Hi there, I am a radio reporter for PRI’s The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, Public Radio International and WGBH Boston. I use this blog to post links to my stories as well as thoughts about ongoing projects. In January 2009, I launched a history podcast called How We Got Here.
4 responses so far ↓
Tim Covey // March 2, 2009 at 11:43 am |
The picture the news briefs give us indicate the drug trade is seemingly out of control. The Mexican and Peruvian governments are in an outright war with the cartels operating out of their countries and the poppy trade out of Afghanistan is at its highest level. I have a belief that U.S. history has a parallel with alcohol during prohibition in that it was a period where organized crime made money hand over fist, mafia activity exploded and the government authorities had very little affect. When the 21st amendment was ratified, seemingly overnight the mafia lost their means to an extremely large cash generating operation. How was that possible given they were deeply involved in the manufacture, distribution and sale of alcohol? It seems to me the mafia wouldn’t have just walked away from an endeavor that generated so much money, yet it seems that’s exactly what happened. In the spirit of “How We Got Here”, maybe the answer could shed light on how we can quell the drug trade and what effect drug legalization would have on modern day organized crime, if any.
jebsharp // March 2, 2009 at 2:17 pm |
Thanks for the thoughtful comment Tim. I like the thought of exploring it in the context of HWGH. For anyone who wants to explore the history of prohibition this is sure to be a good starting point:
http://www.backstoryradio.org/2008/12/tolerance-a-history-of-drink/.
G. Thomas // June 14, 2009 at 7:40 am |
Hello Ms. Sharp.
You once mentioned after a podcast that you wanted to hear from your listeners. I couldn’t find any other convenient way to respond. (Sorry.)
I listen to you only in podcasts, because I can’t get you on radio here (Germany). I have “found” you in different corners of the podcast “world” and have always been quite impressed with the way you are able to get to the core of a topic and then (more importantly) get that idea across to “us”. I find it quite important in a world of 3-sentence news to have a chance to get the background to the things happening in today’s world and am especially thankful for the “How we got Here” series. In my particular case getting any information in English is a breath of fresh air.
Thank you for your hard work. I hope you can keep it up and sustain your high-quality journalism.
Yours sincerely,
G. M. Thomas
jebsharp // June 14, 2009 at 8:42 am |
Thanks very much! I hope I can keep it up too. It’s always great to hear from podcast listeners and it’s fine to leave comments here. You can also send podcast-related messages to
howwegothere at gmail.com
and for Facebook members there’s also a How We Got Here Facebook Group page here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=73351279128
The advantage of the Facebook page is that there’s a discussion board where you listeners can talk to each other as well as to me.
Cheers,
Jeb