For over a century Mexico has been embroiled in a drug war dictated by the demands of their neighbor to the north. In The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade (W. W. Norton, 2021), Benjamin T. Smith offers a history of the trade and its effects upon the people of Mexico. As he reveals, at the start of the 20th century drugs such as marijuana and ... Show More
Apr 6
Alex Diamond, "Governing the Excluded: Rural Livelihoods Beyond Coca in Colombia's Peace Laboratory" (U Chicago Press, 2026)
The Colombian village of Briceño might, at first glimpse, look like many communities in the rural Global South. Many of the people living there rely on small-scale farming, even as a newly constructed hydroelectric dam threatens traditional livelihoods. Yet after decades where Br ... Show More
1h 4m
Apr 2
Amelia Frank-Vitale, "Leave If You Can: Migration and Violence in Bordered Worlds" (U California Press, 2026)
The consequences of U.S. border policies through the experiences of Honduran migrants. Hondurans have been at the heart of some of the most visible migration phenomena in the last few years, as well as the direct target of anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy. In Leave If You Can: ... Show More
38m 44s
Feb 2024
Bonus: Killer drug: Fentanyl in Mexico and the US
Fentanyl is deadly. Thousands of Americans die every year from a drug overdose – the majority of them after using a synthetic opioid like fentanyl. It was developed as a legal, and effective, pain killer. Now, fuelled by insatiable US demand, it is illicitly produced in makeshift ... Show More
53m 39s
Jun 2022
The Cartel Heroin Queenpin Who Ran Juarez for 50 Years with Benjamin Smith
Before El Mencho or El Chapo, even before Pablo Escobar, there was Ignacia Jasso, otherwise known as “La Nacha.” She was the Queen Pin of Juárez who ran the border heroin trade for 50 years from 1930 to 1980. Declared public enemy number one by the Americans, she still managed to ... Show More
40m 51s
Mar 2023
Killer drug: The Mexico connection
Fentanyl is deadly. Thousands of Americans die every year from a drug overdose – the majority of them after using a synthetic opioid like fentanyl. Fentanyl was developed as a legal, and effective, pain killer. Now, fuelled by insatiable US demand, it’s illicitly produced in make ... Show More
27m 20s
Mar 2023
Killer drug: Fentanyl in the US
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is destroying lives all over the United States. Manufactured illegally and at a huge profit by drug cartels in Mexico, it’s smuggled across the border into southern California and Arizona. The director at one entry point on the border acknowledges th ... Show More
28m 8s
Jan 2022
Who's winning the war on drugs?
Mexico's cartels are thriving, and finding innovative ways to smuggle drugs across the border into the US, despite law enforcement and the pandemic.Ed Butler speaks to Dr Irene Mia of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, who says the closing of borders due to Covid ... Show More
18m 20s
Mar 2022
Lord of the Skies: The Man Who United Mexico's Cartels
We're joined by author Noah Hurowitz to tell the story of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, one of the most powerful narco-traffickers to every live, with an estimated fortune of 25 billion dollars. After having spent his youth learning the ways from the old guard of top-level drug lords, ... Show More
46m 40s
May 2024
Richard Nixon...WOMP WOMP
<p>The girlies pick up the story of marijuana where they left off in the 1960's, exploring how weed evolved from America's enemy to capitalism's sweetheart. They discuss the student protestors who lit up for peace, the drug war collab between Nixon and Reagan, how the cops convin ... Show More
1h 12m