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
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
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
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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Special Projects
Stand-alones, one-offs, books, and other work from members of the Homelands collective.
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Sandy Tolan
Special Projects
Children of the Stone
Sandy Tolan
Special Projects
Children of the Stone
Sandy Tolan’s book about freedom and conflict, determination and vision, and the potential of music to help children everywhere see new possibilities for their lives.
It is an unlikely story. Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, a child from a Palestinian refugee camp, confronts an occupying army, gets an education, masters an instrument, dreams of something much bigger than himself, and then, through his charisma and persistence, inspires scores of others to work with him to make that dream real. The dream: a school to transform the lives of thousands of children – as Ramzi’s life was transformed – through music.
Musicians from all over the world come to help. A violist leaves the London Symphony Orchestra to work with Ramzi at his new school, Al Kamandjati. An aspiring British opera singer moves to the West Bank to teach voice lessons. Daniel Barenboim, the eminent Israeli conductor, invites Ramzi to join the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he founded with the late Palestinian intellectual, Edward Said.“Ramzi has transformed not only his life, his destiny, but that of many other people,” Barenboim says. “This is an extraordinary collection of children from all over Palestine that have all been inspired and opened to the beauty of life.”
In Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land, Homelands co-founder Sandy Tolan chronicles Ramzi’s journey – from stone thrower to music student to school founder – and shows how, through his love of music, he created something lasting and beautiful in a land torn by violence and war.
This is a story about the power of music, but also about freedom and conflict, determination and vision. It’s a vivid portrait of life amid checkpoints and military occupation, a growing movement of nonviolent resistance, the prospects of musical collaboration across the Israeli-Palestinian divide, and the potential of music to help children everywhere see new possibilities for their lives.
For book tour information, articles, excerpts, and other resources, visit Sandy’s author page on Facebook or his blog, Ramallah Cafe.
Reviews
“Eye-opening… Tolan’s exhaustive research and journalistic attention to detail shine through every page of this sweeping chronicle.” – Publishers Weekly
“[Tolan] portrays the multigenerational Israeli-Palestinian conflict by focusing on the life and musical abilities of one youngster, Ramzi Hussein Aburedwan, and his family and friends… This is an engrossing and powerful story, moving skillfully amid the failure of the never-ending battles and ‘peace’ talks between Israel and Palestine and the determination of one brave young man to change his world.” – starred review, Booklist
“A resolute, heart-rending story of real change and possibility in the Palestinian-Israeli impasse.” – Kirkus Reviews
“A non-fiction account that reflects one individual’s belief in the power of music and culture to transform lives. His story is proof of the famous words of Margaret Mead – ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.’” – Yo-Yo Ma
“Somewhere amidst the separation barriers and the countless checkpoints, the refugee camps and the demolished homes, the fruitless negotiations and endless conflict, there is a people yearning for a life of dignity and normalcy. You won’t see them on TV or in many newspapers. But you will find them in The Children of Stone, Sandy Tolan’s moving account of the dispossessed children of Palestine, and the transformative power that music has had in giving them meaning and reason for hope.” – Reza Aslan, author of No God But God and #1 New York Times bestseller Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
“Children of the Stone is alive with compassion, hope, and great inspiration. It is not necessary to believe in music’s power to defeat evil in order to be enchanted by this wonderful story.” – Tom Segev, Israeli historian and author of One Palestine, Complete
“Sandy Tolan’s narrative artistry fuses the coming of age of a talented, ambitious, and fiercely dedicated musician with the story of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories conquered in 1967. A major contribution to our understanding of who they are and essential to a political resolution of the conflict.” – Joel Benin, Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History, Stanford University
“Sandy Tolan has produced another gem on what is happening under the surface in Palestine. The book contains enthralling biographical trajectories of ordinary people fighting against the odds. Written in the style of investigative journalism, the book is riveting and uplifting, without skirting issues of contestation and controversy.” – Salim Tamari, Professor of Sociology, Bir Zeit University (West Bank), and author of Year of the Locust
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Who We Are
Sandy Tolan
Senior Producer, Board Vice PresidentSandy Tolan is associate professor of journalism at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC and author of Children of the Stone: The Power of Music in a Hard Land and The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, …
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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
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
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
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
“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
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
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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Sandy Tolan
Food for 9 Billion
Egypt’s Growing Pains
Sandy Tolan
Food for 9 Billion
Egypt’s Growing Pains
More than one million Egyptian farmers have quit the land in the last 20 years, reshaping the country’s physical and political landscape.
