(2nd interview)
Slash Coleman shares how the death of his friend who made Neon signs inspired an one-man play to celebrating his life.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
A "Lost Boy" No More
A "lOST BOY" NO MORE
Emmanuel Chan shares why he plans raise his family in America and not return to his homeland in the Sudan. More than 20 years ago he fled his village with a group of children known as "The Lost Boys."
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
New Father, New Life
Tuesday, September 15 2009
New Father, New Life
Richard Gardner
Among the many Americans searching for jobs are young, first-time fathers. Richard Gardner of Chicago says when he learned that his girlfriend was pregnant, he immediately stopped hanging out with gang members and found work as an evening janitor. Now he's attending nursing school and reaching out to other young fathers. Dick Gordon talks to him about how being raised in a two-parent home didn't deter him from gang life and what sacrifices he's made to be a positive example to his three-year-old son Richard Jr.- Learn more about Metropolitan Family Services, a group that helped Richard.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Tuning out Fear & Your story: Getting His Credentials
Friday, September 11 2009
DOUBLE FEATURE!!!
Tuning out Fear & Your story: Getting His Credentials
Vic Gregory
As America marks the 8th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, one Michigan teacher is still dealing with the legacy of the incident. Vic Gregory had his dream job as a drag car racer. He left that to teach auto shop at his alma mater, Fordson High School in Dearborn, Mich. The school has a high number of students from the Middle East. The day after 9/11, there was a bomb threat and school officials wondered how to keep the teenagers safe.
The teachers and the students had to redefine themselves after 9/11. These days, Vic says that his auto shop program is helping kids get jobs and feel proud of their heritage.
Your story: Getting His Credentials
Malcolm Morris
Malcolm Morris has a story of how his experience in war inspired a form of courage in later years. Malcolm was seven years old, living in London, when German bombs rained down on the city. Soon after, he got a small camera, and began shooting photographs. He tells Dick the story of the phone call he made as a grown up that changed his life, and about the time Princess Diana saved the day.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The Pursuit of Education
One of the new students at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine this year is Mike Mallah. For Mike, this is an achievement for his entire family - going back generations. Mike's parents lost two homes to war - first in Palestine and later Kuwait during the Gulf War. They settled in the United States and began to see a brighter future when they opened a neighborhood convenience store. Then Mike's father, Mohammed, was shot and killed in a robbing.
Mike and his mother Iman talk with Dick Gordon about how their lives changed after that. Iman went to work in the store, and Mike and his siblings set about improving their lives and the life of their family through education.
- Learn more about Mike's business
- Discover the Muslim Self-Portrait Project
Friday, August 28, 2009
Briefing Ted Kennedy
Friday, August 28 2009 - Briefing Ted Kennedy
SECOND INTERVIEW!!
As Americans mourn the passing of Senator Ted Kennedy, many remember how he touched their lives.
Growing up as the son of a Mississippi preacher, Jeffrey Thomas began to notice elaborate velvet paintings of the Kennedys hanging on parishioners' walls. After graduating college he landed a job as a legislative aide to Ted Kennedy. Jeffrey says one of the most terrifying moments of his career unfolded when he forgot to pack an important memo for the senator. He tells Dick how being given a second chance redefined his career.
- See Jeffrey and Senator Kennedy at work in 1993
- Learn more about Jeffrey's work at Democracy and Education
Thursday, August 27, 2009
CLEANING UP
Thursday, August 27 2009 - Cleaning up
In the months after Hurricane Katrina, 23-year-old Jerome Boykin started his own company sweeping big box store parking lots. Four years later, his business has expanded throughout southern Louisiana, and he's now mentoring others. One of the people he's helped is Marcus Clemmons of Oakland, Calif.
The two men talk with Dick Gordon about how much it means to them to have found successful black role models for themselves, and how they are now returning the favor to others.
- See Jerome with his truck
- Learn more about Marcus and Jerome's parking lot sweeping businesses
Listen Now!
Saturday, August 8, 2009
ANOTHER AWARD-WINNING SUMMER!!
For the second-consecutive year, Anita S. Woodley and Dick Gordon won first place in the Interview/Discussion category of the Radio Network Division. The award-winning piece titled "Lessons From A Dropout," was awarded by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ).Read more about the 2008 NABJ Awards
Originally Aired: Wednesday, December 10 2008
LESSONS FROM A DROPOUT
Listen Now!
