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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Special Projects
Stand-alones, one-offs, books, and other work from members of the Homelands collective.
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Jonathan Miller
Special Projects
Power to the People
Jonathan Miller
Special Projects
Power to the People
As politicians argue about what to do about climate change, communities around the United States are taking matters into their own hands – pledging to reduce their carbon emissions, then hustling to make good on their promises. From Ithaca, NY, an hour-long special for State of the Re:Union.
Marguerite Wells is the manager of the future Black Oak Wind Farm in Enfield, NY, just west of Ithaca. The seven-turbine, 11.9 megawatt facility will be partly owned by local investors. Wells was running a green roof plant nursery when she started volunteering on the project. Now it’s a full-time job. Photo by Jonathan Miller The climate is going haywire, and politicians are bickering over what to do about it, or whether to do anything at all. But around the country, communities are taking matters into their own hands, publicly pledging to shrink their carbon footprints, then setting out to make good on their promises. Leading, they hope, from below.
Mike McCoy works as an installer for Taitem Engineering, an Ithaca firm that participated in the Solar Tompkins solar incentives program in 2014 and 2105. In one year, the program more than doubled the number of residential solar systems in the county. McCoy began as an apprentice and is now a full-time employee. Photo by Jonathan Miller In this special hour for State of the Re:Union, guest producer Jonathan Miller gives us a tour of his uber-progressive but practical-minded hometown of Ithaca, New York, where citizens and civic leaders are hustling to wean themselves from fossil fuels.
Acknowledgments: Thanks to Judy Hyman for composing and performing most of the music in the program. Also thanks to Peter Bardaglio (Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative), Gay Nicholson (Sustainable Tompkins), Ed Marx and Katie Borgella (Tompkins County Planning Department), City and Town of Ithaca Sustainability Planner Nick Goldsmith, Mike Sigler (Tompkins County Legislature), Jim Catalano, Dylan Brown, Annie and Marie Burns of The Burns Sisters, The Horse Flies, Jeff Claus, Richie Stearns, and the Cornell Glee Club.
A list of all the music heard on the program can be found here.
Links:
Black Oak Wind Farm
EcoVillage at Ithaca
Sustainable Tompkins
Sustainable Ithaca
Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative
Solar Tompkins
Cornell University Sustainable Campus
Tompkins County Sustainability
Town of Ithaca Sustainability
New York State “Reforming the Energy Vision” Initiative
New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) -
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
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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Who We Are
Jonathan Miller
Executive Director, Board MemberJonathan Miller’s work as a reporter, writer, editor, radio and television producer, podcaster, communications specialist, human rights advocate, and project leader has taken him to more than 20 countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe, …
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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
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
“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
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
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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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Alt Meat Lunch
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Alt Meat Lunch
As global demand for animal protein surges, so do the environmental costs of producing it. Researchers in the Netherlands are exploring alternatives, from lab-grown burgers to edible insects to faux meat made from plants. But will people eat them?
Stir-fried vegetables with mealworms. Photo by Jonathan Miller. As global demand for animal protein surges, so do the environmental costs of producing it. Researchers in the Netherlands are exploring alternatives, from lab-grown burgers to edible insects to faux meat made from plants. But will people eat them?
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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
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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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Aquaponic Lunch
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Aquaponic Lunch
Aquaponics is a recirculating system for raising fish and vegetables that uses less land, water, and chemicals than traditional methods. For years it has attracted hobbyists but few others. A Ugandan entrepreneur thinks its time has finally come.
Engineer and entrepreneur Charles Mulamata (left) inspects a Nile tilapia from one of his tanks. Photo by Jonathan Miller. Aquaponics is a recirculating system for raising fish and vegetables that uses less land, water, and chemicals than traditional methods. For years it has attracted hobbyists but few others. A Ugandan entrepreneur thinks its time has finally come.
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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Desert Lunch
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Desert Lunch
In the desert of Qatar, scientists and engineers are working to transform “what we have enough of” – sand, sunlight, sea water, and CO2 – into “what we need more of” – energy, fresh water, and food. Does their idea hold promise for the world’s driest places?
The Sahara Forest Project is intended to mimic a natural ecosystem, with the waste product of one component serving as the fuel or fertilizer for another. The project’s designers say the concept should work in any low-altitude desert area near a large source of salt water. Above, an artist’s rendering shows a full-scale commercial facility. Graphic provided by Sahara Forest Project. In the desert of Qatar, scientists and engineers are working to transform “what we have enough of” – sand, sunlight, sea water, and CO2 – into “what we need more of” – energy, fresh water, and food. Does their idea hold promise for the world’s driest places?
