Chasing The Dream

Erin Hagerty died last year at the age of 62. By most counts she lived an extraordinary life -  simply by doing things many would consider ordinary. This is an examination not of what she did but how she was seen. By strangers, her family and most importantly how she saw herself.

"Seeing Erin Hagerty” is a WLIW-FM special program and a part of Chasing the Dream, a public media initiative The WNET Group, reporting on Poverty, Justice and Opportunity in America. 

Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast Attribution, talks with Erin’s mother, her four siblings and documentary filmmaker and activist Dan Habib.  Our hope for these thirty minutes is that you simply see Erin for who she was. Perhaps it will change how you see others too.

Chasing the Dream is a public media initiative from The WNET Group, reporting on poverty, justice, and economic opportunity in America. You can learn more at pbs.org/chasingthedream. Major funding for Chasing the Dream is provided by The JPB Foundation with additional funding from Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III.

Great Gatsby Then & Now is a WLIW-FM special program and a part of Chasing the Dream: Poverty, Justice and Opportunity in America, a public media reporting initiative from The WNET Group.

Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast Attribution, talks with Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR’s Fresh Air and The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. They discuss her book “So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came To Be and Why It Endures,” and what The Great Gatsby can still teach us today, 100 years after the events of the novel take place.

Major funding for Chasing the Dream is provided by The JPB Foundation with additional funding from The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund. You can learn more at pbs.org/chasingthedream. 

The East End of Long Island has always been a place of great abundance. But does the growing concentration of wealth on the Twin Forks translate to economic opportunity for all, or does it deepen the ever-widening class divide? On this special broadcast, Emmy award-winning journalist Frank Sesno speaks with four community leaders who have unique insight into the troubles that confront the East End. Tela Troge of the Shinnecock Indian Nation, Sandra Dunn of OLA of Eastern Long Island, and Brenda Simmons of the Southampton African American Museum offer their perspectives from diverse communities bearing the brunt of the consequences of inequality and Riverhead Community Development Director Dawn Thomas shares her insight on what Riverhead is doing to preserve affordability and diversity - and avoid the fate of its eastern counterparts.

Confronting Inequality on Eastern Long Island is a WLIW-FM special program and a part of Chasing the Dream: Poverty, Justice and Opportunity in America, a public media reporting initiative from The WNET Group.

Major funding for Chasing the Dream is provided by The JPB Foundation with additional funding from The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund, and Sue and Edgar Wachenheim, III. You can learn more at pbs.org/chasingthedream. 

A Tale of Two Teachers is a WLIW-FM special program and a part of Chasing the Dream: Poverty, Justice and Opportunity in America, a public media reporting initiative from The WNET Group.

Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast Attribution, talks with two married Long Island teachers. They share their

extraordinary experiences teaching in different Long Island schools over the course of this challenging year.

This special broadcast is not about good schools or bad schools, neither about good or bad students. In fact, it’s not about anything good or bad. But it is about the opportunities afforded to our children and the potential they have to pursue their dreams. Our goal is that over the thirty minutes, listeners reflect on how the educational experience may differ from child to child on Long Island. And hopefully this will change the way we see all of our schools and students moving forward.

Learn more here.

A Tale of Two Teachers is a WLIW-FM special program and a part of Chasing the Dream: Poverty, Justice and Opportunity in America, a public media reporting initiative from The WNET Group.

Bob McKinnon, host of the podcast Attribution, talks with two married Long Island teachers. They share their extraordinary experiences teaching in different Long Island schools over the course of this challenging year.

This special broadcast is not about good schools or bad schools, neither about good or bad students. In fact, it’s not about anything good or bad. But it is about the opportunities afforded to our children and the potential they have to pursue their dreams. Our goal is that over the thirty minutes, listeners reflect on how the educational experience may differ from child to child on Long Island. And hopefully this will change the way we see all of our schools and students moving forward.

Major funding for Chasing the Dream is provided by The JPB Foundation with additional funding from The Peter G. Peterson and Joan Ganz Cooney Fund. You can learn more at pbs.org/chasingthedream.