Amir packs up his car and heads to Vancouver. He moves in with an elderly woman who teaches him how to adapt to his new Canadian life. With the help of a new friend and father figure, Amir works as a mechanic and finally has some financial secu

Winter

Nov 2nd, 2020 37m 59s

Amir prepares for his final attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Everyone he’s met in Barcelona is behind him, praying for him, hoping this time it works. He makes it to a small city in British Columbia and gets a job washing cars in the dead o

Patience

Oct 26th, 2020 43m 14s

Defeated and broke, but far from hopeless, Amir returns to Barcelona and immediately starts planning his next attempt into the US. He is close to giving up, but his siblings in Iran rally to help him. Amir meets a new group of Iranian refugees

The Kiss

Oct 19th, 2020 40m 3s

Amir finds himself at a detention centre in Nogales. The conditions are terrible, the food is almost non-existent, and he barely sleeps for weeks. Finally, he and his fellow prisoners are released and loaded onto a bus heading for Mexico City.

Escape

Oct 12th, 2020 38m 58s

How do you make the decision to leave your home? Shayda takes us through the ins and outs of the Iranian Revolution (and the effects of heartbreak) to learn why her father set his sights on escape. In the midst of the Iran-Iraq war, Amir makes

Heirloom

1 Oct 5th, 2020 32m 59s

Meet the family! Our host Shayda Omidvar introduces us to her father Amir Omidvar. Shayda sets the stage for the epic journey her dad embarked on nearly 38 years ago. The middle child of seven kids, in a poor family, Amir started working from t

Trailer

Introducing The Hopeful

1 Sep 25th, 2020 2m 1s

The Hopeful is a narrative long-form podcast that tells the story of an Iranian-Canadian who escapes Iran amidst the revolutionary crisis in 1982 and continues to reside in Canada today. Our lead character, Amir Omidvar, speaks to his daughter

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