Community Values Podcast: Recent Episodes
Community Values
A podcast dedicated to exploring the values of vibrant, equitable places and the people who inspire them.
In this episode, we speak with Bridgette Murray, Founder of nonprofit organization Achieving Community Tasks Successfully (aka ACTS) and civic leader in the Pleasantville neighborhood in Houston, Texas and with Reverend James Caldwell, founder of nonprofit Coalition of Community Organizations (aka COCO) and civic leader in the Fifth Ward neighborhood in Houston, Texas about the effects of pollution on minority neighborhoods and their efforts to mobilize behind improvement of air quality through placement of local air quality monitors.
This episode was made possible by Environmental Defense Fund, a member of Houston’s One Breath Partnership- a partnership of organizations dedicated to elevating the work for clean air, every day, in Houston, Harris County, and our region.
Articles referenced in this episode include:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/houstonians-need-to-know-how-much-dirty-soot-we-are-breathing/
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Pleasantville-air-quality-community-TSU-toxins-14954543.php
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/07/trump-air-pollution/
https://onebreathhou.org/newsroom/2020/04/particle-pollution-soot-standards-epa-houston/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/28/climate/air-pollution-minorities.html
On this episode, we sit down with Dr. Sarah Taber, renowned crop scientist, fist-shaker at the agriculture industry and ex-Mormon who discusses with us the effects of fundamentalism on ag and the culture of farming across the United States. Drawing parallels between fundamentalist religion and farm culture, Dr. Taber walks us through why most farms in the United States aren't designed to feed people, who benefits from our current farm systems, how it came to be this way, and why the first step to changing it is breaking out of fundamentalist thought.
On this episode, we speak with Pulitzer prize-nominated Evan Mintz, Communications Manager for the Criminal Justice team at Arnold Ventures and former opinion editor at the Houston Chronicle about the Gulf Coast Ike Dike project, why it hasn't happened yet, why it has become so difficult in Texas to leverage federal funding, and what that says about our values as a state. Join us as we explore Texas and Houston political history with an in-depth discussion about the different proposals on hurricane mitigation and what it all means for individual communities along the coast.