In an opinion piece for the Los Angeles Times, Homelands co-founder and senior producer Sandy Tolan condemns “the disastrous, unnecessary decisions” of University of Southern California administrators when breaking up a student demonstration against the war in Gaza.
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The Homelands Blog
The Territory wins an Emmy
The Emmy for “Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking” is the latest of many awards (including a Peabody and two Sundance awards) for the film about Indigenous land rights and threats to the Brazilian rainforest. Homelands serves as the project’s fiscal sponsor.
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The Homelands Blog
Recasting Animism
In her essay “The Spirit of the Rillito,” Ruxandra Guidi looks at how Indigenous worldviews can help us understand the world we live in. The piece in High Country News grew out of conversations at the Religion and Environment Story Project, a fellowship that trains journalists and scholars interested in the intersection of the environment and religion.
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The Homelands Blog
The Territory wins a Peabody Award
The documentary film The Territory, produced by Documist, purchased by National Geographic, and now streaming on Disney+, has added a prestigious Peabody Award to its long list of achievements. Homelands is proud to serve as fiscal sponsor for the film’s impact campaign and other activities.
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The Homelands Blog
Eco-fascism uncovered
In an article for the Sierra Club, Ruxandra Guidi looks at the connections between a 2019 massacre of Latinos in El Paso and a history of racism in environmental movements. She argues that the killer was not the first to make the claim that poor brown people were an environmental threat.
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The Homelands Blog
US bans sugar imports after probe
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has blocked shipments of raw sugar from a top Dominican producer after finding indications of forced labor at its plantation. The probe followed an investigation led by Homelands’ Sandy Tolan and Haitian-Dominican journalist Euclides Cordero Nuel.
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The Homelands Blog
The Territory opens in theaters
The film, which chronicles the efforts of a small Indigenous group in Brazil to defend its land against encroachment by peasant farmers, opens August 19 at cinemas in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Austin, Vancouver, and Toronto. It will screen at cinemas around the world beginning August 26. Homelands served as fiscal sponsor.
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The Homelands Blog
Notre Dame features Guerra’s peace work
A profile on the website of Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies looks at Bear Guerra’s career documenting globalization, human rights, social justice, and environmental justice issues around the world.
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The Homelands Blog
Tracking squid for clues to ocean health
Homelands’ Ruxandra Guidi reports, produces, and hosts “The Catch,” a new six-part series from Foreign Policy on what the global squid fishery can teach us about the health and future of the world’s seas.
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The Homelands Blog
Homelands launches legal defense fund
The fund is intended for journalists who need help paying legal fees and related costs incurred as a consequence of being arrested while doing their jobs, or those who are facing lawsuits filed against them because of their reporting.
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The Homelands Blog
Five novels to explain our times
Fiction can be more revealing than fact, writes author and environmental journalist Alan Weisman. In a post on the new book recommendation website Shepherd.com, he shares five “astonishing” novels that can help us understand the times we live in.
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The Homelands Blog
Weisman: No future in gas
In an op-ed for Salon, Homelands’ Alan Weisman says the US must not be tempted to pump more gas to compensate for supply disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. The author of the bestselling “The World Without Us” writes that a recent visit to Iraq provided yet more evidence of the existential threat posed by fossil fuels.
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The Homelands Blog
Russian writer won’t be silenced
Jonathan Miller profiles Dmitry Bykov, one of Russia’s best-known public intellectuals, who was poisoned, banned from teaching, and labeled an “enemy of the people.” Bykov has taken a fellowship at Cornell University, where he vows to continue to write and speak out.
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The Homelands Blog
Sugar story wins press club award
Homelands’ Sandy Tolan, Haitian-Dominican journalist Euclides Cordero Nuel, and Reveal’s Michael Montgomery won the Morton Frank Award from the Overseas Press Club of America for their investigation into the treatment of sugar workers on plantations in the Dominican Republic.
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The Homelands Blog
Podcast features cities of asylum
In the latest episode of the Peace Talks Radio public radio show and podcast, Homelands’ executive director and senior producer Jonathan Miller looks at cities of asylum, communities that put out the welcome mat for writers, artists, journalists, and human rights defenders whose work puts them at risk in their home countries.
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The Homelands Blog
“The Territory” wins at Sundance
The documentary, about a Brazilian land conflict with global ramifications, won the Audience Award for World Documentary Cinema at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. Judges also gave the film a special jury award for documentary craft. National Geographic announced that it had acquired worldwide rights to the film shortly after its premiere at the festival.
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The Homelands Blog
National Geographic buys “The Territory”
Calling it “an urgent story of courage and resilience, beautifully told,” National Geographic announced its purchase of the documentary “The Territory,” directed by Alex Pritz and co-produced by the Indigenous Uru-eu-wau-wau people of northern Brazil. Homelands served as the project’s nonprofit fiscal sponsor, allowing it to receive grants and donations.
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The Homelands Blog
Sugar company demolishes worker housing after reports reveal squalor
The Central Romana Corporation destroyed a workers’ encampment in the Dominican Republic in November, two months after damning reports on conditions for Haitian cane cutters were published by Homelands’ Sandy Tolan. Residents say the destruction of houses and their forced removal were unannounced, according to an update by Tolan that appeared in Mother Jones in December.
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The Homelands Blog
Sponsored doc to premiere at Sundance
“The Territory,” a documentary feature film that provides an up-close look at threats to the Brazilian Amazon, has been accepted in competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. It premieres on January 22. Homelands has served as the project’s nonprofit fiscal sponsor.
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The Homelands Blog
Real men drive electric trucks
In a reported essay for The Atlantic, Ruxandra Guidi explores the often-ignored relationship between American notions of masculinity and attitudes toward environmental responsibility. Is it too much to hope that men can learn to care about the climate?
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The Homelands Blog
Sugar reports lead to House call for action
Citing reporting by Homelands’ Sandy Tolan, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Trade is calling for a “swift and thorough investigation” into the labor practices of large sugar producers in the Dominican Republic.
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The Homelands Blog
Flipping the script on juvenile detention
In an episode for the 70 Million podcast and an article in High Country News, Ruxandra Guidi takes us to rural St. Johns, Arizona, where officials have transformed a juvenile detention center into a place where teens can play pool, make music, and receive mentoring instead of going to jail.
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The Homelands Blog
The town that would transform the world
Senior producer Jonathan Miller tells a hometown story for a national audience in a half-hour piece on Ithaca, New York’s ambitious Green New Deal and what it might mean for hometowns everywhere.
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The Homelands Blog
The high cost of sugar
Sandy Tolan returns to the Dominican Republic after 30 years to find out what happened to a young Haitian sugar cane worker he met in 1991. He reports what he discovered in an hour-long program on Reveal and an in-depth feature in Mother Jones.
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The Homelands Blog
Cecilia Vaisman award winner announced
The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists will present BBC bilingual video journalist Angélica M. Casas with the 2021 Cecilia Vaisman Award at a virtual ceremony and conversation on September 30, 2021, at 6:30 p.m. EDT.
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The Homelands Blog
Following the searchers into the desert
Homelands’ Bear Guerra accompanied volunteers with the group Aguilas del Desierto as they searched for missing migrants in the desert near the Mexico-Arizona border. Nine of his photos appear in the BuzzFeed News article “We Know How They Suffer.”
