Story in the Public Square

It’s not unusual for friends, family members, and even good bosses to tell us, “practice some self-care.” But Nicole Karlis says that there are physical and emotional benefits to practicing care for others, too. Karlis is an award-winning journalist and author covering health and science. Currently, she’s a regular contributor at Salon where she’s covered women’s health, science and wellness culture since 2017. Before writing for Salon, she was a contributing editor at The Bold Italic, a culture magazine based in the California-Bay Area. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times. She is the author of the book “Your Brain of Altruism: The Power of Connection and Community During Times of Crisis.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s been said that the great challenge of diplomacy is to do and say the nastiest things in the nicest ways. Frank Lowenstein uses his experienced eye to consider if this challenge rings true for the United States under the second Trump administration. Lowenstein is an international policy expert with a concentration in policy development, strategic communication and legal practice. He has served as a special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for the U.S. department of state and worked as a senior foreign policy advisor to Secretary of State John Kerry. He also directed the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East and South and Central Asian Affairs, a position which allowed him to travel extensively throughout the Middle East. Prior to this role, he was the director of national security policy for the Kerry-Edwards presidential campaign and practiced law in Boston, Massachusetts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s probably cliché to say that sport imitates life, but Hanif Abdurraqib traces the intimate details of basketball legends and faded school-yard stars in an unforgettable book about sport, life, and the places we call home. Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist, and author of the new book, "There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension,” is the selection for this year's Reading Across Rhode Island Statewide Read, sponsored by the Rhode Island Center for the Book. His first full length poetry collection, “The Crown Ain't Worth Much,” was released in June 2016 and named a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Book Prize, and was nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His first collection of essays, “They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us,” was released in winter 2017 by Two Dollar Radio and was named a book of the year by Buzzfeed, Esquire, NPR, Oprah Magazine, Paste, CBC, The Los Angeles Review, Pitchfork, and The Chicago Tribune, among others. His book, “Go Ahead In The Rain: Notes To A Tribe Called Quest” became a New York Times Bestseller, was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize, and was longlisted for the National Book Award. His 2021 book, “A Little Devil In America,” was a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the The PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. The book won the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and the Gordon Burn Prize.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Humanity is capable of great dualities. Elizabeth MeLampy explores that in the way we both venerate animals, even while we exploit them. MeLampy is an attorney with experience in animal law and environmental law. She worked on issues related to farmed animals, wild animals, and captive animals with Harvard’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic while she was in law school. She served in the inaugural cohort of Emerging Scholar Fellows with the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law and Policy, where I worked on animal law scholarship. After two clerkships with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and the Federal District Court in Arizona, MeLampy litigated with one of the top environmental nonprofits in the country. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The saying goes that mothers and motherhood are the same all the world-over. Abigail Leonard puts that folk-wisdom to the test in a new book chronicling the first year of motherhood for four women from four different countries. Leonard is an award-winning international reporter and news producer, previously based in Tokyo, where she was a frequent contributor to NPR, Time Magazine, and New York Times video. Her stories have also appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Vox. Before moving to Japan, she wrote and produced long-form news documentaries as a staff producer for PBS, ABC and Al Jazeera America. Stories she reported have earned a National Headliner Award, an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism Award, an Overseas Press Club Award and a James Beard Foundation Media Award Nomination. She was a 2011 East-West Center Japan Fellow and 2010 UN Foundation Journalism Fellow. She served as First Vice President of the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan, a 2,000-member national press organization, and chaired its scholarship program. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Throughout the campaign of 2024, President Donald Trump promised to use tariffs to reset America’s global trade relationships, revitalize American manufacturing, and increase government revenues—and in the first months of his second administration, the president has used tariffs and the threat of tariffs to drive concessions even while raising antagonism and roiling markets. Kimberly Clausing helps us distinguish between the rhetoric and the reality of these tariffs. Clausing is an expert on the taxation of multinational firms. She served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis in the U.S. Department of the Treasury, serving as the lead economist in the Office of Tax Policy during the Biden administration. She is a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Clausing has worked on economic policy research with the International Monetary Fund, the Hamilton Project, the Brookings Institution, the Tax Policy Center, and the Center for American Progress. She has testified before the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Committee on Finance, the Senate Committee on the Budget, and the Joint Economic Committee. Her research examines how government decisions and corporate behavior interplay in the global economy. She has published numerous articles on the taxation of multinational firms, and she is the author of “Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eighty years ago, mothers with sons and husbands at war in Europe could celebrate the end of the war there, even as they worried about the possibility their loved ones might be heading to the invasion of Japan. Tim Gray has made his life’s work about telling the stories of those heroes, their sacrifices, and their legacy. Gray is a documentary filmmaker and founder and president of The World War II Foundation. He has won 5 Regional Emmy Awards in the documentary film writing and outstanding documentary film categories. He has also received four Indie Film Fest Awards in that international competition and two Impact Doc Awards. Gray has completed 38 documentaries to date. Tim Gray Media films consistently rank nationally in the top 5 of most requested programs by PBS and Public Television affiliates. Gray also hosts the “From the Front to the Films” podcast, which features well-known actors, authors, filmmakers, veterans, and others connected to World War II. He has also been a frequent guest on FOX News’ national program, “The Story with Martha MacCallum,” where he contributes to the network’s coverage of WWII events, issues, and stories. Gray sits on the Advisory Board of Patriots’ Hall of Dripping Springs, a foundation established by Emmy Award-winning actor Kyle Chandler and his wife Kathryn. Patriots’ Hall is a permanent retreat and resource base for veterans of all ages and military branches to connect and find support. