Feet In 2 Worlds: Home, Interrupted

Today we’re sharing a story from Re:Work, a podcast from the UCLA Labor Center.  For the past decade, Re:Work has elevated stories of work to humanize and break down economic and racial justice issues. Each episode of Re:Work centers the life story of a worker or activist, with a focus on people of the global majority. This episode asks: Who are the people who make the clothes we wear every day? We’re about to take a journey through “Los Callejones”—Los Angeles’s garment district. Learn more about who works within this labyrinth of clothing shops and factories. You can learn more about Re:Work at: https://reworkradio.labor.ucla.edu/  And listen to our season of Home, Interrupted from Feet in 2 Worlds at: https://www.fi2w.org/home-interrupted/

Today’s episode comes from Living Planet, a podcast bringing you the stories, facts, and debates on the key environmental issues of our time. The story they shared with us is “Deep dive: The hidden toll of roadkill”—a phenomenon so great it’s throwing ecosystems out of balance and even threatening to wipe out whole species. In this episode, the Living Planet team investigates the best ideas out there for how we can make roads safer for wildlife, and even how to cook up roadkill, should you be tempted. You can learn more about Living Planet at: https://www.dw.com/en/living-planet/program-19028671 And listen to our season of Home, Interrupted from Feet in 2 Worlds at: https://www.fi2w.org/home-interrupted/

Today’s episode comes from Subtitle, a podcast series all about language and the people who speak them. Irish is among Europe’s oldest languages. It’s a near miracle that anyone speaks it today. Host Patrick Cox talks with online Irish teacher Mollie Guidera, whose students include a Kentucky farmer who speaks Irish to his horses, and with Irish scholar Jim McCloskey, who developed a love of the language when he spent a summer living with Irish speakers. Irish is changing fast, with far more of its speakers learning it as a second language, while the native-speaking population declines. You can learn more about Subtitle at: https://subtitlepod.com/ And listen to our season of Home, Interrupted from Feet in 2 Worlds at: https://www.fi2w.org/home-interrupted/

Today’s episode comes from Electric Futures, a podcast series exploring lesser known stories of the energy transition. On the US-Mexican border in California lies the Imperial Valley. It is a mix of deserts and verdant green fields. For centuries, it has been a crossroad for immigrants and Americans searching for opportunities. The Imperial Valley is now participating in an on-going white gold rush – a sprint to extract lithium from brines deep in the earth. This lithium is critical to the production of electric vehicles, which are a vital element in strategies to slow growth of atmospheric CO2 concentrations and limit global warming. Charles Zukoski—Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science and previous provost of the University of Southern California—and the team at USC Annenberg produced this episode. You can learn more about Electric Futures at: https://linktr.ee/uscelectricfutures And listen to our season of Home, Interrupted from Feet in 2 Worlds at: https://www.fi2w.org/home-interrupted/

Your zip code can tell a lot about your health. Studies show that historically redlined neighborhoods can overlap with areas that flood the most, have the worst air quality, and experience the warmest temperatures. Our story takes us to California’s San Fernando Valley and to Newark, NJ, where immigrant families live in or near zones that have been redlined and experience health issues due to extreme heat and pollution.

In 2023, Illinois’ governor signed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act to phase out fossil fuels by 2050 and renovate the state with green infrastructure. Chicago is one of the cities offering communities of color and those most impacted by pollution the chance to lead this energy revolution. Reporter Wendy Wei speaks with Ghanaian American Senyo Ador about how he is bringing his insights from working on energy projects in Ghana to make Chicago a more energy-equitable city for communities of color.

Across New York City, workers are tearing out concrete and asphalt from schoolyards and  replacing them with rain-absorbing surfaces that are more climate resilient. The redesigning of playgrounds in immigrant neighborhoods offers a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rethink how kids in the city relate to the outdoors.  Producer Aria Young, an immigrant journalist from China, explores the recent transformation of New York City playgrounds in response to the climate crisis and what it means for children’s play.

In America’s agricultural heartland, a small group of immigrant farmers look to ancient methods to help modern farming respond to the climate crisis. Producer Anja Nilsson reports from Nebraska on Maya farmers from Latin America who employ farming methods that conserve water, increase biodiversity, and reduce carbon emissions.

