Global Guru Radio

Series produced by Rachel Louise Snyder

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Image by: Genna Duberstein 

The Global Guru uncovers the world one small mystery at a time. We offer cultural views of places in the world that often only get a single story line in the American media, or no story line at all. Places like Rwanda, Afghanistan, Cambodia, East Timor, even England or Malta or France. Each week, our mandate is to surprise listeners. Episodes run a uniform 3:00.

The Global Guru is a weekly public radio spot that celebrates the oddities, the curiosities, the unknowns of global culture, particularly in countries where Americans have either single narrative story lines, like Afghanistan (war), Thailand (sex tourism), Rwanda, (genocide), or perhaps no story lines at all, like East Timor, Moldova, Malta, Lesotho, etc. Engaging and rich in sound, the 3:00 interstitial helps us connect to the vastness of human experience. Presenting station is WAMU in Washington, DC and sponsored by American University in DC. Some of our favorite past shows include: How do Cambodians predict the harvest each year? What messages do cigarettes send in Chinese business dealings? How did Tanzania become the capitol of barbershops? How and why does Thailand categorize food? What is Iceland’s most feared culinary delight? How do you track a Tasmanian devil? What are the hidden messages in Zulu beadwork? Hide full description

The Global Guru is a weekly public radio spot that celebrates the oddities, the curiosities, the unknowns of global culture, particularly in countries where Americans have either single narrative story lines, like Afghanistan (war), Thailand (sex tourism), Rwanda, (genocide), or perhaps no story lines at all, like East Timor, Moldova, Malta, Lesotho, etc. Engaging and rich in sound, the 3:00 interstitial helps us connect to the vastness of human experience. Presenting station is WAMU in Washington, DC and sponsored by American University in DC. Some of our favorite past shows include: How do Cambodians predict the harvest each year? What messages do cigarettes send in Chinese business dealings? How did Tanzania become the capitol of barbershops? How and why does Thailand categorize... Show full description


28 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
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This week we go to Latin America where we learn what all bas reliefs have in common, and what that can tell us about our social order.

Bought by HCC Radio The Dragon and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 07, 2010
  • Length: 02:43
  • Purchases: 2
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This week the Global Guru explores why there are so many barbershops -- sometimes a dozen in a single block -- in Tanzania.

Bought by WABE, HCC Radio The Dragon, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 08, 2010
  • Length: 02:44
  • Purchases: 3
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This week the Global Guru wades through tourist kitsch to find authentic aboriginal boomerangs.

Bought by WABE, WTIP, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 08, 2010
  • Length: 02:43
  • Purchases: 3
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This week the Global Guru risks life and limb to learn how to track Tasmanian devils in the wild.

Bought by HCC Radio The Dragon, WTIP, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 08, 2010
  • Length: 02:32
  • Purchases: 3
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This week the Global Guru learns about the mural movement in Ajijic, Mexico, two generations after Diego Rivera's vision.

Bought by HCC Radio The Dragon and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 08, 2010
  • Length: 02:46
  • Purchases: 2
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This week the Global Guru learns how to avoid culinary death in Bangkok -- and just why Thais categorize their food.

Bought by WABE, HCC Radio The Dragon, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 08, 2010
  • Length: 02:19
  • Purchases: 3
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This week the Global Guru travels to Holland to learn how to insult someone... in Dutch. A surprising look at a secular society.

Bought by HCC Radio The Dragon and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 08, 2010
  • Length: 02:18
  • Purchases: 2
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This week's GG goes inside the Royal Ploughing Ceremony to hear how Cambodians predict the future -- agriculturally AND economically.

Bought by HCC Radio The Dragon and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 27, 2010
  • Length: 02:56
  • Purchases: 2
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Today, the Global Guru ventures into the Viking's culinary history by looking at the delicacy known as hakarl -- or rotten shark.

Bought by WABE, HCC Radio The Dragon, WTIP, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 13, 2010
  • Length: 02:50
  • Purchases: 4
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How do the Hopi bring rain to the desert?

Bought by WTIP, New Hampshire Public Radio, and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 05, 2010
  • Length: 03:04
  • Purchases: 3
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What's Donald Duck got to do with a Swedish Christmas?

Bought by KMXT, KRZA, KUER, KCMJ Community Radio, KZYX and more


  • Added: May 05, 2010
  • Length: 02:56
  • Purchases: 14
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Unique to the state of Colima, this week's Global Guru explores the familial vaudevillian antics of a Mexican botanero through the eyes of a charmi...

Bought by WABE, HCC Radio The Dragon, and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 26, 2010
  • Length: 02:53
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: A Zulu girl wears her beadwork, Credit: Hlengi We Dube
You're fourteen, and you're in love with a boy in the next village. How do you tell him? Well, you bead it of course. This week's Global Guru uncov...

Bought by HCC Radio The Dragon and PRX Remix


  • Added: May 26, 2010
  • Length: 03:08
  • Purchases: 2
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You're Russian and your son's about to get married. But what if the girl can't be trusted? What if your son's marriage is doomed? Or worse, what if...

Bought by WABE, HCC Radio The Dragon, KUT, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 01, 2010
  • Length: 03:03
  • Purchases: 4
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This week the Global Guru uncovers the rules behind Japanese baseball. Accidentally smack the matter with the ball? You better practice your bowing...

Bought by WABE, HCC Radio The Dragon, WTIP, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 07, 2010
  • Length: 02:58
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Memm at Angkor Wat, Credit: Cambodia Living Arts
A thousand years ago, the image of a strange instrument was carved into the walls of Angkor Wat. It had a lizard scale on one end, attached to a so...

Bought by WABE, HCC Radio The Dragon, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 16, 2010
  • Length: 02:56
  • Purchases: 3
Caption: Buzkashi in Kabul
In this moment of World Cup frenzy, the Global Guru takes us to Afghanistan, where we learn about buzkashi -- the country's favorite sport.

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 19, 2010
  • Length: 02:53
  • Purchases: 1
Caption: How the heck do you cook on this thing?
The Global Guru production team got hardly any burns at all in the making of our latest episode. This week we travel to England to learn to cook th...

Bought by WABE, WTIP, HCC Radio The Dragon, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 06, 2010
  • Length: 02:58
  • Purchases: 4
Caption: Umaganda 2009 with Rwandans and US Embassy personnel, Credit: US Embassy -- Kigali
Today we go to Rwanda to see how the population spends the last Saturday of every month. And how those Saturdays have created surprising moments of...

Bought by HCC Radio The Dragon and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 23, 2010
  • Length: 02:53
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: Champagne Bottles Post-Sabrage, Credit: Jane Alexander
This week we sharpen our swords in the Champagne region of France to learn how the French sabrage!

Bought by KMXT, WABE, HCC Radio The Dragon, New Hampshire Public Radio, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Sep 23, 2010
  • Length: 03:00
  • Purchases: 5