--:-- [Upbeat music fades out]
--:-- Host: This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles.
--:-- Nick Miles: At 14 Hours GMT on Thursday the 12th of December, these are our main stories. Joe Biden is commuting the sentences of around 1,500 people, the largest presidential act of clemency in a single day in modern US history.
--:-- Rowan Bridge: I'm Rowan Bridge, our Washington correspondent. It's worth understanding what the terminology means here. So when they talk about commuting somebody's sentence, effectively what you are doing is reducing the punishment that they will face.
--:-- Nick Miles: And in these cases, those people who've had their sentences commuted were all facing long prison sentences. And the White House said that they would have been given lesser ones if they were charged under today's laws and practices.
--:-- Rowan Bridge: And according to the White House, they're all people who were put under home confinement during the COVID pandemic.
--:-- Nick Miles: Mr Biden said that, as he put it, America was built on second chances, and what he was doing was extending mercy to people who demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation for their crimes.
--:-- Rowan Bridge: He's also pardoned 39 other people. Is there a distinction there?
--:-- Nick Miles: Yeah, so a pardon effectively clears your criminal record. It is wiped clean.
--:-- Rowan Bridge: In these cases, the 39 people you're talking about, they were all sentenced to non-violent crimes. So things like, for example, possession of marijuana.
--:-- Nick Miles: But as you sort of mentioned this in the introduction, the pardons interestingly come after Mr. Biden himself issued this controversial pardon of his own that was a blanket pardon to his son Hunter Biden.
--:-- Rowan Bridge: He had been facing potential jail time for crimes relating to gun possession and tax evasion until his father intervened.
--:-- Nick Miles: The White House says it's still considering calls for clemency. So it's perfectly possible we may see more events like this before Joe Biden leaves the White House on January 20th.
--:-- Rowan Bridge: Also worth noting that Donald Trump has talked about potentially pardoning some of the January 6th rioters who rioted after the 2020 election when he comes into office on January the 20th.
--:-- Nick Miles: So we may see yet more controversial pardons coming up in the next few weeks.
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--:-- Host: Next to Syria, where the funeral of the activist and former political prisoner Mazen al-Hamada has been taking place in the capital Damascus.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: Her mother endured months of brutal torture after being detained in 2011, before being released after two years in prison and seeking asylum in Europe.
--:-- Nick Miles: His graphic testimony made him a figurehead of the resistance against Assad regime.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: He returned to Syria in 2020, but was arrested immediately. His body was found in the morgue of a military hospital on Monday, a day after rebels stormed into the capital, ending Assad's rule.
--:-- Nick Miles: Footage posted online by a journalist showed mourners at the funeral singing a patriotic song.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: The mourners were chanting in Arabic, Oh dear homeland, even your soil is kind, even your hell is paradise.
--:-- Nick Miles: The Islamist HTS group that's now in charge is being welcomed with reservations by Syrians and many nations around the world.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: But because of its former links to al-Qaeda, the group is aware it must take actions to instil confidence in the international community.
--:-- Nick Miles: As the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the region, it seems to be doing just that.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: HTS has said it will close Assad's prisons and work with others to secure chemical weapons sites.
--:-- Nick Miles: And as a symbol of how quickly life is changing in Syria, our international editor Jeremy Bowen has returned to the very centre of ostentatious power, Bashar al-Assad's former presidential palace in Damascus.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: We've just arrived at the presidential palace, the big one on the hill overlooking Damascus.
--:-- Nick Miles: Now, there are fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the group that overthrew the Assads here on the gate.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: It is quite an extraordinary feeling walking into this great echoing marble hall of the palace.
--:-- Nick Miles: There's a red carpet and some kind of burnished copper ceiling.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: I mean, nothing's really been badly damaged here, but off this main huge marble entrance hall, there are some rather grand reception rooms which are now covered in debris.
--:-- Nick Miles: That's where the fighters have been sleeping.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: You can see that there are blankets and leftovers of food and things like that.
--:-- Nick Miles: It used to be that coming in here, you would have to have permission.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: It was quite an event. And now there are fighters wandering around.
--:-- Nick Miles: I mean, our driver's left the car and he's going around filming like mad.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: This is my first time here. This palace is for the people.
--:-- Nick Miles: But the people never set eyes on it. And they never went in.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: It's like a dream. Even now, we don't believe it.
--:-- Nick Miles: Even now, some people think that he's still here.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: And they are afraid of him because he terrified the people.