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The Homelands Blog
Update: Weisman case dismissed “without prejudice”
A district court in Minnesota decided not to pursue criminal trespassing charges, but left open the possibility that the case could be refiled. Alan’s attorney is considering filing a lawsuit for rights violations. Alan was covering an anti-pipeline protest for a book and article.
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The Homelands Blog
Weisman: Pipeline offers stark choice
In a June 30 op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, Homelands’ Alan Weisman reports on resistance to Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3 pipeline on the grounds that it will add to global temperature rise and imperil vital waterways. Alan was arrested while covering anti-pipeline protests in early June.
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The Homelands Blog
Alan Weisman arrested while covering pipeline protest
Journalist, author, and Homelands cofounder Alan Weisman was arrested on June 7 while covering the Line 3 anti-pipeline protests in northern Minnesota. The Committee to Protect Journalists has called for local officials to explain the arrest. Weisman was clearly working as a journalist at the time.
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The Homelands Blog
A reckoning in Gaza
“Israel’s devastating assault on Gaza, with its unconscionable numbers of civilian casualties, is proof of a bankrupt U.S. policy,” writes Sandy Tolan in the Daily Beast. To make progress toward a lasting peace, America “must confront the tragic mess it helped create, and abandon the foreign policy its own inaction undermined.”
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The Homelands Blog
Thirty years later, this story still moves
As part of NPR’s 50th anniversary celebration, All Things Considered revisits “Sugar and Sorrow in Hispaniola,” a 1991 story by Sandy Tolan and Alan Weisman that one listener never forgot.
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The Homelands Blog
What Hank Aaron told me
In an essay in The Atlantic, Homelands co-founder Sandy Tolan shares what he learned from the baseball legend, who died on January 22. Aaron was Sandy’s childhood hero and the subject of his first book, Me and Hank. His story resonates far beyond the realm of sport.
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The Homelands Blog
Dispatches from late Covid America
In a public journal on social media and Medium, Sandy Tolan chronicles his road trip through a vast country both changed and unchanged by the churn of the historical moment.
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The Homelands Blog
Winds of Change Sweep the West
The spectacle of far-right hate groups launching violent attacks around the country cannot obscure the deeper changes that are transforming political and social life across the region, Ruxandra Guidi writes in High Country News.
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The Homelands Blog
Into the Memory Field
Homelands’ Bear Guerra’s photos and photo collages accompany an essay on time, memory, land, and language by American Book Award-winning Diné poet Jake Skeets in Emergence Magazine.
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The Homelands Blog
María Inés Zamudio wins Cecilia Vaisman award
The $5,000 award, given by Northwestern University’s Medill School and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, is named for Homelands’ co-founder, who died in 2015. This year’s winner is an investigative journalist at WBEZ in Chicago.
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The Homelands Blog
On the trail in Nevada
In a series of 12 photos from February, Bear Guerra documents the Bernie Sanders campaign’s efforts to woo Latino voters in Nevada, where they have become an important voting bloc.
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The Homelands Blog
Alan takes The New Yorker for a walk
In an ambulatory interview in western Massachusetts, Homelands’ co-founder and author of “The World Without Us” talks with Talk of the Town about humankind’s dynamic relationship with nature.
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The Homelands Blog
Mila’s Meditations
In an audio story for BorderLore, Ruxandra Guidi and her seven-year-old daughter find calm in a new kind of ritual, one rooted in everyday gratitude and signs of spring in the desert Southwest.
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The Homelands Blog
Natural correction
In an Earth Day essay for The Boston Globe Magazine, Alan Weisman argues that the COVID-19 pandemic is a sign that human beings have grown too numerous and destructive.
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The Homelands Blog
Photo Essay: Dark skies
Bear Guerra explores what darkness means for humanity and the planet in a 40-image essay for Emergence Magazine.
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The Homelands Blog
Sandy Tolan: People will die
In an op-ed in The Guardian, Homelands’ senior producer decries the decision of Wisconsin’s supreme court to hold the state’s April 7 primary election as scheduled despite the rising risk of Covid-19.
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The Homelands Blog
Ever crueler
The United States immigration system wasn’t always so punitive or so cruel, observes Ruxandra Guidi in High Country News.
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The Homelands Blog
Chicago Tribune fights for its journalistic life
Two veteran reporters lead effort to find local buyers for the troubled newspaper.
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The Homelands Blog
Bear takes new post at High Country News
We are pleased to announce that Roberto (Bear) Guerra has been named photo editor of High Country News. Bear is an award-winning documentary photographer and photojournalist whose work addresses globalization, development, and social and environmental …
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The Homelands Blog
Alan’s book in Slate top 50
Slate has selected Homelands co-founder Alan Weisman’s 2007 bestseller The World Without Us as one of the top 50 English-language nonfiction books of the last 25 years. Book critics Dan Kois and Laura Miller write: …
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The Homelands Blog
Antonia Cereijido wins Cecilia Vaisman Award
Latino USA producer Antonia Cereijido received the first annual Cecilia Vaisman Award, named after the Homelands Productions co-founder who died in 2015. Antonia was a student of Cecilia’s at the Medill School of Journalism, Media, …
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The Homelands Blog
Cecilia’s legacy is felt at Third Coast conference
What a joy to see the 2019 Cecilia Vaisman scholarship winners at the Third Coast conference in Chicago. The scholars are all students at Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University, …
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The Homelands Blog
Battle for the heavens
For astronomers, building an enormous telescope on Hawaii’s Mauna Kea volcano could be a “Galileo moment” — a chance to “peer through space-time to the beginning of the universe.” For many Native Hawaiians, it would be …
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The Homelands Blog
Sandy to join book subject in LA concert
Homelands’ Sandy Tolan will appear with the subject of his most recent book in a concert in Los Angeles on September 15. The show, at Zebulon Café, will feature Palestinian musician Ramzi Aburedwan and his …
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The Homelands Blog
Letters from Miguel
In an essay for High Country News, Homelands’ Ruxandra Guidi tells of her attempt to assuage her feelings of helplessness by connecting with a young Guatemalan in detention in California. “Over just the past two …
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The Homelands Blog
Burning down the house?
