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When he was 26 years old in 1948, Garry Davis did something that would make the rest of his life really complicated.

Over the next six decades, he’d be detained and imprisoned 34 times in 9 countries, dragged off the floor of the United Nations General Assembly, and gain millions of followers, all while confronting countless bureaucrats who had absolutely no idea what to do with him.

What set this chain of events into motion was his decision to stand before a guy in a gray suit at the US Embassy in Paris, put his hand on a bible, and read a couple of lines off a sheet of paper renouncing his American citizenship. And he'd never become a citizen of any other country, instead navigating the world as a stateless person without any sort of road map or instruction manual. Garry would go on to found the World Government of World Citizens and issue birth certificates, passports, and other identity documents, all in his quest for unity and peace.

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Far From Home is an immersive travel and culture podcast where Peabody award-winning journalist Scott Gurian reports fascinating stories from his journeys to faraway places like Iran, Chernobyl, and Mongolia.

If you’re discovering the show for the first time, you might want to start with the episode about the medicine man in Peru or check out the one about the guy who’s traveled around the world making balloon hats. The story about visiting Chernobyl was also pretty popular among listeners, as was the episode about the experiences of African Americans traveling the world.

And if you’re looking for a series to binge, listen to the first season, which tells the story of an 11,000 mile / 18 country road from the UK to Mongolia in a ridiculously tiny car (highlights: check out this episode from Iran and this one from Turkmenistan)!

New to podcasting? See these step-by-step instructions for how to listen.

Recently, President Trump cut most American foreign assistance that was being delivered through the Agency for International Development or USAID. That’s billions of dollars that helped with things like Ebola prevention in West Africa, malaria testing in Myanmar, famine relief to war-torn Sudan, and food deliveries to refugees from Western Sahara.

On this episode of Far From Home, I visit a food distribution warehouse for refugees in southwest Algeria, and I speak to humanitarian workers in Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and the country of Georgia to hear firsthand accounts of how these cuts are directly impacting people around the world. Read More →

The current conflict between Russia and Ukraine is now entering its third year, and it’s been a humanitarian disaster. According to UNHCR, the United Nations Refugee Agency, it’s displaced nearly 7 million Ukrainians globally. And on the other side, an estimated 900,000 Russians have also fled their country for various reasons. Among them are economic migrants, conscientious objectors, and political refugees, but also a smaller subset of hundreds of exiled journalists, who’ve had to leave in order to continue to report freely, amid a crackdown on press freedom and free expression. This is the story of one of them, my friend Ivan. Read More →

As I spent time abroad in the lead-up to the American presidential election, I was struck by how often news and politics from back home seemed to be on the minds of all the locals I met. No matter how far away I went, it was impossible to escape!

On this episode we hear from people in Poland, Haiti, Lebanon, Iran, India, Afghanistan, Puerto Rico, and Uganda about what the election of Donald Trump means to them.

In 1971, a group of squatters took over an abandoned military base just across the harbor from downtown Copenhagen, Denmark. They created a politically autonomous anarchist zone -- in other words, a commune -- with its own flag, marching band, and consensus-driven governance process, and they decided to call their community Christiania. The thousand or so residents were free to do pretty much whatever they wanted as long as it didn't infringe upon the rights of other people. There were just a few rules: no private ownership of land or housing, no weapons or violence, and no vehicles. But as the years went on, Christiania faced a number of challenges, and now -- more than half a century later -- it's at a turning point where some people question how much longer it will be able to survive.

This first episode of Far From Home's 4th season was produced in collaboration with 99% Invisible. Read More →

Season one tells the story of an epic journey I took with my brother and some friends, raising money for charity. Over seven weeks, we drove across Europe and Asia, through 8 time zones, 5 mountain ranges, and a few deserts, all the way from the UK to Mongolia!

Listen in and follow along with our adventures as we face everything from language barriers to mechanical trouble, getting horribly lost to paying bribes to shady traffic cops.

On the second season of the show, I ditch the car and slow down the journey, sharing my unexpected adventures and chance encounters with interesting people around the world as I continue my travels to places as diverse as Cambodia, Chernobyl, Spain, Japan, and Peru. The goal as always is to get lost down back alleys, venture off the beaten path, and look for stories in far-flung corners of the world that most tourists never visit. In the end, I find that wherever I go, despite whatever cultural, political, and geographic differences people have, they’re generally far more alike than they are different.

On the third season of Far From Home, I continue sharing stories from around the world as well as closer to my own backyard. Amid a global pandemic, economic turmoil, and protests for racial justice, I check in to see how folks are doing, and I feature more reporting from far-flung places from my pre-COVID travels.