Not Really Strangers

Building Better Futures for Refugees: The Power of Education

In this episode of Not Really Strangers, Suzanne Ehlers sits down with two UNHCR DAFI scholarship recipients and leaders of the Tertiary Refugee Student Network (TRSN) — Monicah Malith, a law graduate from South Sudan now completing her Advocates Training Program in Nairobi, and Krista Rivas, a Nicaraguan architecture and international relations student finishing her final semester in Mexico City. Together, they explore what home means when you've been displaced, the unexpected ways education equalizes and amplifies, and what they want people who've never met a refugee to understand about our shared humanity. The episode also shines a light on the practical advocacy both are doing: Monicah coaching new DAFI applicants on how to connect their story to their scholarship application, and Krista and TRSN building a centralized website and English-language YouTube channel for refugees in Mexico navigating higher education without a scholarship. Both guests reflect honestly on self-doubt alongside pride — Monicah on walking into her first law orientation in a suit and feeling out of place; Krista on managing social anxiety before a high-stakes internship interview. And both return to the same conviction: that education gave them a voice they intend to use for others still on the path behind them. Topics: * What "home" means after displacement for Monicah and Krista * The DAFI (the Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative) scholarship experience and current educational journeys * Monicah's election as first international student president at the University of Nairobi * Krista's hospital design thesis and internship news * The funding gap: no new DAFI scholarships for Mexico in 2025, and Building Better Futures * What refugees and non-refugees share — empathy, migration, and adapting to new places * Pride, self-doubt, and being the first in your family to graduate * What it means to be a "stranger" to both women and how you stop being one Episode Resources: * Building Better Futures — Watch the campaign video featuring Monicah and Krista [https://youtu.be/cXuLL-VvxwE] * DAFI Scholarship Program [https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/build-better-futures/education/higher-education-and-skills/dafi-tertiary-scholarship-0] * Tertiary Refugee Student Network (TRSN) [https://sites.google.com/view/trsn/home]  Resources: * Podcast show notes [https://www.unrefugees.org/not-really-strangers-podcast/] * Donate now [https://give.unrefugees.org/180117core_mainpg_p_3000/?_gl=1*1lyvyty*_gcl_au*MjA5MTQ4OTk4LjE3NTM3MjA5NTk.*_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_ga_P9YZZV758Y*czE3NTc1OTg2ODMkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ4JGwwJGgw*_rup_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_rup_ga_EVDQTJ4LMY*czE3NTc1OTg2ODQkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ5JGwwJGgw&amt=30] * Follow USA for UNHCR on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/usaforunhcr/] * Connect with Suzanne on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-ehlers/]

Grit, Gathering and Going for It: Maryam Banikarim on Living Life Wherever You Find Yourself

In this episode of Not Really Strangers, host Suzanne Ehlers sits down with Maryam Banikarim, an Emmy Award-winning storyteller, community builder, and host of The Messy Parts podcast, for a conversation that moves from the streets of Chelsea to the streets of Tehran, and back again. Maryam, who fled Iran as a child and arrived in the United States in the middle of the hostage crisis, reflects on what it means to build a sense of home when home is not a fixed place. She shares how New York City became the city where she found her voice, raised her family, and  began setting the longest table in the neighborhood. She also opens up about the experience of cultural estrangement and offers hard-won wisdom for young people who have had to flee — joining, doing, and refusing to wait to be invited. Throughout, she returns again and again to the idea that belonging is not something that happens to you, but rather something you build, one long table at a time. Topics Discussed: * The concept of home as a visceral feeling, not a fixed geography * What it means to be a stranger and conversely, to be welcomed * Growing up displaced: Maryam's experience fleeing Iran as a child * "Cultural estrangement" and the longing that comes with forced departure * Building community in New York City: NYCNext and The Longest Table * The role of the private sector in supporting displaced communities * Advice for young people who have had to flee their home countries * How displacement can be a driver of innovation and resilience * Returning to Iran in 1993 — and finding her childhood bedroom frozen in time * What it means to pull up the piano bench and make room for one more Episode Resources: * The Longest Table [http://longesttablecommunity.org]  * Maryam’s Columbia Commencement Address [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VczDwxgVs5w] * Prep for Prep [https://www.prepforprep.org/] Resources: * Podcast show notes [https://www.unrefugees.org/not-really-strangers-podcast/] * Donate now [https://give.unrefugees.org/180117core_mainpg_p_3000/?_gl=1*1lyvyty*_gcl_au*MjA5MTQ4OTk4LjE3NTM3MjA5NTk.*_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_ga_P9YZZV758Y*czE3NTc1OTg2ODMkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ4JGwwJGgw*_rup_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_rup_ga_EVDQTJ4LMY*czE3NTc1OTg2ODQkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ5JGwwJGgw&amt=30] * Follow USA for UNHCR on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/usaforunhcr/] * Connect with Suzanne on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-ehlers/]

