It’s democracy vs. fascism in the most consequential election of our lifetime. We talk about its implications for border communities. Also, Todd talks about his latest reporting from Mexico, where migrants are continually being sent back to the country’s southern border, creating a cycle of futility and suffering. Melissa recalls reporting on Trump…

On September 7, we had the honor of leading a discussion with Celia Concannon and Gustavo Lozano, two longtime residents and educators from ambos Nogales, who have spent years teaching music and theater in local schools. We then had a Q&A with audience members, which you’ll hear at the end. The event was held downtown in Nogales, Arizona, on Morley…

Immigrant detention has doubled during Biden, which now wants to expand it more. But not if rights groups can help it, explains the senior policy analyst for the National Immigrant Justice Center. Since Joe Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, there have been alarming trends in detentions and deportations undertaken by Immigration and Customs Enfo…

For several years, author and journalist Jessica Pishko has investigated the power of right-wing sheriffs and their impact on democracy, elections, and border and immigration policy. Her new book, out this month, The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy, is a must-read, especially during our most conseque…

Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson’s story gives us a compelling, personal, and geopolitical glimpse into the borderlands across a history of militarization, resistance, and transformation. How does one go from a U.S. Special Forces Green Beret in El Salvador to doing humanitarian aid work on the border? This is where Tohono O’odham Mike Wilson begins this…

Luis Chaparro is a longtime border journalist from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. He specializes in reporting on criminal organizations, corruption, and binational affairs. He’s written for many publications in Mexico and the United States. And he’s one of the only journalists in the borderlands who consistently reports on and analyzes organized crime in M…

Take a ride on the electoral rollercoaster--and how it impacts the border and U.S.-Mexico relations--with one of the most insightful historians out there. It’s been a while, Border Chronicle readers and listeners. Since we took our annual July break, the U.S. political landscape has shifted considerably. At least partly because of this, we will tak…

In her classic utopian science fiction novel The Dispossessed, Ursula K. Le Guin wrote, “Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I’m going to fulfill my proper function in the social organism. I’m going to unbuild walls.” Author Silky Shah has framed an entire book around that quote, and Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition c…

In June, President Biden issued an executive order restricting asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. The new restriction was supported by many prominent newspaper columnists—few of whom offered alternative solutions or examined the order’s impact on human rights, says Adam Isacson, a longtime expert on Latin America and U.S. immigration policy. “The Bi…

If you want to learn about border technology, listen to this conversation about a new book on surviving migration in the age of artificial intelligence. Last week I attended the 17th annual Border Security Expo in El Paso, Texas, which focused on border enforcement technology. I mention this because I can’t think of a better person to talk to about…

It’s tough enough to get Americans to realize that if Donald Trump wins in November, it would most likely mean the end of representative democracy in the United States. Even tougher, however, is to make Americans aware that even if Trump doesn’t win, many authoritarian policy changes are already being rolled out in states like Texas and Alabama. So…

A defining issue of this century will be people on the move and where they settle. Wealthier countries like the U.S. are responding by walling themselves off from the rest of the world and investing in deterrence and detention, which only contributes to more deaths and misery while providing no long-term solutions. There must be a better way. This …

Water, climate change, and the right-wing disinformation ecosystem...The Border Chronicle founders discuss what should be on everyone's radar when we talk about the borderlands this presidential election season. Read or listen to more of The Border Chronicle at www.theborderchronicle.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/…

Join us for an illuminating conversation about borders, belonging, myths, and oracles. She warns, “What we have created is a ruinous map for a ruinous future.” I was so happy to get a chance to talk with writer, author, and journalist Lauren Markham about her insightful and page-turning new book A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging. In t…

In January, the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity confirmed an exciting discovery near the Arizona-Mexico border: the first sighting of a jaguar never previously identified in Arizona. Russ McSpadden, a Southwest conservation advocate at the center, has been tracking the jaguar population in the borderlands for several years. The rare a…

As widespread election border theater kicks in, the director of the Surveillance Resistance Lab talks about smart borders, border externalization, “identity dominance,” and what can be done about it. Well, this week has been a doozy on the U.S.-Mexico border. There is the continued Texas standoff between the federal government and Operation Lonesta…

How did right-wing media hijack the narrative around the U.S.-Mexico border? You’ve probably heard the terms “military age men,” “invasion,” and “Biden’s open borders” bandied about in the media and among congressional leaders. These deliberately dehumanizing terms have shaped the way Americans view the U.S.-Mexico border as the 2024 election seaso…

Al Otro Lado's executive director discusses what’s to come this election year: more of the CBP One app and open-air border prisons, along with a hyper-distorted fearmongering narrative of overwhelm. So, dear listeners, it is time to continue preparing ourselves for 2024 (check out Melissa’s Tuesday piece). As we know, during an election year the bo…

It’s been almost a year since the U.S. government rolled out the CBPOne app, which was meant to reduce the number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. But a historic number of people continue to arrive. In Lukeville, Arizona, people from all over the world line up to be processed by Border Patrol with the aim of applying for asylum, whil…

