On Spec Podcast

The Europeans podcast brings you a look at life as an undocumented migrant in Amsterdam.  Co-produced by Katz Laslo and Mohammad Bah, the story is also narrated by Mohammad, who is originally from Guinea, about his life …

Host Nadene Ghouri talks with Alisa Reznick about her latest episode for On Spec.  For "Keeping the Colorado," Reznick traveled on the Colorado River …

The Colorado River runs through seven US states and crosses into Mexico, helping sustain 40 million people living along it’s banks and far beyond. …

Guest Host Nadene Ghouri takes us with her as she visits the Ukrainian woman who was the surrogate mother for her child.  Nadene explains what the experience has taught her about the bond between mother and child, and …

Host Nadene Ghouri talks with Oscar Durand, the producer of On Spec's latest episode, "A Nation’s Two Sides." Durand talks about what it was like growing up in Peru, and the kind of class divisions highlighted in the …

Peru has long struggled with political, cultural, racial, and economic divides, a source of tension that propelled the leftist former schoolteacher …

Host Nadene Ghouri talks with French-Armenian journalist Astrig Agopian, about her recent reporting for On Spec's episode "When a Frozen Conflict Wakes Up."  The episode brought listeners to the Armenia-Azerbaijan …

Host Nadene Ghouri talks with Angel Bwalya Kasabo and Lewis Yuyi about On Spec's latest episode, which introduces us to families in Zambia trying to move past the stereotypes surrounding their tribal identities in the …

Tribal identities continue to play a role in social and political rifts  in many parts of the world, even erupting into outright conflict. In the …

For several decades now, the region of Nagorno-Karabakh has been a source of tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan, occasionally resulting in a real …

Host Nadene Ghouri and journalist Bartholomäus von Laffert talk about On Spec's latest episode, which tells the story of how activists working to …

Europe is prosecuting human rights activists that help save lives in the Mediterranean Sea, where thousands of migrants and refugees have drowned as …

Guest Host Nadene Ghouri tells the story of how her search for a surrogate mother for her child brought her to Ukraine, and how she found herself …

In Season Four, we bring you stories from six countries.  Next, we take a personal look at the Ukraine refugee crisis.

The French town of Calais is at the heart of a massive security infrastructure program meant to keep refugees and migrants from crossing the English Channel into the United Kingdom. Over the past 20 years, French and …

In Africa, herbal treatments are used to heal viruses in the absence of  modern medicine, but disinformation about these treatments and how they  can cure COVID-19 is having a deadly impact. Government officials and …

Hong Kong protesters were on the streets for more than a year to fight for their freedom of expression after China announced laws to further curb …

Some of the world’s most active climate deniers reside in the United States. Arkansas suffers from flooding and is one of the conservative red states …

Suno India speaks with journalists Prachi Pinglay and Kunal Shankar, who produced On Spec's Season 3, Episode 4 - Love in Times of Hate.  They discuss what the impact of fake news has been on India, and what it was like …

The Modi government has an agenda to make India a Hindu nation, and they have tapped into old prejudices and disinformation to brainwash influential …

Since the elections in Brazil that brought Jair Bolsonaro to power,  Brazilian journalists Giovana Fleck and Carol Grune have been hearing …

Putin’s Russia is a homophobic country. The state media spouts anti-gay rhetoric and creates fake news, Parliament passes laws that curtail LGBTQ activism, and hate crimes are on the rise. But in bigger cities, there …

Get ready for Season Three: Disinformation!  On Spec takes a deep dive into the global abyss of fake news, bringing you the story of how the scourge of disinformation is effecting ordinary people in seven different …

Scott Gurian, an American journalist and the voice behind Far From Home podcast, transports us to Mashad, Iran, inside a pilgrimage site where he and …

Phoenix is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., an example of urbanization shaped by generations of immigrants. An Arizona native, …

In this collaboration with Foreign Correspondence podcast, On Spec host  Fariba Nawa gives a raw, intimate interview to Jake Spring about her …

What has quarantine been like for children during the pandemic? Are they finding their creative little selves and building stronger family ties? Or turning into online zombies and losing their social skills? Or are they …

In this collaboration with the Continuum Collective, we are exploring the rise in gender-based violence during the pandemic and what can be done …

With  families in lockdown, and social services unavailable, experts say  domestic violence is increasing, and being ignored during the  coronavirus …

You probably know someone who has discovered their inner chef in the last few months.  In New York, photographer Jackson Krule discovered he was a …

How is being on lock down effecting our mental health, and how are mental health professionals trying to continue to provide help when they cannot meet someone in person? On Spec intern and journalist Kasper Dilmaghani …

What if you don't have control over your own self-isolation? More than two million people are in prisons in the US, which has the highest …

Whether you live across the street, or across the Atlantic, for many of us social distancing now means you cannot meet in person. Your family, your …

What's it like to have COVID19 in Turkey?  Hilaneh Mahmoudi, a freelance photographer in Istanbul, spent weeks trying to not catch it, but one day …

You might think you're further away from the world, but in many ways the pandemic is bringing us together.

We begin with the religious, those who …

Journalist Margaux Benn ventures to the remote province of Nimroz, Afghanistan and follows the tracks of ancient artefacts, from the desert …

Oscar Durand brings you the story of a Bolivian street musician in Istanbul, who like the rest of us, wonders where the years have gone and what he …

As the world grapples with how to serve justice to thousands of foreign ISIS affiliates captured in Syria and Iraq, Australian journalist Tessa Fox travels to northeast Syria to meet the Australians accused of being …

Umar Farooq reports on how Pakistan’s tribal areas, once proud of their fierce independence, are ready to join Pakistan proper, and how youth there …

Pesha Magid travels to Anbar to bring you the story of how, and why, locals are risking kidnapping by ISIS to hunt for desert truffles. A  rare but beloved delicacy in Iraq, this was the best year for them since the …

As protesters once again take to the streets of Baghdad, we take a step back to examine whether climate change has a hand in the political crisis in …

What's behind the crackdown on journalism in Turkey, and how are local journalists continuing to report? Özge Sebzeci, a Turkish photojournalist, takes us inside Turkey in an era when the country leads the world in …

Meet the On Spec team, the philosophy behind our project, and what to look forward to in Season Zero.