Senior Producer Alan Weisman’s piece in the August 15, 2019 issue of the New York Review of Books looks at two recent works on the future of humanity, a topic Alan has explored in depth …
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The Homelands Blog
Me, my dad, and Chávez
Ruxandra Guidi left Venezuela for the U.S. in 1990, when she was just 14. Over time she and her father drifted apart; he was an ardent believer in the revolution, she was disillusioned by the …
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The Homelands Blog
Rux launches new career at U of Arizona
Homelands producer and board president Ruxandra Guidi has moved to Tucson, where she will begin a new position as a professor in the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism. Ruxandra has reported throughout the United …
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The Homelands Blog
People’s Map is a wrap
A People’s Map, Ruxandra Guidi and Bear Guerra‘s yearlong collaboration with the Los Angeles County Department of Regional Planning, has wrapped up with free newspapers, books, and community events throughout the East San Gabriel Valley. …
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The Homelands Blog
Gaza journal: Catastrophe and resilience
Sandy Tolan recently returned from Gaza, where he was reporting on water in the context of the ongoing war there. He found people living under siege but determined not to give up hope. Sandy posted …
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The Homelands Blog
Bear Guerra: A possible river
Bear Guerra has been spending a lot of time around the Los Angeles River, contemplating its meaning and (lucky for us) shooting photos. His photo essay “A Possible River” was recently published in Emergence Magazine …
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The Homelands Blog
Life, death, and water in Gaza
Sandy Tolan is in Gaza, reporting on the water crisis there. Here is a Facebook post from July 26: This morning in Gaza, a whiff of war in the air in the wake of Israel’s …
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The Homelands Blog
Trump’s false narrative of chaos
In her latest commentary for High Country News, Ruxandra Guidi writes how the U.S.-Mexico border has become a stage for political theater, and why the Trump administration’s “deterrence” tactic against undocumented immigrants and asylum seekers is cruel and inhumane. …
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The Homelands Blog
New award honors Cecilia Vaisman
The Cecilia Vaisman Award for Multimedia Reporters will recognize Latinx and Hispanic audio and video journalists “who bring light to the issues that affect the Latinx and Hispanic communities in the U.S. and around the world,” according to …
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The Homelands Blog
Ruxandra Guidi named Susan E. Tifft Fellow
Homelands member Ruxandra Guidi has been named Duke University’s Center for Documentary Studies 2018 Susan E. Tifft Fellow. The award, now in its second year, offers a woman journalist or documentarian the opportunity to spend …
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The Homelands Blog
Going Gray in LA Exhibit at LA’s Central Library
The traveling photo exhibit from Ruxandra Guidi and Bear Guerra’s year-long, multi-platform exploration of the lives of older adults in the heart of Los Angeles will open on Friday, October 6th, 2017 at the city’s …
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The Homelands Blog
Stalking elusive migrants from Mexico
In a major piece for Pacific Standard magazine, Homelands’ Alan Weisman goes deep into the wilderness of northern Mexico and southern Arizona on the trail of jaguars who venture across the border. The 300-pound cats are at the …
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The Homelands Blog
In California desert, local activists begin seeing results
For the last several years, Homelands’ Ruxandra Guidi and Bear Guerra have been visiting California’s Coachella Valley to document the environmental and health disasters there, from contaminated water to pesticide pollution to hazardous waste. Now, in a major piece …
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The Homelands Blog
Big plans for Big Oil
Sandy Tolan made five trips to North Dakota this past fall and winter to document the standoff between opponents of the Dakota Access Pipeline and the pipeline’s supporters in government and business. As he reported on …
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The Homelands Blog
Going Gray in LA event
On April 9th, Bear and Rux’s year-long collaboration with LA’s KCRW – Going Gray in LA: Stories of Aging Along Broadway – will have a culminating event in Los Angeles that’s free and open to the …
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The Homelands Blog
Life in Oil
Last year, Homelands’ Bear Guerra spent two weeks in the Ecuadorian Amazon making images to accompany anthropologist Mike Cepek’s upcoming ethnography about the impacts that oil has had on the life of the indigenous Cofán. The …
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The Homelands Blog
Going Gray in LA
Los Angeles is a rapidly aging city in a rapidly aging county. In fact, over the next 15 years, LA County’s senior population will double, to nearly one-fifth of the total population. Housing, health care, …
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The Homelands Blog
The Selma of the North?
Sandy Tolan spent several weeks researching a piece for the Daily Beast (to be co-published by Reveal, from the Center for Investigative Reporting) on police violence at Standing Rock, with reporting gathered over his five trips there …
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The Homelands Blog
Tension rises between protesters and tribes
Sandy Tolan has returned to North Dakota to report on the status of the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in the aftermath of the presidential order instructing the Army Corps of Engineers to expedite the approval of construction permits. …
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The Homelands Blog
At Standing Rock, apologies, tears, and forgiveness
At a time when so much of the nation is divided by politics and ideology, the protest against the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota forged an unlikely coalition of veterans, Native Americans, and environmentalists who …
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The Homelands Blog
What’s next for the pipeline?
In his latest story from North Dakota for the Los Angeles Times, Sandy Tolan asks what we can expect now that the Army Corps of Engineers has declined to approve a permit that Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the Dakota …
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The Homelands Blog
Update: Police oust pipeline protesters
Sandy Tolan was in North Dakota today as police and National Guard troops marched in to break up the protest over the proposed Dakota Access oil pipeline. He writes: “The protesters faced down the advancing forces with …
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The Homelands Blog
Standing with the Standing Rock Sioux
Sandy Tolan is headed back to North Dakota, where he recently covered the protests by members of the Standing Rock Sioux and their supporters against the proposed 1,172-mile Dakota Access oil pipeline. In his October 18 story in Salon.com, Sandy describes the tense …
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The Homelands Blog
KCRW launches “Going Gray in LA”
One of Los Angeles’ NPR affiliates, KCRW, has launched Bear and Rux’s year-long multi-platform project about aging in the city’s working-class and immigrant neighborhoods. “Going Gray in LA: Stories of Aging along Broadway” is part …
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The Homelands Blog
“Children of the Stone” takes a musical journey
Homelands co-founder Sandy Tolan, author of the book Children of the Stone, is touring the eastern U.S. this fall with the book’s protagonist, the Palestinian musician Ramzi Aburedwan. They’ll be joined by Ramzi’s Arab/French fusion ensemble …
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The Homelands Blog
Bear Guerra wins photo award
The photo above, from a 2015 story by Bear Guerra and Ruxandra Guidi published in Americas Quarterly, has won a prestigious American Photography award. The piece, “Indigenous Residents of Lima’s Cantagallo Shantytown Confront an Uncertain Future,” describes how …
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The Homelands Blog
Groundwork
If the current presidential race has soured you on the democratic process, you might seek solace in the latest episode of Scene on Radio, an excellent podcast produced by our old pal John Biewen at Duke University’s Center for Documentary …
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The Homelands Blog
“World Without Us” on Branson’s must-read list
British businessman, adventurer, and author Richard Branson celebrated World Book Day with a list of “My top 65 books to read in a lifetime.” Weighing in at number 59 was Alan Weisman‘s bestseller The World Without …
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The Homelands Blog
Stop. Listen. Live.
Earlier this week we published the eulogy delivered by Sandy Tolan at a January 25 memorial event for Cecilia Vaisman at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Today we’re sharing the words of David …
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The Homelands Blog
Remembering Cecilia Vaisman
Family, friends, colleagues, and students gathered to celebrate the life and work of Cecilia Vaisman at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University on January 25, 2016. You can watch a video of the event here. Below are the …
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The Homelands Blog
Photo File: The Other Barca
Our Bear Guerra recently spent two days with Ecuador’s most popular soccer team as part of an article and photo spread in today’s New York Times. There are 12 photos in all. Freelancer Noah Schumer wrote …
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The Homelands Blog
Book Explores Middle East Through Micro Lens
In a wide-ranging review of recent books on the Middle East, essayist N.S. Morris lauds Sandy Tolan’s Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land for its intimacy and freshness. “Tolan exhibits novelistic …
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The Homelands Blog
Hope on the horizon for strawberry workers?