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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Transgenic Lunch
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Transgenic Lunch
Scientists in the U.S. and Uganda have developed genetically engineered cassava plants that resist two devastating viral diseases. Is it a boon for small farmers or a Trojan horse?
Ugandan farmer Eva Mugalu samples cassava from her property north of Kampala. Cassava is an important food security crop for millions of Africans, but it is susceptible to viruses. Scientists say they are nearly ready with a genetically engineered virus-resistant variety. Photo by Jonathan Miller. For years, proponents of genetic engineering have said that gene-splicing technology can help the world’s poorest farmers – making their crops more nutritious, or more productive, or protecting them against drought and pests and diseases.
But they haven’t had much to show for those claims. Even in developing countries, most of the land area planted in GMOs is devoted to commercial crops on industrial farms. Opponents of GMOs have included that fact among their many arguments against transgenics.
Today, though, there are dozens of genetically engineered crops in the pipeline that are specifically aimed at small-scale farmers in poor countries. In many cases, they are being developed by public sector scientists who plan to make them available at little or no cost.
In this story, we travel to Uganda to meet researchers working on a genetically engineered cassava variety that resists two devastating viral diseases. The scientists say it’s the best hope for saving a critically important food security crop.
But critics question whether the new variety is really necessary and suggest that the real goal is to break down resistance to GMOs on a continent that has been wary of the technology. Are GMOs a boon for Africa, or are they a Trojan Horse?
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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Could Agriculture Bloom in the Desert?
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Could Agriculture Bloom in the Desert?
Petroleum-rich Qatar has welcomed innovators seeking solutions to the challenges facing desert areas worldwide, from renewable energy to fresh water to food production.
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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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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Cafeteria Lunch
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Cafeteria Lunch
Some of the biggest players in the sustainable food movement are food service companies with the buying power to change the way millions of people eat every day.
Helene York of Bon Appétit Management Company meets Jared Auerbach of Red’s Best Seafood at the Boston Fish Pier. Auerbach buys from small- and medium-scale fishermen around New England. York says smaller suppliers play a key role in a sustainable food system. Photo by Jonathan Miller. Some of the biggest players in the sustainable food movement are food service companies with the buying power to change the way millions of people eat every day.
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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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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Taking the Climate Fight to the Table
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Taking the Climate Fight to the Table
Low-emissions cooking aims to slow global warming, one plate at a time. A celebrated Baltimore chef and an expert in climate-friendly cuisine join forces on a holiday meal.
Baltimore chef and restaurant owner Spike Gjerde (left) and his colleague Ben Lambert prepare a meal based on local squash and farmed Maryland oysters. Photo by Jonathan Miller. Low-emissions cooking aims to slow global warming one plate at a time. A celebrated Baltimore chef and an expert in climate-friendly cuisine join forces on a holiday meal.
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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
“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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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Water Man
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Water Man
Fast-growing India is pumping its aquifers dry. Rajendra Singh says solutions will come from the ground up.
The average person drinks two quarts of water every day, but it takes more than a thousand times that to produce a day’s worth of food. That’s a problem everywhere, but especially in India, where scientists say nearly a third of the country’s underground aquifers are already in critical condition.
Rajendra Singh has become known as “The Water Man” for his efforts to engage communities in grassroots conservation efforts. Among his accomplishments: Seven dry rivers in his home district are flowing year-round again.