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us can probably point to examples of people who suffered from racism, or who overcame racism. But Keon West reminds us all that “the plural of anecdote is not data” and that science actually has a lot to say about the reality of racism today—if we take the time to consider it and really understand. West is a social psychologist and an Associate Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has also worked at the University of Leeds and the University of Roehampton, both in the U.K. His research interests include stigma, bias and perceptions of people from other groups. Much of his prior research specifically investigated the contact hypothesis and its derivatives. Recently, however, his recent research has developed a stronger focus on gender identity, perceptions of sexuality and sexual orientation, sexism and anti-LGBT prejudice. As well as publishing a number of scientific papers each year, West has disseminated his findings in the broader media. He has appeared multiple times in various national and international outlets including the Guardian and the BBC. Though he currently lives in London, he grew up in Jamaica and has also lived in the United States and France. He received a B.A. in Psychology from Macalester College, St. Paul, MN, and a doctorate in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re used to thinking of technology as politically neutral—the zeroes and ones of binary code that operate independently of partisanship. But Marietje Schaake says that, increasingly, private technology companies are usurping the function of government and thereby posing a real threat to the health of Western democracies. Schaake is a non-resident Fellow at Stanford’s Cyber Policy Center and at the Institute for Human-Centered AI. She is a columnist for the Financial Times and serves on a number of not-for-profit Boards as well as the UN's High Level Advisory Body on AI. Between 2009-2019 she served as a Member of the European Parliament where she worked on trade, foreign and tech policy. She is the author of “The Tech Coup: How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley,” which provides insight into steps government institutions can take to protect their citizens from emerging invasive technology. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every year, American popular culture focuses on recognizing the entertainment world’s hits and misses in Awards Season. Daniel D’Addario gives us a well-informed, if fictional, glimpse behind the smiles and glittering ceremonies to understand the personal and professional commitment of actresses at the top of their games. D’Addario is chief correspondent at “Variety,” writing features, profiles, and columns. He has won awards from the Los Angeles Press Club for profile writing and for political commentary and is among the moderators of Variety’s Actors on Actors video series. His debut novel, “The Talent,” follows five actresses as they navigate the complex world of Hollywood. D’Addario was previously the television critic for “Variety” and for “Time.” A graduate of Columbia University, he lives with his husband and two daughters in Brooklyn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the story of a young sex worker to one about an aging star, another about a transgender drug lord, and another about a troubled immigrant and brilliant architect, this year’s Academy Award nominees for Best Picture tell stories that are both epic and intimate. Pete Hammond walks us through the nominees and what to watch for on Hollywood’s Night of Nights. Hammond, widely considered to be one of the pre-eminent awards analysts for both film and television, has for the past 14 years been Deadline's Awards Columnist covering the year-round Oscar and Emmy seasons. He is also Deadline's Chief Film Critic, having previously reviewed films for MovieLine, Boxoffice magazine, Backstage, Hollywood.com and Maxim, as well as Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guide for which he was a contributing editor. In addition to writing, Hammond is also host of the PBS SoCal Cinema Series and the weekly PBS television series "Must See Movies." He previously held producing positions at "Entertainment Tonight," "Extra," "Access Hollywood," "The Arsenio Hall Show" and "The Martin Short Show." Hammond is only the second journalist to have received the Publicists Guild of America’s Press Award twice, in 1996 and 2013. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There was a time in American public life when “the news” was a nightly ritual, a 30-minute glimpse into the wider-world, a way to stay informed. But Dr. Alice E. Marwick says that world is long gone, washed away in recent years with failing traditional news outlets and the rise of social media influencers. Marwick is the director of research at Data & Society. She is a qualitative social scientist who researches the social, political, and cultural implications of popular social media technologies. Her most recent book, “The Private is Political: Networked Privacy on Social Media,” examines how the networked nature of online privacy disproportionately impacts members of marginalized communities. Marwick has several other publications in the realm of communications and mass media. She is currently writing her third book on online radicalization, supported by an Andrew Carnegie fellowship. Marwick was previously associate professor of communication and principal researcher and co-founder of the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina. She was also Microsoft visiting professor at the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Children’s and young-adult authors often explore the pain and loneliness of growing up. Padma Venkatraman does it in an elegantly told story that also explores immigration, environmental change, and the power of friends to make everything better. Venkatraman is an award-winning author who was born in Chennai, India. Before becoming a novelist, earned a Ph.D. in oceanography from The College of William and Mary. She conducted postdoctoral research in Environmental Engineering at Johns Hopkins University and later worked in Germany. She also served as head of Inwoods Small School, and taught oceanography and directed diversity efforts at the University of Rhode Island. Venkatraman is the author of five novels including “Climbing the Stairs,” “Island’s End,” “A Time to Dance,” and “The Bridge Home.” She has written several other books, including: “Double Stars: The Story of Caroline Herschel (Profiles in Science),” “Women Mathematicians (Profiles in Mathematics),” and the illustrated “Growing Gold,” “Born Behind Bars” and “Cleverest Thief.” Her latest book is “Safe Harbor,” was published this month. