Episode 15: Anonymous

Interview with: Three Anonymous Narrators. 

Episode Guide

In this Episode: Three true stories, all true and all anonymous. All three immigrants went through or are going through difficult experiences. Three immigrants: 1) An immigrant from Afghanistan. 2) An immigrant Computer Scientist from country unspecified, who was subject to US Visa “security clearance“. 3) An immigrant Computer Scientist from country unspecified, and her story of growing up amid a fog in her home country and immigrating to US. Because all narrators are anonymous, the episode is narrated by host Indy Gupta.

Content Warning: While this episode has no explicit or graphic material, some of the stories may be mildly disturbing to listeners due to family estrangement, and difficult circumstances due to various reasons including (but not limited to) immigration constraints.

• mm.ss: Segment Info (Index)
• 0.46: Introduction to the Episode
• Act 1: 1.33: Akram: From Afghanistan (non-CS immigrant)
  • Anonymous Immigrant from Afghanistan (Real Person, Anonymous)
• Act 2: 4.38: Antonio: Stuck on US Visa Security Clearance
  • Anonymous Immigrant, who was subject to “security clearance”/”administrative processing” in his US visa application (Composite of multiple anonymous persons)
• Act 3: 16.12: Emma’s Disillusionment
  • Anonymous academic. Her life growing up as a prodigy, in a country with strict government controls, staying alone in school during breaks, her journey from non-CS into CS, her disillusionments with her home country and Mother after coming to the US. (Real Person, Anonymous)
• 26.57: Episode End

About the Narrators in this Episode

• Because the narrators chose to remain anonymous, no further information is available about them.
• The (anonymous) narrators in this episode are different individuals from narrators in any other episodes of this podcast.

Useful Links

• Afghanistan Wikipedia Page
• Taliban in Afghanistan, Council for Foreign Research (cfr.org) Page
• Security Clearance During Visa Process (CMU Page)
• Security Advisory Opinion (SAO) – Wikipedia Page
• Directory of Visa Categories (US Department of State)

Previously (and Next) on this Podcast

Up in next weeks: Although Season 1 has ended with this episode, there will be new “remix” episodes every week throughout the winter break months of December and January! Stay tuned!

In case you missed it! Previously on the Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast

• Our interview with Danqi Chen, Gold Medal winner at IOI (Informatics Olympiad) in 2008 (only woman Gold medal winner), and student in famous Yao Class at Tsinghua University. (Episode 14).
• Our interview with Jelani Nelson, “immigrant” from US Virgin Islands and creator of AddisCoder program in Ethiopia (Episode 13), especially his last segment on IOI data inequity analysis.
• Our third segment (Episodes 9, 10, 11, 12) on Middle East, featuring entrepreneurs and a famous academic family from Iran, Lebanon, and Egypt , starting with the Middle East Entrepreneurs lead episode.
• Our second segment (Episodes 5, 6, 7, 8) featuring Computer Scientists from Brazil, all of whom spent careers in both academia and industry, going To and Fro between Brazil and US, and to and fro between academia and industry.
• Our first segment (Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4) featuring Computer Scientists from Yugoslavia, A Country That No Longer Exists?
• Check them out!

• Credits
  • Music Credits for Podcast
  • The caption picture at top of page is of the famous Cypress Trees in the region called “Land’s End” in North-western part of San Francisco. Pic taken by Indy Gupta.

The Immigrant Computer Scientists Podcast is available for free on your favorite devices & apps: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and many more!