This Cairo family is part of a wave of Egyptians who have left their lands and moved to the cities. Many blame high food prices on the government’s policies that promote export agriculture. Photo by Charlotte Buchen. One of the most potent sources of the Egyptian revolution was the fury of the poor who demanded economic security – including sufficient and affordable food. Fresh in the minds of the throngs in Tahrir Square was the food crisis of 2008, when sharp price hikes put many basic foods out of reach for the estimated 40 percent of Egyptians who live on less than $2 a day.
In the wake of the revolution, some experts in Egypt say the country is setting itself up for future food crises, and needs to protect itself by becoming more “food sovereign.” In recent years Egypt has accelerated its export-oriented agriculture, using its precious (and possibly soon-dwindling) Nile waters to grow high-value crops like strawberries and table grapes for the European market, while relying on the international market for staples like wheat.
These policies have brought in foreign exchange, but they have also forced more than a million poor peasant farmers off their land and into the cities. And, opponents argue, they have made the country as a whole more vulnerable to forces beyond its control.
Now, as Egypt prepares to elect new leaders, the country finds itself at a crossroads. Should it integrate more fully in the global economy, as the IMF recommends, or should it seek to become more self-reliant?
This piece aired on the eve of presidential elections in December 2011.
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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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Sandy Tolan
Food for 9 Billion
In Egypt, Food for a Revolution
Sandy Tolan
Food for 9 Billion
In Egypt, Food for a Revolution
Egyptians used to grow nearly all their own food. Today, the country relies on imports. The people on the street aren’t happy.
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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
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
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
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
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
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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WORKING
Profiles of workers in the global economy, broadcast as a special monthly feature on Marketplace.
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Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Shipbreaking Worker
Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Shipbreaking Worker
Ismael “Babu” Hussein works as an assistant in one of Bangladesh’s shipbreaking yards, where armies of laborers dismantle old vessels the way ants devour a carcass. The work is perilous, the bosses abusive, the hours exhausting. Heavy stuff for a 13-year old kid.
Ismael “Babu” Hussein works as an assistant in one of Bangladesh’s shipbreaking yards, where armies of laborers dismantle old vessels the way ants devour a carcass. The work is perilous, the bosses abusive, the hours exhausting.Babu’s reward? Just over two dollars a day, and nightmares about being crushed by giant sheets of steel.
Heavy stuff for a 13-year old kid.
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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
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
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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Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Labor Inspector
Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Labor Inspector
Leandro Carvalho had a comfortable job as an insurance agent on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach when he decided to join Brazil’s anti-slavery task force. He says he won’t quit until the last slave is freed.
In the mid-1990s, journalists and human rights groups began to uncover a web of slave labor linked to some of Brazil’s biggest export industries: cattle, soy, sugar cane, and pig iron used in making steel for automobiles.The Brazilian government responded, setting up rapid-response teams to find and liberate victims of forced labor. Since 2000, more than 30,000 slaves have been freed.
Leandro Carvalho had a comfortable job as an insurance agent on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana Beach when he decided to join the force. And he says he doesn’t want to quit until the last slave is freed.
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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
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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Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Express Mail Driver
Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Express Mail Driver
Mr. Wang has traveled through Beijing picking up perhaps a quarter of a million packages destined for dozens of countries. Does he ever wonder what’s inside? “No,” he says, “I just want to make some money!”