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The world will mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II later this year. Richard J. Evans helps us understand the murderous leaders of Nazi Germany, and the people at every level of German society who did their bidding. Evans is an historian of modern Germany and modern Europe and is the preeminent historian of the Third Reich today. He has published over 20 books in the field, including his trilogy on the Third Reich. He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Literature and the Learned Society of Wales, and an Honorary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College Cambridge, Birkbeck, University of London, and Jesus College Oxford. In 2022, he was made an Honorary Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has been Vice-Master and Acting Master of Birkbeck, University of London, Chairman of the History Faculty in the University of Cambridge. He currently serves as Provost of Gresham College in London and a visiting Professor of History at Birkbeck University of London.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So many of us are curious about the stuff of space and time and the forces that bind us all together. Author and physicist Sean Caroll wants to encourage that curiosity, and believes physics can be accessible to everyone. Carroll is the Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy, a joint appointment between physics and philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He has focused his research on cosmology, field theory, and gravitation, looking at topics such as dark matter and dark energy, modified gravity, topological defects, extra dimensions, and violations of fundamental symmetries. He has shifted his focus to foundational questions, both in quantum mechanics—origin of probability, emergence of space and time—and statistical mechanics—entropy and the arrow of time, emergence and causation, dynamics of complexity, all while bringing a more philosophical dimension to this work. Carroll is the author of several books, including, “The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion,” “Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime,” and its second volume, “Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe.” He hosts the “Mindscape” podcast, featuring conversations with accomplished guests on new ideas in science, philosophy, culture, and the arts. Carroll was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2015. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Climate change has been part of the public lexicon for decades, now. But what once seemed like some dystopian, distant future is, according to Jeff Goodell, a reality—where higher temperatures are reshaping agriculture, animal migrations, the health of the oceans, and our futures. Goodell is a bestselling author and has written seven books including “The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World,” which was a New York Times Critics Top Book of 2017. He has covered climate change for more than two decades at Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, and many other publications.  As a commentator on climate and energy issues, he has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, CNBC, ABC, NBC, Fox News and The Oprah Winfrey Show. He has a BA from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MFA from Columbia University in New York. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the joyous streets of Paris and the opening of the Olympic Games to the snap of gunfire at a presidential campaign rally, 2024 has seen its highs and lows. Evelyn Farkas helps us unpack the stories that defined 2024 and name our story of the year. Farkas is a highly respected expert in American foreign policy and geopolitics, particularly known for her insights into U.S.-Russia relations and now serves as the Executive Director of the Arizona State University’s McCain Institute, based in Washington, D.C. She earned her MA and Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and is fluent in multiple languages. Under President Obama, Farkas served as the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia. She is the author of the book, “Fractured States and US Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s.” Her writing has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe and on sites including The Daily Beast, Politico, and Foreign Policy. Farkas has had an extensive career in government and has held prominent roles, such as senior advisor for Public-Private Partnerships to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe and the Commander of the U.S. European Command, and executive director of the bipartisan Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism. She also served as a senior staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, overseeing U.S. defense policy and military budgets. Farkas also serves on the boards of several prestigious organizations, including the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Institute Socrates Seminar. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

America's wars have produced a legion of heroes.  But historian Ronald C. White focuses us on the story of Maine's Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a Civil War lion whose service in war and in peace still resonates today. White is the author of two New York Times bestselling biographies, “A. Lincoln: A Biography,” and “American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant,” which won the William Henry Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography. His latest book, “On Great Fields: The Life and Unlikely Heroism of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain,” was published in 2023 and is a USA Today national bestseller. He has also written, “Lincoln's Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural,” a New York Times Notable Book, “The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words,” a Los Angeles Times bestseller, and “Lincoln in Private: What His Most Personal Reflections Tell Us About Our Greatest President,” which received of the 2021 Barnondess/Lincoln award.  White is a graduate of UCLA and Princeton Theological Seminary and received a Ph.D. from Princeton University. He is a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum in Washington, D.C. and has taught at UCLA, Whitworth University, Colorado College, and Princeton Theological Seminary.  He has lectured at the White House and been featured on the PBS NewsHour. He has spoken on Lincoln in England, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and New Zealand. He lives with his wife Cynthia in Pasadena California.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Survey after survey shows that local media is the most trusted media in the United States today. Tiziana Dearing transformed a successful career in advocacy, philanthropy, and the academy into the morning voice of news and information in one of America's great cities.  Dearing is the host of WBUR's “Morning Edition.” Prior to helping listeners start the morning with news from around the corner and around the world, she hosted “Radio Boston,” WBUR's daily local magazine, for five years. Prior to journalism, Dearing's career spanned academia and advocacy work. She taught graduate students at the Boston College School of Social Work and chaired its program in Social Innovation and Leadership. Dearing also ran a start-up foundation focused on breaking generational cycles of poverty in Boston neighborhoods and was the first woman president of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston. Additionally, she ran a research center at the Harvard Kennedy School and worked in management consulting. She earned the Pinnacle Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and was named one of Boston Business Journal's 40 Under 40.