Episoder
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In this episode of Back in America, we sit down with David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst and the author of The Seventh Floor, Moscow X, and Damascus Station. David shares his insights on the current conflicts in the Middle East, discussing the potential for escalation and the complexities facing the intelligence community today.
We explore whether Americans are attuned to global events and how domestic issues may overshadow international concerns. David reflects on his experiences living abroad in France and the Middle East, revealing how they transformed his perspective on America’s values and place in the world.
Diving into his latest novel, The Seventh Floor, David discusses the themes of political polarization and societal fissures through the lens of his characters. He opens up about his journey from being an intelligence analyst to becoming a novelist, highlighting how writing became both a creative outlet and a means of processing his experiences.
David also talks about his writing process, the challenges of authentically portraying espionage, and how he navigates the pressures of social media as an author. We touch on his concerns about the politicization of intelligence agencies and get a sneak peek into his upcoming novel set against the backdrop of the Israel-Iran shadow war.
Finally, David shares what America means to him, emphasizing the nation’s ideals of openness and opportunity for all.
Join us for a conversation that bridges espionage, literature, and America’s identity.
His latest book The Seventh Floor can be found here
To learn more about David visit his website -
In this episode of Back in America, Stan Berteloot explores the extraordinary life of Tom Peine, who left a corporate career in Germany to become a deputy sheriff in the deserts of Arizona. At 40, Tom stepped into an entirely new world, navigating America’s complex gun culture, immigration, and race dynamics from the front lines of law enforcement. His story challenges assumptions about identity, resilience, and belonging in America. Join us for a conversation on the twists and tensions of Tom’s unique journey—and what it really means to protect and serve as an outsider on the inside.
Tom's book: Deputy While Immigrant: The Story of a German Who Became a Deputy Sheriff in Arizona
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Manglende episoder?
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In this provocative episode of Back in America, we sit down with Dr. Patti Fletcher, author of “Disruptors: Success Strategies for Women Who Break the Mold.” Dr. Fletcher challenges traditional notions of empowerment and exposes the systemic barriers holding women back in 2024 America. Drawing from her personal journey—including her family’s legacy of overcoming adversity during the Armenian genocide—she reveals why true disruption requires efficiency, effectiveness, and equity. Listen as Dr. Fletcher explains why she can’t stand the word “empower,” how women can harness their own inherent power, and what it takes to break free from antiquated status quo. If you’re ready to rethink leadership, gender dynamics, and the very language we use around women’s advancement, this episode is a must-listen.
Find Dr. Patti Fletcher's book - Disruptors: Success Strategies for Women Who Break the Mold, on Amazon
Read Back in America's exclusive interview with Dr. Patti Fletcher on Sustack. -
In this episode, we sit down with Alvaro de Cozar, an award-winning journalist and podcast producer, to explore the power of storytelling in a time of political upheaval and misinformation. I talk with Alvaro about his story and podcast episode on Aquilino Gonell, a Dominican immigrant, former U.S. Army soldier, and U.S. Capitol Police officer who defended the Capitol during the January 6th insurrection. Gonell’s journey from pursuing his American dream to confronting its harsh realities offers a profound reflection on democracy, truth, and what it means to be an immigrant in today’s America.
Alvaro, who has a knack for unraveling amazing stories, discusses his approach to bringing stories like Gonell’s to life through his hit podcast, “True Stories,” which has captivated millions of listeners worldwide. He explains the challenge of making such a deeply American narrative resonate with a global audience and his efforts to combat the rewriting of history in a time where truth is often under siege. Join us as we uncover the emotional depth, universal appeal, and raw power of telling the real story behind the headlines.
Listen to discover how Alvaro crafts stories that challenge perceptions, inspire empathy, and hold power to account in an era when every narrative is contested.
Sources:
Hechos Reales
Video shows Trump's role in Jan. 6 at 2024 Democratic National Convention
American Shield: The Immigrant Sergeant Who Defended Democracy
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In this episode of Back in America, we confront one of life’s most challenging realities—caring for a dying loved one at home. Join us as we talk with Dr. Andrea Sankar, professor of medical anthropology at Wayne State University and author of Dying at Home: A Family Guide for Caregiving. Drawing from her experience and extensive research, Dr. Sankar offers profound insights into the emotional and logistical complexities of turning a home into a sanctuary for end-of-life care. Learn about the cultural perspectives on death, the crucial role of community support, and practical advice for caregivers. This heartfelt conversation is a reminder of the importance of compassion and the deep connections that can be forged in the final stages of life. Listen in to gain valuable understanding and support, whether you’re a caregiver, healthcare professional, or someone looking to learn more about end-of-life care. Don’t miss this enlightening discussion, and be sure to subscribe for more impactful stories.
