For all of my work for 1A, go here.
On-Air Series: SOS: Save Our Species
I led an on-air series and a team of producers looking at the first 50 years of the Endangered Species Act and what it hasn’t accomplished. Other series I managed include: Plugged In, a look at one year of the Inflation Reduction Act; Water Week all about, you guessed it — water; and No Plan B: The Climate Crisis.
Selected Field Reporting and On-Air Interviews for 1A:
The problem with solar energy isn’t investment. It’s location.
Deciding where to build a solar array is complicated. Is the ground flat? How close are the nearest power lines? Do local laws even allow for solar? What happens when that perfect plot of land is in the path of a homeowner’s view or it’s on prime farmland?
The solar industry is booming as declining costs pair with increased incentives to decarbonize our energy grid. Funding from the Inflation Reduction Act alone is expected to increase solar projects by 40 percent in the next five years, according to the Solar Energies Industry Association.
But in many places, those projects rely on community buy-in to succeed.
Some solar projects have recently been derailed or delayed because of worries over treasured landscape and local ecology, potential impacts to housing values and even misinformation campaigns.
One nonprofit on Mount Desert Island, Maine, wants communities to prepare for the solar boom long before they’re approached by developers.
Listen to my full report here.
‘It’s So Hard To Get Help:’ An Undocumented Immigrant And A COVID-19 Diagnosis
Esperanza spent most of November in her room alone. A frontline worker at a restaurant in Pueblo, Colorado, she was diagnosed with COVID-19 and needed to isolate herself, away from her children and her husband.
She is one of 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Undocumented immigrants have been hit hard by an economic recession, already-precarious job security and the health risks of COVID-19. Living without documentation, and often without health insurance, has contributed to higher death rates among immigrant communities.
For a while, Esperanza thought she might become a grim statistic.
Listen to Esperanza’s story in her own words.
Other selected 1A Broadcasts:
The future of fighting and preventing forest fires.
DOGE, our public lands, and the future of America’s national parks.
Homes are sources of generational wealth. What happens after they’re destroyed in a disaster?
Birds are having a hard time migrating this spring. What can we do to make it easier?
Where does nuclear energy fit in a carbon-free future?
Why is extreme heat so deadly?
Water Week: How to farm in a drought
A mass shooting at an elementary school has rocked the nation. Again.
Our climate is heating up and we know how to stop it. But will we?
What does it mean to be energy independent? It depends on who you ask.
When A Kid Takes A Gun, Who’s Responsible?
Water In The Colorado River Is Disappearing. Here’s How The Government Is Trying To Divide Up What’s Left
What It Really Means For Companies To Be Carbon Neutral
Uncovering The ‘Unspoken Traumas’ Of Native American Boarding Schools
Millions Of Americans Are At Risk If A Federal Hold On Evictions Expires. Who Can Help?*
*After this aired, so many listeners reached out wanting to help Tashonda that she set up a gofundme and was able to pay off months worth of unpaid utility bills and rent.
How Gun Violence Affects American Children
Native Voters Shaped the 2020 Election. What’s Next?
Curbing the spread of the coronavirus among Native Americans
How coronavirus stay-at-home orders affect domestic violence survivors
Live Events for 1A:
Being Somali American September 5, 2019
In Minnesota, I collaborated with Minnesota Public Radio and a new non-profit newsroom called Sahan Journal to host a community conversation with Somali Americans. We booked a Somali restaurant and put a call out asking people to tell us their stories — and they did not disappoint. Hear the edited broadcast of that conversation and watch a full video, here.
The Fight Over Oil and Gas March 21, 2019
In Greeley, Colorado, I partnered with KUNC public radio to tackle a highly divisive topic — the future of oil and gas in that state. Hundreds of people showed up to hear a pointedly civil conversation between oil and gas executives and environmental activists. 1A is all about creating dialogue, and the most common feedback KUNC got from the event was how much people wish we’d had set aside time after the conversation so they could just talk with each other. Hear the edited broadcast of that event and watch a full video, here.
The Power Of Latino Voters April 9, 2019
In collaboration with Houston Public Media, we hosted a conversation in Houston with Latinos about why they do, and do not, vote.
“I think about my own family. They didn’t vote until this last election, actually,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told 1A in April 2019. “I think that a lot of folks don’t see the direct connection between their participation and the government, and there’s a disconnect there and that might be on the part of language access, or government outreach.”
Listen to an edited broadcast and watch a video of our event in Houston, here.
I also produced a conversation in Birmingham with young conservatives and in Kansas with GOP women.