From Assumption to Curiosity: Susanna Pollack on Immersive Media and the Distance Between Us

Susanna Pollack, President of Games for Change and a cross-sector leader with over 25 years of experience in traditional and interactive media, joins host Suzanne Ehlers for a conversation that bridges virtual worlds and lived realities. From Clouds Over Sidra — the UN's landmark VR film set inside a Syrian refugee camp — to the immersive theater of The Jungle, the award-winning text-based game Bury Me, My Love, and Minecraft Education's use in displaced communities, Susanna illustrates how games and immersive media can build empathy, teach skills, and restore agency in ways few other mediums can match. She also reflects on Games for Change's growing partnership with the UN through the Games and SDG Summit, and on her experience with USA for UNHCR's innovation hub, The Hive, before closing with one of the episode's most resonant ideas: that a stranger is simply someone whose story you haven't heard yet, and that the shift from assumption to curiosity is where belonging begins. Topics: * Home as community, belonging, and shared purpose beyond a physical address * Games as education and skills-building tools within refugee camps and integration classrooms * Minecraft Education's use in displaced communities for digital literacy and future-building * Games for Change: 20+ years at the intersection of the gaming industry and social impact * USA for UNHCR's Hive innovation hub: where creativity meets humanitarian context * Gaming's global scale: 3+ billion players; the industry is larger than film, TV, and radio combined * Cross-sector partnerships as the engine of meaningful social change * The stranger as potential: moving from assumption to curiosity Episode Resources: * Games for Change [https://www.gamesforchange.org/] * Clouds Over Sidra [https://www.gamesforchange.org/games/clouds-over-sidra/] * The Jungle (Play) [https://stannswarehouse.org/show/the-jungle/] * Bury Me My Love [https://burymemylove.arte.tv/] * UNESCO MGEIP [https://mgiep.unesco.org/] * We the Refugees: Ticket to Europe [https://steamcommunity.com/app/2094580] * The Hive [https://www.unrefugees.org/about-us/the-hive/] Resources: * Podcast show notes [https://www.unrefugees.org/not-really-strangers-podcast/] * Donate now [https://give.unrefugees.org/180117core_mainpg_p_3000/?_gl=1*1lyvyty*_gcl_au*MjA5MTQ4OTk4LjE3NTM3MjA5NTk.*_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_ga_P9YZZV758Y*czE3NTc1OTg2ODMkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ4JGwwJGgw*_rup_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_rup_ga_EVDQTJ4LMY*czE3NTc1OTg2ODQkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ5JGwwJGgw&amt=30] * Follow USA for UNHCR on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/usaforunhcr/] * Connect with Suzanne on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-ehlers/]

