What if your national anthem wasn’t tied to a land—but to a melody?
In this episode, we explore “Gelem, Gelem,” the powerful Romani anthem that unites 12 million people across more than 30 countries—without a flag, without borders, and without a nation.
The Romani people (often misnamed as “Gypsies”) have walked for over 1,500 years, migrating from Northern India through Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and all across Europe. Along the way, they carried something more powerful than land: music.
🎶 Discover how Djelem, Djelem was born from a haunting folk melody and the words of a Holocaust survivor, Žarko Jovanović.
🎻 Learn how Romani music shaped genres like flamenco, Balkan brass, Jazz Manouche, and classical violin traditions.
🎬 And explore how cinema—from Time of the Gypsies to Gadjo Dilo—captured the beauty, chaos, and survival of a people defined by sound, not soil.
As a musician and professor at Berklee College of Music, I invite you into the story of an anthem with no country—and a people who turned exile into art.
In June 2022, something tiny arrived in Australia and began systematically attacking the continent’s bee populations. For over a century, Australia had remained the last safe haven on Earth, completely untouched by the world’s most devastating bee killer. Their strict biosecurity had protected millions of colonies while other nations watched helplessly as their bees died. But that perfect protection finally cracked. What followed was the largest agricultural emergency response in the country’s history—a desperate, multi-million dollar battle against an enemy barely visible to the naked eye. After one full year, the results were absolutely massive. But they weren’t what anyone expected, and they changed everything scientists thought they knew about continental protection.
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