Every weekday, Mr. Wang says goodbye to his daughter and his beloved pigeons in an old-fashioned Beijing neighborhood, mounts his bicycle and ventures into the chaos of the city.His destination is a local post office, where he parks his bike and climbs into a green express mail van.
Over the last 12 years, Mr. Wang (known as Laowang, or “Wang the Elder”) has picked up perhaps a quarter of a million packages destined for dozens of countries. Does he ever wonder what’s in those packages? Or who will receive them on the other end? Or why there’s such a big rush?
“No,” he says, “I just want to make some money!”
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Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Pop Singer
Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Pop Singer
Diana Dimova says she’s never so moved as when she sings the ancient mountain music of her native Bulgaria. But it’s no way for an ambitious, attractive young woman to make a living.
Diana Dimova says she’s never so moved as when she sings the ancient mountain music of her native Bulgaria. The music, distinguished by its haunting harmonies, was briefly popular in western Europe, and still enjoys a small but loyal audience.But it’s no way for an ambitious, attractive young woman to make a living. So Diana (better known by her stage name, Dayana) has decided to become a pop star.
She sings chalga, a popular form of dance music in central Europe. She performs for $10 a night at clubs, plus tips. It’s hardly glamorous, but stardom could be just around the corner.
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Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Mine Clearer
Sandy Tolan
WORKING
Mine Clearer
Valdet Dule is a Kosovar and father of two young children whose job is to find and detonate explosives left over from the wars of the 1990s. Until the land is safe, he says, his people won’t be able to realize their dream of independence.
Long after the fighting ended in Kosovo in 1999, the people of the region are still struggling to free themselves from the legacy of war.Thousands of landmines and unexploded bombs remain in farmers’ fields, in forests, along roadsides.
Valdet Dule is a Kosovar (and father of two young children) whose job is to find and detonate those explosives. Until the land is safe, he says, his people won’t be able to realize their dream of independence.
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Sandy Tolan
Special Projects
The Lemon Tree
Sandy Tolan
Special Projects
The Lemon Tree
The tale of a simple act of faith between two young people – one Israeli, one Palestinian – that symbolizes the hope for peace in the Middle East. Winner of a Christopher Award, Booklist’s best adult non-fiction book of 2006, and finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.
In 1967, Bashir Khairi, a 25-year-old Palestinian, journeyed to Israel with the goal of seeing the beloved stone house with the lemon tree behind it that he and his family had fled 19 years earlier.To his surprise, when he found the house he was greeted by Dalia Eshkenazi Landau, a 19-year-old Israeli college student, whose family had fled Europe following the Holocaust.
On the stoop of their shared home, Dalia and Bashir began a rare friendship, forged in the shadow of war and tested over the next half century in ways that neither could imagine on that summer day in 1967.
In The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, Sandy Tolan brings the Israeli-Palestinian conflict down to its most human level, demonstrating that even amid the bleakest political realities there exist stories of hope and transformation.
The Lemon Tree grew out of Sandy’s award-winning documentary for NPR’s Fresh Air. The book won a Christopher Award for “affirming the highest values of the human spirit” and was Booklist’s “Editor’s Choice” for best adult non-fiction book of 2006. It was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. -
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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Sandy Tolan, Elif Shafak
Worlds of Difference
The Street of the Cauldron Makers
Sandy Tolan, Elif Shafak
Worlds of Difference
The Street of the Cauldron Makers
Modern Turkey emerged in the 1920s as a secular, westernized nation where the rule was always to look forward, never back. But novelist Elif Shafak says buried memories have a way of rising to the surface. She takes us on a tour of an Istanbul street, where battles over identity, modernity, ethnicity, and minority rights have played out in miniature.
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Sandy Tolan
Worlds of Difference
Ladino Transformation
Sandy Tolan
Worlds of Difference
Ladino Transformation
Bulgaria’s Jews are survivors, but the language they have spoken for centuries is in trouble. Sandy Tolan visits with some of Bulgaria’s last Ladino speakers as they try to keep the tongue from going silent.