The strawberries on your breakfast cereal might not taste so sweet if you knew how bitter life can be for the folks who pick them. As if backbreaking labor and extremely low wages weren’t enough, strawberry workers are …
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The Homelands Blog
Children of the Stone Makes Booklist Top Ten
Sandy Tolan‘s Children of the Stone has been named one of Booklist‘s Top 10 Art Books of 2015. The news was published in the magazine’s November 1, 2015, issue on the arts. Reviewer Donna Seaman wrote: “Tolan illuminates …
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The Homelands Blog
Bear Guerra and his muse
There’s a sweet write-up about Homelands’ Bear Guerra on the Dispatches from Latin America section of the American Illustration and American Photography (AI-AP) website. Bear was recently honored in the group’s Latin America Fotografía competition …
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The Homelands Blog
Adios, Cecilia Vaisman
We Homelanders have lost our beloved friend and colleague Cecilia Vaisman. Ceci died of cancer early on September 27 in Chicago. She was 54. Our love goes to her husband, Gary Marx, daughter, Ana, and son, Andres. …
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The Homelands Blog
Alan Weisman on South American speaking tour
Homelands’ co-founder and senior producer Alan Weisman is spending nearly a month in Colombia and Ecuador giving talks and interviews about his two most recent books, The World Without Us and Countdown.
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The Homelands Blog
Photo file: Protests in Ecuador
Since August 13, Ecuadorians from across the political spectrum have been observing a nationwide strike and marching in the streets against the policies of President Rafael Correa. Homelands’ Bear Guerra has been documenting the protests, which have received little attention in the international …
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The Homelands Blog
Alan Weisman: Have fewer kids
This month, as part of a special issue on the environment, VICE Magazine asked leading thinkers to weigh in with their ideas about what to do about climate change. Below is Homelands’ Alan Weisman‘s essay, based …
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The Homelands Blog
On SOTRU: Power to the People
We were thrilled to learn that State of the Re:Union, a terrific radio show dreamed up and hosted by poet and playwright Al Letson, has won a Peabody Award. The Peabodys are considered the most prestigious awards in broadcast …
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The Homelands Blog
Music as armor, statement, and salve
Music, occupation, hope, despair, healing, and the terrible weight of history are all the subjects of Sandy Tolan‘s rapturously reviewed new book, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land. While you …
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The Homelands Blog
On Planet Money, looking for a Square Deal
If you happen to visit Johnson City, NY, just outside Binghamton, you’re likely to pass under a stone arch inscribed with the words, “Home of the Square Deal.” The arch (there are actually two, one …
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The Homelands Blog
Passion and theater in the streets of Quito
This year’s Semana Santa, or Holy Week, brought thousands into churches and out on the streets of Ecuador, where an estimated 80 percent of people identify as Catholic. Homelands’ Bear Guerra was there to document the festivities in Quito’s historic …
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The Homelands Blog
Praise rolls in for Sandy Tolan’s new book
Sandy Tolan’s new book, Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land will be published in April by Bloomsbury USA. Sandy will launch the book on April 21 at the Los Angeles Public Library, then head out on …
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The Homelands Blog
You will be missed, Dori Maynard
Homelands board member Dori J. Maynard died yesterday at her home in West Oakland, California. She was 56. A fearless champion of diversity in America’s newsrooms, Dori was sharp, funny, kind, intelligent, insightful, and a great friend. We …
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The Homelands Blog
Desert food story airs on Reveal TV
What if we could transform sand, salt water, sunlight, and carbon dioxide into soil, fresh water, vegetables, trees, biofuel, and electricity? That’s what an ambitious Norwegian-led initiative has been doing in the desert near Doha for the last two …
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The Homelands Blog
Ecuador welcomes its migrants home
On the day Ruxandra Guidi arrived in Quito last year, she spoke with the owner of her bed and breakfast, an English-speaking Ecuadorean in his late twenties with obvious entrepreneurial savvy. He’d attended college in the U.S. on his parents’ …
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The Homelands Blog
Big year coming (you can help!)
Before we say goodbye to 2014 we thought we’d give you a sneak peek at what we’re cooking up for the year to come. If you feel it’s worth supporting, far be it from us to stand …
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The Homelands Blog
Welcome to The SEAMS
We were closely watching the Kickstarter campaign for “The SEAMS,” a new podcast and radio series probing the history, culture, class, gender politics, and other deeper meanings hidden in the folds of clothing and fashion. …
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The Homelands Blog
Introducing the all new Homelands.org
Our spiffy new website went live four weeks ago, and now that we’ve lived with it for a while, we thought it was time for a formal introduction. The redesign is meant to make it easier …
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The Homelands Blog
Jacobson’s photos document life on pipeline route
As the U.S. Senate prepares to vote on the Keystone XL Pipeline this week, we thought we’d let you know about a terrific photo essay from the path of the proposed pipeline that recently appeared in Politico. Photographer …
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The Homelands Blog
A boon for the women of Ecuador
For the 60,000 residents of Cañar, Ecuador, the costs of migration can be great, especially for children. But the benefits can be great as well: unprecedented access to education and jobs, freedom of movement and financial independence for …
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The Homelands Blog
Project finds lessons in group’s healthy forests
Like many of the world’s indigenous groups, Panama’s Guna people are facing formidable challenges: the impacts of climate change, encroaching outside influences, and a younger generation that’s drifting away from its roots. Yet their situation …
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The Homelands Blog
History’s most important invention
What was the most important invention in human history? The printing press? Antibiotics? Nope, says Alan Weisman in this talk from TEDxSitka. And he has a couple of simple ideas for how to undo its damage.
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The Homelands Blog
Remembering Chuck Bowden
Journalist and author Charles Bowden died on August 30. Homelands’ Alan Weisman describes an outsized man with an outsized personality in a remembrance on the blog of Orion Magazine. Alan writes: “Should you aspire to write yourself, absolutely do …
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The Homelands Blog
Who speaks for the speaker?
More than 1 billion people in the world speak English. You could interview one of them every day for 30,000 years and still not exhaust your supply. So why worry about translating foreign-language voices for the radio? …
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The Homelands Blog
Work show shines light on LA’s less glitzy side
In 24 Hours: A Day in the Working Life, 12 Los Angeles-area workers – including a stripper, deli waitress, bus driver, metal scrapper, and bathroom attendant – take us inside their workplaces to show us …
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The Homelands Blog
“Countdown” is a New York Times Editors’ Choice
Alan Weisman‘s Countdown, which we’ve been urging our followers to read since it was first published in hardcover last September, has been named an Editors’ Choice in the New York Times Book Review’s “Paperback Row” column. The editors …
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The Homelands Blog
Weisman: Farting craters silent but deadly
Newly discovered methane-spewing craters in Siberia are one more sign of a planet in trouble, writes Homelands’ Alan Weisman in an opinion piece on CNN.com. “Every day, you have a close personal encounter with methane, …
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The Homelands Blog
Tolan: Blown chances in Gaza
Why have the U.S. and Israel pursued policies in Palestine that have failed again and again? In an op-ed piece in TomDispatch, Homelands’ Sandy Tolan looks at the history, psychology, and cold political calculation behind yet another …
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The Homelands Blog
Back from Kuna Yala
Ruxandra Guidi and Bear Guerra recently returned from a two-week visit to the indigenous communities of Kuna Yala, on Panama’s Caribbean coast. They were exploring the Guna (also known as Kuna) people’s relationship to their mainland forest, which is among the best …
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The Homelands Blog
Homelands expands social media empire
Move over, Rupert Murdoch. First a website, then a blog, then a Twitter account… now Homelands is making its move on Facebook, a Silicon Valley start-up that describes itself as a “social utility that connects people with friends and …
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The Homelands Blog
Rare Homelands sighting in LA!
