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Guests: Monique and Graham Brown (3:31, 14:55), Manuel Rueda (41:06), Sarah Harvard (58:35).

Monique and Graham Brown (pictured with their daughter) were curious regarding the human frontier of our generation, as they chatted back in England. After reading about the prospective special development regions in Honduras, Graham began a blog, Dreams of Cities (now hosted at GrahamPBrown.com), and he and I met in Guatemala at this year’s Startup Cities weekend. Just recently the couple arrived, and they’ve made a new home in the capital, Tegucigalpa (pictured).

Monique, originally from Brazil, is the founder of a clothing and accessory company, Missy Brown. She also mentioned that she is using Duolingo to learn Spanish, her fourth language — incredible. I use this site as well and recommend it highly.

While they recognize security as the big concern, she and Graham would like to see more entrepreneurial people come to Honduras, to support what are now called the ZEDEs (zonas de empleo y desarrollo económico). See Graham’s latest article on the “Where and When.”

“If you are listening and you are really interested in startup cities,” says Monique, “we invite you, we encourage you, to take a leap of faith, to believe in this project and to come here. The project will only work if people are here.”

In between guests, I mentioned the promise of Reddit, and why I use the site on an everyday basis. Please see my primer here, “My Favorite Source for Independent News and Opinion.”

Recently, I finished reading Mañana in Cuba by José Azel, after taking his certificate in Cuban studies course at the University of Miami — where I got to meet Yoani Sánchez. If you want a tight overview of both life in Cuba and its prospects for reform, Mañana is worth your time. See my review, “If Mañana Ever Comes to Cuba, José Has the Plan.”

The night before the show, I noticed new protests in Mexico City — over higher subway fares — and I invited Manuel Rueda, a correspondent with Fusion.net to explain the situation. In particular, he addressed how this fit into the broader context and the general level of safety in Mexico.

Protesting aside, there’s a beautiful sunset in #mexico city today. pic.twitter.com/sr8seUMy3M — manuel rueda (@ruedareport) December 14, 2013

The widespread presence of extortion has garnered recent news, and Borderland Beat did a great article — “Michoacán: ‘Blood Avocados’” — on how this has captured the lucrative avocado industry in Mexico. This reflects that gangs are going way beyond conventional drug trafficking. Unfortunately, Rueda sees this as only spreading, although he says for now it is not so prevalent in the larger cities.

Editor in chief of DL Magazine, Sarah Harvard is a rising star of new media, and her recent article against status quo higher education generated plenty of controversy, including hate mail and a rebuke by members of faculty. How dare she suggest that the more than US$50,000 annual tuition at her college is “not worth it.” She addresses a lack of learning, narrow room for debate, and biased grading.

In addition to her article, “College isn’t worth it,” I recommend this one from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, “(Not) Cheaper by the Dozen,” which assesses the cost and value of higher education — both for consumers and taxpayers.

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