Wanderlust with Mariam Koloyan feat. Max Saakyan (21/02/2026)

Mariam’s guest this month was podcaster Max Saakyan. He joined us in the studio to talk about the brand new mini-series of his podcast Uncovering Roots called Palestinians in Paraguay - a true, and until now, a largely buried, story in Palestinian history: Israel's documented 1969 plan to secretly transfer 60,000 Palestinians from Gaza to Paraguay. We talked about how he discovered this extraordinary story, the relevance of this story in the ongoing genocide today, and the challenges he faced when getting contributors to open up about unresolved trauma - especially one that has gone unacknowledged in the rest of the world.

Sonically, Wanderlust travelled everywhere from the Occitan region to 70s South Korea to India, and to celebrate Lent, Mariam’s done a Worldwide Carnival Mix dedicated to the February festivities in Rio, New Orleans, Peru and beyond. Plus, the Album Anniversaires and the London Spotlight Artist Of The Month!