“The virus is literally moving throughout the building. Phase by phase, department by department.”

— Christian Smalls

Location: Zoom
Date: Friday, 3rd April 2020
Company: N/A
Role: N/A

The treatment of Amazon warehouse workers frequently comes under scrutiny, with reports of gruelling shifts, stringent performance targets and limited breaks.

The spread of the COVID-19 has led to the closure of all non-essential businesses in many parts of the world. Amazon has become a lifeline for many ordering essentials during this lockdown.

With Amazon warehouses busier than ever there are fears that these places of work could become hotbeds for spreading the virus.

When Amazon worker Christian Smalls was told a co-worker had tested positive for COVID-19, he raised the concerns with his supervisors and asked to have the building closed and sanitised before returning to work. According to Christian, management denied his request, which led him to organise a walkout in protest. Christian was subsequently fired.

In this interview, I talk to Christian Smith to discuss the working conditions in an Amazon warehouse, the company's reaction to the pandemic, and if Amazon should close its business entirely.

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/sacked-amazon-coronavirus-whistleblower-christian-smalls

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

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The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
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“For a lot of people, in Nairobi in particular, if you don’t hustle, you don’t eat and if you talk to people from some of these slum communities, they would rather die from sickness than from hunger.”
— Lauren Gelfand

Location: Skype
Date: Thursday, 26th March 2020
Company: N/A
Role: Strategic Communications Advisor

Countries across Africa are beginning to implement nationwide lockdowns to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. While initial numbers are low, widespread testing is challenging, and the numbers are predicted to snowball.

Given the specific social and economic conditions in many African countries, stemming the spread of the disease is a significant challenge.

Social distancing in inner-city slums, populations disproportionately affected by infectious diseases such as TB and HIV, dense populations and weak health systems all threaten to make this pandemic especially devastating in Africa.

In this interview, I talk to Lauren Gelfand to discuss the spread of Coronavirus within Kenya. We discuss the economic impact and the specific conditions that could make this virus devastating throughout Africa.

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/coronavirus-kenya-as-a-lens-for-africa-lauren-gelfand

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
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“We’ve only been doing it for two weeks, and we are all at breaking point already.”
— Dr. James

Location: Skype
Date: Saturday, 28th March 2020
Company: NHS
Role: ICU Consultant Anaesthetist

The rapid spread of Coronavirus around the world has created unprecedented challenges. In the UK, the total number of confirmed cases stands at 17,089, with the true number likely to be much higher due to undetected & unreported cases.

The country is in lockdown in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus and relieve pressure on the NHS. However, hospitals are already beginning to feel the strain, and it is predicted that all of the UK's ICU beds will be full within a matter of days.

Doctors, nurses and hospital staff are putting themselves in great danger to be on the frontline fighting this virus. With a lack of equipment and colleagues getting sick, the pressure on these workers is accelerating.

In this interview, I talk to Dr James, an ICU Consultant Anaesthetist at an NHS hospital in London. We discuss the current situation in the hospital, the surge in patient numbers and the myths regarding the virus and patients.- - - - -

Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/coronavirus-inside-a-london-icu-dr-james

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
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“Shut the fuck up with your radical politics, and accept what people on the street are saying.”
— Jake Hanrahan

Location: Skype
Date: Friday, 20th March 2020
Company: Popular Front
Role: Journalist and filmmaker

Politics is more polarised than ever, is this just a reflection of society?

People tend to associate within closed communities, whether that be right or left-wing, libertarian or any other political or social group. With this, social media news feeds can become echo chambers, showing us tailored content which entrenches beliefs.

With this constant reassurance are we missing the nuance in the news? Are we losing objectivity with opinions that differ from ours?

What does this mean for journalism? Have we killed nuanced debate?

In this interview, I talk to Jake Hanrahan, Journalist, Filmmaker and the founder of Popular Front. We discuss navigating misinformation, peoples political and social bias and finding the nuance in news.

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/truth-lies-journalism-jake-hanrahan

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
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“If you want peace, be prepared to fight.”
— John Shipton

Location: London
Date: Tuesday, 10th March 2020

In 2010 WikiLeaks gained global recognition when Chelsea Manning, a US Army Soldier, turned whistleblower, released numerous documents via WikiLeaks including the now infamous Collateral Murder. Collateral Murder showed a team of two US AH-64 Apache helicopters firing upon and killing several men including civilians, two of whom were war correspondents working for Reuters.