Back in the early 1990s, Homelands’ four founder-members lived together in a rented house in Costa Rica while working on the Vanishing Homelands series. But after that we scattered, and for the last 22 years or so we’ve …
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The Homelands Blog
We’re on Twitter!
Took a while, but Homelands Productions is now betwittered. (Twitterated? Atweet?) We’re tweeting about journalism, storytelling, documentary, and some of the things that move us: the environment, international development, cultural identity, migration, climate. Today we actually …
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The Homelands Blog
“Countdown” wins LA Times Book Prize
Homelands co-founder Alan Weisman’s “Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?” was awarded the 2013 LA Times Book Prize in the science and technology category. “Countdown” was also named the best general nonfiction book of …
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The Homelands Blog
Stray bullets and forgiveness
Ruxandra Guidi‘s story about the relationship between the mother of a victim of gun violence and the person who shot him airs this week as part of the hour-long radio documentary “Guns in America.” The program …
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The Homelands Blog
“God and Government” wins award for religion reporting
The public radio program Interfaith Voices has received a Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council for its “God and Government” series, which looks at the relationship between religion and the state in 14 countries around the world. The award …
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The Homelands Blog
Guidi and Guerra win environmental reporting prize for work in Panama
The environmental website Mongabay.org has selected Homelands producer-members Ruxandra Guidi and Bear Guerra for a Special Reporting Initiative award for their multimedia project on climate change and community forestry in Panama. Ruxandra and Bear have reported from the area before, for …
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The Homelands Blog
Alan Weisman on Maher’s Real Time tonight
Homelands co-founder and senior editor Alan Weisman will be on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher tonight at 10 pm EDT. Alan will be talking to Maher about his latest book, Countdown: Our Last, Best …
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The Homelands Blog
The Arab Oil Embargo changed America. Did it change us?
Homelands’ Jonathan Miller has produced a two-part series for PRI’s The World on the 40th anniversary of the end of the Arab Oil Embargo. The first part, which aired yesterday, looks at how (or whether) …
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The Homelands Blog
Ruxandra Guidi and Bear Guerra join Homelands
We are thrilled to welcome journalist Ruxandra Guidi and photographer Roberto (Bear) Guerra to the Homelands family. As our newest producers and members of our board of directors, they bring a wonderful mix of skills, experiences, and …
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The Homelands Blog
Raul Ramirez in pictures and music
This slideshow, by Mote Tanabodee, was shown at Raul Ramirez’s memorial service in Berkeley on January 12, 2014. Raul was Executive Editor and News Director at KQED FM in San Francisco, and a board member …
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The Homelands Blog
Erdrich: “Countdown” is “world-changing”
The novelist Louise Erdrich has written a glowing review of Alan Weisman’s Countdown for her blog, Birchbark. She calls the book “urgent, eloquent, harrowing yet hopeful.” Please read this book. Take your time. You will …
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The Homelands Blog
Remembering Raul Ramirez
Raul Ramirez, longtime director of news and public affairs at KQED in San Francisco, died on November 15. A moving tribute can be found on the KQED website. Raul was also a dear friend of …
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The Homelands Blog
Rest in Peace, Raul Ramirez
We at Homelands are mourning the loss, on the morning of November 15, of our dear friend, colleague, fellow Homelands board member, and trailblazing journalist, Raul Ramirez. Accolades about Raul have been coming in for …
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The Homelands Blog
Alan Weisman’s “Countdown” launches today
We’re thrilled to announce the publication of Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth?, by Homelands senior producer and co-founder Alan Weisman. You should be able to find it in bookshops today, and if …
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The Homelands Blog
Uganda aquaponics story spawns partnership
A listener contacted us after our story aired on PRI’s The World about entrepreneur Charles Mulamata’s effort to start an aquaponics business in his native Uganda. (Aquaponics is a combination of fish and vegetable farming that …
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The Homelands Blog
“Countdown” praised for message of hope
We can’t wait for Homelands co-founder and senior producer Alan Weisman‘s latest book to hit the shelves on September 24. It’s called Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? and it’s been getting terrific reviews. “Spirited …
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The Homelands Blog
Congratulations, Sam Eaton!
Sam Eaton, a freelance radio and video producer who contributed 10 of the features in the “Food for 9 Billion” project, has won the Society of Environmental Journalists‘ award for Environmental Beat Reporting in a …
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The Homelands Blog
“Food for 9 Billion” wraps with an “alt meat” tour of the Netherlands
In the final story in the “Food for 9 Billion” project, Jon Miller races around the Netherlands hunting for climate-friendly alternatives to meat. The piece airs today on PRI’s The World. “Food for 9 Billion” was …
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The Homelands Blog
New stories give poop on climate-friendly food production
The latest batch of “What’s for Lunch” stories on PRI’s The World highlight farming methods that don’t bust the global carbon budget. On July 25, Sam Eaton reported from northeastern India on the System of …
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The Homelands Blog
When it comes to feeding the world, nothing will save us
One of the goals of the “Food for 9 Billion” project has been to show that keeping our growing number of selves fed (sustainably, equitably, healthily) is more than just a technical challenge. That’s because …
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The Homelands Blog
Low-carbon lunch: Costa Rica aims for climate-friendly farming
Food production, from farm to table, generates more than a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a vicious circle, because climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing farmers today. In Costa …
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The Homelands Blog
“What’s for Lunch” takes a global tour of the future of food
Keep your ears open for a new batch of What’s for Lunch radio stories about food and climate change on PRI’s The World. The series, part of the Food for 9 Billion project that Homelands Productions is producing with the Center for …
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The Homelands Blog
This week: Seven stories about food and the climate
It’s the biggest week yet for the “Food for 9 Billion” project, with five stories scheduled to air on PBS NewsHour and two on PRI’s The World. Today on the NewsHour, Sam Eaton visits Costa Rica, where farmers and researchers are finding …
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The Homelands Blog
Cafeteria lunch: Industrial kitchens dish out climate-friendly cuisine
By now most of us know that what we eat has an impact on the environment. And so more of us are putting our money where our mouths are—or our mouths where our money is—ordering …
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The Homelands Blog
“What’s for Lunch” launches on The World
For the last year and a half, the “Food for 9 Billion” project has examined the many-sided challenge of keeping ourselves fed at a time of rapid social and environmental change. Yesterday we launched a …
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The Homelands Blog
New Stories to Probe Food-Climate Connections
Reporters Jonathan Miller, Sam Eaton and Mary Kay Magistad have been in Mexico, Costa Rica, India, Singapore, China, Qatar, Uganda and the Netherlands gathering tape for a series of radio and TV stories about the future of food …
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The Homelands Blog
“Food for 9 Billion” looks to the future
The Homelands blog may have been idle, but that doesn’t mean we have been! Clearly, though, it’s time for a quick catching up. In October, Jon Miller’s feature Greece’s diet crisis aired on Marketplace as part …
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The Homelands Blog
Africa’s supermarket sweepstakes
The supermarket revolution is sweeping across Africa, transforming everything from the way people eat to the crops farmers grow. Is this good news for the continent’s poor? That’s the question posed by the latest “Food …
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The Homelands Blog
Two worlds of food waste
With drought, storms, pests, diseases, poverty and a plethora of other constraints, it’s hard enough for the world’s farmers and fishers to keep us all fed. It hardly seems fair that one-third or more of …
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The Homelands Blog
“Food for 9 Billion” reaching millions on air and online
We wanted to catch you up on the “Food for 9 Billion” project, which has been taking most of our attention lately. As loyal readers will know, Ff9B asks what has to happen for the …
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The Homelands Blog
The hidden costs of hamburgers
http://youtu.be/ut3URdEzlKQ
Americans love burgers. They’re filling, tasty and cheap. But what we pay at the counter is only part of the story. Check out this animated video from the “Food for 9 Billion” project, a collaboration between Homelands Productions and the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR). CIR’s Carrie Ching directed and produced; art and animation is by Arthur Jones.