--:-- Nick Miles: Even now, some people at home feel like they are watching a dream.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: If I just walk out this way and across the checkerboard marble floor, marble tables, walnut doors, crystal chandeliers, I mean this is a very opulent place.
--:-- Nick Miles: There's this anteroom. I'll say it's an anteroom, it's a sitting room as big as a tennis court.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: And the way it worked was that before the interview, Asab would take you off for private time for a chat.
--:-- Nick Miles: And because he looked a bit gawky sometimes people in the west thought he a bit weak he can be pushed around when you met him he was extravagantly polite a rather tall skinny man in an expensive suit
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: He never seemed to be the guy actually who would be at home in the torture cell watching people screaming their last.
--:-- Nick Miles: But I always did feel that he wouldn't think twice about giving the order to send the person to the torture cell or to the jail or to the gallows.
--:-- Jeremy Bowen: And, of course, Bashar al-Assad, his family, his acolytes, his security people, They did that thousands and thousands of times.
--:-- Nick Miles: A special report from inside former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's palace in Damascus was by Jeremy Bowen.
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--:-- Host: Despite growing calls for him to resign or be impeached, the South Korean President, Yunsook Yul, is digging in.
--:-- Yana Koo: He survived an impeachment vote in Parliament and attempts by police to raid his compound.
--:-- Nick Miles: And now, in a televised address, he's accused the opposition of creating a national crisis.
--:-- Yana Koo: For the past two and a half years, I have only looked to the people, fighting against injustice, corruption and the tyranny disguised as democracy.
--:-- Nick Miles: I fervently appeal to you all to unite in the path of protecting the Republic of Korea and our liberal democracy, which we have guarded with blood and sweat.
--:-- Yana Koo: I will fight with the people until the very last minute.
--:-- Nick Miles: These residents of Seoul gave their reaction to the president's speech.
--:-- Host: I thought it was utter nonsense. The president has already taken actions against democracy.
--:-- Host: I think this is unacceptable and it's close to a dictatorship.
--:-- Host: I think the president did a good job and the impeachment shouldn't happen.
--:-- Yana Koo: I heard the martial law troops left the National Assembly only after two hours.
--:-- Nick Miles: So the martial law declaration was merely an expression of the authority of the president.
--:-- Yana Koo: The Democratic Party, which is currently holding the country back, is the real issue.
--:-- Nick Miles: So what impact is the president's speech likely to have?
--:-- Yana Koo: It's likely to deepen the divide within the ruling People's Power Party because after the president's speech, the ruling party leader Han Dong-hun called Yoon's statement as confession of insurrection during a party meeting, which angered many Yun loyalists.
--:-- Nick Miles: Some of them were shouting and calling Han to step down from the podium.
--:-- Yana Koo: Still, Han urged party members to vote in favor of the second impeachment motion, which is planned to be voted on Saturday.
--:-- Nick Miles: The opposition party earlier failed to pass the impeachment bill as most of the ruling party members didn't participate in the voting process except three ruling party members.
--:-- Yana Koo: However, in order for this vote to proceed, they need at least eight people from ruling party.
--:-- Nick Miles: Now, as the public have been criticising the ruling party for not participating, there have been several ruling party members who openly said that this time they will participate in the voting process.
--:-- Yana Koo: And some of them even said they will vote in favour of the bill.
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--:-- Host: A law criminalising the recreational use of cannabis has come into effect in Japan because of concerns about increasing drug abuse among young people.
--:-- Mickey Bristow: The new rules legalise the use of medical products based on cannabis, but for the first time criminalises its recreational use.
--:-- Nick Miles: The possession, cultivation and sale of marijuana were already illegal, but now using the drug can land you in prison for seven years.
--:-- Mickey Bristow: Some hope the law will help tackle growing drug use, But it does put Japan out of step with a number of other countries that have over recent years legalised the recreational use of cannabis, including Canada, Germany and Thailand.
--:-- Nick Miles: Mickey Bristow.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: The world's richest man, Elon Musk, is now even richer.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: He's become the first person in history to amass a fortune of more than $400 billion, which is more than that of Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos combined.
--:-- Nick Miles: It's a remarkable turnaround for Mr Musk, as just two years ago his fortune fell to just $137 billion.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: Shares in Tesla, Musk's electric vehicle company, rose to a new record high on the same day that the tech-heavy Nasdaq index hit 20,000 points for the first time in its history.
