We saw it on the news. The images still haunt us. Two years ago this month, a desperate sea of humanity rushed the Kabul airport as the American military started mass evacuations in Afghanistan. Many were left behind to face the Taliban, while some escaped to countries like Iran and Pakistan. For over 80,000 refugees, America is now home. Their lives continue, but our news feeds have moved on, blasting stories about today’s crisis-du-jour. Now these evacuees live beside us, trying to make ends meet, find housing, gain acceptance, adapt to a new culture, and become valued members of our com...
Latest episodes
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52 min
Bigger Than We Are
When Afghans first arrived in America after the US evacuation of their country in 2021, Utah welcomed them. The state raised over a million dollars in a public-private partnership…
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14 min
Introducing Uinta Triangle
A new show by KSL Podcasts - Uinta Triangle - An Aussie who loves hiking solo goes missing in the rugged mountains of the American West. Dave Cawley, the investigator behind the po…
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19 min
BONUS #5 - "You Feel Like You are Part of the Solution..."
In our final bonus episode, host Andrea Smardon talks to one of the founders of the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership, the all-volunteer group that supports Sima and other veterans of…
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25 min
BONUS #4 - "They Did it for Us..."
They’re known as Zero Units – forces of Afghan men who served in their country’s National Strike Units, the NSU. These specially trained counter-terrorism soldiers worked in cooper…
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14 min
BONUS #3 - "I Heard Their Story..."
When small business owner Doug Richmond heard the story of one Afghan father and how he risked his life helping Americans in their counterterrorism efforts, he was inspired to help…
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19 min
BONUS #2 - Sisterhood Forged Under the Pressures of War
An experiment to allow women in Afghanistan to help U.S. special forces during combat raids was a full-fledged program by the time the American military pulled out of the country i…
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16 min
BONUS #1 - Hope for Afghanistan
As refugees living in the US, Nazifa and her sister founded a non-profit organization called HOPE for Afghanistan, which funded education for girls and women in their home country.…
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21 min
BONUS #5 - "You Feel Like You are Part of the Solution..."
In our final bonus episode, host Andrea Smardon talks to one of the founders of the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership, the all-volunteer group that supports Sima and other veterans of…
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27 min
BONUS #4 - "They Did it for Us..."
They’re known as Zero Units – forces of Afghan men who served in their country’s National Strike Units, the NSU. These specially trained counter-terrorism soldiers worked in cooper…
-
16 min
BONUS #3 - "I Heard Their Story..."
When small business owner Doug Richmond heard the story of one Afghan father and how he risked his life helping Americans in their counterterrorism efforts, he was inspired to help…
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21 min
BONUS #2 - Sisterhood Forged Under the Pressures of War
An experiment to allow women in Afghanistan to help U.S. special forces during combat raids was a full-fledged program by the time the American military pulled out of the country i…
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18 min
BONUS #1 - Hope for Afghanistan
As refugees living in the US, Nazifa and her sister founded a non-profit organization called HOPE for Afghanistan, which funded education for girls and women in their home country.…
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59 min
Ep 6 - Small Hands
After more than a year in America, 5-year-old Ava - who we met earlier in the podcast - is still living with her aunts in Salt Lake City, while her parents remain in Afghanistan. T…
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56 min
Ep 5 - The Need for Friendship
Americans know very little about the Afghan special forces known as the Zero Units who were instrumental to the war on terror in Afghanistan, but now they’re living among us in Ame…
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19 min
BONUS: Origins of a Sisterhood Forged in War
This holiday week, we're unlocking a BONUS episode! An experiment to allow women in Afghanistan to help U.S. special forces during combat raids was a full-fledged program by the ti…
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54 min
Ep 4 - Bridging the Gap
When thousands of Afghans arrived in US communities in a short time frame, the refugee agencies were challenged to meet the needs of the evacuees. It fell on regular Americans to t…
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52 min
Ep 3 - Sisterhood of Embroidery and Artillery
Looking at a young woman in a headscarf quietly ringing up groceries at Walmart, you would never know the dramatic life she has lived. During the war in Afghanistan, the US militar…
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50 min
Ep 2 - A Personal Connection
Their father killed by the Taliban, a girl and her family fled to Pakistan then America, but this happened more than 20 years ago. Now, Nazifa is using her own experience as a refu…
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41 min
Ep 1 - Welcome to Your New Home
An ambitious 16-year-old girl has graduated two years early from her high school in Afghanistan. She is ready to take the medical school entrance exam to pursue her dream of being…
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5 min
Afghan Arrivals - What Can One Person Do?
It's been two years since the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan and some 80,000 people were evacuated are living here in America. Understaffed resource agencies were flooded with thou…