You can find a fully annotated version by clicking on http://cironline.org/reports/hidden-costs-hamburgers-3701.
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The Homelands Blog
Call that justice
Today’s news from the Supreme Court brought back memories of a story I reported in 2006 for a BBC series on juvenile justice around the world. I traveled to Colorado to meet with young men …
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The Homelands Blog
New stories from Brazil and India
It’s been more than a month since I posted anything on the Homelands blog! Too busy producing and planning “Food for 9 Billion” stories. Yesterday, a feature I reported in India aired on Marketplace. It …
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The Homelands Blog
“Food for 9 Billion” blog up and posting
The “Food for 9 Billion” blog is now live. It actually has been for a little while, but we didn’t tell anyone. You can see recent posts about World Water Day, the possibility that the …
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The Homelands Blog
Center for Investigative Reporting merges with Bay Citizen
Congratulations to our friends at the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR), who just announced their merger with the Bay Citizen. According to CIR, the merger “will create the largest nonprofit organization in the country focused …
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The Homelands Blog
NewsHour feature looks at Ethiopia land deals
The latest “Food for 9 Billion” feature, on the connection between farmland investment and displacement in Ethiopia, airs tonight on PBS NewsHour. It was produced and reported by Cassandra Herrman and Beth Hoffman and edited …
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The Homelands Blog
Climate change’s unequal impact
I hope you get to listen to the latest “Food for 9 Billion” piece on Marketplace today, about Bangladesh’s attempts to cope with climate change. It shows how, in the absence of major funding from …
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The Homelands Blog
More food for thought on population
It was great to see National Catholic Reporter blogger Jamie Manson‘s thoughtful response to Sam Eaton’s PBS NewsHour story about food and family planning in the Philippines. It’s worth taking a look at the comments, too, …
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The Homelands Blog
And here are the links to the Philippines stories…
Rather than revise our previous post, we thought we’d give you a little list of links to today’s stories on Marketplace and PBS NewsHour, and to some of the extra elements that went live today. …
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The Homelands Blog
Double shot of Ff9B on TV and radio today
Today is sort of a coming out for the “Food for 9 Billion” project, with features airing on American Public Media’s Marketplace and PBS NewsHour. Both stories look at the links between population growth and …
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The Homelands Blog
Introducing Groundwork
On this day after the first presidential primary, we wanted to let you know about an exciting project we’re involved with called Groundwork, organized by the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University. Through radio …
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The Homelands Blog
Ff9B sneak preview
Happy New Year! I’m just back from South Asia, where I looked at grassroots efforts to prepare for climate change in Bangladesh and avert a water crisis in India. These are for future stories in …
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The Homelands Blog
More on food & revolution in Egypt
Sandy Tolan and Charlotte Buchen’s thoughts on Egypt’s food policies are on Al Jazeera’s website. The article grew out of the reporting they did for the “Food for 9 Billion” project.
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The Homelands Blog
Good morning Bangladesh
Just a quick hello from the domestic airport in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where I’m waiting to board a flight to Jessore, in the south. Some people say Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country in the world …
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The Homelands Blog
Egypt round two
As Egyptians prepare to vote in the second round of parliamentary elections this week, Sandy Tolan explores the roots of what some have called “the revolution of the hungry.” Listen for his story tonight on …
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The Homelands Blog
Powerful reporting from the Horn of Africa
Some really impressive work by the Fault Lines team at Al Jazeera English on the political and historical roots of the crisis in the Horn of Africa. See this 24-minute program about the origins of …
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The Homelands Blog
Egypt: Food for a revolution
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Otrng-9EEGM
Sandy Tolan and Charlotte Buchen’s report from Egypt for PBS NewsHour. It’s part of the “Food for 9 Billion” project, a collaboration between Homelands Productions, the Center for Investigative Reporting, PBS NewsHour and Marketplace.
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The Homelands Blog
On Marketplace today: famine vs drought
Our partners at Marketplace will air a piece by reporter Scott Tong on today’s show about the crucial difference between famine and drought. The story compares the situation in Somalia, where tens of thousands have …
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The Homelands Blog
The population elephant
A few comments on Marketplace’s story page for the first piece in the Food for 9 Billion series talk about the need to control population. It’s an important point, and one of our upcoming pieces, …
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The Homelands Blog
“Food for 9 Billion” launches today!
We at Homelands Productions have been talking about doing a series on hunger and food security since before the “WORKING” series was finished in 2009. We’re finally there, with the first two pieces scheduled to …
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The Homelands Blog
The world is talking about food
This is a busy month on the feeding-the-world front. October 16 is World Food Day, which means that food and anti-hunger organizations are holding meetings, making statements, handing out prizes, launching campaigns and publishing reports. …
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The Homelands Blog
(In)Visible project launches in San Diego
Just a quick heads up about the (In)Visible Project led by photographer and multimedia artist Bear Guerra. The project creates mobile physical exhibits featuring photos and audio of San Diego’s homeless population. It got great …
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The Homelands Blog
Check out the Ramallah Café
This is from Sandy Tolan, Homelands co-founder and author of The Lemon Tree, about his new book project and blog. I’ll be spending the summer in the West Bank working on a new book about …
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The Homelands Blog
Hungry in America: A Healthy Difference
Please check out the fourth and final installment in the multimedia series “Hungry in America” on the AARP website. “A Healthy Difference” was reported by Homelands’ Jonathan Miller with photography and video by Alex Webb …
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The Homelands Blog
A Harvest Out of Reach
Homelands senior producer Cecilia Vaisman, Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and the production team at Magnum in Motion have created a powerful multimedia feature about the struggles of farm workers to meet their basic food needs …
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The Homelands Blog
Budget cuts threaten indies as well as NPR & PBS
If you’ve been following the news lately, you know that federal funding for public broadcasting is under threat. Today the House voted for a budget that eliminates support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which …
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The Homelands Blog
Award-winning doc airs on NPR’s Hearing Voices
We hope you get a chance to hear this week’s Hearing Voices from NPR. It features a beautiful, thought-provoking story by Kate Davidson about a program of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints …
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The Homelands Blog
Homelands archive now available for download
Loyal readers will be pleased to learn that the entire Homelands Productions oeuvre is now downloadable from our website. For the last couple of years you could listen to our radio features on a special …
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The Homelands Blog
Ecuador judge rules against Chevron
Back in the early 1990s, Homelands Productions reported on the contamination of portions of the Ecuadorean Amazon by the American oil giant Texaco. Today a judge in Ecuador ordered Chevron, which acquired Texaco in 2001, …
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The Homelands Blog
So You Want to Do a Radio Series?
