No Wall They Can Build, Episode 1: Introduction

The Ex-Worker Podcast Collective is kicking off the serialized release of our first full audiobook, No Wall They Can Build: A Guide to Borders and Migration Across North America. We’ve divided this riveting first person account of life and death in the borderlands into eleven chapters, and over the next three months, we’ll be releasing them in weekly installments each Wednesday. Today, you’ll hear Episode 1: Introduction, which describes how the book was written by a solidarity worker along the US/Mexico border over years of trials and tribulations, and lays out a basic framework for understanding the global apartheid enforced by the border regime. You’ll hear a heartbreaking story about the brutality of migrant detention, and an inspiring one about surviving the journey north against all odds. This episode sets the stage for the in-depth analysis and longer stories of the chapters to come. {April 3, 2019}

-------SHOW NOTES------

• Table of Contents:
  • Introducing the Border {0:01}
  • Title and Front Matter {1:18}
  • Dedication {2:02}
  • Preface {2:11}
  • Epigraph, from Mojado by Ricardo Arjona {3:37}
  • Story #1 {4:35}
  • Introduction {11:17}
  • Story #2 {18:43}
  • Epigraph, from Edward Abbey {20:44}
  • Conclusion {21:08}
• Note: For this audiobook, we will not provide full transcripts of the text of each episode as we do for The Ex-Worker or The Hotwire. If you want to read along, you can find the book in PDF.
• Also, you can check out our poster diagramming the North American border regime and immigrant solidarity stickers.
• As we mentioned in our episode announcing the audiobook launch, the claim made in this episode that no volunteer with No More Deaths has ever been convicted of a crime for their humanitarian work in the desert, while true at the time the book was published, is no longer accurate. For the latest updates on the legal charges facing solidarity workers along the border, keep an eye on the No More Deaths legal defense campaign.
• If you’re feeling inspired to take action, follow the latest from the #BlockTheWall network. You can also check out this interview by the Final Straw with Comunidad Colectiva, a North Carolina-based group doing rapid response anti-ICE organizing.
• Stay tuned next week for Episode 2: Defining Terms, The Aftermath, and The Travelers.