Refugee Resettlement, Borders & Human Rights with Sara Beachy
Sara Beachy, our newest podcast editor, shares what she learned over 17 years in US refugee resettlement across Southeast Asia, from interviewing refugees in Thailand's nine camps to leading a 90-person program in Kuala Lumpur until the US refugee program was frozen in January 2025.
Sara joins Caitlyn Socwell, Angelica Barrios and Said Fadyl to unpack who counts as a refugee under UNHCR (https://www.unhcr.org/us/what-we-do/build-better-futures/solutions/resettlement), why only about 1% of the world's refugees are ever resettled, and what happened to roughly 25,000 people in Malaysia's resettlement pipeline when the program stopped. The conversation moves to climate displacement, whether funding adaptation is smarter than resettling people after the fact, and why borders are imaginary lines that ecosystems and wildfire smoke ignore.
Sara also talks about her pivot into human rights due diligence and ethical supply chains with her new consultancy, Beachy Advisory Group, and leaves you with practical ways to help refugees and newcomers in your own community.
Chapters
00:00 Borders, wildfires and climate displacement
02:08 From teaching English in Thailand to refugee resettlement in Malaysia
06:13 When the US refugee program froze
11:16 Refugee 101: who counts as a refugee
20:06 Climate refugees and the missing legal framework
33:32 Borders as imaginary lines
42:11 Sara's pivot to human rights due diligence
45:59 What you can do
47:53 Pay-it-forward questions
Resources and links from this episode
Volunteer with refugees, International Rescue Committee (https://www.rescue.org/volunteer)
Refugee resettlement explained, UNHCR (https://www.unhcr.org/us/what-we-do/build-better-futures/solutions/resettlement)
How to sponsor a refugee in Canada (https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/refugees/sponsor-refugee/private-sponsorship-program.html)
Community Refugee Sponsorship Australia (https://refugeesponsorship.org.au/)
Inner Development Goals (https://innerdevelopmentgoals.org/)
The overview effect (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_effect)
Connect with Sara Beachy (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-beachy/) and follow Beachy Advisory Group (https://www.linkedin.com/company/beachy-advisory-group) on LinkedIn
Millennials Gone Circular is a production of The Waste Not Spot (https://thewastenotspot.com/). Follow along on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/thewastenotspot) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/thewastenotspot).
7 Sept 2026
Sargassum in Martinique: Living With the Caribbean's Seaweed Crisis
What happens when a beach nuisance becomes a daily health and financial crisis you can't move away from?
In this episode of Millennials Gone Circular, host Caitlyn Socwell sits down with Uriel Ilana, a water and hydraulics engineer who grew up in Martinique and spent years living just 700 meters from the Atlantic coast in Le François. Uriel shares what it's actually like to live with Sargassum — the massive brown seaweed blooms washing up across the Caribbean — beyond the headlines and the spreadsheets.
In this episode:
Why Sargassum smells like rotten eggs (hint: it's hydrogen sulfide gas)
How the seaweed's gases turn silver jewelry black and corrode plumbing overnight
Why insurance won't cover electronics that fail every six months near the coast
The headaches and health symptoms of living with Sargassum in a closed room
What Martinique's communities and government are trying — sea barriers, task forces, and the money fights behind them
Why any real solution has to start with the people living the crisis, not just the technology or policy
Uriel's story is a reminder that the Sargassum crisis is first and foremost a human problem — and that the people most affected need to be part of designing the fix.
Follow the show for more circular economy and sustainability stories:
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24 Aug 2026
E-Waste Explained: Why It's the World's Fastest-Growing Waste Stream (and What You Can Do)
Your old phone might be worth more than you think — literally. E-waste is now the world's fastest-growing waste stream, and it's sitting on gold, copper, and the exact critical raw materials we need for the energy transition.
In this episode, hosts Caitlyn Socwell, Angelica Barrios, and Said Fadyl sit down with Christine Nikander — environmental lawyer and founder of The E-Waste Column — to unpack what e-waste actually is, where it ends up, and why something containing gold can still be treated as rubbish.
We cover:
What actually counts as e-waste (it's not just phones and laptops — think electric toothbrushes, earbuds, solar panels, and the servers behind AI and data centers)
Why e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream on the planet, and the pathways your device takes after you drop it off
Critical raw materials, conflict minerals, and the human rights issues baked into electronics supply chains
The (frankly insane) economics that make virgin mining cheaper than recovering metals we've already dug up
Planned obsolescence, right-to-repair, and how AI and robotics are starting to change e-waste sorting and disassembly
The one simple decision — where you drop off your dead electronics — that makes a real difference
Resources & links mentioned in this episode:
The E-Waste Column (https://www.theewastecolumn.com) — Christine's hub for e-waste news, a 150+ module learning hub, and an upcoming e-waste podcast launching this autumn
Christine Nikander on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-nikander/)
Close the Gap (https://www.close-the-gap.org) — the digital inclusion organization referenced re: refurbished tech access in Uganda and Kenya
HP × Mint Innovation's closed-loop recycled copper story (https://resource-recycling.com/e-scrap/2026/03/03/mint-hp-close-loop-on-recycled-copper/) — the "100% recycled copper laptop" example discussed in the episode
Stockholm Resilience Centre — Planetary Boundaries (https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/planetary-boundaries.html) — the framework referenced via Johan Rockström
Karolinska Institute (https://ki.se/en) — referenced re: research on Sweden's move back to analog learning in schools
Follow Millennials Gone Circular for more conversations on circularity, waste, and building a more sustainable world. If this one changed how you look at the electronics around you, share it with the person in your life with a suspiciously large drawer of old phones.
Millennials Gone Circular is a production of The Waste Not Spot. Edited by Sara Beachy.
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Podcast Authority Score: 36 / 100
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Engagement
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