Far From Home by Scott Gurian

12.11.2023

Every Country Without Flying

Thor Pedersen always felt like he was born too late. He grew up in a world where other people had already done most of the amazing things, like venturing to the North and South Poles, climbing the highest mountains, following...

06.15.2023

Prison Rodeo

After releasing my last episode where I shared stories from my time in Oklahoma many years ago, I came across one more short radio piece in my archives that I thought some of your might enjoy. It’s about another cultural...

05.27.2023

Stories From Flyover Country

Two decades ago, I was just starting out as a public radio reporter, applying for literally every radio job opening I saw, and somehow I ended up getting hired by a small station in Norman, Oklahoma. Given that the culture,...

03.13.2023

18 Years in Rome (with The Bittersweet Life)

If you listened to my last episode, you heard the story of my friend Jamie Yuenger, an American who moved from New York City to the Netherlands and was struggling to make the transition and figure out how to fit...

02.14.2023

Stranger in a Strange Land

From the age of 24 until she was 37, Jamie Yuenger lived in New York City. While she started out having a complicated relationship with the city, she grew over time to love her adopted hometown. Then a few years...

10.08.2022

Off the Beaten Jack

Last winter during the pandemic, Jack Boswell started to reevaluate his place in life and realize that at the age of 31, he still hadn’t chased his real passion of being a Hollywood screenwriter. So he decided to quit his...

09.13.2022

Turkmenistan Revisited

As you may have seen in my feed, I recently teamed up with my colleagues at NPR’s Planet Money economic podcast to report a story that prominently featured the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan — which is probably one of...

09.13.2022

The Salvage Car Silk Road

A few months ago, a friend of mine named Oraz who runs an autobody repair shop in Turkmenistan came across a kind of puzzle. A new vehicle had just arrived on his lot. A white Lexus SUV. He could see...

08.01.2022

Ayahuasca Reexamined

I’m always open to listener feedback on Far From Home, and I heard from someone recently who’s given me a new perspective on one of my past stories and forced me to see things in a new light, so I...

06.15.2022

What Shelter Means to Me

While I’ve been hunkered down these past few years, avoiding traveling and staying home while I rode out the pandemic, I’ve been incredibly lucky that I’ve had a safe and comfortable place to live. But what has this experience been...

04.29.2022

Refugee Stories

Over the past 2 months, more than 5 million people have left Ukraine, and another 6-and-a-half-million have fled their homes and are now displaced elsewhere within their own country, making this Europe’s largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. Neighboring...

03.28.2022

Ukraine

On this episode, I speak to Savelli and Olexander, two Ukrainians who’ve suddenly had their lives upended after the Russian military invaded their country. ————- On Far From Home, award-winning public radio journalist Scott Gurian documents fascinating stories from far-flung places like...

01.17.2022

Revisiting Central Asia

Central Asia is not a place that most Westerners know or think about very often. But now that I’ve been there, my ears perk up on the rare instances when it makes the news, as was the case on two...

12.23.2021

Cell Phone Santa

Take Santa Claus. Then ditch the red suit and the flying reindeer, and you’ve got a guy who’s all about giving. On this last episode of my third season, I tell the story of the time my dad tried out...

12.06.2021

COVID Stories Part 4

Nearly 2 years into the Covid-19 pandemic, new waves of infection continue to spread around the world, and the Omicron variant is causing renewed fears in places that previously thought they had the virus under control. So I’m releasing another...

10.27.2021

Playing Tour Guide (with The Radio Vagabond)

Having grown up just outside of New York City, I visited most of the big tourist attractions like the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, and Rockefeller Center when I was a kid. But when you spend a lot...

10.06.2021

How did I end up here?

When you travel, it’s inevitable that you’ll occasionally have weird or random experiences, where you might have certain expectations before you arrive at a place, but then you’re totally thrown for a loop. Sometimes it’s frustrating, and other times it...

09.10.2021

The Stories of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks, President Bush vowed revenge against the perpetrators, but not everyone found his words comforting. Around this time, a small but vocal group of people got together to speak out. They...

08.20.2021

Stockholm Norms (with Here There Be Dragons)

Knowing the rules and being able to navigate them can be a big part of feeling safe in any city. On this episode of Far From Home, I share an episode from another great podcast I recently discovered called “Here...

07.22.2021

Revisiting the Mongol Rally

July 17th, 2021 marked the fifth anniversary of the day my brother Drew and I — along with our friends Jane and Rosi — set out from southern England on an 11,000 mi (18k km) road trip across Europe and...

07.07.2021

Out of Your Comfort Zone

When you travel – especially if you’re in a distant and unfamiliar place – it’s inevitable that sooner or later, things will happen that are beyond your control. You’re thrown a curveball and you’ve got to do your best to...