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Sandy Tolan
Worlds of Difference
The Imaginary Village
Sandy Tolan
Worlds of Difference
The Imaginary Village
In 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee their homes to make way for the new state of Israel. More than 50 years later, the villages of Palestine remain intact in the imaginations of refugees and their descendants.
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Sandy Tolan
Border Stories
Agua en Juárez (Spanish)
Sandy Tolan
Border Stories
Agua en Juárez (Spanish)
The explosive growth in Ciudad Juárez has put unprecedented pressure on the region’s water resources. Residents and officials search for solutions as the aquifer drains. In Spanish.
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World Views
First-person documentaries reflecting the perspectives of ordinary people around the world.
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Barbara Ferry, Deborah Begel
World Views
Luis and Negra
Barbara Ferry, Deborah Begel
World Views
Luis and Negra
Mexican-American writer Luis Alberto Urrea returns to the slums of Tijuana, where he worked as a young man, to see a woman he knew as a girl. His story, for This American Life, explores the sometimes uneasy relationship between “first world” writers and their “third world” subjects.
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Border Stories
Documentaries and features in English and Spanish exploring social, economic, legal, and environmental issues along the U.S.-Mexico border.
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Sandy Tolan
Worlds of Difference
Camisea: A Light in the Jungle
Sandy Tolan
Worlds of Difference
Camisea: A Light in the Jungle
For the native peoples of the Amazon, petroleum development has often been an environmental and cultural nightmare. But in Camisea, a huge natural gas deposit in eastern Peru, the oil companies say they’re committed to getting it right. The Machiguenga people aren’t yet convinced.
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Sandy Tolan
Worlds of Difference
An Exodus Of Women
Sandy Tolan
Worlds of Difference
An Exodus Of Women
Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankan women work abroad as housemaids, mainly in the Middle East. Their remittances are a cornerstone of their country’s economy, and a desperately needed source of income for their families. But their absence is keenly felt.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
Runaway
Sandy Tolan
World Views
Runaway
Debra Gwartney loved her two oldest daughters and they loved her in return. But then Debra divorced and moved the family, and relations with her daughters got worse and worse. Finally, at the ages of 13 and 14, they ran away. In this story for This American Life, mother and daughters try to retrace what went wrong.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
Roots of Resentment, Part II
Sandy Tolan
World Views
Roots of Resentment, Part II
Produced for NPR in the wake of the September 11 attacks, this documentary explores the historical roots of anger in the Arab world toward the west in general, and the U.S. in particular. Part 2 of a two-part series.
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Sandy Tolan
Border Stories
High and Dry in Juárez
Sandy Tolan
Border Stories
High and Dry in Juárez
The explosive growth in Ciudad Juárez has put unprecedented pressure on the region’s water resources. Residents and officials race to find solutions as the aquifer drains.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
A Bean of a Different Color
Sandy Tolan
World Views
A Bean of a Different Color
How a humble bean spurred an international trade dispute and served as a metaphor for mounting intellectual property battles in the new global economy.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
Coming North
Sandy Tolan
World Views
Coming North
A visit to a shelter for transients in the Mexican border town of Nogales, where would-be migrants prepare for the harrowing trip across the border to the United States.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
Me and Hank
Sandy Tolan
World Views
Me and Hank
The story of a boy and his hero, baseball slugger Hank Aaron, 25 years after Aaron’s traumatic chase for baseball’s all-time career home run record, and an exploration of the hatred Aaron endured in chasing a white man’s record.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
Ethiopian Jews
Sandy Tolan
World Views
Ethiopian Jews
A profile of Shula Mulah, an Israeli woman of Ethiopian descent, who came to Israel in 1984 as part of an airlift called “Operation Moses.”
