{"podcast":{"title":"Awake At Night","slug":"awake-at-night-769564","podcast_index_feed_id":769564,"rss_url":"https://unhcr.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://www.un.org/en/awake-at-night","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/c/1/0/7/c107611eabf3c5b6/awakeatnight-icon-1400x1400-UN-2.0-final.png","author":"Tulin Battikhi","episode_count":141,"summary":"What does it take to be a United Nations worker in some of the world's most complex and dangerous places? How are UN humanitarians, human rights advocates, prosecutors, development experts, climate leaders and peacekeepers improving our world? Stationed in all reaches of the world and witness to suffering and atrocities, how are they helping people and coping themselves? To find out, Melissa Fleming meets them. Here you will discover extraordinary personal stories from people who devote their lives to helping others.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-15T00:19:21.034376+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/awake-at-night-769564"},"episode":{"title":"Launching a new life from a refugee camp, with Mary Maker - UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador","slug":"launching-a-new-life-from-a-refugee-camp-with-mary-maker-unhcr-goodwill-ambassador","published_at":"2026-07-14T12:26:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/awake-at-night-769564/launching-a-new-life-from-a-refugee-camp-with-mary-maker-unhcr-goodwill-ambassador","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/awake-at-night-769564","url":"https://www.un.org/en/awake-at-night/s13-mary-maker-launching-a-new-life-from-a-refugee-camp","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/unhcr/AAN_S13_-_Mary_Maker_v.1.mp3?dest-id=719614","summary":"War is Mary Maker's earliest memory. Born in South Sudan and named Nyiriak — meaning \"war\" — she spent her youth living and working in one of the world's largest refugee camps. Now a Goodwill Ambassador for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, she is raising her voice on behalf of those she left behind, helping refugee students land scholarships to top universities. \"I want to be seen. I want to be heard. I want to be acknowledged. I want to be at the table, making decisions and feeling like a part of something. Are you able to see us? Are you? Are you able to go beyond the news and really understand that this is someone like you?\" After her family fled to safety, Mary built a new life of opportunity through education and hard work – finding her feet, and her voice, on stage. In this episode, she shares how she overcame a childhood marred by death and conflict, and how theater became both her refuge and her path forward. \"You're taking this new title, the refugee ... and you see the UNHCR logo, with the hands holding each other. And I remember my mom trying to spell it out for me, UNHCR. And she's like, we're safe. I think we made it.\" Edited transcript, photos, multimedia and more at the AAN website: https://www.un.org/en/awake-at-night/s13-mary-maker-launching-a-new-life-from-a-refugee-camp Podcast full video available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/8kCtNQJGf4s","meta_description":"War is Mary Maker's earliest memory. Born in South Sudan and named Nyiriak — meaning \"war\" — she spent her youth living and working in one of the world's…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2868,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/awake-at-night-769564/episodes/launching-a-new-life-from-a-refugee-camp-with-mary-maker-unhcr-goodwill-ambassador/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/awake-at-night-769564/launching-a-new-life-from-a-refugee-camp-with-mary-maker-unhcr-goodwill-ambassador.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}