The Observer Effect

The Observer Effect

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The Observer Effect episodes

  • 96 Cara de Bobo—Mexico City, Where Gabo Read Kafka
    Gabriel García Márquez began his writing career in Cartagena, Colombia, but it took him all over the world. I asked a guide there, Duran Duran, to tell me what exactly happened during his exile in Mexico City that made Márquez sequester himself to write his great book One Hundred Years of Solitude ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders. Special thanks to Duran Duran for so meticulously researching Márquez's life and literature to make the tour so satisfying. And special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.
    Make sure that when you visit Cartagena, you take the incredible tour of Márquez's life with Duran Duran: https://www.facebook.com/DuranDurantourscartagena/
    “K. kept feeling that he had lost himself, or was further away in a strange land than anyone had ever been before, a distant country where even the air was unlike the air at home, where you were likely to stifle in the strangeness of it, yet such were its senseless lures that you could only go on, losing your way even more.”
    —Franz Kafka
    22 min
  • 95 The Universal Particular—Dublin, Where James Etched His Heart
    James Joyce never lived in Dublin again once he left yet poured all he knew of the city into his masterpiece Ulysses. I asked the Friends of the Joyce Tower Society in Sandycove, where the novel begins, just exactly how this self-imposed exile shaped Joyce's art ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders. Special thanks to James Holahan for his wonderful skill at bringing Joyce and Ulysses to life. And special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.
    Be sure to visit the James Joyce Tower & Museum in Sandycove—www.joycetower.ie
    "A way a lone a last a loved a long."
    —James Joyce
    57 min
  • 94 First Sighting of the Sea—Valparaíso, Where Pablo Brought 2,000 Refugees
    Pablo Neruda's house in Santiago, Chile has been preserved as a museum, called La Chascona. I asked Javier Ormeño Bustos to explain how travel shaped the great poet's life ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders.  Special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.
    You can learn more about the events described in this episode at the following links:
    The general context and implications of the Spanish refugees in France: 
    https://elpais.com/elpais/2015/09/03/inenglish/1441275302_272830.html
    A testimony in English by one of the refugees, Elena Castedo:
    http://www.elenacastedo.com/blog.htm?post=633104
    Some articles of Winnipeg on wikipedia:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Winnipeg
    https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viaje_del_Winnipeg_de_1939
    A very good site on the Winnipeg, curated by the National Library of Chile:
    http://www.memoriachilena.cl/602/w3-article-732.html
    An article by Neruda himself on the Winnipeg.
    http://pablo-neruda2-france.blogspot.cl/2009/06/el-winnipeg-y-otros-poemas.html
    “My spirit has pass’d in compassion and determination around the whole earth, I have look’d for equals and lovers and found them ready for me in all lands …”
    —Walt Whitman
    1 hr 13 min
  • 93 NGO Hopping—India, Where Mathias Led His Blind Great-Grandfather

    Mathias first went with his great-grandfather to India at age 7, but that's only one of the many stories he told me about his travels and how they have fed into all the aid work he does now. I asked where we can find more information about his projects ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders.  Special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.

    Visit his social media services company at SuperSocial.at.

    Visit his social change project at DigitalParticipationCamp.org.

    "I say friends in the larger sense of the word: persons seen only once or frequented my whole life: provided that between us, at least for a moment, a string stretched, a well-defined thread."

    —Primo Levi

    27 min
  • 92 The Wave and Sea—Europe, Where Eltaj Wants to be a Famous Writer
    Eltaj left Sudan and crossed the Mediterranean from Libya to Italy, where we met in a small migrant camp at an abandoned train station in Rome. I asked if he wanted to visit the Keats-Shelley House together ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders.  Special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.
    "Sus sueños terminaban frente a ese mar color de ceniza, espumoso y sucio, que no merecía los riesgos y sacrificios de su aventura."
    —Gabriel García Márquez
    18 min
  • 91 The Persistence of Memory—Sardinia, Where Majda Took Dragan
    Majda took us into her home in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina with a glass of grappa. I asked why she had to rebuild that home ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders.  Special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.
    Join the Observer Effect Kiva Team→ at Kiva.org
    Or consider getting involved with the work Preemptive Love does among displaced peoples.
    https://preemptivelove.org/
    https://www.worldrelief.org/
    "Di noi ciascuno reca l’impronta dell’amico incontrato per via; in ognuno la traccia di ognuno."
    —Primo Levi
    37 min
  • 90 Certain Half-Deserted Streets—Amsterdam, Where Ilmari Could Feel Something
    Ilmari describes himself as an Eskimo with blond hair. We met in the Sahara Desert. I asked if reindeer and the Northern Lights really played a large role in his life growing up in Lapland ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders.  Special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.​​​​​​​
    Join the Observer Effect Kiva Team→ at Kiva.org
    "Shame is thrown aside when one travels."
    —Jippensha Ikku
    33 min
  • 89 One Thousand Degrees of Heat—Merzouga, Where Ilham Fell Down a Sand Dune
    Ilham did everything she could to live in Marrakesh. I asked how to make lemon saffron chicken tajine ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders.  Special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.
    This is the Two Year Anniversary of the Observer Effect!
    Join the Observer Effect Kiva Team→ at Kiva.org
    "Follow the curve of the sentence wherever it might lead, into deserts, under drifts of sand."
    —Virginia Woolf
    21 min
  • 87 Asylum—Sweden, Where Ibrahim Is Waiting
    Ibrahim escaped Eritrea through the Sahara Desert hidden in the back of a car, crossed the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy crowded into a boat, and now waits in Sweden studying in an old schoolhouse. I asked what language he speaks ... and hope listening like this evaporates borders.  Special thanks to the musician, Dana Boulé.
    Join the Observer Effect Kiva Team→ at Kiva.org
    "I didn’t make such an endless journey just to be sent back again now."
    —Franz Kafka
    35 min

About The Observer Effect

From the publisher's feed

These are strangers' travel stories. Each time I ask how travel has changed them and hope listening like this evaporates borders.