Episode 39: Reframing Trauma

We're so excited about this week's episode! We recorded this episode live at this year's Fall for the Book Festival in Fairfax, Virgina! Featuring YA Author Atia Abawi, we discussed how she and host Brian Birnbaum redefine the definitions of home and trauma. In Abawi’s book, A Land of Permanent Goodbyes, Syria is torn apart due to war, leaving each survivor with a new and dangerous label: refugee. And in Birnbaum’s Emerald City, a family company’s profits are being used to illegally fund a drug-crop in Guatemala. Guest Atia Abawi is a foreign news correspondent who was stationed for almost five years in Kabul, Afghanistan. She was born to Afghan parents in West Germany and was raised in the United States. Her first book for teens was the powerful The Secret Sky, about forbidden romance between different ethnic tribes in Afghanistan. And today's podcast was lovingly guest produced by the one and only Annie Krabbenschmidt.

The transcript for this episode can be found on our website.