Paw'd Defiance

In this episode we chat with Riki Thompson. Thompson is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing Studies at UW Tacoma. We talk with Thompson about her research into online dating, specifically what makes a "good" profile as well as the differences between how men and women use online dates sites and apps. In the second part of the conversation we talk about how "survival dating" during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A follow up to the episode "Finding a Silver Lining In a Time of Pandemic," host Sarah Smith reconnects with friends overseas in Spain, Australia and Norway again to find out what's changed in their country, how they've adapted to life during a pandemic, and their perceptions of what's happening here in America. 

A big thanks to Nick Roden, Ph.D., Leslie Ihnot, Raul Moran and Anne Chappel for their contributions to this podcast.

Like a lot of people, UW Tacoma Lecturer Maria-Tania Bandes-Becerra Weingarden is working from home right now. And, like a lot of us, Bandes-Becerra Weingarden is figuring out how to find a work-life balance when work and life happen all in the same space. In this episode she talks about living in a house with six other people. Bandes-Becerra Weingarden also discusses her thoughts about the future of theater, concerns for her mother in Nicaragua, the mental ups and downs of life in a pandemic and, finally, a never ending pile of laundry that threatens to consume all of her time.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created what the World Health Organization calls an "infodemic." Technology has made it possible for information to travel quickly around the world. Combine that with a virus that isn't fully understood and you get a information ecosystem where it can be difficult to separate fact from fiction. In this episode we talk with Dr. Jevin West. West is the Director of the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public. The center studies misinformation and works to promote an informed society while strengthening democratic discourse. West talks about the role misinformation has played in our current public health crisis. He also discusses conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 as well as advice on how to judge whether a source is reliable or not.  This episode also features a commercial for the different funds UW Tacoma has created to help students during this crisis.

In this episode we hand over the microphone to UW Tacoma Lecturer Tony Perone and his mom Magda. Madga is a nurse in Yonkers, New York. She's spent the past few months helping patients with COVID-19. The conversation between mother and son is, at times, sad but it's also loving and even joyful. Magda talks about what it's like to be with a person during their final hours and she reflects on her decision, at age 40, to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse. 

On this episode of the podcast with UW Tacoma Associate Professor Robin Evans-Agnew. Evans-Agnew researches asthma and environmental justice. He's part of a project along with Assistant Professor Christopher Schell called Voices Unbound. Voices Unbound uses different methods, including post cards and podcasts to get input about environmental issues from groups that are often ignored by policymakers. In this episode Evans-Agnew talks with People for An Environmentally Friendly Kenmore (PERK) about an asphalt plant on Lake Washington. PERK maintains the plant impacts air quality in the area and has been working for years to fix the situaton. Governor Inslee's stay at home order and the closure of non-essential businesses opened up a new front in their efforts to improve air quality in the Kenmore area.

Over the past few weeks, we've collectively experience a pandemic that's required a strength and resourcefulness many of us didn't know we were capable of. We've made sacrifices, moved our lives indoors, and we're still unsure of what's to come. 

"Since I started at UWT, life has become busier, and as a result, I've lost touch with some friends. But when the realities of life with COVID-19 started to sink in, I thought about all those people, and I was worried about them. Especially my friends overseas. I wondered, what was it like where they lived? Could they still go outside? Were they having shortages in their grocery stores? Could they find toilet paper? But most importantly, were they safe and well?

"I decided to reach out and give them a call. Actually, a Zoom call that I recorded."

Raul lives in Madrid, Spain - a city that's been hit hard by the coronavirus. Nick and Leslie live in Bergen, Norway, a city that's a few weeks behind our timeline in the U.S. Anne lives in Adelaide, Australia and shares a story from her family's history of living through the flu pandemic in 1919. We wanted to share these conversations to inspire our UW Tacoma community to reconnect with their loved ones and find the silver lining in a time of pandemic, because we're all in this together. 

Rosa Franklin is a local icon.  She was the first black woman elected to the Washington State Senate, serving the 29th Legislative District in the Tacoma area. Born in the Jim Crow era South, Franklin moved to Tacoma in the 1950s. Franklin holds bachelor's degrees in biology and English and a master's in social science and human relations. She worked as a nurse for 40 years before joining the Washington State Legislature in 1990. Franklin recently teamed up with local historian Tamiko Nimura on a new book, an oral history called: Rosa Franklin — A Life in Health Care, Public Service, and Social Justice.

In this episode we'll talk with Franklin and Nimura. We'll discuss Franklin's life growing up with her aunt and uncle in South Carolina as well as her career in nursing and why she decided to run for office. We'll also talk about the housing discrimination Franklin faced when she first moved to Tacoma. Finally, Nimura tells us about what drew her to this project and why oral histories are so important. 

UW Tacoma Ed.D. Director Robin Starr Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn (Kiowa Tribe of Oklahoma, Apache, Nez Perce, Umatilla and Assiniboine) recently wrote an article for Higher Education Today where she discussed ways colleges and universities can better meet the needs of its Indigenous students. We'll talk about her recommendations. We'll also discuss a paper Minthorn co-wrote about a theoretical campus tour that provides a fuller understanding of an institution's history. Finally, Minthorn discusses a new agreement between UW Tacoma's School of Education and the Muckleshoot Tribe.

We're joined by UW Tacoma Associate Professor David Coon and Destiny City Film Festival's Executive Director Emily Nakada-Alm to discuss how movies play a part in shaping our culture, and the way our social identities are reflected in and affected by the movies we watch. We'll also talk about film festivals as an important format for storytelling outside of the media industry, as well as what makes a movie "good."