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Survey after survey shows that local media is the most trusted media in the United States today. Tiziana Dearing transformed a successful career in advocacy, philanthropy, and the academy into the morning voice of news and information in one of America's great cities.  Dearing is the host of WBUR's “Morning Edition.” Prior to helping listeners start the morning with news from around the corner and around the world, she hosted “Radio Boston,” WBUR's daily local magazine, for five years. Prior to journalism, Dearing's career spanned academia and advocacy work. She taught graduate students at the Boston College School of Social Work and chaired its program in Social Innovation and Leadership. Dearing also ran a start-up foundation focused on breaking generational cycles of poverty in Boston neighborhoods and was the first woman president of Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of Boston. Additionally, she ran a research center at the Harvard Kennedy School and worked in management consulting. She earned the Pinnacle Award from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and was named one of Boston Business Journal's 40 Under 40. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Across human history, we have looked to the heavens and seen things that didn't make sense. Greg Eghigian chronicles how those human experiences were translated by believers, skeptics, investigators and hoaxers in the aftermath of the Second World War into the UFO phenomenon we still talk about today.    Eghigian is a historian of the human sciences and medicine as well as modern Europe. He earned both his Master's and Doctorate in Modern European History from the University of Chicago. He is now a professor of History and Bioethics at Penn State University. His past work has focused on how societies use science, technology, and medicine to define and treat people and behaviors deemed to be troubling, bizarre, or outright dangerous. In recent years, the modern history of supernatural and paranormal phenomena has caught Eghigian's captivation. His 2024 book, “After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon,” depicts the social effects of claimed UFO sightings in the backdrop of the Cold War. He also has two other book projects in the works; a broad overview of the history of madness from the ancient world to the present and a study of the alien abduction phenomenon in the late-20th century. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When many of us think about animal rescue, we think about abandoned pets looking for a new home. But Carol Mithers chronicles the work of one woman in Los Angeles who challenges us all to understand that animal and human suffering are connected. Mithers is writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, L.A. Weekly, Smithsonian, O, the Oprah Magazine, Architectural Digest, Ladies' Home Journal, Glamour, The Nation, Los Angeles, Salon, The Daily Beast and many other outlets. Her Village Voice cover story, “My Life as a Man,” was syndicated internationally and made into an NBC movie of the week. Mithers is also the author of four books including “Mighty Be Our Powers,” written with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee. Her fourth book, “Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America's Forgotten People and Pets,” tells the story of Lori Weise, known in Los Angeles as the Dog Lady, who's spent decades caring for people in poverty and the animals that love them.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shakespeare called death “the undiscovered country.”  Luke Lorentzen documents the work of spiritual guides, also known as hospital chaplains, as they help patients navigate this country and the next.   Lorentzen is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and a lecturer in Stanford University's Department of Art and Art History. His latest film, “A Still Small Voice,” follows a chaplain during her year-long hospital residency. Exploring perseverance, spirituality, and the human connection, the film received critical acclaim. It won the U.S. Documentary Best Director Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was listed among the New York Times' top ten films of the year. Lorentzen is also a co-founder of Hedgehog Films, an independent production company. His previous film, “Midnight Family,” was also shortlisted for the best documentary Oscar after winning over 35 awards from film festivals and organizations around the world including a Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Editing from the International Documentary Association, and the Golden Frog for Best Documentary from Camerimage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The most 2024 story would have to involve the Olympics, presidential politics, and Taylor Swift. Joanna Weiss unpacks the recent convergence of those cultural phenomena and what they portend for American politics.   Weiss a Boston-based writer and editor. She is executive director of the AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University, a project to connect journalists and technologists. Weiss is a former columnist, television critic, and a political reporter at the Boston Globe. She is the founding editor of Experience magazine, published by Northeastern University. She started her career covering Louisiana politics for the Times-Picayune of New Orleans. A contributing writer for Politico Magazine, she has also covered culture and politics for Boston Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, The Economist, and others. Weiss is also contributing to an album-by-album coffee table book about Taylor Swift, coming out in 2025.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Since 2016, the presence of foreign disinformation in American politics—and especially on our social media platforms—has been well documented. But Darren Linvill says different state-actors—like Russia and China—behave differently online, depending on their goals. Darren Linvill is a professor of communication whose research explores social media disinformation and its influence on civil discourse (in and out of the classroom). He became a faculty member at Clemson after earning degrees from Wake Forest and Clemson and started studying social media in 2010. After becoming an associate professor in 2017, he delved deeper into the truth or falsity of online messaging and its effects. As a sought-after media expert, he's contributed to many articles and broadcasts by outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Bloomberg, Rolling Stone, Inside Higher Ed, The State, CNN, NPR, ABC, NBC, WFAE and others.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When many of us think about animal rescue, we think about abandoned pets looking for a new home. But Carol Mithers chronicles the work of one woman in Los Angeles who challenges us all to understand that animal and human suffering are connected. Mithers is writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, L.A. Weekly, Smithsonian, O, the Oprah Magazine, Architectural Digest, Ladies' Home Journal, Glamour, The Nation, Los Angeles, Salon, The Daily Beast and many other outlets. Her Village Voice cover story, “My Life as a Man,” was syndicated internationally and made into an NBC movie of the week. Mithers is also the author of four books including “Mighty Be Our Powers,” written with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Leymah Gbowee. Her fourth book, “Rethinking Rescue: Dog Lady and the Story of America's Forgotten People and Pets,” tells the story of Lori Weise, known in Los Angeles as the Dog Lady, who's spent decades caring for people in poverty and the animals that love them. