Argentina's mothers of the disappeared

On October 6, 1978, Patricia Roisinblit — a young Jewish medical student and leftist activist — was abducted by Argentina’s military junta while eight months pregnant. She was never seen again. But her mother, Rosa, refused to let her story end there.

In this deeply moving episode, we speak with journalist and author Haley Cohen Gilliland about her extraordinary new book, A Flower Traveled in My Blood — a powerful narrative of dictatorship, resistance, and the decades-long search for justice led by the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, Argentina’s Grandmothers of the Disappeared.

Gilliland, a former Economist correspondent in Buenos Aires, chronicles the brutal history of Argentina’s military regime and the courageous women who defied it. We follow the personal and political story of the Roisinblit family — from Patricia’s disappearance, to the state-sanctioned abduction of her son Guillermo, to Rosa’s decades-long fight to find the truth and reunite her family.

We discuss the role of antisemitism in Argentina’s Dirty War, the use of genetic testing to identify stolen children, and the uncomfortable legacy of silence, complicity, and denial in Argentine society. With chilling parallels to today’s global political climate, this conversation is a haunting and hopeful reflection on what happens when ordinary people refuse to forget.

Published by Simon & Schuster (July 15, 2025), A Flower Traveled in My Blood is already hailed as one of the most important nonfiction books of the year.

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I only ever talk about history on this podcast but I also have another life, yes, that of aspirant fantasy author and if that's your thing you can get a copy of my debut novel The Blood of Tharta, right here:

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