The co-founder of the Sidewalk School, which provides services to asylum seeking families in Mexico's migrant camps, talks about racism and Black migration, border disinformation, and how governments could alleviate suffering at the border. Check out more local border journalism at theborderchronicle.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters…

“It’s not difficult to understand that a population that makes its livelihood off the land would find climate change oppressive, and would find climate change to be tantamount to persecution.” All signs indicate that 2023 will be the hottest year on record, yet again. If this sounds like something you’ve heard before, it is. Every year it seems lik…

Muzzafar Chishti, a lawyer, is a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and director of MPI’s office at New York University School of Law. He specializes in immigration policy and has spent years researching and writing about the United States’ outdated asylum system, which he says is “built on a 1952 architecture.” Chish…

The legendary storyteller takes us on a trip through the Arizona borderlands, its sky islands, flora and fauna, all the way to the border wall with Mexico. “The borderlands are beautiful.” That’s how Petey Mesquitey always ends his weekly show Growing Native on the Tucson community radio station KXCI. And that was my first question to Petey in this…

Recorded at the Tin Shed Theater with the wonderful people of Patagonia, Arizona, we talk about Taylor's fascinating career as an educator and artist who challenges our perceptions of borders. David Taylor is a visual artist who works with drone footage, photography, and other art forms to question our sense of place, territory, history, and politi…

Roberto Lopez, born and raised in South Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, leads the Texas Civil Rights Project’s Beyond Borders Program, which works to defend the civil and human rights of border communities and of the people migrating through the borderlands. Inspired by the United Farm Workers movement, the nonprofit Texas Civil Rights Project was found…

The lawyer and longtime community organizer talks about her two-year ban from practicing immigration law, how she is responding to it, and her history of border organizing and advocacy in Arizona. In July the Board of Immigration Appeals ordered that prominent federal immigration lawyer and longtime community organizer Margo Cowan be barred for two…

Why do people keep risking their lives in the Darién? Caitlyn Yates, a PhD student in socio-cultural anthropology at the University of British Columbia, has spent years researching this question. Yates has been traveling to the Darién Gap since 2018 to document changes in the region and interview hundreds of people who have chosen to take the risky…

“The mass shooting of August 3, 2019, demands a reckoning. It must be situated in a recent and vicious amplification of preexisting U.S. border and immigration policy.” On August 3, 2019, a mass shooting took place in El Paso, Texas. After hearing reports of the shooting, anthropologist Gilberto Rosas tried to call his parents, who live in El Paso,…

All will be revealed to your ear buds. @cookiessf @biglucks17 @chumahan @seanallenlewis Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-hard-luck-show/donations Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacyKirjoittanut Steve Lucky Luciano, Chumahan Bowen, Sean Lewis

Bold Ubaldo: Ep. 485 Your Bluetooth will shower with it's shower shoes on when Ubaldo hits the HLS Studio to scale out what being sentenced to never coming home does to a young man, hear the path that got him there, the heritage, the upbringing and spirit that caused the bold minded homie to stand tall, face the sentence, hear why it took 7 years t…

Your earbuds will get right when Mr. Invincible hits the HLS studio brimming with good news, dope stories and the 411 on Schmitty, hear the real, hear the iconic energy, the soul and spirit light up your eardrums like a C4 Flaming Arrows. Pure gold. BONUS: The truth about fentanyl. #sober #spirit #westside #hollywood #fentanyl @cookiessf @biglucks1…

Your Bluetooth will meet long lost relatives when Diablo brings the fire and brimstone to the HLS studio and showcases sisters he never knew he had, what it's like to meet your dad for the first time after decades, more prison tales of rec room hijinx and how he enjoys raising his infant son! This EP is chock-full of laughs and surprises. Do not mi…

Alejandra Spector is a practicing psychotherapist and licensed master social worker, from El Paso, Texas. Spector, who now lives in Austin, grew up in a bilingual family of border activists. Her father, Carlos Spector, is a well-known asylum and human rights lawyer, and her mother, Sandra Spector, is a longtime community organizer who runs the fami…

Your earbuds will see Mayor McCheese get his dome peeled when HLS mixes nostalgia with terror covering the 1984 blood bath in San Ysidro when a calm father walked into a packed McDonald's and for 77 minutes shredded humans into hamburger with a pump shotgun and an UZI. The mayhem and horror shocked the world so hard that they never put a restaurant…

Your earbuds will travel through the mirrors of mindscapes when HLS does a deep dive into a kaleidoscope of today’s issues: premium Ice Cream, premium collaborations between Cookies and other brands, The evolving image of Cannabis in culture, Alternative Medicines, Big Alcohol’s attempt to stop Cannabis, Cannabis’s origin, Mushrooms, Russia’s boneh…

Your earbuds will hunt down John Connor when Big Luck's tackles the coming robot future with the HLS crew, A.I., subterranean working classes, what the robots in Japan are used for, robot weapons, and finally, mech warriors and an idea so lucrative that Big Luck's ordered OBE to erase it, see if you can figure out what it is, once we cash in we'll …