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Shakespeare called death “the undiscovered country.”  Luke Lorentzen documents the work of spiritual guides, also known as hospital chaplains, as they help patients navigate this country and the next.   Lorentzen is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and a lecturer in Stanford University's Department of Art and Art History. His latest film, “A Still Small Voice,” follows a chaplain during her year-long hospital residency. Exploring perseverance, spirituality, and the human connection, the film received critical acclaim. It won the U.S. Documentary Best Director Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was listed among the New York Times' top ten films of the year. Lorentzen is also a co-founder of Hedgehog Films, an independent production company. His previous film, “Midnight Family,” was also shortlisted for the best documentary Oscar after winning over 35 awards from film festivals and organizations around the world including a Special Jury Award for Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Editing from the International Documentary Association, and the Golden Frog for Best Documentary from Camerimage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The most 2024 story would have to involve the Olympics, presidential politics, and Taylor Swift. Joanna Weiss unpacks the recent convergence of those cultural phenomena and what they portend for American politics.   Weiss a Boston-based writer and editor. She is executive director of the AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University, a project to connect journalists and technologists. Weiss is a former columnist, television critic, and a political reporter at the Boston Globe. She is the founding editor of Experience magazine, published by Northeastern University. She started her career covering Louisiana politics for the Times-Picayune of New Orleans. A contributing writer for Politico Magazine, she has also covered culture and politics for Boston Magazine, The Atlantic, Slate, The Economist, and others. Weiss is also contributing to an album-by-album coffee table book about Taylor Swift, coming out in 2025.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The data tells us that every minute of every day, 20 people are physically abused by an intimate partner in the United States. Ashley Bendiksen has turned her personal experience with domestic abuse into a calling to prevent domestic violence and help victims.   Bendiksen is an author, domestic abuse survivor, speaker, and an award-winning activist. She also graduated from Salve Regina University in 2013 as the valedictorian. She is also a nonprofit founder, co-owner of a life coaching agency for youth, and founder of the Blue Hearts Project. Bendicksen experienced dating violence that began a cycle of abusive relationships and trauma at age 14. She speaks publicly about her struggles with self-worth and unhealthy coping habits that led her to her most damaging relationship where she said, “I became homeless, penniless, and was forced to drop out of college by my abuser. I only finally escaped after I was severely physically attacked.”  In the days following her attack, Bendicksen says a moment of clarity helped her take steps to turn her life around. She began telling her story to raise awareness and serving on boards and committees of organizations that supported victims of domestic abuse. She chose domestic violence awareness as her central advocacy focus as Miss New Bedford, MA, and continues to leverage her experiences to serve others work in victim services and the justice system.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lies and disinformation are as old as humanity itself.  But Steven Brill argues that the witches brew of 30-year-old legislative consequences; mixed with technological innovation; and bad actors threaten the lives of democratic institutions and truth itself.   Brill is an award-winning journalist, author, and the founder of Court TV, The American Lawyer Magazine, American Lawyer Media, Brill's Content Magazine, Journalism Online and The Yale Journalism Initiative. He is also the co-founder and co-CEO of NewsGuard, a media platform that rates the reliability of news and information websites. His latest book, “The Death of Truth: How Social Media and the Internet Gave Snake Oil Salesmen and Demagogues the Weapons They Needed to Destroy Trust and Polarize the World – and What We Can Do About it” explores the threat of disinformation on society.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It may be a scarcity mindset that views plenty as better than a world where nations and people compete over limited, scarce resources.  But Francis Gavin explains that even in a world of plenty, there are vexing international challenges for which the United States is not prepared.   Gavin is the Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and the inaugural director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS. He was the first Frank Stanton Chair in Nuclear Security Policy Studies at MIT and the Tom Slick Professor of International Affairs and the Director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas. Gavin has had fellowships at Harvard University, the University of Texas, and at the Noble Institute. From 2005 until 2010, he directed The American Assembly's multiyear, national initiative, The Next Generation Project: U.S. Global Policy and the Future of International Institutions. He currently serves on the CIA Historical Panel and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Gavin is the Co-Founder, Co-Director and Principal Investigator, with James Steinberg, of the Carnegie International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network (IPSCON), and Founder and Director of the Nuclear Studies Research Initiative (NSRI). He's also the author of a new Adelphi Paper from the International Institute of Strategic Studies: “The Taming of Scarcity and the Problems of Plenty: Rethinking International Relations and American Grand Strategy in a New Era.” See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The shear amount of media generated and consumed in the United States every day is simply staggering.  Eric Deggans reminds us that the stories we tell, tell us something about ourselves—whether those stories are about music, or politics, or race. Deggans is NPR's first full-time TV critic and media analyst, providing reviews, feature stories, commentary and guest hosting services for the network's shows such as “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered,” along with writing for NPR.org and appearing on NPR podcasts such as “Consider This,” “Life Kit,” “Code Switch,” “Pop Culture Happy Hour” and “It's Been a Minute.” Deggans is also an adjunct instructor at Duke University and Indiana University, a member of the National Advisory Board for the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and chair of the Media Monitoring Committee for the National Association of Black Journalists. From 2017 to 2021, he served as a contributor/media analyst for MSNBC and NBC News. In April 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida gave him its Irene Miller Vigilance in Journalism Award.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The impact of climate change on the world around us is there for everyone to see—from stronger and more frequent storms to the loss of Arctic Sea ice.  