--:-- Nick Miles: Tesla shares have rallied 69% since the election of Donald Trump.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: But it was a sale of shares at his privately held firm SpaceX, valuing the company at $350 billion, that supercharged his wealth.
--:-- Nick Miles: The move boosted the founder's net worth to $439 billion, according to Bloomberg.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: Last week, a Delaware judge rejected Musk's multi-billion dollar Tesla pay packet.
--:-- Nick Miles: But even if it is revoked, Trump's buddy will still be the world's richest person.
--:-- Michelle Fleury: And as Mr Musk prepares to lead efforts to deregulate and streamline government operations, it's perhaps a sign that wealth and power in America have become even more closely intertwined.
--:-- Nick Miles: Michel Fleury.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Still to come on the Global News Podcast. The last thing you want to do is ruin it and get people to feel like you've butchered one of the greatest novels ever written in human history.
--:-- James Menendez: But I think quickly that fear becomes the motivation.
--:-- Nick Miles: The challenge of being invited to dramatise an epic novel that many thought unfilmable.
--:-- James Menendez: The stars in some of the darkest skies. Stake out haunted hotels. Can you make it to sunrise?
--:-- Nick Miles: There's always something new to see. Because we've got plenty of space to just be. Plan your trip at TravelNevada.com.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Hi, I'm Cindy Crawford, and I'm the founder of Meaningful Beauty.
--:-- Cindy Crawford: Well, I don't know about you, but I never liked being told, Oh, wow, you look so good for your age.
--:-- Nick Miles: Like, why even bother saying that?
--:-- Cindy Crawford: Why don't you just say you look great at any age, every age?
--:-- Nick Miles: That's what Meaningful Beauty is all about.
--:-- Cindy Crawford: We create products that make you feel confident in your skin at the age you are now.
--:-- Nick Miles: Meaningful Beauty. Beautiful skin at every age. Learn more at MeaningfulBeauty.com.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: According to a nationwide survey conducted by GeneSight, Nearly 9 in 10 Americans who've been diagnosed with depression or anxiety believe that mental health medications are somewhat or very effective.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: However, despite that belief, more than half of those individuals say they have avoided taking medication due to concerns about potential side effects.
--:-- Nick Miles: That's why Dr. Whitney Brown, a family and psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner based in Alabama, often recommends genetic testing to our patients as part of their treatment journey.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: As part of my treatment plan, I offer the GeneSight test, which analyzes how a patient's genes may influence how they metabolize or respond to certain mental health medications.
--:-- Nick Miles: It gives me insights and takes out some of the guesswork that can be associated with prescribing them.
--:-- Dr. Whitney Brown: If you or someone you love is facing challenges with depression or anxiety, talk to your doctor about how genetic testing may help.
--:-- Nick Miles: To learn more, visit Genesight.com.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: This message is sponsored by Greenlight.
--:-- Host: With school out, summer is the perfect time to teach our kids real-world money skills they'll use forever.
--:-- Host: Greenlight is a debit card and the number one family finance and safety app used by millions of families, helping kids learn how to save, invest, and spend wisely.
--:-- Host: Parents can send their kids money and track their spending and saving, while kids build money confidence and skills in fun ways.
--:-- Host: Start your risk Greenlight trial today at greenlight slash iHeart
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Moving European citizens between most EU member states without the need for paperwork or passports has been a feature of the bloc for almost 40 years now.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: The agreement that made that possible, Schengen, has faced a backlash recently with a number of nations reimposing restrictions on border crossings because of concerns about migration.
--:-- Nick Miles: But today, the Schengen group has welcomed two new members, Romania and Bulgaria.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: So what difference will this make?
--:-- Nick Miles: A question for our correspondent Nick Thorpe on the Romania-Hungary border.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: In terms of passenger traffic, it should mean a huge difference from January the 1st.
--:-- Nick Miles: Basically, where I'm standing at Nodgolok, this is a big motorway crossing on the Romania-Hungary border.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: There's a long line of cars and of trucks.
--:-- Nick Miles: Sometimes trucks wait 10, 15 hours here.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: A truck driver I was talking to earlier said his record was five days waiting at this border crossing.
--:-- Nick Miles: So with the ending of border controls here, the ending of passports, it's a huge practical change.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: Also psychologically for Romanians and Bulgarians, for many years they felt like second-class citizens of the EU.
--:-- Nick Miles: Now they feel finally that they're becoming full members.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: Yeah, they've wanted this for a long time, haven't they?
--:-- Nick Miles: Why did it take so long?