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In this episode of “Back in America,” we sit down with Tamar Huggins, founder and CEO of TechSpark, a platform empowering Black, Indigenous, and people of color through technology education. Tamar shares her journey from building computers with her father to launching Sparkplug, an innovative AI tool that translates classical literature into African American Vernacular English (AAVE). We explore the critical issues of AI bias, the importance of diverse training data, and how education can bridge gaps in tech. Tamar explains why she considers Sparkplug a “human AI” and discusses her mission to make technology accessible and inclusive for all students.
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In this episode of Back in America, host Stan Berteloot interviews acclaimed journalist Brendan Koerner about his undercover investigation into the world of OnlyFans, a platform that connects adult performers with subscribers, through his Wired cover story - 'She has 80,000 subscribers but she always has time for you'. Koerner reveals the hidden workings of the platform and the surprising reality of its chat services. From his initial encounters to becoming an undercover chatter himself, Koerner exposes the intricate business operations and psychological dynamics that drive OnlyFans. Tune in to uncover the truth about the creators, their chat specialists, and the emotional connections forged in this digital age.
Read the article on the Back in America's Substack blog
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Hey everyone, Stan Berteloot here, your host of the Back in America podcast. After a long two-year break, we’re back with fresh, insightful episodes exploring American culture, values, and identity through the eyes of an expatriate.
I’ve been busy working with amazing companies like NeuTigers, Pontosense, and Nytro Marketing, and staying active with Share My Meals, fighting food waste. The world has changed since COVID-19, and so have I. The Me Too movement, Black Lives Matter, and climate change have profoundly impacted me.
We’re back with new interviews, amazing guests, and fascinating stories. Episodes will be released monthly. Meanwhile, check out previous favorites like “Diving on Shipwrecked Slave Ships” and “John Lam: Boston Ballet Principal Dancer.”
Check out AI in Marketing my personally curated and AI-Generated podcast
Share the news, tell your friends to subscribe, and see you soon!
#AmericanCulture #ExpatLife #Podcast #BackInAmerica -
This episode was originally published on December 17, 2020
In this episode, I interview three crew members of the EPIX / BBC docuseries Enslaved: The Lost History of the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
While 2020 has been a year of intense examination of racism in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, Enslaved takes a deep dive at the historical realities of the Middle Passage. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, The Guardian’s Afua Hirsh, and investigative journalist Simcha Jacobovici, the series travels across the globe to sites of slave ships to uncover what these sunken graveyards can reveal about life onboard––lives of which there is little historical record or archive.
Our first guest is the British marine archaeologist Dr. Sean Kingsley who served as a historical advisor to the series’ diving crew.
Then two of the divers will join me: Kinga Philipps and Kramer Wimberley. An award-winning journalist, writer, TV host, and esteemed member of the Explorer’s Club, Kinga provided a European perspective to the shoot, and also was one of the few non-Black divers for Enslaved. Next, Kramer will introduce himself as the series’ lead diving instructor who also leads “Diving with a Purpose,” a maritime archaeology program that protects the legacy of the Transatlantic slave trade shipwrecks.
Each of the three interviews was broadcasted live and can be watched in full on the Back in America’s YouTube channel.
As I conducted these interviews, I wanted to understand two things. First, what did diving on the wrecks of slave ships us about the history of the slave trade. Then, I wanted the divers to speak about their own experiences as they dived and explored these sunken mass graves, especially in light of recent activism in America.
Dr Sean Kingsley Wreckwatch Mag
Kramer Wimberly Diving With a Purpose
Kinga Philipps
Read the Transcript
This episode was partially edited by Back in America’s Podcast Editor Josh Wagner. -
Back in America is a podcast exploring America’s culture, values, and identity. This conversation was recorded live on September 17. You can watch the unedited version on our Youtube channel.
Listen to this episode to learn more about the release of the Pentagon report on UFOs to Congress. The importance of cosmos exploration. The chances of finding extraterrestrial life in our lifetime.
After taking a long summer break during which my intern Josh Wagner took over Back in America with his excellent series Poetism I am happy to be back behind the mic.
My guest, Seth Shostak is a Doctor in Astronomy, and an Alien Hunter working with the SETI Institute, a research organization whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe. In fact, SETI stands for the "search for extraterrestrial intelligence". He has published more than 400 articles on science including regular contributions to NBC News MACH, gives many dozens of talks annually, and is the host of the SETI Institute’s weekly science radio show, “Big Picture Science.”