But Sherri Goodman says the threat isn't just to crops or the polar bears, but to American national security. Sherri Goodman, Senior Fellow at the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program and Polar Institute, and Secretary General of the International Military Council on Climate & Security, is credited with educating a generation of US military and government officials about the nexus between climate change and national security, using her famous coinage, “threat multiplier,” to fundamentally reshape the national discourse on the topic. Sherri serves as Vice Chair of the Secretary of State's International Security Advisory Board and on the EXIM Bank's Council on Climate. A former first Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Environmental Security) and staff member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Goodman has founded, led, or advised nearly a dozen research organizations on environmental and energy matters, national security, and public policy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The stories journalists tell can stretch from the personal to the public. Francesca Mari is no different, giving us narratives and an understanding of personal health crises, the challenge of housing, and the kinds of shelter offered by both families and physical structures. Francesca Mari is a contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine focused on housing and equity.  She is also an assistant professor at Brown University.  Her cover stories for The New York Times Magazine explore the pandemic real estate boom, the rise of private equity landlords, and how the U.S. housing market became so dysfunctional and why it didn't—and doesn't—have to be this way. In addition, she has written features on homeless house sitters, con men, and other abuses of power for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Texas Monthly, The New York Review of Books, The Cut, and others.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Disinformation has a long history in the United States—often taking the form of storytelling. Best-selling author Annalee Newitz explains how stories have been weaponized—historically and today—and charts a path to a more peaceful future for all Americans. Newitz writes fiction and nonfiction about the intersection of science, technology and culture. Their first novel, “Autonomous,” won the Lambda Literary Award and was nominated for the Nebula and Locus Awards. Newitz' book, “Scatter, Adapt, and Remember” was nominated for the LA Times Book Award. They are currently a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times. Previously, they were the founding editor of io9, and served as the editor-in-chief of Gizmodo and as the tech culture editor at Ars Technica. They have also written for publications including Wired, Popular Science, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, Slate, Washington Post, Smithsonian Magazine, and more. Newitz is the co-host of the Hugo Award-winning podcast, “Our Opinions Are Correct.  They were the recipient of a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT, worked as a policy analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We know healthcare means hospitals and stethoscopes, and x-rays, and bloodwork, and prescriptions. But Dr. Dean-David Schillinger says stories are the key to healthcare—both our willingness to tell them; and our caregiver's ability to listen and understand them. Schillinger is a primary care physician, scientist, author, and public health advocate. He has served as chief of the UCSF Division of General Internal Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital, and chief of the Diabetes Prevention and Control Program for the California Department of Public Health.  He is an internationally recognized expert in health communication and has been widely recognized for his work related to improving the health of marginalized populations.  Schillinger is credited with a number of discoveries in primary care and health communication and is considered a pioneer of the field of health literacy. He is the inaugural recipient of the Andrew B. Bindman Professorship in Primary Care and Health Policy at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's easy to think that people and animals are incapable of coexistence. But Ruth Ganesh warns that mindset is dangerous to biodiversity, to the existence of some of planet earth's most remarkable creatures, and even to humanity. Ganesh is a creative conservationist and philanthropist with a particular interest in environmental issues. She has spent the last 15 years conceiving and producing large scale public art exhibitions in London, Edinburgh, NYC and Mumbai. Ganesh serves as the co-founder of the CoExistence Collective and principal trustee of Elephant Family, a non-government organization based in the United Kingdom dedicated to protecting Asian elephants from extinction in the wild.  The Great Elephant Migration is a global fundraising project of the CoExistence Collective that aims to to amplify indigenous knowledge and promote shared spaces between wildlife and humans.  The Migration features one hundred life-size elephant sculptures created a community of 200 indigenous artisans in the Nilgiri Hills of South India.  The sculptures are made from lantana camara, an invasive weed that encroaches on wildlife habitat and each one is modeled after a real elephant the artisans live alongside in India.  The elephant herd is currently in Newport, Rhode Island and will continue to visit sites across North America, including Miami Beach, Fla., The Blackfeet Nation in Montana, and Los Angeles, Calif. as they raise money and awareness to better protect migratory animals like the elephants.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Tyranny comes in many forms. But Leah Umansky uses her art—poetry—to remind us that whether the tyrant is personal, societal, or political—resistance is possible.   Leah Umansky is a poet, writer, artist and writing coach. She has been an educator for over 15 years and teaches 8th and 10th grade English at a private school in New York. She is also the author of three collections of poetry: “OF TYRANT,” “The Barbarous Century,” “Domestic Uncertainties,” and two chapbooks, “Straight Away the Emptied World” and the Mad-Men inspired “Don Dreams and I Dream.” She is also the creator of “STAY BRAVE,” a monthly newsletter for women-identifying creatives on bravery in the creative life. Her writing has been widely published in such places as The New York Times, The Academy of American Poets' Poem-A Day, USA Today, POETRY, Guernica and American Poetry Review.  She has also been the host and curator of the NYC-based poetry series. “COUPLET,” since 2011 and is a graduate of the MFA Program in Poetry at Sarah Lawrence College. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Over the last 25 years, while the United States fought costly wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the People's Republic of China has been expanding its influence, its economic relationships, and even the reach of it's military.  Michael Sobolik offers a sober look at the challenge China poses to the West and offers a strategy to guide America's response.    Sobolik is an expert in the American and Chinese grand strategy, regional economic and security trends, America's alliance architecture in Asia and human rights. He served as a Legislative Assistant in the United States Senate, drafting legislation on China, Russia, India, Taiwan, North Korea, Cambodia, and strategic systems and missile defense from 2014 to 2019. He has been serving as a Senior Fellow in Indo-Pacific Studies for the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) since 2019. Sobolik hosts “Great Power Podcast,” AFPC's show about great power competition and U.S.