--:-- Nick Thorpe: There was a lot of opposition, especially from Austria and the Netherlands.
--:-- Nick Miles: So Romania and Bulgaria did satisfy the conditions for Schengen membership, but Austria argued that just too many illegal migrants were crossing up through the Balkan route, through Bulgaria and Romania to reach Austria and beyond, and that Romania and Bulgaria weren't doing enough.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: So basically, in order to convince the Austrians, what Romania, especially Bulgaria, have done is to reinforce their border with Turkey.
--:-- Nick Miles: And they've also reinforcing, proving that their police forces, both at border crossings, but also internal areas of the countries, have been cracking down and trying to stop or lessen the flow of illegal migrants to northern Europe.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: So, Nick, given what I was saying about a number of countries reimposing border restrictions within Schengen this year, this is a big day for the European Union as a whole.
--:-- Nick Miles: It's really central to the whole vision of the European project.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: It's seen the Schengen zone as one of the real achievements of it.
--:-- Nick Miles: So even though there are these temporary restrictions, temporary controls brought in by countries like Germany, for example, those are only temporary restrictions.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: The big border crossing where I'm standing here, that in theory should be largely dismantled.
--:-- Nick Miles: There will be temporary controls in future, but nothing like these really long delays, hopefully, we've seen for so long.
--:-- Nick Thorpe: Our Europe correspondent Nick Thorpe.
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--:-- Host: This week marks the first anniversary of the inauguration in Argentina of a new populist libertarian president, Javier Millet.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: During the election, he was often seen as something of a joke with his cloned dogs and his promise to burn down the central bank.
--:-- Nick Miles: A year in, what has he achieved?
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: Well, he's cut public spending massively, not without pain, and reduced inflation.
--:-- Nick Miles: And voters are not showing signs of buyer's remorse.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: It's a test case of populism in action being widely viewed elsewhere.
--:-- Nick Miles: Lucia Cholakian Herrera is a journalist in Buenos Aires who writes for The New York Times.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: Overall, what I would say is that in contrast to his promises, which were, as you have said, burning down the central bank, tolerizing the Argentine economy, eliminating the Argentine peso, and attracting investments for the public sector to strengthen during his presidency.
--:-- Nick Miles: I would say that he has, in fact, shrinked the state.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: That has happened.
--:-- Nick Miles: But there is another step that we have yet to see, which is this step that he has said over and over, that he was to turn Argentina into a liberal, in terms of economics, an extremely liberal country with open borders for imports and exports.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: So what we can say is that he has somehow completed what seems to be the first day of his economic programme, but there are still a lot of questions on whether his plans are sustainable.
--:-- Nick Miles: Let's just go through it, though.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: He's slashed the size of government.
--:-- Nick Miles: And Argentina did have a bit of a habit of paying for government by printing pesos, thus causing inflation all the time.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: And inflation has come down, has it?
--:-- Nick Miles: Inflation has come down.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: Last month was 7.7% monthly, but you have to think that this month last year was over 20%.
--:-- Nick Miles: So it is indeed a big achievement.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: Now tell me this, the political support for him at this point, as I have heard, is not really diminishing.
--:-- Nick Miles: People are not saying, I wish we'd never voted for the guy.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: They're saying, you know, he promised to break everything to start again.
--:-- Nick Miles: And that's what he's doing.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: And his supporters, at least half the population, seem relatively content with that.
--:-- Nick Miles: Absolutely, Evan.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: That is exactly what is happening.
--:-- Nick Miles: And it is, I think, probably the most positive aspect for the balance of this anniversary.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: People voted for Javier Millet.
--:-- Nick Miles: Of course, many of them did it because they trusted that his program was feasible and the best option for the country.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: But there was also a large part of the population that elected Javier Millet because they felt like the old recipes in traditional politics were not working anymore, or they felt the politicians had not delivered for them over the past few years.
--:-- Nick Miles: And all of a sudden comes this libertarian TV pundit anarcho-capitalist who has no experience in public office, but has these great promises for people.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: And they elect him and he wins.
--:-- Nick Miles: And a year after, many critics would say that they expected that the country would be down in flames or with large protests every day on the streets, that social life would be very hard.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: And in fact, that's not what has happened.
--:-- Nick Miles: On the streets, is it that you're finding now people who are begging, starving, nowhere to live, no money?
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: Is that something that you would say after the massive austerity on the streets around, you say, in Buenos Aires?