Among many other concerns in a faltering economy is the dropout rate - in some U.S. cities, as many as half of entering freshmen fail to graduate. Policy makers say that means we'll have fewer educated minds to grapple with economic problems, and an increased burden for social services.
Twenty-year-old Gerrin Hayes just dropped out of high school. He says growing up in a crack house made it impossible to focus on studying. But Gerrin still has hope. He has a mentor, Craig Zeno, who once was a dropout himself, and he makes a strong case for the value of school.
Gerrin tells Dick Gordon why it's still important to him to earn a high school diploma. And Craig talks about how working with tough cases like Gerrin's motivates him to keep doing this work.
- Learn about the dropout assistance program where Craig works
Friday, July 24, 2009
Humble Pie
Friday, July 24 2009 - Humble Pie
David Bailey was a successful food writer for airline magazines when the recession hit and he lost his job. He was 61 and had a hefty mortgage, so retirement wasn't an option. But when David searched for work, he wasn't only looking to pay the bills. He wanted to explore new ways to reinvent himself and his career.
That's when he decided to become a dishwasher at a local restaurant. It was a hard job, and David worked his way up to line cook. He talks to Janet Babin about why he's content with working behind the scenes in the restaurant business.
- Follow David's blog
Listen Now!
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Try Looking on MySpace
Tuesday, July 21 2009 - Try Looking on MySpace
Crystal Riportella-Crose was adopted when she was an infant and grew up in Vermont. As an interracial child in a Caucasian family, she always wondered what her birth mother looked like. So when she got older, she began to search for her, and eventually found her birth mother on the social networking site, MySpace.
Crystal tells Janet Babin how she ended up meeting her birth mother in person, and what that odd mix of feelings was like.
- See photos of Crystal's reunion with her birth mother
CLASSIFIED Ad Dad
Alison Keenan found a husband and a father for her children in a newspaper ad. Not that she meant to.
In 1987, Alison was newly-divorced and needed a babysitter for her two boys. She looked through the classifieds. There she saw a phone number for someone named "Pat." When Alison discovered that Pat was a man she was nervous, but she met with him anyway. He took the job and moved into their apartment immediately. Nine months later, Pat Keenan stole their hearts, married Alison and adopted the boys.
They talk with Dick Gordon about how the babysitting job turned into romance and the first Father's Day when the boys acknowledged Pat as "Dad." This story originally aired on June 13, 2008.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Over the Moon
Monday, July 20 2009 - Over the Moon
Forty years ago today, millions of people watched, transfixed, as Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the moon. Today we talk with five people who remember that moment well.
Bill Bussey was 10. His parents drove the family to Florida to watch the launch from the Kennedy Space Center - then they got in the car and drove back to Georgia to watch the moon landing on TV.
Chris Gember's father used the moon landing as an excuse to buy a color TV - even though the actual broadcast was in black and white. Chris remembers the event as one that made her realize how peaceful and unified the planet could be.
John Polodna was serving in the Army. He heard about the moon landing in the middle of a misbegotten adventure, drifting down a river in Alaska in a boat that had run out of gas.
And Steve Gustafson was in Holland, newly married to his Dutch bride. Her elderly grandmother, Oma, was convinced the whole thing was staged, filmed in an American desert like the television show High Chaparral. And if it were real, Oma was convinced the world was about to end.
We also listen back to an interview Dick Gordon recorded with the astronaut Charlie Duke. Charlie visited the moon in 1972. While walking on the lunar surface, he and a fellow astronaut held, what they called, the very first Space Olympics, including a high jump "competition." That program aired on October 20, 2006.
Listen Now!
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Two Teachers, One Out of Work
Thursday, July 02 2009 - Two Teachers, One Out of Work
Connie and Steve Rice relocated from Southern California to work as teachers in Oregon. Both have years of experience, and they enjoyed their classrooms in Oregon. But the national budget woes have hit schools hard. First Connie was laid off, then Steve. Dick Gordon talks with both Connie and Steve about how the lack of job stability for teaching has affected their lives, and about how they heard the welcome news that Steve would be rehired.
Connie and Steve Rice relocated from Southern California to work as teachers in Oregon. Both have years of experience, and they enjoyed their classrooms in Oregon. But the national budget woes have hit schools hard. First Connie was laid off, then Steve. Dick Gordon talks with both Connie and Steve about how the lack of job stability for teaching has affected their lives, and about how they heard the welcome news that Steve would be rehired.