WikiLeaks was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange and specialises in publishing leaked materials. In Assange's own words: "WikiLeaks is a giant library of the world's most persecuted documents. We give asylum to these documents, we analyse them, we promote them, and we obtain more."

In 2010 Sweden released an arrest warrant for Assange that alleged two cases of sexual assault. Assange feared that extradition to Sweden, may, in turn, lead to extradition to the US where he believed he could face prosecution for WikiLeaks' publication of the secret US government files.

Following a hearing and subsequent legal battle, the UK courts ruled that Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face trial.

To prevent extradition, in August 2012, Assange entered the Ecuadorian Embassy in London where he was granted political asylum. He remained there until his arrest in April 2019.

Swedish prosecutors have discontinued the investigation into the alleged sexual assault in 2010. However, Assange may still be extradited to the US, where he faces 18 charges of attempted hacking and breaches of the Espionage Act with a possible sentence of 170 years. Since early 2019 Assange has been imprisoned awaiting trial and extradition to the US. The case is in the hands of the UK courts and will, likely, be decided in May 2020.

Throughout the nearly seven years inside the Ecuadorian Embassy and the past year that Assange has been imprisoned, there have been several concerns raised over both his physical and mental health and the potential violations of Julian's human rights.

In this interview, I talk to John Shipton, Julian's father, an anti-war activist who has been campaigning to drop the extradition charge and see his son freed. We discuss John & Julian's relationship, Julian's ongoing case and the impact of WikiLeaks.

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/julian-assange-by-his-father-john-shipton

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
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“I saw the gang as a refuge, as protection, acceptance, belonging. As a way to fit into American society.”
— Wilfredo Gómez

Location: San Salvador, El Salvador
Date: Friday, 14th February 2020
Company: N/A
Role: Freelance Journalist & Ex-Gang Member

El Salvador is one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Gangs are prolific, with nationwide membership as high as 10%, most joining either MS-13 or 18th Street.

Violence, murder and extortion are not new to El Salvador. Following the brutal civil war, from 1979 to 1992, some speculate that this desensitised the population and is a contributing factor to the extreme gang culture, the level of violence and high murder rate. In 2015-16 the murder rate in El Salvador was more than 100 per 100,000 making it, by far, the murder capital of the world.

Like much of Central and South America, political and economic migration has long been popular with the majority choosing the United States as their destination. Following the end of the civil war in 1992, the US has clamped down on El Salvadorian criminals, and between 2014 and 2018, the deported an estimated 111,000 people back to El Salvador.

Human Rights Watch has flagged this as a potential breach as many deportees have no ties to El Salvador with some never having set foot in the country before being deported. This can lead to exploitation, with HRW reporting that at least 138 of those deported from the United States in recent years were subsequently killed.

In this interview, I talk to Valentina Pereda, a journalist and filmmaker in El Salvador and Wilfredo Gómez, an ex-18th Street gang hitman who turned his back on the gang lifestyle after being imprisoned in the US and deported to El Salvador. We discuss gang culture in El Salvador, how Will became involved with 18th Street in LA, his role in the gangs before he was arrested and deported, and how he left the gang lifestyle behind.

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/the-reformation-of-an-18th-street-hitman-valentina-pereda-wilfredo-gmez

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
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“I knew at some point somethings going to give, and then it did give. I woke up in hospital two months later, coming out of a coma.”

— Dominic

Location: Bogota, Colombia
Date: Wednesday, 12th February 2020
Company: N/A
Role: N/A

Today I have a very emotional and personal interview with my friend Dominic. I have known Dom for over 25 years, we went to school together and shared a love of heavy metal, and attended many gigs and festivals together.

After school, we lost touch but have come back into each other's lives a couple of times. Dominic moved to Colombia over a decade ago but returned with his daughter after struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. We hung out with our children for around a year before we lost touch again, and then three years ago, I bumped into Dominic after he had spent a night smoking crack cocaine. In recovery myself, I recognised the signs, but before we spoke again, he had moved back to Colombia.

Just over a year ago, I was made aware that Dominic was in a Coma in Colombia. Dominic survived this incident and is now in recovery for both drug and alcohol addiction. While I was in Bogota, Colombia recently, I met up with Dominic and asked him if I could interview him and allow him to tell his story.

