Come Back to Afghanistan

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This summer, a seventeen-year-old who grew up in California travelled with his father to their home country, Afghanistan. He took a tape recorder with him. In Kabul, the teenager -- Hyder Akbar -- learns to use a Kalashnikov and spends his days with his one-eyed war-hero uncle. By the end of the summer his father is appointed the official spokesman for the new Afghan government, which gives Hyder an insider's access to everything important that happens in Kabul. He meets warlords and sees the President. Hours after a bomb explodes in a market, he walks through the bloody, glass-strewn marketplace. Susan Burton assembled his extraordinary audio diaries into a story for the radio.
This summer, a seventeen-year-old who grew up in California travelled with his father to their home country, Afghanistan. He took a tape recorder with him. In Kabul, the teenager -- Hyder Akbar -- learns to use a Kalashnikov and spends his days with his one-eyed war-hero uncle. By the end of the summer his father is appointed the official spokesman for the new Afghan government, which gives Hyder an insider's access to everything important that happens in Kabul. He meets warlords and sees the President. Hours after a bomb explodes in a market, he walks through the bloody, glass-strewn marketplace. Susan Burton assembled his extraordinary audio diaries into a story for the radio.

Credits

Host:

Ira Glass