Peace Corps Stories: The Unofficial Podcast

Peace Corps Stories: The Unofficial Podcast

An unfiltered look at the toughest job you'll ever love. Each episode features true stories about the Peace Corps, told by returned volunteers reflecting on the thrilling highs, the debilitating lows, the near-death experiences and the crazy adventures that you may not hear about from the Peace Corps organization itself. The Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of New York City is a non-profit group based in NYC to bring people who have served in the Peace Corps, with their friends and family, together for charity and social events, as well as our annual Peace Corps Story Slam storytelling event. Find us on Facebook.

Episodes

October 22, 2020 15 mins
There are many ways to learn about the local culture as a Peace Corps volunteer, but often the best lessons happen by accident rather than by design. In this episode we hear two stories out of the Ukraine, from Victoria Walker and Allison Miller, who made strong impressions on the locals, but maybe not for the reasons they would have chosen.
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Shawna Miller finds much more than love when the circus comes to her little Honduran town.
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August 14, 2020 16 mins
Pets and animals tend to play outsize roles for Peace Corps Volunteers. As companions who, like us, don’t speak the local language, they can make the experience a lot easier. For Helen Alesbury, her dog was at the center of one of her most memorable moments in her time in El Salvador.
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At some point, every volunteer finds themselves too far from a bathroom at the time they need it most. For Denver Governor, that moment turned out to be one of the most important.
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Bob Nolan considers what “justice” means when confronting one of his students and friends in Zimbabwe.
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July 4, 2020 8 mins
All it took was a fish and a flip flop for Gabriella Miyares to find common ground with her host mother in Guyana.
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June 26, 2020 7 mins
Kevin Kwok remembers his gardening efforts in Mali, cut short by a military coup in 2012 that sent him home early.
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December 18, 2016 8 mins
Peter Clark (Kyrgyzstan, 2009-2010) recalls a challenging day on the playground early in his service, and we take a look back at the scatological memories that defined his service as emcee of the Peace Corps Story Slam in the final episode of Season 1.
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December 2, 2016 12 mins
Ryan Smith (The Gambia, 2007-2009) sees how a community deals with death during his first months in the Peace Corps.
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Julie Behrens (Honduras, 2004-2006) takes her first work trip and almost makes it home in one piece.
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November 4, 2016 10 mins
Josh Norman (Togo, 2000-2002) remembers a tough decision when he had to choose between a project and a person.
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Jane Garcia Buhks (Nicaragua, 2010-2012) and Robyn Fiedler (Nicaragua, 2011-2013) remember a night where they broke all the rules of partying, but they got through it together.
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Sarah Porter (Macedonia, 2005-2007) discovers how sweet a little taste of home can be.
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Shawna Miller (Honduras, 2001-2003) saw the events of September 11 from a distance, but experienced a closeness she didn’t expect.
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To Teresa Liu (East Timor, 2003-2005), why did the chicken cross the road? takes on life or death consequences.
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