Polarities

A podcast about borders, real and imagined

Polarities is an in-depth series about borders, real and imagined. Drawing on stories from around the globe that illustrate both visible and invisible barriers, the series touches on themes of conflict, identity, belief, displacement, geography, the environment and historical justice. In the process, Polarities aims to hold the powerful to account, exposing the deep roots of conflict to reveal the forces that bring people together and tear people apart.

Episodes

Episode 4: Mindfulness and the Politics of Eating a Raisin

Joel Elliott May 14, 2020

Over the decades, Buddhist practice, with its own set of traditions, ethics and beliefs, has been transformed in the West to “mindfulness”, a therapeutic exercise that wields the power and…

Episode 3: Eight Hairs of the Buddha

Joel Elliott May 14, 2020

After the outbreak of violence and mass displacement of the Rohingya in western Myanmar in 2017, I travelled to the country, speaking to activists, Buddhist monks and Muslim leaders in…

Jesse Harvey: The Church of Safe Injection

Joel Elliott December 21, 2019

Today’s Polarities interview is with Jesse Harvey, a harm-reduction advocate from Portland, Maine. Harvey founded the Church of Safe Injection in the face of the alarming rise in number of…

David Frye: “The Walls Were Made of Mud and Men”

Joel Elliott November 6, 2019

David Frye is the author of the book Walls: A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick. In our interview, we talk about the ancient but universal view of walls…

Douglas Massey: The Invention of the U.S.-Mexico Border

Joel Elliott October 4, 2019

I was honoured to speak with Douglas Massey, Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. Massey’s specialty is the U.S.-Mexico border, and back in 1982 he started the…

Episode 2: Antigone

Joel Elliott September 3, 2019

The Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles wrote a short tragedy about the daughter of Oedipus, who battled with the state over the right to bury her brother who had fallen in…