Rajendra Singh at the headquarters of the organization he directs, Tarun Bharat Sangh (Indian Youth Association). Since the 1980s, the group has focused on community-based water management.Photo: Jonathan MillerSingh at the first water harvesting structure he built in the Alwar District of Rajasthan state.Photo: Jonathan MillerA cloth map shows the locations of water harvesting structures in Alwar. Singh says there are now more than 10,000 structures in the area, all built by hand by community members.Photo: Jonathan MillerThe most common type of water harvesting structure in Alwar is a “check dam,” known locally as a johad. Different types of structures are used in other places.Photo: Jonathan MillerVillagers move rocks for a new johad. Water harvesting goes back hundreds of years, but was largely abandoned with the arrival of tube wells and electric pumps.Photo: Jonathan MillerHarshaye, 65, says he is confident that this area will be green and productive by next year.Photo: Jonathan MillerSingh now spends most of his time on national and regional water policy issues. He says the Indian government is beginning to see the value of grassroots water management.Photo: Jonathan MillerAn employee of Singh’s nonprofit leads a field trip for university students from the central Indian city of Bhopal. Rainwater harvesting is enjoying a resurgence, but groundwater withdrawals still far outpace deposits.Photo: Jonathan MillerIn Lapuria village in central Rajasthan, local leader Laxman Singh (right) listens as villager Chhotu describes his work planting trees. Singh says water conservation has revitalized the village.Photo: Jonathan MillerA girl draws drinking water from a well in Lapuria. The water table had dropped to more than 200 feet below the surface. Now it is 20 to 30 feet down, thanks to a range of conservation measures.Photo: Jonathan Miller -
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
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
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
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
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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Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Food for 9 Billion: The Scientific Challenge
Jonathan Miller
Food for 9 Billion
Food for 9 Billion: The Scientific Challenge
Nearly every prescription for feeding the world says we need to invest more money in science. What’s that money going to get us?
The sorting room at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico. The center ships experimental grain to plant breeders around the world at no cost. Photo by Jonathan Miller. Nearly every prescription for feeding the world says we need to invest more money in science. What’s that money going to get us?
In this story we travel to Mexico, birthplace of the Green Revolution, where international scientists are working on a wide range of interventions, from hardier crop varieties to better ways to manage the soil. And we go into the field with a Mexican scientist whose grassroots work aims to put the knowledge of millions of farmers to work on improving yields.
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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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WORKING
Profiles of workers in the global economy, broadcast as a special monthly feature on Marketplace.
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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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Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Runner
Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Runner
Salina Kosgei always loved to run. At 16, she decided to make a career of it. Sixteen years and two kids later she found herself elbow to elbow with the defending champ in the most prestigious marathon in the world, with the finish line in sight.
Photo by Stevie Mann. Salina Kosgei was the tenth and youngest child of poor farmers in the highlands of western Kenya. The family hut had no electricity or plumbing. As a kid, Salina used to run 10 kilometers to school, barefoot, just for the fun of it.
But where Salina grew up, running wasn’t just a hobby. It was a well-worn path to financial security. The best houses in her area belonged to runners who had made good.
So at 16 she decided to go pro. It was a long slog, with lots of ups and downs. Then one day she found herself elbow to elbow with the defending champ in the most prestigious marathon in the world, with the finish line in sight.
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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 …
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Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Industrial Designer
Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Industrial Designer
Industrial designers are the anonymous people who decide how the things around us look and feel. For Raffaella Mangiarotti, design isn’t about colors or shapes. It’s about solving problems.
There’s a huge amount of human effort buried in almost everything around us. You just need to know where to look.Peer deep into a toaster or a loaf of bread and you’ll find engineers and farmers, bankers and accountants, scientists, secretaries, architects, and graphic artists, not to mention politicians and tax collectors, health inspectors and extension workers, truck drivers and mechanics.
Industrial designers may be the ultimate “embeds.” They’re the anonymous people who decide how the things around us look and feel. Raffaella Mangiarotti lives in Milan, the global capital of design. She designs everything from plungers and toilet brushes to vacuum cleaners and washing machines.
For Mangiarotti, design isn’t about objects or colors or shapes. It’s about solving problems.
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Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Movie Director
Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Movie Director
Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry may be the third largest in the world, but with little government support, daily power failures, no real studios, and rudimentary equipment, Nigerian filmmakers must be masters of making do. That describes Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen to a tee.
Nigeria produces more movies per year than any other country but India and the United States. Since the 1990s, “Nollywood” videos have been an entertainment staple – and a source of pride – for Africans everywhere.But with little government support, daily power failures, no real studios, and the most rudimentary equipment, Nigerian filmmakers can’t just be artists. They need to be masters of making do.
That describes Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen. At 37, the man known as “The Governor” has already directed more than 150 films. And every single one has been a struggle.
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Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Chocolate Taster
Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Chocolate Taster
Chloé Doutre-Roussel is in great demand around the world – not just because of her extraordinary palate and her memory for scents and flavors but because of her brutal honesty. “Diplomacy is not one of my known traits,” she laughs. Nor is self-satisfaction.
The New York Times called Chloé Doutre-Roussel a “goddess.” International chocolate guru Martin Christy compares her to Joan of Arc.As a freelance chocolate expert, she is in great demand around the world – not just because of her extraordinary palate but because of her brutal honesty.
