Richard McColl Podcasts

This week, Emily Hart takes you on a sonic tour of Colombia, with the Humboldt Institute’s Natural Sound Collection: not only are we going to be hearing about this amazing project, we are going to be listening to some of the more unusual and noteworthy sounds from the collection itself and exploring what they tell us about Colombia’s natural enviro…

On the final episode of The LatinNews Podcast for 2023, we ask Ronald Alfaro-Redondo, a researcher in Political Science at the University of Costa Rica and at the State of the Nation Program, how Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves can build on popular discontent with the country's long-established political elites? Alfaro-Redondo leads us through…

In this week's episode, I reflect on four recent visits to the town of Capurgana on the Caribbean coast of the department of Choco. Capurgana is one of the jump-off points for migrants to begin the infamous and dangerous trek through the Darien jungle to Panama en route to their final destination of the United States. In this episode, I relate my a…

The illicit drug business continues to be profitable, violent and deeply embedded in the economies and political systems in Latin America and so, on the LatinNews podcast this week, we discuss the eight main headlines as explained in a new report written by Andrew Thompson, a journalist and political risk analyst covering the region. Thompson descr…

This week, Emily Hart gets the inside story on the #NarcoFiles - a new investigation into The Global Criminal Order, the largest investigative project of its kind to originate in Latin America. She speaks to OCCRP’s Latin America Editor Nathan Jaccard, who has led and coordinated this project - right from its earliest seeds in the 2022 hack to the …

Emily Hart takes us (way) back in time this week, to a very different Colombia - one well before the arrival of human beings… but in the process of looking back, we’ll also be looking forwards - to what the future on this planet might look like. We have with us some of the team behind "Hace Tiempo" - an incredible book on Colombia’s paleontological…

The post-war era of growth has been replaced by a much more uncertain, nationalistic and dangerous world and nowhere is this more evident when it comes to the current trend of repositioning in the global supply chain network which therefore directly affects Panama and the Panama Canal. On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we ask Andrew Thomas PhD, P…

On this episode of the Colombia Calling podcast, we get to talk to writer Paula Delgado Kling - after a long absence - about her book, which is now a reality and will be launched on 28 January 2024 (Tune in for further details). "Leonor, the Story of a Lost Childhood," is a heart wrenching tale of a young girl who entered the FARC guerrillas in Col…

Colombia's leading astronomer, Dr Paola Pinilla, joins us to talk about planet formation, space technology, and diversity in the field of astronomy. We’ll be chatting about the knowledge and inspiration which arrives from outer space, how Paola's childhood in Bogotá led her across the world and into the depths of the universe, and the incredible el…

On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we look at the regime of President Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua and discuss his likely successor and how the country arrived at this aggravated stage of repression. Dr Manuel Orozco, a Nicaraguan political scientist at the Inter American Dialogue, joins us to discuss how the regime has further dismantled democratic…

On this week's Colombia Calling podcast, we welcome back Sam Believ to discuss the growth and success of his Ayahuasca (Yage) retreat in the heart of the Colombian countryside. Since we last spoke, about a year and a half ago, Sam's retreat has gone from success to success, growing and becoming one of the reference points for Ayahuasca ceremonies i…

It's time to start dispelling some myths about Colombia and celebrate the work of an author, embedded in the coffee region, and seizing the opportunity to immerse himself in life here with total gusto. For years, Barry Max Wills has been honing his work of non-fiction, "Better than Cocaine: learning to grow coffee, and live, in Colombia," and we no…

Weaponizing social media with his own brand of populist authoritarianism, promoting cryptocurrency and imprisoning 70 thousand of his countrymen in order to pacify El Salvador's gang warfare, we ask, who is the real Nayib Bukele? Manuel Melendez-Sanchez, a PhD candidate in political science at Harvard University, joins us on the LatinNews podcast t…

On this week's episode, we discuss what it means to be a Bogotá City Councillor. Diego Laserna is a member of the Concejo de Bogotá for the Partido Alianza Verde and is up for re-election on 29 October. Laserna tells us about the day to day work, issues of security and transport in Bogotá, about the mayoral candidates running for election (Galan, O…

And so, along with a new government, comes a new country brand for Colombia and this time it's: Colombia, the Country of Beauty or in Spanish: Colombia, El País de la Belleza. Bruce McLean of BNBColombia Tours joins us this week to discuss this new advertising campaign for Colombia and to share with us how the travel and tourism industry is progres…

