Colombian energy giant Ecopetrol has polluted hundreds of sites with oil, including water sources and biodiverse wetlands, the BBC World Service has found. However, as detailed in a new documentary produced and directed by Owen Pinnell of the BBC: "Exposing the toxic record of Colombia's oil giant | BBC World Service Documentaries,:" there are far …

In today’s episode, Emily Hart speaks to archaeologist Daniella Betancourt: the woman decoding the enigma of Colombia’s mummies. Mummification is a practice which has been carried out all over the world, from Chile to China – from the ancient Egyptian pharaohs to Vladimir Lenin and Evita Perón, and - though chronically understudied - right here in …

Barry Max Wills, author of: "Better than Cocaine: Learning to Grow Coffee, and Live in Colombia," and Richard McColl of: "The Mompos Project: A Tale of Love, Hotels and Madness in Colombia," join editor Dan Cross on this week's Colombia Calling podcast. In a conversation that takes in the topics of culture and identity, immigrants to Colombia, writ…

On this week's Colombia Calling podcast, we speak to James Bargent, an investigative journalist for Insight Crime about his work putting together the new podcast: "the Shadow of El Dorado." Along with his colleague Mat Charles, the resulting podcast is a multi-year project which takes the listener into the world of organized crime and how the Gaita…

Today, we go back many millennia in order to protect ourselves for the coming centuries: Emily Hart speaks to two Colombian scientists, Carlos Jaramillo and Camila Martínez, time-travellers of the smallest imaginable time machines: fossilised pollen and tree cells. Climate change has been a constant feature of Planet Earth: at points in history, th…

President Petro's Disastrous Televised Cabinet Meeting or The Petro Presidency Meltdown. Pause for breath if you can, but we've been experiencing a barrage of negative headlines surrounding Colombia's President Petro. This began with, at first, the online fracas with President Trump over the treatment of Colombian illegal migrants being returned to…

This week on the Colombia Calling podcast, we speak to Lorena Estupiñán-Pedraza, a professor of international relations and political science from Boyaca, but resident in the southern city of Cali. In a far-ranging conversation, we discuss Lorena's PhD studies public policy implementation in Boyaca, local problems with global impacts and all about …

A new documentary, in the making, seeks to document the sacred nature of an ancient medicine. We're all familiar with vivid tales of projectile vomiting and the complete loss of bodily functions during an ayuahuasca ceremony but who, amongst us, has really explored the benefits of a ritual? This documentary seeks to educate us, through a carefully …

Jonathan Swift, "Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.” … never truer than in 2025 This week on the Colombia Calling podcast Emily Hart and Richard McColl tackle the issue of disinformation and fact-checking in Colombia and fortunately, we don't have to take on this task alone but are joined by two experts in the field. Laura Sarabia R…

Sometimes, it's just fun to have an agreeable conversation, and this is why I enjoyed chatting to Vivek Jayaraman. Vivek was born in Tamil, India and in the way life takes its unusual routes has ended up living in northern Bogota and with a love of mountains - he's from the plains - and a firm desire to know and understand the regions of Cundinamar…

In order to understand the issue of the cocaine trade in Colombia, we need to look at three factors: 1. Drugs Policy as a Geopolitical tool. 2. Markets: A Political Economic issue. 3. Narratives: the Myth of the Narco. On the Colombia Calling podcast this week we speak to Estefanía Ciro Rodríguez, expert on drug politics, the cocaine economy and th…

Brendan Corrigan has had multiple jobs in his time in Colombia (dating back to 2011), and his most constant has been that of a contributing writer of acerbic observations for the El Tiempo national newspaper, with an office job in marketing thrown in for good measure and some forays into the acting world by way of a telenovela (soap opera) appearan…

As there are now a growing number of people considering moving to Colombia, and where better than the country's enticing Coffee Region, we decided to focus on this topic for this week. Known for its natural beauty and landscapes, lush countryside, friendly and hard-working people...it's an easy sell. But what happens when you are ready to take the …

Have you heard of "destination duping," "rosy retrospection," "JOMO," or "trailblazer hotels?" Well, with Colombia of course in mind given that this is the Colombia Calling podcast, we leap into 2025 with an upbeat episode discussing travel trends for this year. We mull over each of the aforementioned phrases with Bruce Mclean, travel expert and ow…

Well, where to start with this interview?! It's that time of year when we endeavour to discuss more hopeful and positive episodes and then an email hit my inbox from Rick DellaRatta and Jazz for Peace. And thus the episode came into being. Rick DellaRatta is a multi instrumentalist, pianist, composer and founder of Jazz for Peace and we discuss wha…

We've never done this before, but heck, why not?! So, here is the first ever Colombia Calling Christmas Appeal in our 11 plus years of being on the air. Cartagena Paws and their supported Foundation of Tu Fiel Amigo in Cartagena have been on our radar for some time and a certainly deserving of some welcome help. We speak to Maureen Cattieu about th…

The journey of making Torah Tropical began in 2021, in the midst of Colombia’s historic civil unrest. Despair at the Duque government’s policies and botched implementation of the Peace Process boiled until erupting into the tumultuous National Strike of April 2021. The uprising was the defining moment for a generation of young Colombians, a time th…

'Romantic, adventurous and thrilling ... remarkable' Telegraph 'Vivid, fast-paced and wonderfully ambitious … Patria teems with alternative stories of a continent’s life and peoples' New Internationalist In late 1869, Richard Francis Burton stepped ashore in Southampton, fresh from a sightseeing tour of bone-strewn South American battlefields. The …

It has become a cultural phenomenon in Colombia, beginning first in Bogota before branching out to Medellin, Cali, Lima (Peru) and now Cartagena...everyone knows all about Gringo Tuesdays. So, this week, coinciding with the launch of Gringo Tuesdays in Cartagena, we speak to co-founder Travis Crockett about how the business has grown, the differenc…

After nine years away, Tim Buendia, has made it back to the town of Aracataca - birthplace of Gabriel Garcia Marquez - and it seems timely with a new series based on the author's opus: "One Hundred Years of Solitude" due to be aired on 11 December 2024 on Netflix. Tim, an adopted son of Aracataca, is perhaps singlehandedly responsible for his tirel…

Hello and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling – I’m Emily Hart and this week we have something a little bit different – the radical linguistic technique which is building peace - personal and political - all over the world, and the inspiring woman bringing it to Colombia. This week, I have with me Camila Reyes Azcuénaga – the founder of …

On Episode 541 of the Colombia Calling podcast, and given the current COP16 in Cali, we revisit our conversation with special guest Ole Reidar Bergum - Counsellor for Climate and Forests/ Consejero de Clima y Bosque - Royal Norwegian Embassy in Bogotá, who joined us to speak in-depth and openly about the tragedy of the rampant deforestation taking …

Colombia stands out for its excellent healthcare and is rapidly becoming another destination for medical healthcare. Thinking of a tummy tuck, a hair implant, some dentistry or more? Take a look at the options, go through a reputable agency and take a holiday at the same time. This week, we speak to Kirby Braddell of Medical Tourism Packages, to ta…

This week we get on the line to Naresh Dahal in Kathmandu to compare and contrast the tourism practices and politics in both Nepal and Colombia. Naresh is local travel specialist in Nepal and can assist with customising and tailor-making a tour and holiday suiting your travel needs, so he’s a man in the know. Whilst the countries may seem incredibl…

"South London has a serious problem with knife crime." This week we discuss how Henry May arrived in Colombia and ended up being a mover and shaker in the education world here. After a life-changing experience involving a tragedy relating to one of his students in South London, Henry questioned his life choices in education, leading him to consider…