“Diplomacy is not one of my known traits,” she confesses.
Nor is self-satisfaction. Globetrotting chocolate taster may be many people’s idea of the best job in the world, but Doutre-Roussel says it has its drawbacks.
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Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Textile Worker
Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Textile Worker
Marco Moreno’s parents were tailors, with a tiny shop in a working-class neighborhood in Lima, Peru. He and his brothers decided they could do better. But nobody said it would be easy.
The garment industry is a place where dreams are more often shattered than fulfilled. The margins are low, the work is exacting, and the competition is brutal. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would actually choose to get into the business.But that’s what Marco Moreno Gonzales did. Moreno’s parents were tailors, with a tiny shop in a working-class neighborhood in Lima, Peru. Eventually they gave up and moved to Italy.
Marco and his brothers decided they could do better.
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Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Basketball Scout
Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Basketball Scout
Nigerian Sam Ahmedu is a foot soldier in the NBA’s army of international recruiters. A few of his finds have made it to the pros, but that’s not what motivates him.
More than one-fifth of all NBA players are from outside the United States, including some of the league’s biggest stars. Most of these foreign players have been on the league’s radar since they were barely old enough to dunk. That’s thanks to a global army of basketball gumshoes, scouring the planet for talent.Sam Ahmedu is a foot soldier in that army. He’s based in Nigeria, but his brief is all of Africa. A few of Ahmedu’s finds have made it to the NBA, but that’s not what motivates him.
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Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Metal Worker
Jonathan Miller
WORKING
Metal Worker
Pedro Córdoba’s says his job in a giant Peruvian smelter has made him seriously ill. And he’s not going to take it lying down.
Photo by Santiago Mujica Bustamante. Almost everyone in La Oroya, Peru, depends on the giant multi-metal smelter and refinery that sprawls across the valley floor. It doesn’t just dominate the city visually, aurally, and olfactorily, but also economically, politically, and psychologically.
That makes most townspeople tolerant of conditions that elsewhere might lead to open rebellion.
Not so Pedro Córdoba Valdivieso, a mechanic who works in the smelter. He is suffering from an incurable lung disease caused by years of inhaling rock dust. And he’s determined to make the company pay.
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Worlds of Difference
Stories about people and communities facing critical decisions about who they are and who they want to be.
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Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
The Free Monks
Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
The Free Monks
In Greece, the Orthodox Church has always presented itself as the guardian of national identity. But some think it’s not doing enough to protect the country from western domination. We meet a rock band made up of black-robed monks whose music rails against globalization and the “New World Order.”
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Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
Return of the Hellenes
Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
Return of the Hellenes
More than 95% of all Greeks are Orthodox. But recently there’s been a revival of interest in the pre-Christian past. For some, that means taking another look at ancient Greek ideals like reason and democratic debate. For others, it means worshiping the Olympian gods. All say their eyes are on the future.
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Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
Maasai Schools
Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
Maasai Schools
The Maasai people of Kenya have long considered public education as a trick designed to rob them of their culture. Now many see the schools as a key to survival – and as a way to change some aspects of their culture that need changing.
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Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
Andean Harvest
Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
Andean Harvest
Peasant farmers in Peru’s central highlands grow hundreds of varieties of potatoes. Now they’re being encouraged to sell them to high-end consumers. But potatoes are more than just food in the Andes – they’re part of a complex spiritual, biological, and cultural universe. Will the market change that?
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Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
Welsh Renaissance
Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
Welsh Renaissance
Languages around the world are disappearing at an unprecedented rate. But Welsh is making a comeback, and children are leading the way. Now the challenge is to move Welsh from the classroom to the living room. Meet the Steel family of Clydach.
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Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
To Perpetuate Life as it was Meant to Be
Jonathan Miller
Worlds of Difference
To Perpetuate Life as it was Meant to Be
By almost every measure, native Hawaiians are the worst off of Hawaii’s many ethnic groups. One of the biggest problems is drug abuse. Ho’omau Ke Ola is a community treatment program that looks to island traditions for a way forward.
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Jonathan Miller
Special Projects
Mapping a Lost Territory
Jonathan Miller
Special Projects
Mapping a Lost Territory
In the highland jungle of Peru, two men rush to preserve the geography, history, music, and myths of a now-scattered people using digital mapping technology and collective memory. The story served as a pilot for the “Worlds of Difference” series.