In July of 2023, Efraín López García died picking fruit on a farm in Homestead, Florida. According to his family, extreme heat caused his death. At the same time, the Florida legislature was considering a bill banning local governments from enacting safety regulations to protect farmworkers. About 75 percent of farmworkers in the United States are immigrants. Allison Salerno reports on community organizations and scientists who are working to protect farmworkers from extreme heat in the absence of government protections.

Over 100,000 people live in New York City basement apartments – most are immigrants. It’s an open secret that, while basement apartments offer cheap rent, they are potential death traps in a city experiencing more frequent and severe flooding due to climate change. Government programs to address the problem have largely failed. Producer Emmy Brett asks where people go when there is nowhere safe or affordable to call home. More info at: fi2w.org

When Hurricane Otis devastated the resort city of Acapulco in October 2023, Mexican authorities struggled to respond to the disaster. Producer Greta Díaz González Vázquez reports on how families divided by the US-Mexico border faced challenges in surviving Otis.

Feet in 2 Worlds is back with our newest podcast series called Home, Interrupted. The series explores how the climate crisis affects immigrants across the U.S., and how immigrant communities are finding new ways to deal with a warming planet. You’ll hear voices that are often overlooked in the climate crisis, including those who have been forced to make wrenching choices, as well as those who are leading the way to a more sustainable planet.  The series premieres on April 2, 2024.

Through The Fake Green Cards Project, Philadelphia-based artists Xuan Liu and Youkun Zhou invite us to imagine a world where getting “papers” is not the nerve-wracking process it has become for many immigrants in the U.S. Producer Danya AbdelHameid reports on how their whimsical hand-drawn cards explore the meaning of the green card, spark conversations about the challenges of navigating the immigration system, and raise questions about what it means to belong in America.   Visit abetterlifepodcast.com for a complete list of credits for this episode.

Writer and producer Boen Wang and his Chinese-born mom disagree on almost every political issue. Each suspects that the other has been “brainwashed”, because how else could they have such extreme views? In this personal piece, Boen unpacks the epistemology and history of the term brainwashing, and goes on an intimate exploration of his mom’s childhood and experiences in the U.S. to figure out what has actually shaped her political beliefs—and his own.   Visit abetterlifepodcast.com for a complete list of credits for this episode.  

In this podcast we examine the rhetoric and the reality of Latino voting in the U.S. Are Latinos themselves to blame for not voting at the same rate as other groups? Or have the political parties created systems that keep Latino voters on the margins, and discourage them from participating in American democracy? Our guests - Latino analysts, organizers and journalists from around the country - reflect on lessons from the 2022 midterm elections, dive into polling research, and offer suggestions for election reform.  Carolina González in New York City moderates this conversation with Maritza Félix in Arizona, Daniel Garza in Texas, Leo Murrieta in Nevada, Gabriel Sanchez in New Mexico and Virginia Lora in Florida.

A Better Life? presents four stories from a workshop that Feet in 2 Worlds hosted earlier this year for bilingual journalists. The stories focus on a casino worker in New Hampshire, a chef in Mexico, a radio host in Kansas, and high school students in Arizona. These four audio vignettes were produced in a mixture of English and Spanish, a reflection of how the two languages live side-by-side in communities—and many households—across the U.S.

Feet in 2 Worlds recently hosted a live conversation about the unique role of immigrant journalists in covering the news. It featured Maritza Felix, Von Diaz, and Catalina Jaramillo. The conversation was recorded at Feet in 2 Worlds’ Celebration of Immigrants in Journalism on January 31st, 2022.

In Los Angeles Chinatown, local shops and restaurants eagerly welcome back customers as they return to business after the height of the pandemic shutdown. But the neighborhood’s rebound from Covid has been uneven.  The pandemic has shone a light on the divide separating the successful and the struggling, as well as concerns about anti-Asian violence. A Better Life? executive producer Quincy Surasmith explores the starkly different visions for the future of L.A. Chinatown and the organizations promoting these competing ideas. 

A Better Life? speaks with Catalina Jaramillo of FactCheck.org and Nicolás Ríos of Documented about combating Covid misinformation directed at Latinos and Spanish-speaking immigrants, and to Daniel Le of Boat People SOS about his group’s successful efforts to get Vietnamese Americans on the Gulf Coast to get the Covid vaccine.  

Covid-19 shut down or shortened most professional sports seasons in 2020 and even postponed the Olympics. What happened to all the people working behind the scenes at sports stadiums? Producer Khari Thompson explores how the pandemic affected their livelihoods.