607: Small Earthquakes and what we never learnt in school about South America

Blending travel writing, history and reportage, our guest on this week's Colombia Calling podcast is award-winning journalist and author Shafik Meghji who tells a tale of footballers and pirates, nitrate kings and wool barons, polar explorers and cowboys, missionaries and radical MPs. From a ghost town in one of the world's driest deserts to a far-flung ranch in the sub-polar tundra; rusting whaling stations in the South Atlantic to an isolated railway built by convicts. '[An] appealing fusion of travelogue and history, excavating the roots and remnants of British influence in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay.' - The Observer 'This is travel writing as much as history. Meghji has the true travel writer's eye for the comic, pathetic and tragic, and for the places where they collide. . . This is writing full of rust, wind and sadness. It captures splendidly the air of South America and the long, withdrawing roar of an empire whose influence once reached far beyond its political borders.' — The Times So tune in to hear our conversation with Shafik. And, the Colombia Briefing is reported by Grace Brennan.

You can listen to 607: Small Earthquakes and what we never learnt in school about South America online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

607: Small Earthquakes and what we never learnt in school about South America is an episode from Colombia Calling - Living and Working in Colombia by Richard McColl.

This episode is 01:04:48 long.

This episode was published on Mar 24, 2026.

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