Out of the Blocks

Our listening tour of West Oakland’s Lower Bottoms continues as we meet the volunteers at a local food pantry, a street ball legend known as ‘the greatest player never to make the NBA,’ a transplant from Compton who’s become a wilderness survival instructor, a former Tesla engineer who’s developing an affordable co-housing living space, a US Army veteran determined to help others get their military benefits, and a pastor who relies on the power of prayer to effect social change.

Special thanks this episode to field producer Ariana Proehl, KQED, and The National Endowment for the Arts.

West Oakland’s Lower Bottoms neighborhood is home to the historical headquarters of the Black Panther party. It’s also one train stop away from San Francisco, and escalating real-estate prices are quickly changing the character of the neighborhood.  This episode, we meet locals who find themselves living at the intersection of heritage and gentrification.

Special thanks this episode to field producer Ariana Proehl, KQED, and The National Endowment for the Arts.

One of the great bonuses of documenting Baltimore is that we happen across lots of incredible kitchens. This episode is our love letter to all the hard-working cooks behind the pots and pans and fryers and grills in those kitchens, to the food they make, and to the personality they put into every dish.

An older couple inherits two unexpected sons, an ex-offender regains custody of his daughter, an entrepreneurial mom teaches business smarts to her child, recovering addicts try to stay clean for their kids, and a son takes over for his father at the family restaurant.

Do you have any privacy when you live on a sailboat with another couple? What happens when you try to raise kids on a motor yacht? How does it test a marriage when you share a small space? What do you sacrifice to live on a boat? What do you gain? And is worth the trade-off? Field producer Melissa Gerr brings us more stories from the eccentric live-aboards of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

From minimalist millennials to well-off retirees, some 300 people live year-round on floating homes in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Their vessels range from small sailboats to luxury motor yachts, and their offbeat stories are captured beautifully in this episode by Out of the Blocks field producer Melissa Gerr.

Locals call Hollins Market ‘The Gem of Baltimore,’ and while the lines of customers used to wind around the block, more than half the stalls are now empty.  Hollins Market vendors talk about the past and present of Baltimore’s oldest city market. Plus, a hip hop artist remembers working in a horse stable, an astrophysics major survives a natural disaster, and a muralist explores the metaphor of a butterfly’s metamorphosis.

Out of the Blocks teamed up with the education activists at Inspire Citizens to spend a week at Seoul Foreign School, working with students on empathy and active listening. The week culminated in a global youth media conference, when 150 middle & high school kids from international schools in Korea, China, Shanghai, and Abu Dhabi headed out into the streets of Seoul to interview strangers. Check out this special audio postcard, and hear what the students learned about others and about themselves.

In Southwest Baltimore’s Hollins Market neighborhood, a barber survives a shooting and goes back to work the next day; two young artists support each other in life, love, and business; a clothing entrepreneur talks about the power of style; a puppeteer ponders his relationship to his audience; and a CPR instructor recalls the first time she needed to use her life-saving skills.

Neighborhood elders take it upon themselves to step between warring gang members, a mother-daughter duo produces a DIY feature film about gun violence, a restorative justice mediator helps lawbreakers to repair the harm they’ve caused, and a bee-keeper goes from homelessness to running his own business. Plus, conversations with local politicians past and present, an activist science teacher, and a young motivational speaker with an inspiring voice.