Tohono O’odham leader Amy Juan describes the May 18 killing of Raymond Mattia and the long context of border militarization that led to it. On May 18, Raymond Mattia stepped out of his house after he saw the U.S. Border Patrol arrive. He lived in the small community of Ali Chuk (also known as Menagers Dam), located about one mile from the U.S.-Mexi…

Your bluetooth will benefit from the medical properties of one of the oldest medicines known to mankind when Jose from Vibes Rolling Papers hits the HLS Studio to reveal how he grew up through the transition of cannabis from being illegal, to medical, to legal to eventually being an entrepreneurial phenomenon, find how he was outcast by his family …

Your earbuds will sign up for Jury Duty when HLS peels back the Mother of All Indictments, the Fed accuses Diaper Child Bearing Hips Orange Former POTUS of violating the espionage act, Nuke Secrets, US attack plans, all stored in his shower, bedroom and closets, spying for our enemies, find out if Melania is the red sparrow and just how many years …

Cartel Pimp Scam: 477 Your Bluetooth will cough up $2500 on a long con when Ana comes through and tells the eerie take about how she scoured the back pages for a rug munch massage and then got scammed for $2500. Humor, truth and sobriety mark this marquee episode. #justice #crime #happyending #California #grift #cartelscam @cookiessf @biglucks17 @c…

Your Bluetooth will sue the LA Prosecutors when HLS examines the miscarriage of justice of the century where Daniel Saldana did 33 years for a crime he didn't commit--Even when the Prosecutors had the evidence proving his innocence! #justice #crime #innocenseproject #California #prison @threestrikesproject @cookiessf @biglucks17 @chumahan @sealalle…

Your bluetooth will laugh its @ss off when insult comedian Bee Gutierrez and Rachel Sterling hit the studio to tell Big Lucks, OBE and Chumahan about the horrors of Modesto, Insult Comedy, Lexapro and Weed, NonMormons In Utah, Racial ambiguity and Bombing on stage: See them live! On June 14, 2023, Sterling will be at The Copper Door at 225 N Broadw…

In 2020, Dr. Alexander Tenorio, a neurosurgeon based in San Diego, noticed a sharp increase in people suffering traumatic brain and spinal injuries. These cases, he soon discovered, were the result of people falling from the newly expanded and elevated border wall. Under the Trump administration, the border wall’s height was raised to 30 feet, whic…

Your earbuds will hit big when a Big Lucks reveals the dark truth about the California Lottery. Where's the money and why are our schools worse now!?? Get all the answers in this jackpot episode! #LosAngeles #jackpot #lotteria #lottery #california @cookiessf @biglucks17 @chumahan @sealallenlewis www.hardluckshow.com www.hardluckshow.com/mercado Ema…

Your earbuds will find man's search for meaning when Anthony Romero hits the HLS studio and unpacks the secrets to leaving the prison inside and outside, this inspiring, hopeful, wildly spiritual show will show you how to take ownership or your decisions, life and freedom. #LosAngeles #newlife #hope #change #manhood @cookiessf @biglucks17 @chumahan…

Your earbuds will strap on their back packs and head to school when Professor and Author Robert D. Weide Divide & Conquer Race, Gangs, Identity, And Conflict blasts the HLS skull caps with explosive knowledge about how the rich use race to divide the people to squeeze even more out of them while laughing all the way to the banks, the Black Panther …

Your bluetooth will be faded when the Father Of Forty Ounce Fridays, the Tatted Cookies cladded Heavy Hitter HAZERD steps to the HLS podcast mic with Beanied Beat Maker, Ultra Purist, the Primal Vinyl Hunter, the Aristrocrat of Analog VHS talk about their collaboration of sick ass beats and Hazerd’s oration, they will drop two worthwhile dope style…

Neena, Lisa & Virginie: 470 Your earbuds will not have to wait in line for anything and be privy to the dopest cultural phenoms when Nina, Lisa Cooper and Virginie Gunn hit the HLS Studio with Big Lucks, Big Pic Mike, The Salmon and Chumahan, hear about Big Lucks and Estevan Oriol hanging with Lisa Cooper when she owned NY, hear how she made a club…

For the first time in the history of The Border Chronicle, Melissa del Bosque and Todd Miller have done a podcast together. Don’t worry, it comes with the requisite banter, especially at the beginning. But the brunt of the conversation is a deep dive into Melissa’s chilling, page-turning article in The New Yorker, “A Covert Mission to Solve a Mexic…

Your earbuds’s blood sugar will blow up your kidneys when Big Lucks, OBE and Chumahan tear apart the best Food Trucks, Tacos, International Cuisine War, Big Pic Mike’s Guacamole rules, what OBE thinks is the best food, whether or not people raised on India Spices can even taste simple Italian Cuisine AND 1) where are chili peppers from, 2) where is…