During our conversation, he said, “The equipment is getting faster and faster. We're looking at more and more of the universe. And on that basis that I've bet everyone a cup of Starbucks coffee, that we will find some evidence that we're not alone by 2035.
The SETI Institute https://www.seti.org/
Dr. Soth Shostak http://sethshostak.com/
The Big Picture Science Podcast https://radio.seti.org/
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If the particular cannot be repeated, it remains forever lost; and this is why there can be no final closure to mourning. There can only be, alongside of mourning, learning to love new particulars ––Louise Fradenburg
In this week’s installment of “Poetism,” we’d like to ask about how words, poems, songs, and other kinds of art objects help bring life to a world. And by world, we mean a perspective, something experienced and understood in the innermost part of our being. Whether faced by inner solitude or loss, words attempt to communicate a state of affairs. But do they have to? Is there a way of placing listeners and readers directly into an experience without only describing it? Are there more direct ways of touching or “worlding” or elegizing? Or, in the words of this week’s poet, a moment: “Stands, the way a status / does in the mind.
Perhaps! And it is in this great abyss of a perhaps that this episode takes off. Our working theory is that the sonic qualities of words, and of language in general, can help transmit moods and sensations without the need for specific meanings. To ask such questions, Josh is joined by his college roommate Scott Stevens, a recent English graduate of Stanford University (and incoming Fulbright Scholar) who also speaks in Japanese and French. And, in the course of their dialogue, Scott they are assisted by the Cocteau Twins’ 1984 track “Amelia” off of Treasure as well as Brigit Pegeen Kelly’s “Field Song” from the collection Song (1995).
Over the course of their conversation, Scott and Josh touch upon the uniqueness of sound as a medium of communication, their difficulties of listening to the lyrics of a song, and poetry’s collective oral tradition.
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For more Poetism, stay tuned for next week’s two-part series finale on Rachel McKibbins, blackface, and FKA twigs.
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The sullen murmur of the bees shouldering their way through the long unmown grass, or circling with monotonous insistence round the dusty gilt horns of the straggling woodbine, seemed to make the stillness more oppressive. The dim roar of London was like the bourdon note of a distant organ.
These lines, from the opening pages of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, emphasize unseen background noises as constituting an environment. The bees, working through the grass, create the biological condition of possibility for nature and the world, especially in their unseen state. And, so too, does the roar of London create the background chatter that allows the plot of the novel to take off. In this week’s installment of Poetism, we’d like to ask a similar question about our own age: what is the background noise that has made all this––society, labor, world–– possible?
Michael Leon Thomas, a professor of philosophy at Susquehanna University, joins Josh in the studio to tackle the vicissitudes and interisies of Alfred North Whitehead’s conception of philosophy alongside Pharoah Sanders’ 1973 album Izipho Zam, particularly the 28-minute titular track which closes the album. For Whitehead, a worldview is always in the process of emerging, and our language needs to follow suit. A reformed logician, Whitehead balks against a wholly systematic view of philosophy, suggesting that it is in the gaps, silences, and wetness of philosophy that something happens.
And to figure out what this something might be, we turn to Pharoah Sanders’ enigmatic, if expansive, composition which traverses through various languages, instruments, and cosmologies. The bandleader himself cannot be heard until the last third of the track, creating and leaving space (a society?) in which music creation can happen. In other words, it’s a slow reconditioning process.
Along the way, Michael and I talk about why he’s decided to spend his life with philosophy, how experience feeds into our listening habits, the postcolony of American, and why philosophy might have more in common with poetry than one might assume.
To read more about Michael’s work on music, check out an interview in Aesthetics with Birds.
Here is the 2016 Pharoah Sanders performance mentioned in the episode.
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For Poetism, stay tuned for next week’s episode on Brigit Pegeen Kelly and the Cocteau Twins with Scott Stevens
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Across Northern Europe, so-called “bog people” have often been discovered shuffling around in the peat. While no one is quite certain where these quasi-mummified bodies come from––some date as recently as the 1940s––they have posed a strange mystery for countless poets and artists.
This week, Back in America’s Poetism team takes a look at one of Seamus Heaney’s bog-inspired poems “The Bog Queen” from his 1975 collection North. Written in the spring of the May 1968 movement and the beginning of the Irish “Troubles,” “The Bog Queen” ventriloquizes the voice of its eponymous queen, pretending to experience underground life before her eventual discovery.
In 2014, Irish musician Hozier released a setting of the poem, “Like Real People Do, ”removing many explicit references to Heaney himself, while keeping the ethos of the poem. For Hozier, the relationship of the fallen queen to her discoverer is one of love, even if from afar. Is it possible to love those who we will never meet? Can such a love be anything more than one-sided or wonderfully ironic?