06.11.2021

Tuning in the World

COVID-19 has closed borders and made travel difficult if not impossible for many of us over the past year-and-a-half. But radio signals don't need passports or plane tickets. They circle the earth, bouncing off the atmosphere. So even if you’re...

05.21.2021

COVID Stories Part 3

On this episode of Far From Home, I continue my series where I’m checking in with friends and colleagues around the world to get a sense of the many ways COVID-19 is affecting people and how their governments are handling...

04.26.2021

Revisiting Chernobyl

April 26, 2021 marks the 35th anniversary of the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the former USSR — which remains the worst nuclear accident in history — so I’m re-releasing an episode from my second season...

04.19.2021

Oklahoma City

Each year on April 19th, residents of Oklahoma City commemorate the anniversary of the 1995 bombing in their city, which prior to September 11th bore the distinction of being the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil. On this episode of...

04.12.2021

Revisiting Belfast

Over the past week, violence has once again broken out in Northern Ireland. During one skirmish in Belfast last Wednesday, rioters threw Molotov cocktails, several police officers were injured, and a double decker bus was hijacked and burnt to the...

03.22.2021

The Sounds of Silence

Over the past year, COVID-19 has had all sorts of ripple effects that most of us never imagined: Air pollution plummeted as people stopped flying. Companies closed their office buildings for good as working from home became the new norm....

02.24.2021

Te Araroa

Having hiked the Appalachian Trail, Justin and Patrice La Vigne thought they knew what they were getting into when they decided to embark on Te Araroa, a 2000 mile path across New Zealand. But they ended up being blown away...

02.16.2021

Foreign Correspondence

I’m taking a break between seasons right now, but I’m popping back into your feed with a special bonus episode I’m sharing from a really great podcast called Foreign Correspondence. It’s hosted by Jake Spring, who’s a journalist for Reuters...

12.25.2020

Japarican Christmas

On this final episode of Season 3, I return to where I began 2020 in Puerto Rico, on the last trip I took prior to the pandemic. I join my friend Rob at a parranda — the Puerto Rican version...

12.04.2020

Close to Home

COVID-19 may have forced most of us to take a break from traveling for the foreseeable future, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some really cool places to discover right in our own neighborhoods. On this episode, I join about...

11.04.2020

Day of the Deceased

While Americans were celebrating Halloween and heading to the polls, Peruvians were busy commemorating El Dia de los Defuntos, the day at the beginning of November each year when they remember their deceased relatives. On this episode of Far From...

10.12.2020

COVID Stories Part 2

On this episode of Far From Home, I continue my series where I’m checking in with friends and colleagues around the world to get a sense of the many ways COVID-19 is affecting people and how their governments are handling...

09.09.2020

New Orleans 15 Years Later

You probably missed it amid everything else going on in the world recently, but last week was the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, so on this episode, we’re staying within the U.S. for a change and going to New Orleans,...

08.17.2020

COVID Stories Part 1

On this episode of Far From Home, I’m beginning an occasional series where I’m checking in with friends and colleagues around the world to get a sense of the many ways COVID-19 is affecting people and how their governments are...

07.29.2020

The Island No One Owns

If you want to build a house on the Caribbean island of Barbuda, you can just put up a fence wherever you want, and have it. You don’t pay for it. You don’t sign for anything. You just have to...

07.21.2020

Green Book

From the 1930s to the 1960s, Black motorists driving across the United States and Canada often brought along a copy of The Negro Travelers’ Green Book, which was a sort of AAA guide that told them which gas stations, hotels,...

07.09.2020

Double Your Bubble, Double Your Fun

If you were forced to quarantine as a result of COVID-19 and could only hang out with members of one other household, who would you choose? On the latest episode of Far From Home, writer and filmmaker Mike Hickey tells...

06.22.2020

Traveling While Black

In light of the recent protests for racial justice across the United States and around the world, I chat with two African American friends about what it’s like to travel as a Black person, both in their own country and...

05.24.2020

Pandemic Diary (with On Spec)

As COVID-19 continues to spread around the world, I speak with Istanbul-based author and journalist Fariba Nawa about what the situation is like where she lives in Turkey. Then I play a recent episode of her podcast, On Spec, where...

04.21.2020

Finding the Helpers (with The Bittersweet Life)

As the world is consumed by COVID-19, I check in with author and American expat Tiffany Parks, who lives on the outskirts of Rome, to get a sense of what things are like in Italy right now. Then, in my...

03.25.2020

No Place Like Home

With a global pandemic, canceled flights, and closed borders, many travelers suddenly found themselves trapped in foreign countries, trying to figure out how to get home, even if they thought they were taking all the necessary precautions. I share the...

03.03.2020

What's Far From Home about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Far From Home episodes: