You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hey there Shortwavers, today we've got a guest whose voice I'm guessing you will recognize.

Ari Shapiro from All Things Considered. Hey there Ari.

Hi Aaron, thanks for having me on your podcast.

Yes, we're delighted to have you here to tell us about a big project that you and your team are working on.

You just got back from overseas, tell us about it.

Yeah, this is actually the biggest project I have ever done as a host of All Things Considered.

We were overseas for three weeks in three countries, Senegal, Morocco, and Spain.

And our goal was to connect three major stories that we often treat as separate issues that are actually very connected.

Those three stories are climate change, global migration, and the rise of the political far right.

So we wanted to show how these things are feeding each other, how these trends are each playing into the other,

and how this is really kind of one big story rather than three individual ones.

And so you actually trace this migration route, the climate migrants are tracing from Senegal up through Morocco to Spain.

This is a story that is playing out around the world from Central America to South Asia.

Why did you choose to focus on this route through Western Africa?

Well, you put your finger on it exactly that while there are unique circumstances in every place with every person,

the trends are happening all over the world.

And frankly, the West African route is one that we had not heard much about in the coverage.

I mean, one concern is that in a lot of places where people are fleeing climate change,

it can be very difficult to operate because of oppressive governments or because of violence.

And in West Africa, things are pretty open.

People are pretty eager to talk and so we found a lot of people who were eager to tell us their stories.

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