To explore these questions, Stanford graduate student Lorenzo Bartolucci joins Josh in the studio to offer his take on love, Heaney, bog bodies, and American-ness itself.
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If you’re enjoying this summer series, stay tuned for next week’s installment, featuring Susquehanna Philosophy Professor Michael Leon Thomas and the works of Alfred North Whitehead and Pharoah Sanders.
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Elegy
Who would I show it to
In this short one-line poem, W.S. Merwin condenses the anguish of loss, of being alive, and of the limitations of languages into a neat little package. Why write in the absence of finality? And what happens when mortality catches up with us?
In this installment of Poetism, Podcast Editor Josh Wagner takes to the studio to ask about the honesty of writing––can writing ever reflect a true impression of reality? To field such questions about life, poetry, and everything in between, Stanford graduate student Gabriel Ellis takes the mic. Studying musicology, Gabriel focuses on contemporary pop music, and especially what he terms “anaesthetics,” music that describes, induces, or creates a sense of narcotic escape.
Our conversation loosely tracks Gabriel’s musical career before turning to Jos Charles’ 2018 poetry collection feeld, which he reads in a faux-Chaucerian accent: “i care so much abot the whord i cant reed.” Then, we talk about the late SOPHIE’s 2018 track “Immaterial” off of Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides to explore a sonic tapestry of vibe.
Stay tuned at your dials for next week’s episode of Poetism, featuring dead Irish myths, Seamus Heany, Hozier, and more Stanford friends!
Note: Both Charles and SOPHIE identify as trans and use she/them pronouns, so we use both interchangeably.
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She listen to a little of that D’Angelo music, some love’s melody, sophisticated-type rap, which she say sounds more like real music, like intelligent music, than some of that other music, then she cuts the radio off ––Gayl Jones, The Healing
Like the narrator in Gayl Jones’ The Healing, this week’s installment of Poetism focuses on and around “black music,” that is music which conveys a specific feeling of a sensation or time without explaining anything. For me, it’s like being a child at an adult’s card table; no one tells you how the game works, you have to learn by being attentive and tuning into the tricks at hand. But the joy is in the puzzle, almost as much as in the rules of the game.
When his producer tried to market his serpentine music as “neo-soul,” D’Angelo rejected that moniker for the more expressive and expansive “black music.” There’s history and respect in his 2014 collaboration with the Vanguard, “Black Messiah,” but also affection, nostalgia, and rage. In scholar D’Angelo’s own words, “it’s all about capturing the spirit. It’s all about capturing the vibe. I’m kinda a first take dude.”
To tackle such questions of lineage and history, actor and tap dance instructor Johnnie Hobbs joins me in this week’s episode. Our conversation starts with Johnnie’s own background and love for films––especially the rare period piece that displays the mundane. As Sumana Roy and Xander Manshel have noted, it’s rare for art made by people of color about the everyday to be accepted by mainstream culture. The vast majority of literary awards given to writers of color are for historical novels which focus on their ethnic identities. To be taught within the university, Indian novels need to be about what it means to be a postcolonial subject;––it’s uncommon to see a novel about one’s dreams of becoming a famous poet, midnight walks, and family fights.
And Johnnie has developed his own test to see whether a historical film can do more than just showcase violence against Black bodies. In the final minutes of the podcast, we turn towards Amiri Baraka’s “Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note” (1961) to unpack it’s own relationship to Black suffering and its future(s).
Stay tuned for next week’s episode on bubblegum pop and Old English verse in Jos Charles’ feeld (2018) and SOPHIE’s “Immaterial” (2018)––guided by anesthetic wizard Gabriel Ellis, who you might remember from his cameo in last week’s installment.
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Why are we so blind, why do we see so little, when there is much around us to see?
So asks philosopher Alva Noë in Strange Tools, an exploration of how art objects contain, persuade, envelop, and direct our attention. What happens when we love a song, poem, or a moment in a day? How do these works of art direct and misdirect our attention? What––physically, emotionally, actually––happens to us in these moments of transport? And how can we talk about any of this without poorly paraphrasing that direct experience?
These are the questions Podcast Editor Josh Wagner was left with at the end of our last episode of Poetism. So, in this week’s installment, Josh invited Mitch Therieau, a Stanford researcher working on contemporary literature, to unravel the interstices of Lisa Robertson’s R’s Boat (2010) and the Airborne Toxic Event’s 2011 hit “Numb” off of All at Once.
