Exposed Part One: The Human Radiation Experiments at Hunter’s Point from SF Public Press
Today we present the first half of a two-part radio documentary from our friends at the San Francisco Public Press, “Exposed,” opening a window into the little-known history of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. The sprawling abandoned naval base, in San Francisco’s southeast waterfront Bayview neighborhood, is currently the site of the city’s largest real estate development project. The base played a key role in the Cold War nuclear...
Urban Roots: Reclaiming Indianapolis’ Black History
Today we head back to Indianapolis with the podcast Urban Roots. In the 1950s and 1960s, Ms. Jean Spears was a young mother and burgeoning preservationist. She saved antiques from houses about to be demolished; she bought a home in a white slum and renovated it; later on, she did the same with a historic home in the black neighborhood near Indiana Avenue. In the eighties, she and some neighbors started digging into this black...
Urban Roots: Madam Walker & the Rise & Fall of Indiana Avenue
Madam C.J. Walker was a brilliant entrepreneur who built a haircare empire and became the first African American woman millionaire. You might have heard about her, but not many people know that her headquarters used to be located in Indianapolis, along a once vibrant Black corridor called Indiana Avenue, a place that today is known for parking lots, high-speed traffic, and uninspiring university buildings. Why do so few people know...
Dividing Lines: What Are Borders and Why Do We Have Them?
[This show is an Encore of “Borders: What Are They Good For?” which premiered on May 29, 2024.] What are borders, and why do we have them? And how is violent border enforcement at the US-Mexico border connected to Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza? And what happens when borders cross living land and communities? We’ll dig into these questions in this week’s episode with the help of Heba Gowayed, sociology...
Time Crunch: Productivity Culture with Jenny Odell (Encore)
This show was originally published on February 21, 2024 and titled “Jenny Odell on Saving Time.” On this week’s episode, we take a critical look at productivity culture and the idea that time is money by speaking with Jenny Odell, acclaimed author of Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock and How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy. We dig into the ideas behind Saving Time, which gives a...
We need affordable housing now!
We need affordable housing now! On today’s episode, we dive into stories that underscore the importance of affordable housing. We’ll examine what the recent Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson means for unhoused people who are living on the streets and how historical disinvestment in affordable and public housing has created our current homelessness wave. Then, we’ll hear about the fight to legalize and...
