The Castaway

Salvador Alvarenga pulled off the impossible. You can read the Spanish transcript of the episode or an English translation. A version of this story was published in 2016. Subscribe to our newsletter! You will get new episodes every Tuesday and recommendations of things that inspire us every Friday. And request an invitation to our Online Podcast Club if...

A chain is not always a constraint.  When ICE arrived in a neighborhood in Nashville to detain an immigrant, they never imagined who else they would encounter. What was supposed to be a routine arrest, would end in an image that was seen all across the...

In Costa Rica, addresses are, well… complicated. Why don’t many of the streets in Costa Rica have names or numbers? In lieu of a formal system of addresses, Ticos have found unusual ways of getting from one place to another. You can read the Spanish transcript of the episode or an English translation. Subscribe to...

For a long time he meant everything to them, now they had to face him.  In the previous episode, we started to tell the story of Orlando Gaitán, a so-called spiritual leader that used ayahuasca to heal his followers. But a group of women discovered something...

[Daniel Alarcón, host]: Before we begin, a warning to our listeners. This episode of Radio Ambulante includes descriptions of sexual situations that may be shocking, and it is suitable for adults only. (SOUNDBITE FROM CEREMONY) [Daniel]: Welcome to Radio Ambulante from NPR. I’m Daniel Alarcón. And what...

Sometimes our idols betray us. Orlando Gaitán became famous for organizing ayahuasca ceremonies in Colombia, and promising to heal any sickness. He gained hundreds of followers who recognized him as a spiritual leader. Andrea was one of them, and she was willing to give up everything...

For Marco Avilés, moving from Lima, Peru to small-town Maine was a dream come true —beautiful, verdant, calm. He was ready to make a home there until something changed. When the political climate intrudes on the life you're building, how far do things have to...

[Daniel Alarcón, host]: Welcome to Radio Ambulante, from NPR. I’m Daniel Alarcón.  Today we’re going back to our archives with a story that originally aired on March 2017. It’s a story about migration, love, and politics. Camila Segura Camila Segura and I talked with my friend...

Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of looking in the right place at the right time. Víctor Buso had dedicated his entire life to astronomy, although never professionally. One night — after a series of unlikely events— his career as an amateur took an unexpected twist. This...

The fight for safe and legal abortions in Ecuador.  In Ecuador, abortions are only permitted when the life of the mother is in danger or if the pregnancy is the result of the rape of a mentally disabled woman. That is why Las Comadres exist. You can read...

The plan: to connect Chile through a network. Like the internet. But in 1971. Almost a half-century ago, Salvador Allende’s socialist government developed a technology that connected the Chilean economy in real time and distributed power among its workers. What happened with Cybersyn — that proto...