Robertson’s poetry captures fleeting moments of stillness and the everyday, placing them in complex and abstract forms, while Numb’s soundscape desensitizes listeners to the world around them. Over the course of their conversation, Mitch and Josh plumb the surface-level depths of Robertson’s avant-garde poetry and trace the music history at the core of the Airborne Toxic Event’s track.
Longtime listeners might be interested to compare Mitch’s idea of what America is with Josh’s––way back from his first episode with Back in America.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode with Los Angeles-based filmmaker and tap dancer Johnnie Hobbs, featuring Amiri Baraka and D’Angelo and The Vanguard.
Check out frontman for the Airborne Toxic Event Mikel Jollett’s 2020 memoir Hollywood Park.
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Happy July! While Stan and the usual Back in America podcast are on a hiatus this summer, Podcast Editor Josh Wagner will be hosting a new series entitled Poetism, tracing the foundations of and influences behind American poetry and music.
Each week, Josh will invite a guest on the air to talk about an unusual pairing of a poem and song––seeing how they overlap and converse with one another. In the process, we hope to expose listeners to new poets and songs and make a case for the enduring relevance of poetry in an age of digital and visual media.
In our inaugural episode, Josh is joined by Fang Liu, a linguistics major from Stanford, to talk about memory and imagination in Patrick Rosal’s 2015 ekphrastic poem “Children Walk on Chairs to Cross a Flooded Schoolyard” and The Doors’ “Wild Child” off of the 1969 record The Soft Parade.
Stay tuned for next week’s episode on sensations of loneliness through the Airborne Toxic Event’s early 2000s bop “Numb” and poet Lisa Robertson’s R’s Boat (2010).
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Before we dive into today’s episode, a personal note: This summer, I will be going back to France for the first time in two years, and I will take a break from podcasting until September.
However, my interns Josh and Emma will be keeping the lights on by releasing podcast episodes and newsletter articles (subscribe here).
Josh has been working on a series of episodes discussing American music and poetry, which will be released weekly in July and August.
So, Back in America will be in summer mode, and I know you will love it!
Now, it is time for our interview.
Starting this podcast back in November 2019, I wanted to make sense of the Trump years, and the sadness I felt for a country I loved but no longer understood.
In more than 50 episodes and countless conversations, I have time and time again asked my guests: What is America to them?. Careful listeners to this podcast might have gained a better understanding of the fabric of this country––I know I certainly have.
In this episode, I turn to Professor Douglas Steinel, a man whose life has been dedicated to just that: understanding America.
His students have praised him for forcing them to confront opposing views, and his course syllabi require reading political critiques from both sides of the aisle.
Professor Douglas Steinel has been a professor of American Political Thought since 1982 at the George Washington University, just a few blocks away from the White House.
Professor Steinel's book suggestions
Plato's Republic
Bertrand Russell Collection, Selected Works, 1912-1922: The Problems of Philosophy, The Analysis of Mind, Why Men Fight, Free Thought and Official Propaganda
Why I Am Not a Christian and Other Essays on Religion and Related Subjects
by Bertrand Russell
The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite
by Michael Lind
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This episode was recorded live on May 26 and includes questions from the audience.
It is part of a series on sustainable initiatives to save our planet. In his latest interviews, host Stan Berteloot spoke with Navi Radjou about the frugal economy and Bruno Sarda about how corporations are experimenting with sustainability.
Stan’s guest, Stefan Gallard, is a French-American working for Grain de Sail, a company that has built the first modern wind-powered cargo ships.
Grain de Sail transports wine, coffee beans, and chocolate across the globe in its 80- foot schooner. Its sailboat cargo is an essential part of the company’s green logistics chain.
More information on Grain de Sel at: Graindesailwines.com
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Back in America is a podcast exploring America's culture, values, and identity. This episode is part of a series on positive initiatives to save our planet. In his last interview, Stan Berteloot spoke with Navi Radjou about the frugal economy. Today, he is talking to Bruno Sarda, an internationally renowned expert in sustainability.
For years, corporations have advertised their green initiatives to reassure both investors and customers about their sustainable practices. Yet as we know, climate change is only getting worse, so we wanted to ask Bruno if this was just “greenwashing.”
On a personal note: Back in America now boasts more than 50 episodes, and we am very grateful to you, our listeners, for your support during all this time. This summer, Stan will be going back to France for the first time in two years, and he will take a podcast break until September.
However, Back in America’s interns Josh and Emma will be keeping the lights on by releasing podcast episodes and newsletter articles (subscribe here).
Josh has been working on a series of episodes discussing American music and poetry, which will be released every week in July and August.
So Back in America will be in summer mode, and we know you will love it!
To learn more about Bruno Sarda check out his Linkedin profile.
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