American Refugee: Recent Episodes
Sam Graber
The official home of the big bold podcast finding the heartwarming, heartbreaking and sometimes hilarious stories of American refugees.
People coming into America, people moving out of America, people getting displaced within the country. You’re about to hear remarkable stories rooted in the most pressing human rights challenges of our time.
Get ready to be enchanted by the tenacity and beauty of the human spirit!
This is American Refugee.
They came here as young children, brought illegally into the country.
They've since grown up here, been educated here, work here, the children of undocumented immigrants who are still considered illegal.
They are the Dreamers, an estimated 750,000 of them, protected by deferred action stopping ICE from deporting them.
But that deferral might come to an end. Soon.
You're about to hear what’s at stake for children of undocumented immigrants who've been dreaming for so long to finally be called American.
This is American Refugee.
FEATURING:
Carlos Reyes Roja, Dreamer
Eleazar VillaGomez, Dreamer
Veena Iyer, Executive Director, ILCM
Mackenzie Heinrichs, Equal Justice fellow, ILCM
Juliana Macedo do Nascimento, United We Dream
Juli Graber, lawyer, sister, sage
León Rodríguez, former Director, USCIS
Gwyn Moss, Community Program Manager, Ruckus Entrepreneurs
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, New Sound Underground, Purple Funk Metropolis
Recorded: Northfield, MN; Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: November 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
He's a black man with a pit bull.
You're about to join Sam Reeves, a black man from Northside Minneapolis, walking his pit bull in Southside Minneapolis, where the white community lives.
What could go wrong?
Since the murder of George Floyd, a country of 330M has turned its collective eye to Minneapolis, specifically Northside Minneapolis, where the black community lives.
And where they walk their dogs. If they can.
You're about to take a walk down the boulevard of racism, holding the leash of America.
This is American Refugee.
FEATURING:
Sam Reeves, music director, Liberty Community Church
Annie Olson, director of customer service, Minneapolis Parks & Rec
Juli Graber, lawyer, pit bull owner, sage
Reverend Doctor Alika Galloway, co-pastor, Liberty Community Church
Rachel Mairose, Executive Director, Secondhand Hounds
James Evans, Chief Executive Officer, CARE
Shannon Glenn, Executive Director, My Pit Bull Is Family
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Sam Reeves, Rare Medium, New Sound Underground, Purple Funk Metropolis
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: September 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
During the Vietnam War, The CIA coopt the Hmong in Laos to fight communism. The American people aren't told. An estimated 300,000 Hmong die during the Secret War.
The Hmong who survive escape genocide and become refugees, awaiting to come to America, to the country they fought for.
As our country today struggles with being the world's shining knight of democracy, how do we weigh the human cost of toppling communist regimes with secret wars?
You're about to hear from the highest-ranking Hmong military official still alive who worked directly for the CIA.
You're about to hear the Hmong ultimately resettle in the America they fought for, the discrimination and rejection they face here.
From the mountains of northern Laos to the refugee camps in Thailand, from the streets of Minneapolis to the White House in Washington, D.C., you're not only about to go there, you're about to hear a secret.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN; Washington, D.C.
Original Release: June 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
Because invasive species are, right now, endangering our habitat, water and food systems on which we Americans depend to survive.
To 'Stop The Spread' our incredible scientists have asked the general public to be on the lookout for such foreign invaders as the Asian Carp and Mexican Evil Weevil.
But how does conditioning the public to find and remove foreign-named species imperil a national immigration attitude which already tends to reject the outsider?
And invasive...native...who decides what that even means?
You're about to wade into the moral habitat of history, biological imperative and the language of survival.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Purple Funk Metropolis, Rare Medium
Recorded: South Florida; Utah; Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: June 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
Minneapolis has become America.
The murder of George Floyd. The killing of Daunte Wright. A country of 330M turns its collective eye to Minneapolis.
This city has become the tinderbox of long hot summer streets exploding into a final reckoning with the dark winter nights of American racism.
You're about to go on a journey through the injustice which has plagued Minneapolis for far too long.
Pastor Galloway of Liberty Community Church takes you to the frontlines of the desperate struggle the black community faces each day in North Minneapolis.
This is American Refugee.