On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we look at what could go wrong with the administration of Guyana's oil wealth and whether such a tremendous windfall will be used to transform the economic and political landscape in the country. Incredibly, Guyana is set to quadruple its GDP by 2025, the same year as the next elections, so will the estimated 40 …

This week, Tyler Schwab, director and founder of Libertas International, joins us to discuss the ongoing and nefarious practice of child exploitation in Colombia. With investigations in all major Colombian cities, but focused principally in Medellín, Libertas International works hand in hand with local authorities to pursue foreign visitors coming …

Colombians go to the urns once again in national elections on 29 October 2023 and so, what better occasion to invite friend to the Colombia Calling podcast, Sergio Guzman, Director of Colombia Risk Analysis to explain some of the key issues and trends taking place. We try and keep this conversation somewhat jovial since the outlook is pretty bleak!…

Debates on spiraling violence and the future of extractive industries dominate Ecuador's elections. On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we ask Carmen Martínez Novo, Professor at the University of Florida's Center for Latin American Studies: where do Ecuador's presidential candidates stand on the issue of extractive industries and national security?…

The migration of a mennonite colony to Colombia's eastern plains is a little-known story worthy of greater coverage due to the environmental and social impacts this has had on the region and the traditional communities found here. And yet, hardly anyone has heard about it. On this episode of the Colombia Calling podcast (available wherever you get …

This week on Colombia Calling, Emily Hart is joined by María Fitzgerald – brilliant human rights journalist, writer, and Gender Editor at outlet Cambio. Her new book, Los Nombres que Olvidamos (The Names We Forgot), collects chronically under-told and even hidden stories of Colombia’s everyday and normalised violence. It also serves as a statement …

Ricardo Cubides is the regional coordinator for the Colombian Caribbean region for the NGO CODHES - La Consultoría para los Derechos Humanos y el Desplazamiento and it is an incredible honour to talk with him and tap into his knowledge of the sociopolitical issues here. On this Episode of the Colombia Calling podcast - permitted only due to the fac…

One thing is winning a presidential election and another is actually governing. President Gustavo Petro's approval ratings continue to fall, his coalition no longer has a majority, there are local elections ahead in Colombia in October and things do not look good. This week on The LatinNews Podcast, we ask Jenny Pearce, Research Professor at the La…

Colombian distance record holder and paragliding guide, Sebastian Ospina works as a professional tandem pilot in Europe but perhaps is better known for his incredible achievements in paragliding competitions. It's a great honour for us to speak to him here on the Colombia Calling podcast. We talk to Sebastian about his life as a paragliding expert …

Reading an extract from his forthcoming work of non-fiction: The Mompós Project, A Tale of Love and Hotels in Colombia, journalist Richard McColl discusses the issue of witchcraft in this corner of rural Colombia. Having set up a successful business in the town of Mompós - a town that inspired much of the writing of Gabriel García Márquez - he incu…

On Episode 10 of The LatinNews Podcast, we ask Jo-Marie Burt, professor of political science and Latin American studies at the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University about Guatemala's presidential elections. Guatemalans will vote on 20 August in the second round of the presidential elections in which establishment candidat…

Hallo and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling – I’m Emily Hart and this week I’ll be talking to the team at Power Leaves – who are unleashing the health and nutritional properties of the coca leaf by creating de-cocainised extracts and essences – and exporting them from Colombia across the globe - working with the country’s Nasa indigeno…

It was remarkably good fortune that famed writer Sara Wheeler came through Mompós in Colombia when I was there overseeing our hotels. Over coffee and conversations we discussed Colombia, the politics and her travel writing. And so, I was very honoured that she agreed to come on the Colombia Calling podcast to discuss future projects, past projects …

On The LatinNews Podcast this week, we ask Renata Segura, Deputy Director for Latin America and the Caribbean at the International Crisis Group and Diego Da Rín, Haiti expert at International Crisis Group, what is going on in Haiti? The prolongation of a series of corrupt governments has created an untenable situation consisting of three crises, ec…

No strangers to the Colombia Calling podcast having featured here on more than a few occasions, this week we chat to Dave Proctor of La Leyenda MTB race and hear about their expansion into the Caribbean, Series races and the multi-stage race in Colombia. It's a good news story from Colombia, highlighting what is possible, with an idea, an aim, a dr…