The good folks at Transom.org asked me to contribute a “manifesto” on the art of producing a feature series for public radio. The piece went live yesterday. It’s meant to provide a general idea of …
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The Homelands Blog
Hungry in America: Hard Choices
The second piece is now up in AARP’s multimedia series about hunger among older Americans. “Hard Choices” was reported by Homelands’ Sandy Tolan, with photos and video by Larry Towell of Magnum. Magnum in Motion …
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The Homelands Blog
Independent Radio Doc Wins duPont-Columbia Award
Hearty congratulations to our colleagues Trey Kay and Deb George for their Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award for “The Great Textbook War,” an hour-long radio documentary they produced for West Virginia Public Broadcasting. Deb is …
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The Homelands Blog
Indigenous Groups Weigh Risks in Climate Strategy
A new post on the National Geographic blog takes a look at the climate change mitigation strategy known as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation) from the perspective of two indigenous groups who will …
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The Homelands Blog
George F. Johnson and the Square Deal
Please keep your ears open on Wednesday, December 1, for a story on NPR’s All Things Considered called “The Legacy of George F. Johnson and the Square Deal.” The 13-minute piece was produced by Joe …
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The Homelands Blog
Multimedia Series Highlights Hunger Among Seniors
Homelands producers Jonathan Miller, Sandy Tolan, Cecilia Vaisman and longtime collaborator Deborah George are teaming up with Magnum Photos on “Hungry in America,” a four-part multimedia series commissioned by AARP. The first piece, “A Little …
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The Homelands Blog
Public Radio (and Homelands) in the Spotlight
If you have a chance, please take a look at Bill McKibben’s article about public radio in the latest New York Review of Books. He makes the case that radio, which receives no critical attention …
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The Homelands Blog
Congratulations, Chris Brookes
Old friend Chris Brookes has won yet another award for radio documentary. The Annotated Jack, about Chris’ neighbor, a retired fisherman in St. John’s, Newfoundland, won the New York Festivals Silver World Medal for profiles. …
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The Homelands Blog
WORKING Project Featured on Labor Day Show
Belated Happy Labor Day! Last weekend Re:sound, the Chicago Public Radio program that showcases radio documentaries from around the world, broadcast (actually “re:broadcast”) “The Work Show,” featuring Homelands’ WORKING project. The hour, which was first …
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The Homelands Blog
Migration Doc’s Timing is Sadly Apt
A story I reported from Honduras and Virginia for BBC’s domestic service, Radio 4, is being rebroadcast today in slightly edited form on the BBC World Service program “Assignment.” “Cutting the Lifeline” looks at the …
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The Homelands Blog
Ramzi’s Story on NPR’s Weekend Edition
If you didn’t hear “Ramzi’s Story” today on Weekend Edition Saturday, please check it out online. It’s a portrait of Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, a Palestinian musician who took part in the intifada as a boy. …
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The Homelands Blog
Radio Doc Explores Impact of Crisis on Migrants
A documentary on BBC Radio 4 today looks at the impact of the global economic crisis on migrant workers and the people who depend on them. “Cutting the Lifeline” was reported by Homelands’ Jonathan Miller …
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The Homelands Blog
Please Support our Friends at Fonografia Collective
If you believe in the power of multimedia documentary, you’ll want to check out Fonografia Collective. It’s a partnership between a photographer, Bear Guerra, and a print and audio journalist, Ruxandra Guidi, and they do …
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The Homelands Blog
You Go, Salina and Raffaella!
Salina Kosgei, who was the subject of a profile in the WORKING series we produced for Marketplace, came in third in today’s Boston Marathon. She won the race last year by less than a second. …
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The Homelands Blog
Congratulations to Indie Peabody Winners
It was wonderful to learn yesterday that two of our freelance friends won Peabody Awards for their radio documentaries. Deborah George, who will edit the Hunger Chronicles series, was editor for “The Great Textbook War,” …
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The Homelands Blog
New Series Exposes Food Crisis in California
After more than four months of reporting, Homelands co-founder Sandy Tolan and his students at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism have launched a powerful (and disturbing) multimedia series about hunger in California. “Hunger …
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The Homelands Blog
Homelands Project Featured in Diversity Book
If you’re interested in the relationship between nature and culture, you’ll want to check out the newly released Biocultural Diversity Conservation: A Global Sourcebook (Earthscan, 2010), compiled by the Canada-based NGO Terralingua with support from …
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The Homelands Blog
NPR Remembers Marco Armendáriz
If you’ve been following this blog, you know about our outrage at the murder of self-taught Mexican lawyer Marco Antonio Armendáriz Vega, who was shot to death in his home at the age of 56 …
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The Homelands Blog
New Book Celebrates Craft of Audio Storytelling
Documentary radioheads will definitely want to check out Reality Radio: Telling True Stories in Sound, just published by the University of North Carolina press. The book’s 20 essays are written by “some of the most …
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The Homelands Blog
WORKING Goes Live on iTunes!
For the first time, you can download Homelands programs and play them as you commute or jog or snowshoe or do your calisthenics. Thanks to a welcome nudge from our friends at the Public Radio …
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The Homelands Blog
Remembering Mexico’s Silenced Voices
Please check out our friend and colleague Ingrid Lobet’s remembrance of two courageous men she encountered as a reporter working in Mexico, both of whom were murdered in 2009. Her piece, “Brave and Dead,” airs …
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The Homelands Blog
Homelands Work Celebrated in “Best of 2009” Shows
Happy holidays, everyone! ‘Tis the season for “best-of” shows. We just learned that Ingrid Lobet’s profile of Vicki Ponce, an electronic waste recycler in Mexico, is included in the Best of Public Radio 2009 special …
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The Homelands Blog
No Progress in Armendáriz Case
In October we reported on the murder of Marco Antonio Armendáriz Vega, a self-taught lawyer who had spent years defending the poor and powerless in northern Mexico’s Sonora state. Marcos (as he was known) was …
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The Homelands Blog
Peru Gives US-Owned Smelter More Time to Clean Up
Occasionally we get updates about stories we’ve done. Here’s one we thought we’d pass along. In early 2007 Homelands produced a profile of Pedro Córdoba Valdivieso, a metal worker in Peru who was suffering from …
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The Homelands Blog
Cecilia Vaisman Teams with OSI on Statelessness Project
Homelands co-founder, senior producer and current board president Cecilia Vaisman was part of a multimedia team working on the Open Society Institute’s initiative on statelessness. She conducted interviews with people of Haitian descent who are …
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The Homelands Blog
Salina Kosgei Profile on World Vision Report
My profile of the Kenyan marathoner Salina Kosgei is airing around the country this week on World Vision Report. Salina, who grew up poor in a remote village in western Kenya, is considered the top …
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The Homelands Blog
Rest in Peace, Marco Antonio Armendáriz Vega
We are saddened and angered by news of the murder of Marco Antonio Armendáriz Vega, a self-taught lawyer who devoted his life to defending the poor and powerless against the corrupt and powerful in the …
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The Homelands Blog
Must-Hear Radio Event in Chicago
If you love radio documentaries and you’re anywhere near Chicago on October 23, you should check out the Third Coast International Audio Festival‘s annual awards ceremony. It’s a celebration of the extraordinary work being done …
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The Homelands Blog
Congratulations, Gregory!
