With all this talk about wall building, bad hombres and refugees as Skittles, comedian Maeve Higgins is beyond ready to change the conversation around immigration. She's traveled all the way here from Ireland to bring you funny, beautiful and sometimes maddening immigration stories, told by the people who’ve lived them.
Maeve meets Bassem Youssef, Egyptian heart surgeon-turned-satirist, she chats to right-on comedian W. Kamau Bell about the role of comedy in politics. Oh! And Neil deGrasse Tyson takes us on a trip to Mars.
34 Min
Mar 28, 2017
A wonderful cast explores the two worlds inhabited by the children of immigrants. Comedian co-host Aparna Nancherla and writer/director Alex Karpovsky add their magical insight to this moving episode. And we meet Mona’s mum!
31 Min
Mar 21, 2017
Comedy, poetry, music and acting are on today's playbill. We hear from actor Chris O’Dowd, social justice comedian Negin Farsad, Iranian poet Majid Naficy, and the Vietnamese Madonna Lynda Trang Dai, as they figure out how to use art to speak their truth.
29 Min
Mar 14, 2017
Live from New York, it’s Maeve in America! Visa stats from Magic Mona, poetry from undocumented Mexican artist Yosimar Reyes, whip-smart Aminatou Sow talks about the asylum process. Plus, stand up from Naomi Ekperigin and music from Emmy the Great.
Mohamed Zaza is 6”1 and tons of fun. He’s a doting father, the manager of an upmarket luggage store in Manhattan, a serious chocolate addict, oh, and an asylum seeker from Syria.
Thanks to her historian bestie Alexis Coe, Maeve discovers that George Washington had German indentured servants and never lived in the White House! Together, they suss out Obama’s immigration legacy and commiserate over Trump's stance on immigration.
Maeve enlists data queen Mona Chalabi in this Valentine’s Day special exploring the intersection of love and immigration. Beautiful vignettes of immigrant’s love stories are threaded through a date that goes from personal to political in a heartbeat.
New President, who dis? MIA is back to update listeners on the latest executive orders on immigration. Maeve visits the US-Mexico border to see the gigantic wall already there and talks to demonstrators at San Francisco airport about the travel ban.
From Santo Domingo to a homeless shelter in the Bronx, on to Oxford University, and finally...New Jersey? Maeve tracks the complex journey of Dan-el Padilla Peralta's life without papeles.
The first person through the doors of Ellis Island on January 1, 1892 was Annie Moore, a 17 year-old Irish girl who left from Cobh. Which just so happens to be Maeve’s adorable hometown. Maeve retraces Annie’s steps and hears eerie echoes all around.
Maeve faces her ridiculous fear of fish and meets Yemi Amu, an aquaponics farmer in Brooklyn who grew up in Nigeria, to talk healing, happiness and hopeless misconceptions about Africa.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll be glad you’re not a carp! This holiday special is a beautiful, bittersweet and breathless tour of our iconic city of immigrants.
Maeve hosts a stand up comedy show featuring Eugene Mirman, Mehran Khaghani, Josie Long, Todd Barry, Mike Birbiglia, Joel Kim Booster and more!
Amy Mihyang Ginther - Korean adoptee, assistant professor at UC Santa Cruz, speech coach, adoptee activist and performer - speaks with Maeve about coming to the United States as a baby and her journey back to Korea two decades later.
Maeve meets Nayyef Hrebid: Madonna fan, devoted boyfriend, former wartime translator for US troops in Iraq, now living his best life in the Pacific Northwest.
Maeve’s mission is twofold: to discover the true meaning of this most American holiday, and to add as much sugar as possible to her vegetables.
Maeve meets Rosalyn Koo: dynamic Grandma to a thousand girls, protest leader, terrible cook and finds out how to raise $250k in a night.
