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Almost There with Dwayne Betts

Emerson Collective
Almost There with Dwayne Betts
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  • Sara Zewde • The anti-slavery roots of America’s public parks
    When Hurricane Katrina barreled toward her home stretch of the Gulf Coast, Sara Zewde had not yet decided what she wanted to do professionally. But the aftermath of the storm inspired her to work across ecology, infrastructure, and culture as a landscape architect. Today, she runs Studio Zewde, a landscape-architecture practice based in New York City, and is an assistant professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. As one of just a few Black female landscape architects, she is dedicated to building culturally-responsive spaces where people experience a sense of belonging. “People walk around Central Park, around landscapes, around sidewalks and street corners, and don’t realize they are living in somebody’s design,” she says. “Every single tree, every single path, all the topography – it’s a complete work of fiction.”  In this episode, Sara tells Dwayne about her interest in Frederick Law Olmsted, the father of landscape architecture in the U.S. and the designer of New York’s Central Park, who, she learned, traveled the American South as a journalist and documented the horrors of slavery there – an experience that came to fundamentally shape his approach to park design.  For more on the work of our guest, Sara Zewde: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/sara-zewde   To learn more about our show and read the transcript of this episode: emersoncollective.com/almost-there.  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected].  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  • David Domenici • Is it possible to build a great school in a prison?
    Each year, more than 200,000 young people are held in hundreds of juvenile-detention centers across the U.S., many of which do not provide a quality education to the students in their care. David Domenici is working to change that. He co-founded the Maya Angelou Schools, a successful network of alternative schools in Washington, D.C. that includes the Maya Angelou Academy, located inside Washington’s juvenile-correctional facility. In 2011, he founded BreakFree Education, which works closely with teachers and incarcerated students to advocate for policy change and advise prison educational programs. “By ensuring young people in prison receive the education they deserve, we can help restore their humanity and dignity, and positively influence the institutions that hold them captive,” David says. In this episode, David tells Dwayne about transforming the notorious Oak Hill juvenile facility into the Maya Angelou Academy; the books that have changed the lives of his students; and why it’s so important to see all young people – in and out of prison – as students first. Plus, Dwayne reads an excerpt of James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk.  For more on the work of our guest, David Domenici: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/david-domenici  To learn more about our show and read the transcript of this episode: emersoncollective.com/almost-there-podcast  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected].  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  • Aisha Nyandoro • When Black mothers have the financial freedom to dream
    In 2018, Aisha Nyandoro launched what is today the longest-running guaranteed income program in the U.S. after doing something radical: asking Black women what they needed most. The support of monthly cash payments of $1,000 from the Magnolia’s Mothers Trust has allowed Black mothers in Jackson, Mississippi to put food on the table, do that long-delayed car repair, enroll a child in their first dance class, or save for a family home. Now, Aisha wants to reimagine the social safety net all together, driven by the insight that what’s most transformative for families is having the financial resources to invest in joy.  In this episode, Aisha tells Dwayne the reason she moved back home to Jackson, Mississippi; about the meaning she finds in one of her favorite books, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple; and about the liberatory power of free cash.  For more on the work of our guest, Aisha Nyandoro: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/aisha-nyandoro  To learn more about Almost There and to read the transcript of this episode: https://www.emersoncollective.com/almost-there-podcast  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected].  Subscribe to the Emerson Collective Fellows newsletter: http://www.emersoncollective.com/fellows-newsletter  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  • Joan Salwen • You can do WHAT with seaweed???
    Joan Salwen has a thing for cows. After all, she grew up helping her grandfather tend to the livestock on his farm in Iowa. But as an adult, Joan was shocked to learn that cows are pretty terrible for the environment: they burp huge amounts of methane, a destructive greenhouse gas driving climate change. So she built a company, Blue Ocean Barns, around a surprising solution: making feed with a red seaweed native to Hawaii that dramatically reduces cows’ methane emissions when they eat it in small amounts. It’s an innovation that could make farmers like Joan’s Grandpa Mo heroes in the fight to slow climate change.  In the Season One finale, Joan tells Dwayne about her many professional pivots, from software engineer to middle school English teacher to startup founder; and shares what she’s learned from farmers about how we can all care for our planet. Plus, Joan shares fun facts about cows!   For more on the work of our guest, Joan Salwen: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/joan-salwen  To learn more about our show and read the transcript of this episode: emersoncollective.com/almost-there-podcast  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected].  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  • Tiana Epps-Johnson • Want to protect democracy? Hug an election official.
    Across the U.S., local election administrators are the unsung heroes of democracy, helping to protect our right to vote. But who is protecting them? Scarce resources and increasing threats of violence are causing many in the profession to find new jobs. Fortunately, Tiana Epps-Johnson has big ideas on how to make their jobs easier. Tiana and her nonpartisan organization, Center for Tech and Civic Life, provide local officials in the U.S. with the funding, technology, and training they need to administer secure, modern elections. “We are laser-focused on a vision where our country’s election officials have the funds, tools, and skills they need to administer professional, inclusive, secure elections for all of us,” Tiana says.  In this episode, Tiana reflects on why she considers the 2020 election, which happened in the midst of a global pandemic, so successful; what she has learned about how to help election officials orchestrate successful elections; and what she has learned from her mother and grandmother. Plus, Dwayne reads Tiana his poem, “White Peonies”.   For more on the work of our guest, Tiana Epps-Johnson: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/tiana-epps-johnson  To learn more about our show and read the transcript of this episode: emersoncollective.com/almost-there.  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected].  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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About Almost There with Dwayne Betts

On Almost There, a new podcast from Emerson Collective, poet and lawyer Dwayne Betts talks to creative problem solvers—architects, doctors, writers, voyagers, organizers, and artists—about their approach to making meaningful social change. In each episode, we’ll learn about the journeys that have led our guests to the big questions driving their work: How do we keep our families and communities healthy? How do we build a fairer immigration system and promote civic participation? How can we stay alert to the beauty around us and harness human ingenuity to protect our planet? The conversations on Almost There will explore these pressing questions and new possibilities. Produced by Magnificent Noise.
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