I’m just back from the Public Radio Program Directors conference in Cleveland, where the good people at the Third Coast International Audio Festival announced that Gregory Warner‘s WORKING profile of Congolese miner Fidele Musafiri had …
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The Homelands Blog
WORKING Featured on Chicago Public Radio
Happy Labor Day! The documentary program Re:sound devoted this weekend’s show to the WORKING series, airing six profiles along with clips from a conversation between me and show host Gwen Macsai. It’s a good introduction …
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The Homelands Blog
Off to Indy to Pick Up Some Hardware
I’m heading to Indianapolis on Friday to accept the Sigma Delta Chi award for Radio Feature Reporting at the National Journalism Conference organized by the Society of Professional Journalists. Homelands won for the WORKING project. …
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The Homelands Blog
Worker Browser Finds a Home
I’m tickled to announce that the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations has agreed to take over the interactive Worker Browser site that Homelands created as part of the WORKING series. The ILR …
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The Homelands Blog
The End of WORKING As We Know It
The profile of Kenyan marathon runner Salina Kosgei is the 29th and final feature in the WORKING series. Kenya is the 25th country we’ve visited. It’s hard to believe that the series is coming to …
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The Homelands Blog
Salina Kosgei, Runner
Salina Kosgei was the 10th and youngest child of poor farmers in the highlands of western Kenya. The family home had no electricity or plumbing; Salina got her first shoes at age 14. As a …
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The Homelands Blog
Free Indeed
What a relief to hear that Iason Athanasiadis is in Dubai, confirmedly free! We are anxious to hear what happened from Iason himself. We know that Roxana Saberi, another colleague who was held in Iran, …
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The Homelands Blog
Waiting for Iason
Rather than rewrite yesterday’s post (is that even allowed?) we thought we’d say that news of Iason’s release, which has been widely reported, is still at the “Iranian foreign ministry officials confirmed” level of certainty. …
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The Homelands Blog
Iason is Free!
Great news today from Tehran. Colleague Iason Athanasiadis, who was detained by Iranian authorities after reporting on the disputed elections last month, was released after more than two weeks in detention. The government of Greece …
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The Homelands Blog
Friend of Homelands Held in Iran
Iason Athanasiadis, an extraordinary young freelance writer, radio producer and photographer, was detained by Iranian authorities on June 19 while trying to board a plane to leave the country. Iason had been covering the contested …
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The Homelands Blog
Babu Hussein, Shipbreaking Worker
Ismael “Babu” Hussein works as an assistant in one of Bangladesh’s giant shipbreaking yards, where armies of laborers dismantle huge old vessels with little more than hammers and blowtorches. The work is perilous, the bosses …
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The Homelands Blog
Brandon Davies, Banker
Brandon Davies‘ work is all about risk. After 32 years at Barclays Bank, he decided to try his luck as an independent operator. He quickly found himself with six or seven different jobs. He was …
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The Homelands Blog
Happy May Day!
In nearly every country in the world, May First is an important holiday – a time when people come together to celebrate the dignity of labor, and to reflect on the crucial role that ordinary …
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The Homelands Blog
Vicki Ponce, Recycler
For Mexican women of a certain age, finding decent work can be nearly impossible. Vicki Ponce was in her 50s, selling tamales on the street, when she and some women friends decided to try their …
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The Homelands Blog
Homelands Wins SDX Award
I’m tickled to report that Homelands has won the 2008 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Radio Feature Reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists. This is for the WORKING project, our collaboration with Marketplace about …
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The Homelands Blog
Alidad, Human Smuggler
For most refugees, fleeing the country is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. For Alidad, it’s a job. He’s spent more than 30 years smuggling Afghans on a secret nighttime passage through the mountains of western Pakistan into …
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The Homelands Blog
In Kenya, Never Again?
On Saturday we went to a photo exhibit in downtown Nairobi called Kenya Burning, documenting in gut-wrenching detail the post-election violence that erupted between December 2007 and February 2008. More than 1,500 people were murdered, …
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The Homelands Blog
Hang Nga, Marriage Broker
For Valentines Day, WORKING goes deep into the world of love and marriage. Well, marriage, anyway. Hang Nga is a Vietnamese woman who works for a South Korean marriage agency. She and her Korean boss, …
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The Homelands Blog
Ordinary Lives
I wanted to make note of two things I heard on the radio this afternoon. The first was an obituary of John Updike, on All Things Considered, that included Updike’s observation that “the big problem …
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The Homelands Blog
Svitlana Svystun, Circus Performer
When we first drew up a list of jobs we hoped to include in our WORKING series, “acrobat” was right at the top. Okay, that’s because the list was alphabetical, but even so, we’ve always …
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The Homelands Blog
For 2009: The Hunger Chronicles
Happy New Year, everyone! I wanted to thank you all for listening to our radio programs and for visiting our burgeoning Internet empire (Homelands.org, this blog, the Worker Browser, the WORKING section of Marketplace.org, Worlds …
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The Homelands Blog
Leandro Carvalho, Labor Inspector
I hope you get a chance to hear the new WORKING profile of Leandro Carvalho, an idealistic young Brazilian whose job is to find and liberate workers who are held against their will or forced …
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The Homelands Blog
The General and the Particular
One of the perpetual challenges for any journalist is to figure out when a person or fact or event is somehow representative of some larger reality, and when the personality or information or situation is …
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The Homelands Blog
Check out the WORKING Spinoffs
A quick note about some good work that has grown out of reporting for the WORKING project. Kelly McEvers has written a multipart series in Slate about her adventures finding and profiling a pirate in …
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The Homelands Blog
Worker Browser Trends
One rap against cool web-based media applications is that they attract a disproportionate number of males and a disproportionate number of people who work in information technology. I just sorted the early discoverers of the …
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The Homelands Blog
Fidele Musafiri, Miner
Folks, please check out Gregory Warner’s profile of Fidele Musafiri, a coltan and cassiterite (tin) miner in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. It’s tragic and powerful and pretty much exactly what we were aiming …
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The Homelands Blog
The Workers are Coming!
What a thrill to go online today and see that 164 people had put their profiles up on the Worker Browser! Up from just 15 yesterday. We’ve barely mentioned it to anyone, but apparently folks …
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The Homelands Blog
Is a Pirate a Worker?
I hope you got to hear the latest WORKING profile. It was produced by Kelly McEvers and features a pirate, Agus Laodi, in Indonesia. Agus boards cargo ships in the Strait of Malacca, holds their …
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The Homelands Blog
The Worker Browser Lives!
I know if you’re reading this you’re a true fan. So I’d like to invite you to check out something we’ve been quietly developing for two years as part of the WORKING project. It’s called …
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The Homelands Blog
Life After Third Coast
The Third Coast Festival has come and gone. What an amazing community we indie producers have managed to create! Two and a half days of hugs, grins, coffee, wine, and dancing. Oh, and networking, workshopping, …
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The Homelands Blog
Onward to Evanston
This week, as the global economy collapses, Sandy, Cecilia and I head merrily off to the Third Coast International Audio Festival in Evanston, Illinois. It’s an annual meet-up of people who tell stories with sound, …
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The Homelands Blog
Into the Blogosphere!
Homelands Productions has been around since 1989, creating public radio features and documentaries, writing articles and books, and generally doing our artfully journalistic (journalistically artful?) bit to promote world peace and understanding. In the last …