-China relations. He is also the author of “Countering China's Great Game: A Strategy for American Dominance,” which explains China's growing threat to the global stage. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Immigration has long-been a contentious issue in American politics. But legendary journalist Ray Suarez says immigrants keep coming to the United States, overcoming obstacles, working for better opportunities for themselves and their families, and all the while buying into the idea of America that binds us all together. Suarez is a journalist and author who co-hosts “World Affairs,” produced by the World Affairs Council and distributed to public radio.  He also covers Washington for the English-language all-news network Euronews.  Since launching Brooklyn Boy Productions in 2019, he has created content for public radio and television, The Washington Post, The Independent London, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Pew Research, Knowable, “America in One Room,” Hispanics in Philanthropy, Slate, The Nation, Hearst TV, AlterNet, CityPaper, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, the American Communities Project, and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project, among others.  Suarez spent 14 years as a correspondent and anchor at public television's nightly newscast, The PBS NewsHour, where be became chief national correspondent. During his years at The NewsHour, Suarez covered the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, four presidential elections, reported from the floor of seven party political conventions, moderated two presidential primary candidates' debates, among hundreds of others.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The last 25 years have produced plenty of conflict and a seasoned community of journalists who have moved towards the sound of fighting.  Sean Carberry documents the personal costs of those reporters, producers, photographers, and videographers who, in documenting the worst of humanity, have paid a price with their physical and emotional health. Carberry spent years as a journalist reporting from some of the world's most dangerous and mysterious locations, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.  He then worked for the government producing oversight reports on military operations in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.  He aims to keep his work non-partisan and non-political as he breaks down complicated foreign policy challenges.  He recently reported for National Public Radio where he served as correspondent in Kabul, Afghanistan and currently serves as managing editor at National Defense.  Carberry is also the author of a powerful new memoir, “Passport Stamps, Searching the World for a War to Call Home.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The myth is that anyone who works hard, saves their money, and makes good decisions, can develop wealth in the United States. But Louise Story and Ebony Reed document the long and painful history of the structures, policies and practices that have resulted in a profound wealth gap between Black and White Americans.   Louise Story is a professor at Yale University and media expert who spent more than a decade working at The New York Times. As an investigative reporter, she worked on multiple billion-dollar plus financial settlements, government reforms and legal convictions. She was a finalist for the 2010 Emmy Awards and the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in Public Service. Most recently, Story was the Chief News Strategist and Chief Product & Technology Officer at The Wall Street Journal. She co-authored a book with Ebony Reed titled “Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap.” Reed also teaches at Yale and is a seasoned journalist, editorial leader and news strategist. She has reported on public school systems, police agencies and city governments. At the Wall Street Journal, Reed was the New Audiences and Community Chief, overseeing four teams of journalists, engineers, designers and audience experts. She joined The Marshall Project in January 2022 as its Chief Strategy Officer.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2011, the Food and Drug Administration held a hearing to review a drug previously approved for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer. The hearing was fraught with concerns over the drug's safety competing with cancer patients who felt they were alive because of the drug. Dr. Mikkael Sekeres was on the panel receiving testimony, and weighing what he heard against the long history of the FDA to make sure drugs are safe AND effective. Mikkael Sekeres is a professor of medicine and chief of the division of Hematology at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He earned a master's and medical degree in clinical epidemiology from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine before completing his postgraduate training at Harvard University. He has served as Director of the Leukemia Program and Vice-chair for Clinical Research at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center. Sekeres' new book, “Drugs and the FDA,” is set in the context of the FDA's 2011 trial for the drug Avastin. There, he examines the ways the FDA became the sole authority on medicine in the United States and the process of approving drugs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For thousands of years, a mix of truth, lies, and down-right myths have shaped medicine's understanding of the female body. While the modern era has seen progress, Dr. Elizabeth Comen tells us those narratives about women and their bodies continue to shape the care provided women today.   Comen is a Medical Oncologist specializing in breast cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a professor at New York University. She earned her bachelor's degree in the History of Science from Harvard College and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital and her fellowship in oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Comen's research has been published in several prestigious scientific journals. She is a tireless advocate for women's healthcare and has mentored many students throughout their academic and medical careers, helping them to empower their patients with the tools they need to survive and thrive. Her book, “All In Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women's Bodies and Why It Matters Today,” dives into the inherent gender divide between males and females in the healthcare system.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As a best-selling author, Sebastian Junger has taken us to sea with an ill-fated fishing boat and, as a documentarian, shown us the reality of war in Afghanistan. But his new book is his most intensely personal, a look at his own health crisis, the near-death experience it triggered, and how it shaped his views on an afterlife.   Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times bestselling-author of “The Prefect Storm,” “Fire,” “A Death in Belmont,” “War,” “Tribe,” “Freedom” and his latest work, “In My Time of Dying.” An award-winning journalist, Junger is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world and has received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film, "Restrepo", a feature-length documentary co-directed with Tim Hetherington, was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Immigration remains a hot-button in American politics, but Javier Zamora tells the story of his own entry into the United States—a journey and a story that put a human face on the issue.    