--:-- Nick Miles: Yes, it is very impressive.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: I don't remember saying something like this for over 20 years here in Argentina.
--:-- Nick Miles: The biggest hit has been on working class.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: The cost of public transportation, of education, of health, of any basic medication, of food is incredibly high in comparison to last year.
--:-- Nick Miles: More families living on the streets.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: You see a lot of people who you speak to them and you realise that they used to have a home, that they even used to have a job.
--:-- Nick Miles: So he's obviously had some successes getting inflation down.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: He wanted to shrink the state.
--:-- Nick Miles: He shrunk the state.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: The public still support him, but he's not managed to shrink the state without cost to people.
--:-- Nick Miles: It's been very painful for many people.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: But very interesting that all eyes of what one might call the populist right around the world are on this guy, aren't they, and what he's doing.
--:-- Nick Miles: His figure has indeed become very important in the global landscape of the right-wing movements in the world.
--:-- Lucia Cholakian Herrera: And the alliances that he's building and the kind of leadership that he's partaking are impressive for a person who was pretty unknown two years ago, even to Argentines.
--:-- Nick Miles: That was the Argentine journalist Lucia Cholakian Herrera.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Vaping is a popular and many believe less harmful alternative to traditional cigarettes.
--:-- Will Grant: But there are also concerns about the long-term effects of the habit.
--:-- Nick Miles: And now Mexico has become the latest country to impose a ban on e-cigarettes.
--:-- Will Grant: By 110 votes in favour, with five against and two abstentions, the Senate in Mexico passed the controversial reform to ban the production, distribution and sale of e-cigarettes and vapes.
--:-- Nick Miles: The move must now be approved by a majority of Mexico's 32 states before it becomes law.
--:-- Will Grant: In the capital, the Mexico City Congress has already passed it.
--:-- Nick Miles: One of the senators backing the change to the law invoked Children's Health, saying health is a fundamental right which the Mexican state was obliged to guarantee.
--:-- Will Grant: However, opposition parties said it was a step too far and accused some lawmakers of hypocrisy, saying they were voting against it as e-cigarette users themselves.
--:-- Nick Miles: Vapes have become hugely popular in Mexico in recent years as in much of Latin America given their reputation as less harmful than tobacco
--:-- Will Grant: Consumers and vendors frustrated at the move held a protest outside Parliament in Mexico this week arguing that a ban would criminalise users and push vapes onto the black market.
--:-- Nick Miles: Given the governing party's control of most states, it's expected to be approved at the state level, and President Claudia Sheinbaum has also said she backs the ban.
--:-- Will Grant: At the same time, the reform approved by the Senate also formally banned the illegal use of fentanyl, a measure first proposed under the previous president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
--:-- Nick Miles: The synthetic opioid is believed to be responsible for the majority of the around 100,000 drug overdose deaths a year in the United States and is considered a serious public health issue in many Mexican border cities, where its consumption is noticeably on the rise.
--:-- Will Grant: Will Grant.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: Now, a question. Are you happy in your job?
--:-- Michael Horn: We were actually surprised by this. We purposely got people from all different ages, stages, different parts of the economy and so forth.
--:-- Nick Miles: And we were expecting, quite frankly, to see lots of different pushes and pulls that caused them to make switches and boil down to 14 forces that caused them to say, hey, this isn't working for me.
--:-- Michael Horn: 16 forces that pulled them to something new.
--:-- Nick Miles: And there was a lot more commonality than diversity or divergence, if you will, dependent on the stage or role or part of the economy that you were in.
--:-- Michael Horn: This is interesting for people who are not ready to make the switch.
--:-- Nick Miles: You can actually say, hey, do I desire that my energy is really reset or actually like how my time and energy is used?
--:-- Michael Horn: And do I want to reset what I do? In other words, the skills and capabilities that are used on the job or not.
--:-- Nick Miles: And once you understand that, you can start to hammer out what does progress for you really look like?
--:-- Michael Horn: And how do you make subtle shifts to get more of it?
--:-- Nick Miles: I'll give you a quick example.
--:-- Michael Horn: One individual, they liked the hours that they worked.
--:-- Nick Miles: They liked the time that they were spending.
--:-- Michael Horn: They felt like they were being asked to do things in the job that were outside of the scope of what they wanted to be known for.
--:-- Nick Miles: And literally just telling the manager about how it was diverging from their real strengths and where they could really make a difference.
