In her recently published book Marijuana Boom: The Rise and Fall of Colombia's First Drug Paradise (University of California Press 2020), Lina Britto tells the forgotten story of the first boom in illicit drugs in the Greater Magdalena region of Colombia. This unknown history, that started in the late 1960s though its origins can be traced back to the beginn ... 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
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
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
Apr 2019
“The Cocaine Godmother” Pt. 2: Griselda Blanco
After a DEA investigation forced Griselda Blanco to flee New York City in 1975, she returned to her hometown of Medellin, Colombia to run her cocaine operation from the shadows. There, she met a protege who would soon become her deadliest rival: Pablo Escobar. Parcasters - The US ... Show More
44m 28s
May 2024
This Is a Very Weird Moment in the History of Drug Laws
<p>Drug policy feels very unsettled right now. The war on drugs was a failure. But so far, the war on the war on drugs hasn’t entirely been a success, either.</p><p>Take Oregon. In 2020, it became the first state in the nation to decriminalize hard drugs. It was a paradigm shift ... Show More
1h 2m
Feb 2018
Prohibition - Drying Out | 2
<p>When a German U-boat torpedoed the RMS Lusitania on Friday, May 7th, 1915, Americans found two new enemies: Germany and the beer it was so associated with. Anti-German sentiment grew, and with it hostility to the breweries founded in the 19th century by German immigrants. Soon ... Show More
29m 49s
Jan 2023
The First Indigenous Americans in Europe
<p>1492 marked the beginning of the Colombian Exchange - the transfer of people, goods, ideas and commodities across the Atlantic between Europe and the Americas. We hear a lot about the conquistadors, the settlers, Jesuit priests and colonisers from Spain, Portugal and Britain w ... Show More
24m 13s