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Sandy Tolan
Gloucester at the Crossroads
The Paint Factory
Sandy Tolan
Gloucester at the Crossroads
The Paint Factory
Townsfolk debate the fate of an abandoned 19th century paint factory on Gloucester’s inner harbor. It’s symbolic of a larger debate over Gloucester’s economic and cultural identity.
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Gloucester at the Crossroads
Examining the social, cultural, and economic effects of declining fish stocks in the U.S.’s oldest fishing port.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
The Stone and the Viola
Sandy Tolan
World Views
The Stone and the Viola
A first-person profile of a West Bank boy who grew up throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Now, as a teenager, he has embarked on a life in music. The inspiration for Sandy Tolan’s 2015 book “Children of the Stone.”
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
The Lemon Tree
Sandy Tolan
World Views
The Lemon Tree
An audio documentary, weaving the voices of an Israeli woman and a Palestinian man whose families occupied the same house, exploring the roots of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
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Stories from the Middle East
Documenting conflicts over land and water, and efforts to promote peace and understanding.
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Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part V: Negev Ancient Springs
Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part V: Negev Ancient Springs
Part 5 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.
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Sandy Tolan
Gloucester at the Crossroads
Lost at Sea
Sandy Tolan
Gloucester at the Crossroads
Lost at Sea
Over the last four centuries, Gloucester has lost, on average, one fisherman every thirteen days. The memory of the dead, and the knowledge that there will be more, have always haunted the town and its people.
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Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part IV: Of Jordan: A River and a Nation
Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part IV: Of Jordan: A River and a Nation
Part 4 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.
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Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part III: Collision In Gaza
Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part III: Collision In Gaza
Part 2 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.
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Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part II: Under the West Bank
Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part II: Under the West Bank
Part 3 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
The Poet and the Rickshaw Driver
Sandy Tolan
World Views
The Poet and the Rickshaw Driver
An Indian poet, Gagan Gill, describes her encounter with a homeless rickshaw driver on the streets of Delhi.
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Sandy Tolan
Gloucester at the Crossroads
St. Peter’s Fiesta
Sandy Tolan
Gloucester at the Crossroads
St. Peter’s Fiesta
For nine nights each summer, the Italian-Americans of Gloucester gather to pray to the patron saint of fishermen. It’s been a tradition since the 1920s. But with the depletion of the fish stocks, townsfolk are beginning to contemplate a very different future.
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Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part I: The Politics of Mideast Water
Sandy Tolan
Stories from the Middle East
Troubled Waters | Part I: The Politics of Mideast Water
Part 1 of a five-part series examining the role of water in political tensions and the peace process in the Middle East.
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Sandy Tolan
Gloucester at the Crossroads
The Penny Fish and the Multinational
Sandy Tolan
Gloucester at the Crossroads
The Penny Fish and the Multinational
Gloucester was once one of the greatest fishing ports on earth. Today it’s a gritty place where fishermen struggle to make a living. A debate over a proposed foreign-owned herring processing plant casts light on the challenges facing a town – and an industry – in transition.
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Sandy Tolan
World Views
Susan Walsh
Sandy Tolan
World Views
Susan Walsh
A profile, for This American Life, of a New Jersey go-go dancer who disappeared and was never found.
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Searching for Solutions
Documenting the efforts of innovators and visionaries working on ways to promote sustainable growth and development.
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Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Searching for Solutions
Solar Energy and Middle East Peace
Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Searching for Solutions
Solar Energy and Middle East Peace
Developing solar energy is part of the Israeli-Jordanian peace agreement, but the modest plans may be overwhelmed by market forces.
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Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Searching for Solutions
The State of Solar Energy
Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Searching for Solutions
The State of Solar Energy
In Israel, where developing alternative energy was always seen as a matter of survival, solar technology is pointing a way out of dependence on fossil fuels. Story produced in 1995.
