Episode 0: Intro — Where the Map Begins

Most of us can point to maybe a dozen countries on a map and actually explain what's going on there — everywhere else is a flag and a headline. Around the World in Half an Hour is one host's attempt to close that gap properly: one country per episode, in alphabetical order, starting with Afghanistan and working straight through to the other end of the alphabet, new episodes every Monday at 7pm. Every episode gets genuinely researched before a word gets written — real geography, a real history rather than a highlight reel, what the country actually looks like today, the people it's produced, the food, the music and art, the sports it takes seriously, and how the rest of the world's image of the place compares to the reality on the ground. When a country's history gets difficult — colonisation, war, genocide, the parts a lot of places would rather smooth over — this show doesn't smooth them over either, though it also won't tell you what to think about the genuinely contested stuff; you get the facts and both sides where there are two, and you're trusted to do something with them. The goal every week is a place with an actual personality, not an encyclopedia entry read aloud — funny some weeks, heavy others, often both in the same thirty minutes. If South Asia's more your speed, there's a companion show too, Around India in Half an Hour, working through India's states the same way. This one supports, alphabetically, with Afghanistan.