on INSTAGRAM• NEW LISTENERS TAKE NOTE!!! You can find the full DISTRACTION PIECES episode list HERE!• FOLLOW AND ENJOY!!! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Alexis Okeowo, a writer for the New Yorker, is joined in conversation by Mimi Lok from Voice of Witness to discuss the stories of ordinary people fighting extremism in Africa.

Alexis Okeowo is a staff writer for the New Yorker whose debut book was published earlier this month. The book,  A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa has been getting rave reviews --  rightfully so. The book tells the story of subtle forms of resistance; how individuals, in their own way, are pushing back against injustice. In doing so, she shines a light on some important though often overlooked global stories, like slavery in the country of Mauritania or the plight former child soldiers in Uganda.  Alexis traces her interest in these issues to her upbringing as an American born child of Nigerian immigrants to Montgomery, Alabama where Rosa Park's act of resistance ignited a civil rights movement. Alexis discusses her career in journalism, including some key stories she reported on like the Chibok School girls kidnapping in 2014. Become a premium subscriber to unlock bonus episodes, earn other rewards, and support the show!  

For her entire life, German-born and -educated Souad Mekhennet has had to balance the two sides of her upbringing—Muslim and Western—and provide a mediating voice between these cultures, which too often misunderstand each other. In Mekhennet's new memoir, I Was Told To Come Alone, she journeys behind the lines of jihad, starting in the German neighborhoods where the 9/11 plotters were radicalized and culminating on the Turkish-Syrian border where ISIS is a daily presence. Traveling across the Middle East and North Africa, she documents the failed promise of the Arab Spring, and then returns to Europe, where she uncovers the identity of notorious ISIS executioner "Jihadi John" and delves into the terror that has pierced the heart of Western civilization. With unprecedented access to some of the world's most wanted men, she's told to never come alone to an interview. As she gets closer and closer to the inner circles of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS, and their affiliates, she can never underestimate the personal danger that awaits her destination. Join New America NYC for the release of New America fellow Souad Mekhennet's I Was Told To Come Alone and for a conversation on her journey coming face to face with the figures most of us confront only in news headlines. PARTICIPANTS Souad Mekhennet @smekhennet Correspondent, The Washington Post Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fellow, New America Author, I Was Told To Come Alone: My Journey Behind the Lines of Jihad   Alexis Okeowo @alexis_okStaff writer, The New YorkerFellow, New America Author, A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa (forthcoming)

What's it like working as a foreign correspondent? You're about to find out. Alexis Okeowo spent a good part of her career in Nigeria, Uganda and Mexico freelancing for various publications/organizations, including the New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Financial Times and the international news agency, Agence France-Press. Alexis, who joined the New Yorker as a staff writer in 2015, is working on a book: A Moonless, Starless Sky: Womoen and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa. She shares the challenges and rewards of global reporting as a woman in what's typically thought of as a man's world.

Alexis Okeowo, a foreign correspondent, has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine and Businessweek. “Nigeria is a deeply sexist country. It can be difficult for people to take you seriously. But that also has its benefits, because it’s very easy to disarm your subjects. If I’m interviewing people who underestimate me, I can get them to open up because they somehow think that I’m naïve or I don’t know what I’m doing. So I don’t mind if some sexist general or banker thinks I’m this young little student who doesn’t know what she’s talking about. As long as you tell me what I want to know, it’s great.” Thanks to TinyLetter and MarketingProfs for sponsoring this week's episode. Show Notes: @alexis_ok alexisokeowo.com Okeowo on Longform [7:00] "Nigeria’s Stolen Girls" (New Yorker • Apr 2014) [19:00] "Inside the Vigilante Fight Against Boko Haram" (New York Times Magazine • Nov 2014) [31:00] "Freedom Fighter" (New Yorker • Sep 2014) [33:00] "Lagos Must Prosper" (Granta • Apr 2015) [51:00] "How the Lord’s Resistance Army Forced Captives to Become Couples" (FT Weekend Magazine • Jul 2013)