Feet In 2 Worlds: A Better Life?: Recent Episodes
Feet in 2 Worlds
A podcast exploring how COVID-19 has changed immigrants’ lives and challenged their ideas about the promise of America.
Come November, an estimated 36 million Latinos will be eligible to vote in the U.S. presidential election. Across the nation, there are Spanish language radio stations invested in them as an audience — and content on those stations is targeting listeners with disinformation about the candidates, the parties and political issues.
In this special episode of WNYC's Notes from America, host Kai Wright sits down with journalist Paulina Velasco from Feet in 2 Worlds to discuss “Frequency of Deception,” an investigation into the lies, rumors and propaganda that have been peppering Spanish language broadcasts in recent years. Velasco’s reporting includes egregious examples of attempts to manipulate listeners, ideas about who and what is behind these nefarious efforts, and a look at the ongoing push to combat the spread of misinformation and disinformation among vulnerable communities.
This radio piece was produced as part of Frequency of Deception / Radiofrecuencia de engaños in collaboration with WNYC’s Notes from America.
Frequency of Deception / Radiofrecuencia de engaños is an in-depth investigative series into misinformation and disinformation on Spanish-language radio in the United States. This series was produced by Feet in 2 Worlds in partnership with WNYC’s Notes from America, palabra and Puente News Collaborative.
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.
After a year of holding classes on Zoom, schools across the country have returned to in-person learning this fall. Producer Katelynn Laws visits the rural town of Monroe, North Carolina, a community with a large Latino population, to learn how students are making up for what many say was a lost year.
Mohammed Ahsanul is an international student at the University of Wyoming about to complete his Ph.D. in applied mathematics. Once he finishes his degree, he expects to return home to Dhaka, Bangladesh—but not before his family reunites with him for the first time since the pandemic began.
Producer Naina Rao joins Mohammed and his family for a trip to see America as she examines the ways a better life in the U.S. doesn’t always mean a permanent stay.
When indoor dining shut down during the pandemic, food delivery apps thrived. But the people delivering the food – workers celebrated as essential – faced risks to their safety and unfair working conditions.
Producer Oscar Durand tells the story of Cesar, a delivery worker from Mexico who found a cause and a community while organizing his fellow delivery workers in New York. We also speak with Hildalyn Colón Hernández from Los Deliveristas Unidos, a group that advocates for delivery workers in New York City.
Jasmine Jiwani is part of Atlanta’s large Ismaili Muslim community. Covid restrictions prevented the community from gathering for the funeral of her husband, who died of Covid. Producer Zulekha Nathoo reports on how the pandemic has created unique challenges for Jiwani and other Ismaili Muslims.
In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, the U.S. sealed its border with Mexico. The purpose, U.S. officials said, was to protect Americans from the spread of Covid-19. But in the neighboring cities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, the unintended consequences of the border closure have come into sharp focus. In addition to Covid-related deaths, the economy on the U.S. side has been devastated. Meanwhile, business on the Mexican side is booming. What does this shift in the economic center of gravity mean for a region where travel and migration across the border has been a part of life for generations? Producers Maritza Felix and Julio Cisneros visit both cities to learn.
“A Better Life?” is back for a second season as we continue to explore how COVID-19 has changed immigrants’ lives and their relationship to America. This fall, we’ll be sharing new voices, new stories, and new perspectives as we ask the question, “As we navigate out of this pandemic, who gets to return to normal?”
Season 2 will premiere on September 30, 2021.
At the start of the Biden administration and just two weeks after the siege at the U.S. Capitol, how are immigrants responding to this moment? Three senior journalists in the Feet in 2 Worlds network discuss the opportunities and risks, and the trauma they continue to grapple with from the past four years. Carolina González moderates this conversation with Zahir Janmohamed, Maritza L. Félix and Macollvie Neel.
When Joy, who immigrated to the U.S. from China, finds herself trapped in an abusive relationship, she makes the choice to walk away from the family she thought she always wanted — and rebuild the family she always thought was broken.
This episode was made in partnership with Self Evident: a podcast that challenges the narratives about where we’re from, where we belong, and where we’re going — by telling Asian America’s stories.
We decided to check up on the immigrant elders in our lives to see how they’re surviving the pandemic. What we found was joy, wisdom, life experience and plenty of laughter — from two Italian immigrants in San Francisco, to a Haitian couple in Florida, to a 93-year-old aunt in Bangalore.
On a panel moderated by veteran editor and reporter Carolina González, the creators of “A Better Life?” discuss the inception of our podcast series at the peak of the pandemic. We talk about what kinds of stories we pursued in this season, what informed our decision-making choices as storytellers, and how our reporters dealt with the challenges of being vulnerable during the production process. This panel was recorded on a Zoom Webinar on Dec. 3rd, 2020.
