Moral Courage Radio

In the final episode of the fourth season of Moral Courage Radio, we learn from Noni Session, third generation West Oaklander and founder of the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative, who insists that we can reorient our relationship to market forces by building power together.

In a volatile housing market, lenders, investors, and landlords determine who can afford to live where. To counter instability and profit motives, some of Oakland’s local organizations take a permanent and communal approach to land and housing, using the community land trust model to keep land off the market and in community control in perpetuity. In this episode we hear from Shekinah Samaya-Thomas and Chris Thomas, two homeowners with the Oakland Community Land Trust.

Forced from their homes and banned from the streets, Oaklanders are struggling to find a place to survive. In this episode, we hear from John, a resident of Cob on Wood, an unhoused encampment supported in part by a local organization, Artists Building Communities.

Gentrification is an act of erasure against the cultural character of a neighborhood. In this episode, we hear from people working to protect and preserve the historical legacies of places they hold dear.

In the first episode of our fourth season, we meet Oaklanders who teach us about how their communities are confronting the market forces that render housing security out of reach for so many.

This is the trailer for the fourth season of Moral Courage Radio, "UnHousing: Claiming the Human Right to Home"

In the epilogue to Season Three, we hold space for the life and memory of student team member, Jillian Parker.

In the season finale, Water Warriors show us the way forward: by challenging power, building together, and fighting for democracy.

The stories we have told so far obviously ignore the first nations of these territories, the first stewards of the rivers, the lakes, the forests, and the mountains. As the original Water Warriors, indigenous people remain active in the struggle for environmental protection.

Women have always lead the way on environmental issues, including in the fight for water in Flint, Detroit, and Appalachia, because of the inherent connection between care for family, for community, and for the natural world.