Dance or Die: Ahmad Joudeh on Statelessness, Belonging, and the Body as Home

In this episode of Not Really Strangers, host Suzanne Ehlers sits down with internationally acclaimed ballet dancer, choreographer, author, and humanitarian Ahmad Joudeh. Born stateless in 1990 in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, Ahmad carries a story that is both extraordinary and deeply representative of the millions of people around the world who exist without nationality, without a passport, and without a country that claims them as its own. When Syria's civil war broke out, Ahmad faced death threats from extremists simply for dancing; he responded by performing in the ruins of Palmyra's Roman amphitheater and having "Dance or Die" tattooed on the back of his neck. The conversation moves from the body as a home that carries East and West, grief and resistance, within a single dance to what it felt like to finally hold a Dutch passport and "see life in colors." Ahmad also reflects on his upcoming role as Young Gilgamesh in a new opera as a meditation on power, love, and the kind of legacy that outlasts any government. Lastly, when asked what he wants on the dinner table, his answer is immediate: "I don't care what is on there. I care who is in there." This is an episode about the distance — real and invented — between those we call strangers. Topics Discussed: * What statelessness actually means, how it differs from being a refugee, and navigating borders without a passport * The generational cycle of Palestinian statelessness in Syria, from the Arab-Israeli war to the present day, * The role documentary filmmaker Roozbeh Kaboly played in bringing Ahmad's story to the world and how the Dutch National Ballet changed the course of his life * How Ahmad merges classical ballet with Sufi dervish tradition in his dance, and what it means to carry culture, ancestry, and resistance in physical movement * What the Dutch passport represented: belonging as a privilege, not just a right,  and what it feels like to "see life in colors" * Why Ahmad continues to post on social media: reaching young people in the Middle East who deserve to see that freedom is possible * The myth Ahmad most wants to bust about displacement, identity, and what it actually means to be a stranger Resources: * Podcast show notes [https://www.unrefugees.org/not-really-strangers-podcast/] * Donate now [https://give.unrefugees.org/180117core_mainpg_p_3000/?_gl=1*1lyvyty*_gcl_au*MjA5MTQ4OTk4LjE3NTM3MjA5NTk.*_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_ga_P9YZZV758Y*czE3NTc1OTg2ODMkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ4JGwwJGgw*_rup_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_rup_ga_EVDQTJ4LMY*czE3NTc1OTg2ODQkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ5JGwwJGgw&amt=30] * Follow USA for UNHCR on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/usaforunhcr/] * Connect with Suzanne on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-ehlers/]

Caring in Crisis and Responding to Hate: Dr. Suzanne Barakat’s Story

In this episode of Not Really Strangers, host Suzanne Ehlers welcomes her "name twin" — Dr. Suzanne Barakat, physician, humanitarian, and a leading voice on refugee health, asylum medicine, and countering Islamophobia.  Dr. Barakat, who is from North Carolina, traces her connection to the refugee experience back to her own roots: from summers in Syria and then two years of high school there, to watching as an adult as the Syrian crisis forced her her extended family— who once all lived on the same street — to relocate  across the globe. She describes her journey as a doctor caring for those in crisis, including returning again and again to the Syrian-Turkish border, and shares her most recent trip topost-regime Syria to bear witness and help forge the country’s forensic response . Dr. Barakat also shares the gripping story she shared in her popular TED Talk: when she was still a medical student, a white supremacist broke into her family members’ home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina and murdered them while they were eating dinner. She asks the question: What if rather than “otherize” her relatives, the perpetrator of this hate crime had sat down and gotten to know them? And what can we learn from this unspeakable tragedy about the power of asking, as leaders, “Who is not at this table, and needs to be?” This conversation raises important questions about our shared humanity and gets to the heart of what the Not Really Strangers podcast is all about.   Topics Discussed: * Growing up between North Carolina and Syria; two formative years of high school in Idlib * The slow, devastating displacement of Dr. Barakat's extended Syrian family * Volunteering on the Syria-Turkey border: clinical work under impossible conditions, language barriers, and dignity of care * Otherization as the root cause of violence and genocide * The 2015 Chapel Hill murders of Dr. Bakarat’s family and her fight to have them recognized as a hate crime * Visiting Syria six weeks after the fall of the Assad regime; bearing witness to the destroyed town of Wulta * Shaping Syria's national forensic response: missing persons, mass graves, and the imperative of local leadership * Why justice, including narrative acknowledgment, is inseparable from peace * Confronting implicit bias and the moral courage required to act * Finding purpose after personal trauma: the SF Muslim Fellowship * The dinner table as a question of inclusion: who is not here and needs to be? Episode Resources: * 36 Seconds Documentary [https://www.docnyc.net/film/36-seconds-portrait-of-a-hate-crime/] * Dr. Suzanne Barakat’s TED Talk [https://www.ted.com/speakers/suzanne_barakat] Resources: * Podcast show notes [https://www.unrefugees.org/not-really-strangers-podcast/] * Donate now [https://give.unrefugees.org/180117core_mainpg_p_3000/?_gl=1*1lyvyty*_gcl_au*MjA5MTQ4OTk4LjE3NTM3MjA5NTk.*_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_ga_P9YZZV758Y*czE3NTc1OTg2ODMkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ4JGwwJGgw*_rup_ga*MTczOTE5NTI3MS4xNzUzNzIwOTU5*_rup_ga_EVDQTJ4LMY*czE3NTc1OTg2ODQkbzgkZzEkdDE3NTc1OTg2OTUkajQ5JGwwJGgw&amt=30] * Follow USA for UNHCR on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/usaforunhcr/] * Connect with Suzanne on LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzanne-ehlers/]