Stranger Becomes Neighbor Cover Image

Stranger Becomes Neighbor

We saw it on the news. The images still haunt us. Two years ago this month, a desperate sea of humanity rushed the Kabul airport as the American military started mass evacuations in Afghanistan. Many were left behind to face the Taliban, while some escaped to countries like Iran and Pakistan.  For over 80,000 refugees, America is now home. Their lives continue, but our news feeds have moved on, blasting stories about today’s crisis-du-jour. Now these evacuees live beside us, trying to make ends meet, find housing, gain acceptance, adapt to a new culture, and become valued members of our communities. In Stranger Becomes Neighbor, we follow them. And we meet the Americans who have chosen to help their new neighbors. Like the stay-at-home mom who convinces a neighbor to rent out their basement to a pregnant Afghan woman, then finds herself helping to deliver the baby. Like a young widow who served in a secret pro-American unit of the Afghan military and now struggles to find childcare so she can work at Walmart. Their stories – and the heartbreaking stories of loved ones left behind – inspire us to discover the hope and triumph of the human spirit. What can one person do to help a stranger?  We find out on a new podcast from KSL Podcasts, the people who brought you Cold and The Letter. Coming soon, Stranger Becomes Neighbor
October 2, 2023

BONUS #5 - "You Feel Like You are Part of the Solution..."

In our final bonus episode, host Andrea Smardon talks to one of the founders of the Blacksburg Refugee Partnership, the all-volunteer group that supports Sima and other veterans o...   (20:19)
October 2, 2023

BONUS #4 - "They Did it for Us..."

They’re known as Zero Units – forces of Afghan men who served in their country’s National Strike Units, the NSU. These specially trained counter-terrorism soldie...   (25:46)
October 2, 2023

BONUS #3 - "I Heard Their Story..."

When small business owner Doug Richmond heard the story of one Afghan father and how he risked his life helping Americans in their counterterrorism efforts, he was inspired to hel...   (14:54)
October 2, 2023

BONUS #2 - Sisterhood Forged Under the Pressures of War

An experiment to allow women in Afghanistan to help U.S. special forces during combat raids was a full-fledged program by the time the American military pulled out of the country ...   (20:05)
October 2, 2023

BONUS #1 - Hope for Afghanistan

As refugees living in the US, Nazifa and her sister founded a non-profit organization called HOPE for Afghanistan, which funded education for girls and women in their home country...   (16:30)
September 19, 2023

Ep 6 - Small Hands

After more than a year in America, 5-year-old Ava - who we met earlier in the podcast - is still living with her aunts in Salt Lake City, while her parents remain in Afghanistan. ...   (58:06)
September 12, 2023

Ep 5 - The Need for Friendship

Americans know very little about the Afghan special forces known as the Zero Units who were instrumental to the war on terror in Afghanistan, but now they’re living among us...   (55:11)
August 29, 2023

Ep 4 - Bridging the Gap

When thousands of Afghans arrived in US communities in a short time frame, the refugee agencies were challenged to meet the needs of the evacuees. It fell on regular Americans to ...   (53:52)
August 22, 2023

Ep 3 - Sisterhood of Embroidery and Artillery

Looking at a young woman in a headscarf quietly ringing up groceries at Walmart, you would never know the dramatic life she has lived. During the war in Afghanistan, the US milita...   (51:26)
August 15, 2023

Ep 2 - A Personal Connection

Their father killed by the Taliban, a girl and her family fled to Pakistan then America, but this happened more than 20 years ago. Now, Nazifa is using her own experience as a ref...   (48:52)
August 15, 2023

Ep 1 - Welcome to Your New Home

An ambitious 16-year-old girl has graduated two years early from her high school in Afghanistan. She is ready to take the medical school entrance exam to pursue her dream of being...   (39:44)
July 26, 2023

Afghan Arrivals - What Can One Person Do?

It's been two years since the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan and some 80,000 people were  evacuated are living here in America. Understaffed resource agencies were flooded wi...   (04:41)