Our friends at the podcast Self Evident have been reporting on the rise in xenophobic harassment, discrimination, and violence against Asian Americans during the pandemic.
Listen to “Here Comes the Neighborhood,” which dives into the pros and cons of neighborhood watch groups in historic Chinatowns and other Asian immigrant communities across the country.
For more stories of Asian Americans taking action during the pandemic, subscribe to Self Evident wherever you get your podcasts. Visit https://selfevidentshow.com/ to learn more.
The vice presidential nomination of Sen. Kamala Harris has made South Asian political power mainstream in the United States. In New Jersey — a state with a large and growing Desi population — differences over religion, culture and national origin make unity difficult to achieve.
As an immigrant in New York City, Rosalind Tordesillas has looked to her Tita Margaret Gomez — who came to New York from the Philippines in the ‘70s — as a role model for building a life there. The two New Yorkers remember their own resilience after 9/11, and Margaret offers inspiration for getting through this current moment.
Black residents in Maine make up 2% of the state’s population, but they’re twenty times more likely to get COVID than white Mainers. We hear from two members of the state’s African diaspora — Lewiston councilwoman Safiya Khalid and civil liberties attorney Michael Kebede — about the history of African migration to Maine and how they were transformed by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
After the U.S., India has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world. New York City-based Ramaa Reddy calls her 93-year-old aunt Indira in Bangalore to see how she’s doing.
When Covid-19 hit Italy in April, Italian immigrants Sara and Maria were stuck in San Francisco. So the neighbors began reminiscing about all the things — music, bread, Neapolitan scenery — that home meant to them.
Rosa — an undocumented Mexican immigrant who cleans hotel rooms in Phoenix — lost her income just a few weeks into the coronavirus pandemic. But she quickly fought back. Reporter Maritza L. Félix tells us her story.
Philip and Niki Zias are Greek immigrants living on Long Island. When they first moved to Queens in the 1960s, their home was filled with music, food, and laughter. On this Call Your Elders segment, their granddaughter Anna pays them a visit.
When New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, Brooklyn-based producer Beenish Ahmed struggled over whether to visit her parents in Ohio or stay put. Her parents — a landlord and hairdresser who immigrated from Pakistan in the ‘70s — begged her to come home. When Beenish finally decided to go in May, she recorded that journey, and the discoveries she made about her family’s relationship to America.
In our first Call Your Elders conversation, Haitian-American producer Florence Barrau-Adams checks in on her parents, Monique and Eric, to see how they’ve been making the best of quarantine.
When the coronavirus hit the United States, two immigrants — Heeja and Elsa — wrestled with the same question: should I remain in America, despite the flawed U.S. response, or return to my home country? Having sought a better life in the United States, both women are rethinking their ideas of America and arriving at different conclusions.
"A Better Life?" is a new podcast produced by Feet in 2 Worlds exploring how COVID-19 has changed immigrants’ lives and challenged their ideas about the promise of America.
Coming August 20th, the show features the work of journalists who are immigrants or the children of immigrants.
Feet in 2 Worlds has partnered with public radio station WDET to award fellowships to four journalists covering food, immigrant culture and communities of color in Metro Detroit. Their first audio postcards are sound-rich snapshots of people and places in the Motor City's diverse food landscape.
For many of us food is the most evocative way to recall different times and places. For almost 20 years the only way Yewande Komolafe could connect with her homeland of Nigeria was through food. Food shaped Yewande's profession, and it also gave her a unique perspective on the experiences of other immigrants in the U.S.
For decades New York’s Pearl River Mart was the place to go for Chinese goods. Pearl River wasn’t just a department store, it was a cultural landmark. Then in 2016, after 40 years in business, the store closed. But its faithful customers and its founders weren't ready to let go. Michelle Chen tells the story of her family’s store: from its origins at the cusp of the Cold War, through economic ups and downs, to how Pearl River revived itself in the new millennium for the next generation of consumers.
Yara and her family were forced to flee Syria and gained asylum in the US though they never had dreams of living in America. They long for the life they loved in Damascus, but they must make a home in this new place. That's hard enough without the constant reminders that they're not fully welcome here.
People immigrate for different reasons -- economic insecurity, political instability, or the simple desire to see another part of the world. But when they leave their home country, they're usually leaving someone behind. Most immigrants know the challenge of keeping connections with their families. Some may be separated from their loved ones for years, straining those relationships. Nathan Yardy tells us how one family's ruptured bonds spanned generations, and what it took for those wounds to heal.