Florida's political refugees
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 November 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Americans on both sides of the political spectrum are escaping states they no longer feel comfortable in. They are calling themselves ‘political refugees.’ And the sunshine state of Florida is at the heart of this political sorting. How can one US state be both a safe haven for Americans fleeing their homes in the north and a dangerous threat to liberal families? Lucy Proctor traces the journeys of America’s homegrown refugees, meeting progressives and conservatives making their move. Through their crossing paths, she explores what is behind this new wave of domestic migration, and what it might mean for America’s future.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Global Story is your new daily deep dive into one big news story and it's coming soon |
| 0:07.0 | Monday to Friday from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:10.0 | Search for the Global Story wherever you get your BBC Podcasts to find out more. |
| 0:19.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of assignment on the documentary podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:25.2 | It's the producer Ellie here. This week we're in the US states of Florida and |
| 0:30.3 | Illinois, tracing the journeys of America's homegrown refugees, the people moving hundreds |
| 0:36.2 | of miles because of politics. And we begin at a drum circle. I'm Lucy Proctor and this is the documentary from the BBC |
| 0:49.2 | World Service. We're on assignment in the USA. |
| 0:53.0 | Just heading over to the Nachomis Beach Drum Circle in Sarasota County, |
| 0:59.0 | by the beach in Florida, and you can hear the drums from quite a way back from the beach. |
| 1:06.3 | Sun's going down, very romantic and there's loads of people here. |
| 1:14.0 | White sand, blue skies, |
| 1:17.0 | can see why people want to move to Florida. |
| 1:20.0 | Florida, the Sunshine State, and this beach south of the city of Sarasota, just about sums up the |
| 1:27.8 | Florida dream, a perfect balmy Gulf Coast sunset almost every evening. The drummers belong to the Nachomis Drum Circle |
| 1:37.0 | and they meet here at sundown every Wednesday and Saturday. They're joined by spinning children |
| 1:42.2 | and Maracas players and quite a few tourists who formed an outer circle of deck chairs and callboxes. |
| 1:49.0 | I get talking to an extremely tan 60 year old woman, rocking a hot pink bikini and loads of glitter. |
| 1:55.1 | So I am a beach girl, beach bum from Illinois. Been here almost three and a half years. |
| 2:00.8 | People have been buying second homes and retiring here for decades |
| 2:04.6 | mainly from the northern states of America where it gets very, very cold in winter. |
| 2:09.6 | I've slowed down and I'm enjoying I've seen more sun sets in the last three years in my whole life. |
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