“Zanzibar, or the Last Reason,” translated from the German, “Sansibar oder der letzte Grund,” is a novel by Alfred Andersch where one of the protagonists (a boy) daydreams the far away Zanzibar from his small hometown in Germany.  Maybe a bad case of fernweh, this island in his mind is actually located in the Indian Ocean, but it is less a concrete goal than the utopian place of a better future.  Water temperature: 30 degrees Celcius.  (Photo by Sonia Ibáñez)

In “Piece by Piece,” we sit down with Rukia Hatibu, aka The Annoyin’ Artist, to discuss the importance of making public our ideas, stories and “pieces.”  It is not enough to ask questions about who we are.  What is vital is having an actual place to do it.  Her evening forum helps showcase different voices and provides a space for personal poetic development.  As if that was not enough, Rukia also discusses her new initiative, AIDIM, that seeks to bring out this same development in school children.  (Photo by Sonia Ibáñez)

In EPISODE FORTY we are on field assignment exploring the multi-species geographies of, perhaps, the most iconic safari game drive in the world.  We report on site from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, learning some basic Swahili (Safari means “trip”) and seeing a range of animals we had never seen before outside of a zoo or a documentary.  We have plenty of fun copying and/or poking fun at nature documentary style reportage.

In DARchitecture we discuss architectural heritage in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.  Joining us for an episode-long conversation is Aida Mulokozi, CEO of the Dar es Salaam Centre for Architectural Heritage (DARCH).  We walk through the process of urban heritage preservation in the context of rapid urban growth; we explore the politics of memory in Dar’s post-colonial present; and learn more about the vital work DARCH is doing to tell the story of Dar es Salaam to both locals and new arrivals alike.

In EPISODE FORTY THREE we continue with our two-part Summer Reading Series and finish our reading and discussion of John Kirtland Wright’s 1946 Association of American Geographers Presidential Address.  In this canonical text, Wright outlines his ideas for geosophy.  How was this address received by his colleagues?  What would the study of geosophy look like?  Professor John L. Allen joins us to explore these questions–and others–as we round out our first major exploration of this key text.

In Geographies of Everything we have the great pleasure of sitting down with world renowned academic geographer Dr. Yi-Fu Tuan.  In the first part of this two-episode series we explore space, place, offices, Madison (Wisconsin), film, deserts and much more with this intellectual pioneer of humanist geography.  Tuan is noted for bringing together philosophy and geography and his work blazed the trail for our show.

With EPISODE FORTY SIX we start a series made while conducting fieldwork in Cuba in Spring 2018.  In Puentes we sit down with don Jose Poveda–poet, philosopher, man of letters and of faith–in this wide ranging discussion of his poetry, travel from Cuba to Russia, and his work as interpreter to Russian technical advisers working in Cuban industry.  This episode is in Spanish.

In our second episode from fieldwork in Cuba we sit down with “Song Maker” Enid Rosales and discuss her two albums (Brisa Pasajera and Dentro de Mí), her listeners in Cuba and beyond, the Nueva Trova genre, the Buena Vista Social Club effect, Celia Cruz and what it means to be an “hacedora de canciones.”  EPISODE FORTY SEVEN is in Spanish.