Reverend Doctor Alika Galloway, co-pastor, Liberty Community Church
Reverend Doctor Ralph Galloway, co-pastor, Liberty Community Church
Reverend Cyreta Oduniyi, program director, Northside Healing Space
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Sam Reeves
Photography: Mike Madison - @bumpopera, www.instagram.com/bumpopera
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: May 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
This episode is about a different kind of displacement - rock musicians forcibly removed from doing the only thing they know how to do.
Live rock is the nation within our nation, and the coronavirus pandemic stopped it cold.
How have musicians survived in exile? What are the ways rockers have exercised their expressive spirit after physical connection with live audience is removed from the rock equation?
You're about to delve into a music industry changing by the minute. You're about to get inside the human mind of performance artists; their lives, their hearts and their ideals. You're about to hear from celebrities who have been the backbone of the Minneapolis music scene.
And you'll be there in the end when one rocker, against all the setbacks placed before him, attempts to make his big comeback.
Get ready to rock.
This is American Refugee.
Mike Michel, rock guitarist
Brian Liebeck, Icehouse, club owner
Nathan Krantz, First Avenue, booking agent
Chuck Surack, CEO, instrumental retail
Tom Garneau, studio engineer
Jacob Slichter, musician and author
Youa Vang, journalist and promoter
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Mike Michel
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: April 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
To circumvent the final and busiest immigration checkpoint in Texas, Central American migrants illegally crossing into the United States go on a 20-mile walk through backcountry brush.
And every night at least one migrant dies attempting to make this 20-mile walk across the merciless terrain of Brooks County, Texas.
They die of dehydration. They die because they are weak, confused, lost and thirsty. They die because death is here.
But one man is fighting death. In the borderlands, Eddie Canales is putting out water stations for migrants to drink and survive the deadly crossing.
And when you hear the horrifying story behind today’s humanitarian crisis, you just might think it an all-too-real indicator of a death that very soon may be coming for you.
This is American Refugee.
Eddie Canales, South Texas Human Rights Center
Sheriff Benny Martinez, Brooks County Sheriff's Department
Dr. Kate Spradley, Department of Anthropology, Texas State University
Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, 15th District Texas, U.S.. House of Representatives
Matt Lohmeier, San Antonio Region Justice For Our Neighbors
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Ryini Beats
Recorded: Brooks County, Texas; Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: March 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
They come on temporary visas to do academic research at major U.S. universities. They're now responsible for creating more American patents than their U.S. student counterparts.
But the problem is - there's a lot less of them here.
They are America's immigrant scholars. And for the past several years America has erected barriers to keep them out. In the global arms race of talent superiority, America has started to fall behind.
Who are these immigrant scholars? What are they working on? And how have so many of the amazing gadgets in our hands and comforts in our lives come from their research?
Get ready to go on campus! From the hallways of higher learning to the border of thought leadership, the immigrant scholar is about to speak.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Purple Funk Metropolis, Ryini Beats
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: February 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
He came to the United States when he was 9 years old. He's now a U.S. Marine leading the most intense online fitness workouts.
Today, he's known as the Iron Wolf.
During the pandemic, everyone has been worried about their health. Maintaining it, supporting it with exercise, staying active. Everyone has a fitness story.
Well get ready to hear a wild one! You'll meet the celebrity breakout stars of digital fitness, you'll get coached by immigrant Olympians, you'll be with me as I do 25,000 burpees with the Iron Wolf, and you'll be there in the end when I go toe-to-toe with the reigning burpee world record holder.
But you won't have to break a sweat. All you have to do is listen.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Purple Funk Metropolis, Ryini Beats, Schvilkus
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: January 2021
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
A young mother from Guatemala, victim of domestic violence, takes her kids on a perilous journey to the US where Mom applies for asylum.
Mom makes it here only during the coronavirus pandemic to be quarantined in a Minneapolis home where she again becomes physically assaulted at the hands of another man.
One local woman goes to astonishing lengths to help Mom, to save a life.
You're not only about to hear their touching story, but you're also about to hear how escaping domestic violence is like playing an escape room.
You're about to escape the room.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Purple Funk Metropolis, Ryini Beats
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: September 2020
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
Gregorio Montejo, a Mexican immigrant, after 25 years of working in the United States is taken to Sherburne County Jail.
Now his family is fighting to get him released. Because in this country, anything is possible.
Or is it? You're going inside America's criminal justice system, as you follow one immigrant family's journey from central Minnesota to ICE lockup, from federal court to the Mexican border, all to free Gregorio before he gets deported.
