Season 2, Episode 24: Craig (Turkmenistan)

Expatriate Act Podcast

When your host first decided to go Stanhopping a few weeks ago, he didn’t exactly pencil Turkmenistan into his schedule. A year before, he went searching for a Real Live Turkmenistani Citizen, but there were no takers: those who were Turkmenistani figured your host for a member of the secret police, and those who had been to Turkmenistan — well, nobody had actually been to Turkmenistan. Enter Craig: a pseudonymous Turkmenistani citizen living in exile. He left the country when he was seventeen to pursue psychology in Europe. He intends to become a talk therapist. He does not intend to return to his native Turkmenistan. As a homosexual, it is doubtful that it would be safe for him to do so. With impeccable English and a keen eye for political nuance, Craig tells the story of his upbringing, his departure, and his year of homelessness in a foreign country. Straining his memory to recall things he’d probably rather forget, he then details the dictatorial bric-a-brac that makes Turkmenistan one of the strangest — and one of the cruelest — countries on Earth.