Speaker
Ishmael Beah
Appearances over time
1 episodes
Episodes
1
Podcasts
Quotes & moments
When war reached his part of Sierra Leone, Ishmael Beah was twelve years old and was separated from his family during the first attack, beginning a year of running from the conflict.
After being separated from his family, Ishmael Beah ran from the Sierra Leone civil war with a group of seven boys for close to a year before being recruited as a child soldier.
Chelsea, the neighbourhood girl, whispered 'Bye, Camille' in the fairy's ear at the end of the party — she'd known all along. But she played along. Camille has never admitted to being Fairy Twinkletoes, not even now that Chelsea is 22.
When police told Judit she was free to go as soon as they verified her identity, her world collapsed — she had given the name Antonia González and hidden her real ID in her underwear. The revelation that she had lied about her name led police to briefly suspect her of terrorism.
Shaun Gohel didn't lie for social status — he lied to survive. As a gay teen at summer camp, his fictional romance was purely defensive. The experience taught him that even in the hardest social environments, other people are performing too, and that solidarity can emerge in the most unlikely places.
Dave Moran flew to Washington a month before his argument to observe another case — and came home shaken. Chief Justice Rehnquist publicly humiliated a lawyer for interrupting Justice Scalia mid-question. If cameras had been allowed, they would have caught all the blood draining from Moran's face.
The night before his Supreme Court debut, Dave Moran met friends and family at a Mexican restaurant near the court, ordered enchiladas suizas, and had exactly two margaritas. He still follows this ritual for every argument, including the suit purchase.
Ishmael Beah grew up in a remote Sierra Leone village where time was kept not by clocks but by the sounds of nature: prayer calls, sparrows, sweeping brooms, clattering water buckets, sharpening cutlasses, and iron bells hung in mango trees. His grandmother's lesson about the personal library of the mind set him on a mission to stock his with beautiful sounds.
When war reached Ishmael Beah's village at age 12, the morning sounds of birds, prayer calls, and sweeping brooms were replaced entirely by gunshots and grenades. Nature itself, he says, was afraid. Within a year, he would be one of the soldiers making those sounds.
Ishmael Beah closes with a haunting observation: his people believed that when an elder dies, a library is destroyed. As a child soldier, he was killing the very elders whose oral knowledge gave communities their identity. He was destroying the source material for his own narrative.
Judit Samper Albero, a broke Spanish art student in London, forged her bus pass weekly using her artistic skills — and it worked for months. Then one evening a bus inspector caught her mid-ride, and what she thought would be a £20 fine spiralled into arrest, a police cell, a false identity, and six hours of interrogation.
Dave Moran, a law professor who normally dresses in khakis and a polo, had to buy his first proper suit for a US Supreme Court argument. The rules were clear: 'dark conservative business attire.' The department store clerk thought he was dressing for a job interview.
Shaun Gohel, sixteen and closeted, invented a fictional first kiss with a 'Sarah Brown' at Disney World's Epcot to deflect questions at summer camp. There was a real Sarah Brown at the camp — and she confirmed the story, turning his harmless lie into a camp-wide romance he had to escape.
Camille Qurban spent four years as Fairy Twinkletoes at Sydney children's birthday parties. When a neighbourhood girl she knew personally showed up at one of her parties, she had to deliver the performance of her life — and nearly pulled it off.
Analysis
What they talk about
- History 67%
- Society & Culture 33%
Connections
Shows they appear on and people they share episodes with. Drag to explore.