Zamora is the author of “SOLITO,” his New York Times bestselling memoir and is the 2024 Reading Across Rhode Island Selection. Born in La Herradura, El Salvador in 1990, his parents fled the country due to the U.S.-funded Salvadoran Civil War from 1980-1992. Zamora was raised by his grandparents until the age of nine when he began his nine-week odyssey to Arizona. His memoir recounts the perilous journey. He is the author of a poetry collection entitled, “Unaccompanied.” He holds fellowships from CantoMundo, Colgate University, MacDowell, Macondo, the National Endowment for the Arts, Poetry Foundation, Stanford University and Yaddo. He is the recipient of a 2017 Lannan Literary Fellowship, the 2017 Narrative Prize and the 2016 Barnes & Noble Writer for Writers Award for his work in the Undocupoets Campaign. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Racism is often described as an individual failing, but Dr. Tricia Rose explains that racism is better understood as the result of a system built over generations and even centuries—and perpetuated by the stories we tell about it today. Rose is the Chancellor's Professor of Africana Studies and Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives, Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. She studies African American life, culture, and the impact of inequality, in the post-civil rights era. She specializes in the ways contemporary forms of systemic racism are blurred and hidden in our everyday storytelling about racism and the important role African-American expressive culture plays in creating spaces of recognition, resilience, and resistance. She is the author of four books and one edited collection on subjects ranging from her most recent work on systemic racism to her earlier award-winning work on hip hop, black women's sexuality, and black popular culture.  They include, “Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America,” “Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy” and “The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters.”  Her latest, published this year, is “Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives―and How We Break Free.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the height of World War II, American military commanders created a unit dedicated to deception to give Allied forces an advantage on the battlefield.  The artists, sound technicians, and radio operators of the so-called Ghost Army remained hidden for decades, but filmmaker Rick Beyer made sure their stories were told. Beyer is a New York Times best-selling author, an award-winning documentary producer, and a long-time history enthusiast. His independent documentary, “The Ghost Army,” premiered on PBS in 2013. It tells the story of an extraordinary WWII unit that used creativity and illusion to fool the Germans. He also co-authored a bestselling book on the unit, and is president of the Ghost Army Legacy Project, a non-profit dedicated to preserving and honoring the legacy of the unit. He spearheaded the lobbying effort that convinced Congress to award the unit a Congressional Gold Medal. Beyer has produced numerous other documentaries and is the author of the popular “Greatest Stories Never Told” series of history books. He has written for Politico, The Hill, the History Channel Magazine, America in WWII and other publications. Beyer also co-hosts the “History Happy Hour” livestream with Chris Anderson, which can be seen live every Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET on the “History Happy Hour” Facebook and YouTube pages and is now available as a podcast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Public education has a long and varied history in the United States. But Laura Pappano says the challenges it faces now from parent-activists and partisan politics is unlike anything America's schools have seen.   Pappano is an award-winning journalist and author who has written about K–12 and higher education for over 30 years. A former education columnist for the Boston Globe, Pappano has written about education for the New York Times, Hechinger Report, Harvard Education Letter, Washington Post, USA Today and Christian Science Monitor, among other publications. She is the author or co-author of four books, including, “The Connection Gap: Why Americans Feel So Alone,” “Playing with the Boys: Why Separate is Not Equal in Sports,” “Inside School Turnarounds” and her most recent book, “School Moms: Parent Activism, Partisan Politics and the Battle for Public Education.” “School Moms” is an investigative study of the far-right's attack on education and an on-the-ground look at the parent activist battle, on either side of the debate, to control the future of public schools. Combining on-the-ground reporting with research and expert interviews, “School Moms” will take a hard look at where these battles are happening, what is at stake, and why it matters for the future of our schools. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The novelist has a way of exploring issues—putting flesh on bones—to tell stories about people that can educate, inform, sometimes inspire, and often anger. Vanessa Lillie uses that art form to shine a light on challenges facing native communities and native women, in particular.  Lillie is the author of the 2023 USA Today bestselling suspense novel, “Blood Sisters,” which launches a new series with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two Spirit at the heart of the stories. “Blood Sisters” was a Target Book Club pick and GMA Book Club Buzz Pick as well as named one of the best mystery novels in 2023 by the Washington Post and Amazon. Her previous bestselling thrillers are “Little Voices” and “For the Best.” She also co-authored the number one bestselling and ITW award-nominated Audible Original, “Young Rich Widows,” and its sequel, “Desperate Deadly Widows." Lillie was also a columnist for the Providence Journal and hosts an Instagram Live show with crime fiction authors. She is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma living on Narragansett land in Rhode Island. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The poet's ability to capture meaning with words has long been one of humanity's great gifts. Brian Turner has that muse and uses poetry to explore enduring questions of love and loss.   Turner is the author of five collections of poetry “Here, Bullet;” “Phantom Noice;” “The Wild Delight of Wild Things;” “The Dead Peasant's Handbook” and “The Goodbye World Poem.” He has also authored a memoir, “My Life as a Foreign Country,” and is the editor of “The Kiss” and co-editor of “The Strangest of Theatres” anthologies. Also a musician and songwriter, Turner has written and recorded several albums with The Interplanetary Acoustic Team, including “11 11 (Me Smiling)” and “The Retro Legion's American Undertow.” His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic, Harper's, among other fine journals. He was also featured in the documentary film “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience,” which was nominated for an Academy Award. A Guggenheim Fellow, he has received a USA Hillcrest Fellowship in Literature, the Amy Lowell Traveling Fellowship, the Poets' Prize, and a Fellowship from the Lannan Foundation.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.