--:-- Michael Horn: They were able to make some slices in the role if you will focus more on where their strengths were what they wanted to be known for they didn't actually have to switch jobs and they were able to excel and find greater happiness in the role
--:-- Nick Miles: But aren't there many people who do their job because it earns them money they can do it it's not something they necessarily want to excel at or to reset or do any of these things you're talking about but they just want to be happy
--:-- Michael Horn: I don't know serving meals in Chipotle for example
--:-- Nick Miles: Yeah and this is the really cool thing right
--:-- Michael Horn: The research found that whereas we've been using a playbook for the last quarter century, that's really focused on progression.
--:-- Nick Miles: You know, you have to start at the individual contributor entry level role, move up to manager, move up to director and so forth, that actually people these days are really thinking about purpose and progress in the context of their careers, but also their broader lives, right?
--:-- Michael Horn: How they fit in with each other.
--:-- Nick Miles: And so what we found to your point is maybe I don't get all my purpose from my job.
--:-- Michael Horn: And that's quite all right, as long as it allows me to have greater satisfaction in my broader life and how it fits in with work.
--:-- Nick Miles: And the reality is right now, a lot of people don't strike that balance for them.
--:-- Michael Horn: And so recognizing that progress looks different from others and that the advice, you know, climb the ladder at all costs, doesn't work for some people, actually helps them find greater satisfaction.
--:-- Nick Miles: Michael Horn from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
--:-- [Music transitions to a new segment]
--:-- Host: And finally, to a new television series.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: The last thing you want to do is ruin it and get people to feel like you've butchered one of the greatest novels ever written in human history.
--:-- Nick Miles: But I think quickly that fear becomes the motivation.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: And then when I spoke to Rodrigo Garcia, the son of Gabo, he said to me, I'll give you're my blessing and don't let the weight of my father's book bring you down.
--:-- Nick Miles: Because for many people, the book is synonymous with magic realism.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: Just give our listeners a sense of how did you convey that magic realism, that the sort of reality of life combined with a sort of magic and mystery of this fictional town, Macondo?
--:-- Nick Miles: Before I arrived in Colombia, which I had never been to before, I worked for about a year coming up with my vision for the project of this adaptation.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: And then I go to the Caribbean for the first time in my life and I realized I had to throw away all my ideas and all my visions out the window because I suddenly was in front of a Caribbean culture, which I knew very little about.
--:-- Nick Miles: And it was my new relationship and discovery with the Caribbean culture where I spent a long time.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: I was going back and forth for over six months trying to submerge myself in the culture, meeting people.
--:-- Nick Miles: While at the same time kind of reading about Gabo and a lot about his childhood, going to his house, seeing where the place that he grew up with, the story is very much based in his youth, in his upbringing by his grandmother and grandfather.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: And Gabo himself said he tried to tell this story many times and he could never find the angle until he realized that he needed to tell the Hundred Salty in the same way that his grandmother would tell him these cuentos, these stories.
--:-- Nick Miles: So when you have things like the famous bag of bones in the house, Is it to just do it in a matter of fact ways, if it isn't anything particularly remarkable?
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: And yet, obviously, it is at the same time.
--:-- Nick Miles: Exactly.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: And that's because it comes from an ideology of a mixture of cultures.
--:-- Nick Miles: In my humble opinion, it's that sort of, to me, what the term magic realism started to mean to me, which is not a genre.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: It's almost a culture.
--:-- Nick Miles: It's a way of telling stories for the culture of the Caribbean, because you have these influences of indigenous tribes, and they obviously have their own beliefs in supernatural, in spirits, in death, in the beyond.
--:-- Alex Garcia Lopez: So suddenly for them to be telling these stories you know gaba once said everything that happens in 100 years old it was based on reality my grandmother would get really annoyed that every time the electrician would come to the house the house would get filled up with yellow butterflies and so the approach to me was just to do it in camera to not use the visual effects.
--:-- Nick Miles: Alex Garcia Lopez, the principal director of the Netflix series 100 years of solitude.
--:-- Host: That's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later.
--:-- Host: If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email.
--:-- Host: The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk.
--:-- Host: This edition was mixed by Sydney Dundon.
--:-- Host: The producer was Nikki Verrico and the editor is Karen Martin.
--:-- Nick Miles: I'm Nick Miles and until next time, goodbye.
--:-- Host: America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
--:-- Asma Khalid: I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C.
--:-- Tristan Redman: I'm Tristan Redman in London.
--:-- Host: And this is The Global Story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet.
--:-- Host: Listen on BBC.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