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Sandy Tolan
Searching for Solutions
Mining History for its Lessons
Sandy Tolan
Searching for Solutions
Mining History for its Lessons
Have human beings always had the potential to destroy their own society, or is this a more recent, industrial phenomenon? Can anything be learned from the environmental missteps of our ancestors?
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Sandy Tolan
Searching for Solutions
Miracle Farmer
Sandy Tolan
Searching for Solutions
Miracle Farmer
In India, where signs of faith are everywhere, a deeply spiritual farmer has found a way to grow abundant supplies of rice without the use of harmful chemicals.
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Sandy Tolan
Searching for Solutions
India Food and Global Trade
Sandy Tolan
Searching for Solutions
India Food and Global Trade
Indians have long considered “food security” to be a national priority. Now, dependence on the global economy sends India on an uncertain and, some say, dangerous course.
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Sandy Tolan
Searching for Solutions
Food for a Billion Indians
Sandy Tolan
Searching for Solutions
Food for a Billion Indians
It’s growing increasingly difficult for food production to keep pace with population growth. In India, failure could spell disaster.
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Vanishing Homelands
Chronicling the changes to land and people across the Americas since the arrival of Columbus.
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Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Vanishing Homelands
Caribbean Dreams
Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Vanishing Homelands
Caribbean Dreams
Different sorts of dreams collide in the Dominican Republic, where industrial parks, sugar cane fields, and a posh resort all belong to a single U.S. corporation.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Refugees from a Fallen Landscape, Part 2
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Refugees from a Fallen Landscape, Part 2
Part 2 of a two-part report from Honduras examines attempts by foreign and private relief agencies to regenerate the soil and help farmers stay on their lands.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Refugees from a Fallen Landscape, Part 1
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Refugees from a Fallen Landscape, Part 1
Part One of a two-part feature about the effects of deforestation and desertification follows poor farmers in Honduras who are fleeing their damaged lands to an uncertain life in Tegucigalpa.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Shrimp Cocktail
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Shrimp Cocktail
Backed by U.S. government funds, salt flats along the southern Honduran coast have been converted into giant shrimp farms where lax enforcement of environmental, social, and labor laws are the norm.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Ecuador’s Golden Cities
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Ecuador’s Golden Cities
During the 16th century, the hills of southern Ecuador were a center of gold production for the Spanish. Today the region booms anew, its mines worked by thousands of desperate peasants.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
In Panama, a Clash of Cultures on the Frontier
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
In Panama, a Clash of Cultures on the Frontier
The construction of a road and hydroelectric dam in eastern Panama has threatened the survival of Guna Indians who live in the area.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Quichua Indians and Oil
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Quichua Indians and Oil
In the Amazon of Ecuador, two native villages have radically different attitudes toward oil development.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Ecuador’s Amazon
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Ecuador’s Amazon
Faced with crushing debt and pressure from lenders, Ecuador is rushing to open its section of the Amazon to oil development. But spills and dumping threaten settlers, indigenous people, and the land itself.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Saving Jungle Souls
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Saving Jungle Souls
The story of Bolivia’s nomadic Yuqui Indians and the American Evangelical Christians who coaxed them out of the jungle. The first story in the Vanishing Homelands series.
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Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Vanishing Homelands
Celebrating the Discovery
Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Vanishing Homelands
Celebrating the Discovery
Preparations for the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ arrival in the Americas raise questions about the value of celebrating the event that led to the European conquest.
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Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Oil in Ecuador’s Amazon
Sandy Tolan, Nancy Postero
Vanishing Homelands
Oil in Ecuador’s Amazon
A U.S. oil company has a controversial plan to build a new road and oil pipeline into some of the most remote Indian lands in the Amazon.
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Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Vanishing Homelands
Sugar and Sorrow in Hispaniola
Sandy Tolan, Alan Weisman
Vanishing Homelands
Sugar and Sorrow in Hispaniola
Haitian sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic live in squalid conditions. Although the sugar they produce is exported to the United States, the U.S. government has declined to intervene.