Listen Now!
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Thinking Big
Thinking Big -Thursday, June 25 2009
One young man has begun taking classes at Morehouse College this past school year, and he is quite an unlikely freshman. At the ago of 14, Jeremy Lee was convicted on an armed robbery charge and sentenced to four years in youth detention. However, he made up his mind to finish high school while he was locked up. The year he graduated high school, Jeremy was the only juvenile inmate to get a traditional diploma from the youth facility in Georgia.
Jeremy was accepted to Morehouse where he is majoring in biology with hopes of becoming a neurosurgeon. Jeremy talks with Dick Gordon talks about his journey from jail to higher education, and the struggle he's still facing to realize his dreams.
* Learn more about Jeremy's inspiration, Dr. Ben Carson
One young man has begun taking classes at Morehouse College this past school year, and he is quite an unlikely freshman. At the ago of 14, Jeremy Lee was convicted on an armed robbery charge and sentenced to four years in youth detention. However, he made up his mind to finish high school while he was locked up. The year he graduated high school, Jeremy was the only juvenile inmate to get a traditional diploma from the youth facility in Georgia.
Jeremy was accepted to Morehouse where he is majoring in biology with hopes of becoming a neurosurgeon. Jeremy talks with Dick Gordon talks about his journey from jail to higher education, and the struggle he's still facing to realize his dreams.
* Learn more about Jeremy's inspiration, Dr. Ben Carson
Listen Now!
Friday, June 19, 2009
ANITA 2008 HARRY CHAPIN MEDIA AWARD WINNER FOR RADIO!!
Hi you all,
Wow, I just won an award that will take me to New York's Time Square in September!
The award is being presented by The Harry Chapin Foundation.
It is for a story produced in 2008 about a family who squatted in a foreclosed home after they became homeless.
Learn more about the Harry Chapin Award
http://www.whyhunger.org/programs/3-newsflash/842-harry-chapin-media-awards-winners-announced.html
HEAR THE INITIAL BROADCAST AND FOLLOWUP SHOW BELOW!!
***
Follow-up: New Life in a Foreclosed Home
(2nd INTERVIEW) * Please fast-forward
Wow, I just won an award that will take me to New York's Time Square in September!
The award is being presented by The Harry Chapin Foundation.
It is for a story produced in 2008 about a family who squatted in a foreclosed home after they became homeless.
Learn more about the Harry Chapin Award
http://www.whyhunger.org/programs/3-newsflash/842-harry-chapin-media-awards-winners-announced.html
HEAR THE INITIAL BROADCAST AND FOLLOWUP SHOW BELOW!!
A New Life in a Foreclosed Home
(1st INTERVIEW)Listen Now!
Foreclosures nationwide have led another trend: squatting. Empty homes are increasingly occupied by people who don't own them.
Rmega Tafari and her family were homeless. Then they found a foreclosed home - an old crack house. They cleaned it up, and made a deal with a neighbor for water and electricity. Even the bank allowed them to stay, but only temporarily. It all ends on Monday - the Tafari family has been asked to leave. Rmega talks to Dick Gordon about the pressures that led her to squatting, and the uncertain future that she and her family now face.
- Rmega captured these photos inside the vacant foreclosed house they're calling home.
- Learn more about Take Back the Land, an organization that identifies vacant, foreclosed homes for the homeless.
Music heard in this story: "That Hump" by Erykah Badu for the album Amerykah Pt. 1 (4th World War)
***
Follow-up: New Life in a Foreclosed Home
(2nd INTERVIEW) * Please fast-forward
We received dozens of emails about Dick's conversation with Rmega Tafari, a woman squatting in an abandoned foreclosed home with her family. When Dick last spoke to Rmega, the bank that owned the home had asked her to leave.
Dick checks in with Rmega to find out what's happened since: she and her family have moved to Tallahassee where life is much better. Dua, Rmega's 4-year-old son, also shares his thoughts on the home they're renting and their new garden.
Monday, June 15, 2009
VASCO'S HEART & A LONG RIDE HOME
DOUBLE FEATURE!!
Friday, June 12 2009 -VASCO'S HEART
Friday, June 12 2009 -VASCO'S HEART
When columnist Cathleen Falsani won a trip to Africa in a raffle, she planned to veer off the tourist track, do some writing. She never imagined that a young boy would steal her heart the moment he sat in her lap. Cathleen learned that the boy, Vasco, had a serious heart condition, but could not afford medical attention.
