Thanks for listening to these stories. This is the last one on the album. It’s three pieces from the same place—the Sonoran Desert, 60 miles southwest of Tucson, the border with Mexico. From an air conditioned car, the landscape looks beautiful and serene, but it’s actually one big open graveyard for people who died trying to walk into the United States.In March of 2005, photojournalist <a href="https://lannan.org/bios/julian-cardona" target="_blank">Julian Cardona</a> wrote to me saying there were 1000-3000 people crossing the line, everyday, near Sasabe, Sonora. He said I should come down and he’d help me with the story. So the first part of this trilogy is with Julian on the Mexican side—the people getting ready to cross.The second and third part are with <a href="https://lannan.org/bios/charles-bowden" target="_blank">Charles Bowden</a> on the U.S. side, where the land is a national wildlife refuge. I went there with Bowden a few days after being in Sasabe with Julian. Bowden lived nearby in Tucson and had been writing about the border for decades. He believed it was his moral responsibility as a writer to show people what was happening there. He was also on the board of directors for the wildlife refuge. That’s why the refuge security guard, Slyvester, agreed to talk to me, and it’s why he invited us to dinner with his wife and kids. This is the second part of the trilogy. The third part happened that same night. After dinner, instead of going back to Tucson, Bowden and I drove south on a dirt road, across the refuge, to the barbed wire fence marking the border. The sky had a million stars, but it was so dark I couldn’t see the microphone in my own hand.These stories aired in 2005 on NPR’s “Day to Day,” and then in 2006 on NPR’s “Hearing Voices” as part of a larger program that won a Peabody Award for reporting on the US/Mexico border in 2007.I’d like to thank Alex Chadwick (of “Day to Day”) for telling me I should put Charles Bowden and Julian Cardona on the radio. And thanks to Barrett Golding (of “Hearing Voices”) for producing the show that won the big award. Thanks for listening to these stories that aired on the radio, one time, a long time ago. Finally, thanks very much to everyone who has donated to support this podcast. I depend on your donations to keep going. If you feel like helping out, please go to <a href="https://homebrave.com">homebrave.com</a> and look for the DONATE button.

<description>Reports from the Sonoran Desert, sixty miles south of Tucson, in March of 2005.</description>

Reports from the Sonoran Desert, sixty miles south of Tucson, in March of 2005.

Border Trilogy

As the war correspondent for a men’s fashion magazine in the late 1990’s, I was given one directive: There will be blood in the first paragraph! This was a time of relative peace and calm, when it seemed the United States would rule the world for at least the next couple hundred years. My job was to go to places where people were still acting up, causing trouble, shooting and killing, and find someone who was bleeding—because this is what men (with money) in the late 1990’s wanted to read in between ads for underwear, wristwatches, and cologne.I went to “some fucked up places” and wrote the stories, but I kept failing to follow the directive about blood. So my job was on shaky ground. Then 9/11 happened.This story is about going to Afghanistan in November of 2001, the beginning of the war on terror. Esquire Magazine refused to send me, so I went on my own. The story I wrote, “Over There,” was published in Harper’s Magazine in 2002. This radio story, produced years later, is composed of excerpts from the print story. It was edited and mixed by Larry Massett, and was broadcast, in 2010, by the NPR program “Hearing Voices.”I invite everyone to listen to these stories for free and then decide whether they are worthy of a donation. Thanks very much to everyone who has gone to <a href="https://homebrave.com" target="_blank">homebrave.com</a> and pressed the DONATE button.

<description>A trip to Afghanistan in November of 2001.</description>

A trip to Afghanistan in November of 2001.

Over There

This story changed my life. Until then, 1997, I’d always done stories about things where I live, what I call home. When J.J. Yore (producer of “The Savvy Traveler”) asked me to go to Cambodia, I didn’t even have a valid passport. Then, when the story aired, one night in 1997, David Granger (editor of Esquire Magazine) heard it in his limousine on his way home from work in Manhattan. He listened then called me on the car phone. He said he wanted me to be Esquire’s war correspondent.“Esquire has always had a war correspondent,” he said, “but now there are no wars going on, so we’re just going to send you to some really fucked-up places.”It was like a door opened, and I stepped into a whole new world.I invite everyone to listen to these stories for free and then decide whether they are worthy of a donation. Thanks very much to everyone who has gone to <a href="https://homebrave.com">homebrave.com</a> and pressed the DONATE button.

<description>My first overseas story.</description>

A Trip To Cambodia

In the summer we would drive across the country to Squam Lake in New Hampshire. My wife’s parents had a house there in a quiet bay with a beach, with loons and moose. The lake was perfect for swimming.Swim Lesson was produced in 1995, with (a lot of) help from Jay Allison of <a href="https://transom.org" target="_blank">Transom.org</a>.I invite everyone to listen to these stories for free, and then decide whether they are worthy of a donation. If so, please go to <a href="https://homebrave.com" target="_blank">homebrave.com</a> and look for the DONATE button.

<description>Swim lessons at the Sandwich Aquatic Center in Sandwich, New Hampshire.</description>

Swim lessons at the Sandwich Aquatic Center in Sandwich, New Hampshire.

Swim Lesson

These are my thoughts after watching Trump’s speech last night: Right now, in the United States, you’re either in Trump’s gang or you are not; and, if not, you’re getting your ass kicked, over and over, for fun and pleasure by people in the Trump gang. This is what’s happening. This is the show now—a WWF Smackdown of woke-ass liberals, and the rest of the world can go to hell.Yesterday I thought I should stop what I’m doing and start talking to Trump supporters to ask them “what are you thinking?” But today I know what they are thinking—they want to kick my ass and laugh about it. There’s got to be a better plan.This morning I thought about going to Ukraine, and maybe I will, but for now I am going to finish this “album” project because it has a beginning, middle, and end to it, and it would be wrong to stop in the middle. I’m sorry, I was blown off course for a bit by difficult circumstances, but I back at it now.Finding Amnesia, produced and edited by Alix Spiegel and Ira Glass, aired on <a href="https://thisamericanlife.org">This American Life</a> in 1997.I invite everyone to listen to these stories for free and then decide whether they are worthy of a donation. If so, please go to <a href="https://homebrave.com" target="_blank">homebrave.com</a> and look for the DONATE button.

<description>An attempt to forget who I am.</description>

Finding Amnesia

Home of the Brave: new and old stories from &quot;This American Life&quot; contributor Scott Carrier.

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