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/the-depth-of-addiction-dominic

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
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If you have any questions then please email Defiance.

- - - - -

“A thermometer is not Liberal or Conservative; it doesn’t give you a different answer depending on how you vote. The solutions are but we have to begin from a place of shared understanding that climate is changing. Humans really are responsible, we’ve checked, the impacts are serious, and we do need to act.”

— Prof. Katharine Hayhoe

Location: Lubbock, Texas
Date: Monday, 17th February 2020
Company: Texas Tech University
Role: Atmospheric Scientist and Professor of Political Science

While the media continues to report on the threat of climate change and the habits of humans which are accelerating it, there is still considerable disagreement with the science.

Even with this global consensus amongst climate scientists, there is a very vocal minority who state that human-caused climate change is a myth. They make claims such as 'all we are experiencing is a natural climate cycle', 'the models are unreliable' and even that 'Antarctica is gaining ice'. These arguments are backed by misinformation and often come from those who stand to benefit most from uncertainty around climate change such as oil and gas companies.

2019 was a record-breaking year; oceans hit record temperatures. Australia experienced the worst wildfires on record, and the Greenland ice sheet continues to melt at an alarming rate.

To discuss the facts around climate change and how humans contribute, I am joined by Katharine Hayhoe, an Atmospheric Scientist and Professor of Political Science at Texas Tech University. We also discuss the denialist mindset and how scientists have underestimated the severity of the problem.

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/the-science-of-climate-change-prof-katharine-hayhoe

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
- Subscribe to the show on your favourite app so you never miss an episode:
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If you have any questions then please email Defiance.

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“Everybody deserves freedom, and everybody deserves a choice of how they are governed.”
— Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga

Location: Riga
Date: Friday, 31st January 2020
Company: Latvia
Role: Former President

In the wake of the Second World War and the Soviet expansion into the Baltic states, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and her family fled Latvia for a German refugee camp. From there, the family moved to Morocco before emigrating to Canada in 1954.

Vaira went on to gain a PhD in psychology and became a professor at the University of Montreal. She taught psychopharmacology, psycholinguistics, scientific theories, experimental methods, language and cognitive processes.

Throughout this successful career, Vaira remained fiercely loyal to her Latvian heritage and in 1998, aged 60, she decided to return to her home country to head a new Latvian Institute. Within eight months of returning, Vaira became Latvia’s first female President.

She was a hugely popular and successful President, and at one point her approval ratings were as high as 85%.

In this interview, I talk to Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga and discuss how her family fled Latvia, her life in Canada, returning to become President of Latvia and Russia’s influence over the Baltic states.

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/from-refugee-to-the-first-female-president-of-latvia-vaira-ve-freiberga

- - - - -

Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
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If you have any questions then please email Defiance.

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“I don’t mind these fellas being in gangs, it’s what the gangs do that is the issue for me. If the gangs are playing football or rugby that’s fine. If they are playing chess, if they are crocheting I really don’t care. It’s when they are out on a Friday night stabbing each other, that becomes an issue for me.”
— John Carnochan

Location: Glasgow
Date: Tuesday, 22nd January 2020
Company: Scottish Violence Reduction Unit
Role: Former Detective Chief Superintendent

When John Carnochan joined Strathclyde Police as deputy head of CID in 2002, Glasgow, in particular, was experiencing extreme levels of violent crime. Scotland had become the murder capital of Europe and had five times the murder rate of London.

The methods used by the police were mostly ineffective, so John took a radical approach, launching the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) and the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence. This initiative offered education, health services, careers advice, social services and diversionary projects to the most vulnerable gang members.

The VRU was a massive success. In 2004/05 there were 137 homicides in Scotland. By 2016/17 this number had dropped to 62, attempted murders dropped from 828 to 317, and serious assaults fell by almost half.

In this interview, I talk to John Carnochan, former Detective Chief Superintendent. His Violence Reduction Unit and Community Initiative to Reduce Violence program helped significantly reduce violent crime and homicide rates in Scotland

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Show notes and transcription: https://www.defiance.news/podcast/how-scotland-reduced-violent-crime-john-carnochan

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Timestamps:
Coming soon…

- - - - -

The success of Defiance will be largely down to the support of you, the listener. Below are a number of ways you can help:
- Subscribe to the show on your favourite app so you never miss an episode:
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