On Spec Podcast

Get ready for Season Three: Disinformation!  On Spec takes a deep dive into the global abyss of fake news, bringing you the story of how the scourge of disinformation is effecting ordinary people in seven different countries.

Scott Gurian, an American journalist and the voice behind Far From Home podcast, transports us to Mashad, Iran, inside a pilgrimage site where he and his fellow travelers find themselves grappling with cultural and religious differences. Then Scott tells On Spec his reflections about the trip, and how he managed to avoid Iran’s government minders to record his story.

Phoenix is one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., an example of urbanization shaped by generations of immigrants. An Arizona native, journalist Alisa Reznick gives a tour of the old and new Greater Phoenix through the eyes of her extended family, who came three generations ago from Mexico, and new migrants struggling to get asylum.

In this collaboration with Foreign Correspondence podcast, On Spec host  Fariba Nawa gives a raw, intimate interview to Jake Spring about her  two-decade career, family, and the struggles of straddling two cultures  as a journalist. You can listen to all episodes of the podcast Foreign  Correspondence, where you will hear deep dive interviews with a diverse  group of foreign reporters. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/foreign-correspondence/id1462899794

What has quarantine been like for children during the pandemic? Are they finding their creative little selves and building stronger family ties? Or turning into online zombies and losing their social skills? Or are they becoming child laborers to help their families survive? It depends on the kids and the country. On Spec host Fariba Nawa takes you inside her home in Turkey with her daughters, and then to Malawi, where they get to know a teenage girl whose life changed drastically when her school closed because of the pandemic.

In this collaboration with the Continuum Collective, we are exploring the rise in gender-based violence during the pandemic and what can be done about it. On Spec's host Fariba Nawa joins Jillian Foster, the host of the Continuum Collective's Radicals & Revolutionaries Lab podcast, and Teri Yuan, the host of the Engendered podcast.

With  families in lockdown, and social services unavailable, experts say  domestic violence is increasing, and being ignored during the  coronavirus outbreak. Menel Raach talks to a woman in Iraq who is trying  to find a safe place to live amid the lockdowns there, and to lawyers  and experts about what is being called a "shadow pandemic" of domestic  violence.

You probably know someone who has discovered their inner chef in the last few months.  In New York, photographer Jackson Krule discovered he was a baker.  Unable to go out and photograph the Orthodox Jewish community he has been documenting, he started baking challah bread at home and posting photos online.  Now it's turned into a business that delivers all over the country.  Alisa Reznick brings you that tale, and her own story of learning her family's recipes during the pandemic in Arizona.

How is being on lock down effecting our mental health, and how are mental health professionals trying to continue to provide help when they cannot meet someone in person? On Spec intern and journalist Kasper Dilmaghani talks to therapists and one woman who opens up about her depression.  Here is the story on how the pandemic is effecting our mental health, from Tunisia, Mexico, Poland, Hong Kong and the U.S.

What if you don't have control over your own self-isolation? More than two million people are in prisons in the US, which has the highest incarceration rate in the world.  Oscar Durand speaks with Efrén Paredes, Jr about the prison where he is incarcerated serving a life sentence for a robbery and murder committed when was 15 years old.  He maintains his innocence.  In 2012, the US Supreme Court ruled life sentences without parole for minors were unconstitutional, and Efrén has been awaiting a re sentencing since then. Of the 1,400 incarcerated with him in Michigan's Lakeland Correctional Facility, more than 700 have tested positive for COVID-19, and at least 12 have died.