After Cathleen returned home and wrote about Vasco in her newspaper column, she found herself engaged in a massive project to bring Vasco from his home in Malawi to Chicago for a heart surgery.
The surgery successfully took place on Wednesday. Cathleen talks to Dick Gordon about how her relationship with Vasco has changed her life.
A LONG RIDE HOME
You know we often turn the second half of the show over the you. We like to hear the stories that are the most remarkable in your life. Chuck Walkley's neighbor Jennifer heard Chuck's story and she told us, and we persuaded him to come in to the studio.
Chuck returned from Vietnam with a serious injury and no idea how to move forward with his life. When he got out of the hospital, he decided to hitchhike home to surprise his mother. He quickly was picked up by a state trooper who told him that hitchhiking on a highway was illegal. Then the trooper offered him a ride. Chuck was transferred from one state trooper's car to another, through thee states, until finally, sirens blaring and lights blazing, he was dropped off at his mother's door. That kindness inspired Chuck to spend the next two decades of his life as a police officer.
Listen Now!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
THE RECESSION: THE SMALLEST VICTIMS
Thursday, May 28 2009 -THE RECESSION: THE SMALLEST VICTIMS
School authorities in Birmingham have a couple of numbers that underline the effects of this recession in very stark terms. Officials estimate that there are more than 3,000 homeless children who attend city schools. That would mean that more than twenty percent of the children who attend Birmingham city schools are living in shelters, in hotels or with relatives.
That's what happened to LaWanda Tanniehill and her two boys, eight-year-old JuJuan and four year old Mythais. The family lived with relatives for a while, and earlier this year they were at a shelter for three months.
Listen Now!
Thursday, May 21, 2009
GRADUATING RIGHT ON TIME!
Thursday, May 21, 2009 - GRADUATING RIGHT ON TIME!
Last week, 92-year-old Roscoe Dillard Griffin graduated from the University of North Carolina after leaving school seven decades earlier. At the very end of his senior year, Dillard says he left college to manage his family's shoe store. He also met a girl and fell in love. Gail Clower, Dillard's daughter, says she never knew her father didn't have a degree. The two talk with Dick Gordon about how Dillard managed to complete his final university credits, and what finishing his degree means to their family.
See Dillard's yearbook picture, and a photo of the woman who stole his heart.Listen Now!
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Teamwork in THE TRAILER PARK
Monday, May 11 2009-Teamwork in THE TRAILER PARK
All this week, American Public Media is running a special series on a number of shows: Marketplace, Speaking of Faith, American RadioWorks. The idea is to explore The Next American Dream.
Theresa Phillips' vision of the American Dream for her children is that they are safe, regardless of the path they take in life. Her work within a trailer park women's co-op in Battle Creek, Mich., shaped that vision. Theresa says she moved to the community to escape an abusive past. To her surprise, she found many women in the same boat. So Theresa invited all the women in the trailer park to her lot to figure out how they could change their lives. Dick Gordon talks with Theresa about how helping out with childcare and food turned into a vibrant, home-grown support network, a new kind of American Dream.
Listen Now!
Friday, May 8, 2009
WHEN CAN MY WIFE COME HOME?
Thursday, May 07 2009 - WHEN CAN MY WIFE COME HOME?
WHEN CAN MY WIFE COME HOME?
John Adams found himself in the thick of the nation's immigration troubles after falling in love with a woman named Lourdes from Guatemala. A year after their marriage, John and Lourdes were at the final meeting with an immigration officer to adjust her status from illegal to resident when the officer learned that Lourdes had once been picked up on an immigration violation and had not shown up in court. Lourdes was deported.
John is now raising their two children, Alexa and Orlando, alone. John tells Dick Gordon about his plans for the future and how this experience has altered his view of America.
Listen Now!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
CREDIT COACH
Thursday, April 30 2009 -CREDIT COACH
For many Americans, economic problems begin with steep credit card rate hikes and collection notices. Kenneth Shandy helps people learn how to get out of that kind of mess.
Kenneth calls himself a credit coach. He doesn't have a graduate degree in business, but he does have personal experience. As a teenage entrepreneur, he made and spent a lot of money. He had $20,000 in debt by the time he was 20 and had to teach himself how to dig his way out.
- Learn more about Kenneth’s business
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