Some months ago I received a very welcome email message from a long-time listener of the Colombia Calling podcast and self-proclaimed, “Colombia Evangelist,” Joseph “Joey” Czikk of Montreal. It’s always a real pleasure to read over emails of the type he sent, in truth I must mention that I don’t receive a lot of hate-mail mainly trolls on social media, and a conversation started up about his trips to Colombia, his work as a journalist, the experience of having crashed on Adriaan Alsema’s (Colombia Reports) sofa in Medellin and much more.
Anyway our email exchanges continued with Joey offering appreciated feedback and then the gracious invitation to join him for a beer, coffee and even lunch when he was next in Bogotá. Now, this grubby freelancer will ordinarily leap at the chance and will eagerly travel for food, beer and coffee but having just become a father for the second time, my sorties out from our home are limited somewhat.
Then Joey had a fantastic idea.
His suggestion was 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. Now, to date I have recorded 308 episode and some are notably better than others, some are awful and some are average. But, there’s a market for all types. And so, we went for it and the result is Ep309 (28/2/20).
In order to prepare for this show, Joey requested that I might put together a list of episodes about which we could speak and here’s the resulting list – the task was overwhelming and the list became very extended.
1. Literature and History
302 Toby Muse with Kilo
272 Mark Litwicki with Bogotano por Accidente
268 Dr Matthew Brown on the British Legion
263 Emma Louise Jay on Jose Maria Cordova
224 Juan Fernando Hincapie with Mother Tongue a Bogotan Story
210 Bogotá Writers, Voices of Bogotá
208 Eduardo Bechara, the new Voices of South American Poetry
205 Kelly Brooke Nichols, A Reluctant Warrior
199 Julianne Pachico, the Lucky Ones
183 Tom Feiling, the Island that Disappeared
140 Anthony Patrick LaRose, Cathedral of Salt
130 Paula Delgado Kling, Stolen Lives
115 Brian Ward, 48 Million Colombians Can’t Be Wrong
102 Barry Max Wills, storytelling from Anserma
80 Was Gabo an Irishman
The Footloose American with Brian Kevin
Dancing Feat, Neil Bennion
This Mick’s Life with Colin Post
2. Academia and Politics
any episode with Adriaan Alsema and with Sergio Guzman of Colombia Risk Analysis
91 Fatalism and Poverty in Cali with Marie Quinney
118, the truth about Narcos with Steven Cohen
135 Wally Broderick on Colombia’s prison system
137 Roxanne Krystali on gender peace and politics
141 Chocolate for Peace with Gwen Burnyeat
184 Forgotten Peace with Rob A Karl
245 Democracy and Displacement with Abbey Steele
255 The Making of Democracy and the Colombian Middle Class, Ricardo López Pedreros
261 Guerrilla Marketing with Alex Fattal
264 demobilization of the AUC with Rachel Schmidt
265 Dehumanization of the Other with Yana Shevkirova
273 Resisting War in Colombia with Oliver Kaplan
289 Bogota politics needs more nerds with Diego LaSerna
3. Journalists (not listing ep numbers!)
Adriaan Alsema, Toby Muse, Kevin Howlett, Richard Emblin, Bogota Post, Frank Cardona, Julia Symmes Cobb, Steven Grattan, Dylan Baddour, Malcolm Linton, Carlos Villalon, Andrew Wight, Matt Charles, Andrew Dier, Alex Egerton, Simon Willis, Kate Horne, Brendan Corrigan, Kyra Gurney, Natalie Southwick, Wesley Tomaselli.
4. Personal Favourites
Kidnapped in Colombia – Tom Hart Dyke
The Footloose American with Brian Kevin
108 I survived a crocodile attack with Brian Rea
125 the Lost City, Santiago Giraldo
127 Triumph of the Human Spirit with Dan Eley
131 Bastardos y Diablos with Andrew Perez
173 the dating in Colombia episode with Lorna Phillips
186 How Heavy Metal gave Medellin’s youth a voice in the 1980s with Alex de Moller
209 Adolf Hitler in Colombia, Stuart Oswald
216 Matt Charles talking about embedding with ELN
285 Brewing Craft Beer with the FARC, Wally Broderick
291 Traditional medicines in the Putumayo with Hernando Echeverri
302 Toby Muse and his book, Kilo
303 Darien Gap Adventure is a Go, Daniel Eggington
Quite frankly, having gone through the full list of episodes done and recorded, it’s hard not to be a little proud. That said, Joey and I needed to hone down the list to the bare bones and we managed to do so, focusing on a dozen or more in the upcoming episode.
The result is a stroll down Colombia Calling’s memory lane, but also, a chance for long-time listeners to reflect on previous episodes and consider how times have changed over the past four years in Colombia and how the podcast itself has evolved.
And so, I will keep on repeating this until I am blue in the face, see and hear the changes and help us grow further and throw a couple of dollars at the Patreon campaign please. I’m not going anywhere, the podcast is not going to go away either, but, some financial help is needed to continue improving, for your listener experience and benefit.
Armed with a craft beer from Boyaca, Joey took to the task in hand with aplomb. I like the show, I’m sure he does too and I am certain you will as well. So, let me take this moment to thank Joseph Czikk for his time and efforts in hosting Ep309. You may not laugh out loud as much as you did upon hearing Jim Davies’ adventures in Cali but, it’s a different sort of show which is very enjoyable indeed.
Follow Joey on Instagram: joseph.and.the.world
and on Youtube: Joseph and the World
Please spare us a dollar or two a month, spread the word about the podcast and feel free to nominate further interviewees.
Saludos de Bogotá
Richard
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