It's Part II of the story separating the soul of a country, from a place called Sherburne County Jail.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Purple Funk Metropolis, Ryini Beats
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: August 2020
https://odaction.com/americanrefugee
In 2014 a young woman's murdered body was found on the side of the road in Warren, Ohio. The case went unsolved.
Now, 6 years later, the mother for the first time is going to the very spot where her daughter's body was found. She's bringing along one of America's leading paranormal investigation teams to contact the spirit of her daughter, and to learn once and for all what happened.
And you'll be there, too.
But that's not all. In a nation since ghosted by a deadly pandemic, I'll be taking you around the country to meet those who speak for the dead, to visit ghost towns, to hear about faith and spirits, to go from loss to renewal, and from death to life.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Ryini Beats, Purple Funk Metropolis
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN; Warren, OH
Original Release: July 2020
Minneapolis Police arrive at the intersection of 38th Street and Chicago Avenue in response to a call about a counterfeit $20 bill…
You're going into Minneapolis during the week following the murder of George Floyd.
You're about to take a unique journey through the heart of a city on fire.
You're going to hear anguished voices on the front lines of the protests, voices from the riots as they happen, voices from those who've fought the system of racism, voices from businesses owners whose stores got burnt to the ground, and you'll get it straight from city leaders about their radical plans for ending the police.
And ultimately you're going to 38th & Chicago, where the voices say: this is the place that will change our country forever.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: June 2020
Inside a small county jail in central Minnesota, 300 immigrants are caged up to 20 hours a day, never allowed outside, some detained by ICE up to a year.
Some endure special treatment: solitary confinement, abuse, medical negligence, sexual assault.
What if detained immigrants are being subjected to a kind of torture before they're deported? What if entire families are destroyed by county jails profiting from a federal system criminalizing immigration? What if the lives of immigrants are being forfeited as the coronavirus spreads through those jails?
Well get ready, you're going inside to hear about it from the detained immigrants themselves, as well as the activists on the outside trying to free them, the resistance against the authority, all towards an emotional crescendo of love and loss, of family and freedom, and the soul of a nation, all from a place called Sherburne County Jail.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Purple Funk Metropolis
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: May 2020
Get ready to meet America's hardworking trucker drivers, the road refugees who today risk their lives not just delivering to the doorsteps of our homes but to grocery store shelves, and hospitals.
But not only are you about to hear how hard it is to be a trucker, you'll be along for the ride with a big-hearted, big-muscled 18-wheel truck driving legend named Jimmy.
You'll climb aboard and see firsthand the how the global supply chain disruption is shifting everything we thought we knew about our economy.
This is American Refugee!
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Purple Funk Metropolis, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: April 2020
Detained immigration court is a place where lawyers aren't provided for the defense, where judges and prosecutors are on the same team, where guilty is presumed and the all-too-often verdict a different kind of death.
Who are these immigration judges? What exactly is detained court? And how is it able to get away with operating outside of what we might call normal law?
LISTEN to be shocked, enraged and stunned at what's been happening in your country.
This is American Refugee.
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, Purple Funk Metropolis, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: March 2020
She escaped domestic assault, poverty, street crime, and a husband mixed up with a drug cartel. She took her five kids and ran, using every last cent she had to make the journey.
When she arrived she was cold and afraid but never without hope, even as she still battled being homeless.
Her name is Angel. And you're about to hear her story. In native English.
Because Angel's from Chicago. Angel's an American citizen, whose country has turned her into a refugee.
Not only are you about to HEAR what it's like to be homeless, you're about to BE homeless, as I take you with me while I try to make it through one winter night on the streets of Minneapolis where the temperature dropped below zero.
This is American Refugee!
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Minneapolis, MN
Original Release: February 2020
Los Algodones is the tiny Mexican border town called Molar City. Thousands of US citizens are going there each day to save on dental work that would have cost thousands of dollars more at home.
Who are these American dental refugees? And how easy and safe is it to have implants, crowns and extractions done in Mexico?
You're not only about to hear wild stories from dental refugees traveling to Los Algodones, you're about to go there, you'll be with me as I cross the border, get work done on my own teeth...
And discover in the end why everything isn't always what it seems.
This is American Refugee!
Written, Engineered & Produced: Sam Graber
Music: Rare Medium, New Sound Underground
Recorded: Los Algodones, Minneapolis, MN