B-Side’s Rob Sachs and Tamara Keith venture out in the rain to try and find the historic Mason-Dixon Line.  Along the way we hear about a pair of European villages that share the most bizarre border you’ve ever heard of, guards who work a watery border and a man who knows no borders.

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Liner Notes:

Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog: Cyrus Farivar
Most national borders around the world are pretty straightforward places. There’s a flag on one side, a line, maybe a border post, and a flag on the other side. There’s a very clear demarcation as to where the border is and most of the time, crossing that border is an event. Usually, you have to show a passport or some other document and some underpaid bureaucrat has to record in a logbook or in your passport that you were there. But what if the border went right through your town? Or worse, right through your house? Cyrus Farivar went to such a place…

A Watery Border: Sarah Elzas
Samos is one of the hundreds of small Greek islands that make up a portion of the Eastern border of the European Union. Until a few years ago, its sleepy capital of 12,000 people only saw foreigners coming off cruise ships and tourist ferries. But today the coast guard and police pick up 80-plus people arriving illegally each day. Sarah Elzas takes us to this border where the stakes are incredibly high. Another version of this story first aired on RFI.

Citizen of the World: Scott Gurian
Whether you like them or you hate them, boundaries are a fact of life for most people, and it looks like they’re here to stay.  But we found one person who’s chosen to live in a world without boundaries.  And he says it’s a choice any of us can make.  Reporter Scott Gurian tells his story.

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On this edition of B-Side, Tamara Keith and Erika Kelly visit Union Square in San Francisco and find it filled with holiday cheer – and a couple of hundred intoxicated people dressed as Santa.  And the B-Side Radio crew brings you stories of holiday cooking, shopping, tree hunting and charity gone awry.

Liner Notes:

Learning to Make Latkes: Tamara Keith
It turns out making latkes the right way doesn’t involve following the family recipe.

Do it Yourself Tree: Ethan Lindsey
Ethan grabs a microphone and a saw and heads out into the woods to chop down his own Christmas tree.

Mom Made Toy: Erika Kelly
Who needs Toys R Us when you can make your son a wooden toy by hand.

I Love You Santa: Scott Gurian
Scott tells us about his father’s attempt to play Santa and what went wrong.

Kindle: Rene Gutel
Rene tells us about her husband’s Christmas present and an ethical dilema.

Scott Gurian is a reporter and producer living in the NYC area.  From 2004 to 2008, he was News Director at public radio station KGOU in Norman, Oklahoma, where he covered everything from the Oklahoma City bombing anniversary and natural disasters — of which Oklahoma has a lot — to small town catfish and rattlesnake festivals.  He’s also produced a daily, national news magazine program in Washington, DC and reported for a variety of stations and networks, including NPR and the BBC.  Scott grew up in New Jersey, attended Emerson College in Boston and the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies in Portland, Maine, where he studied radio documentary.  He loves traveling and hopes to one day be a foreign correspondent.