Paw'd Defiance

A friend encouraged Jeffrey Bantay to come to a meeting of the Tacoma Community College student veteran's club. There Bantay met Thomas Di Giorgio. The two developed a bond. They regularly met at the small space reserved for the veteran's club. The space consisted of some chairs, a table and a communal microwave. Here Bantay and Di Giorgio got to talking about their experience in the military and the difficult transition to civilian life. In this episode, the two men talk about their friendship and how it helped them get through some challenging times. They also talk about their decision to join the military and what it meant to have a space at TCC and UW Tacoma for student veterans. 

In this episode of the podcast we hear from three members of the Class of 2021. Rachel Moyer, Raelynne Woo and Dennis Adjetey talk about their time at UW Tacoma including how they've changed during their time on campus. We'll also hear messages of congratulations from friends, family and colleagues of the Class of 2021.

Hoy en la cápsula, ayudando a las personas en el condado de Pierce a vacunarse con Emily López y Juana Gallegos. López y Gallegos son miembros del Grupo de Trabajo de Vacunas Husky. Hablaremos sobre la misión del grupo, incluidos sus esfuerzos para llegar a las comunidades de BIPOC, así como a aquellos que son reacios a vacunarse.

A group of UW Tacoma Healthcare Leadership students is working to get Pierce County residents vaccinated. The students created the UWT Husky Vaccine Task Force. The group recruits volunteers to work at vaccine clinics and it's also doing outreach to different communities to raise awareness and provide information about the vaccines. In this episode we talk with Task Force members Emily Lopez and Anatoliy Voznyarskiy.

In this episode we speak with Kathleen Shannon Dorcy about vaccines. Shannon Dorcy is an Associate Teaching Professor at UW Tacoma. She’s also the Director of Research, Education and Clinical Practice at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance as well as a staff scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Shannon Dorcy discusses how vaccines work including how they work once inside the body. She also talks about the FDA approval process and why/how the COVID vaccines were developed so quickly. Finally, Shannon Dorcy addresses some of the concerns expressed by those who are on the fence about getting vaccinated. 

There's a persistent myth that Japanese Americans willingly went along with the U.S. government policy during World War II. Frank Abe and Tamiko Nimura's new graphic novel "We Hereby Refuse: Japanese American Resistance to Wartime Incarceration" tells the real-life stories of Japanese Americans who pushed back against forced removal and relocation. In this episode, Nimura talks about how anti-Japanese sentiment started long before Pearl Harbor was bombed. Nimura also discusses the role of the Japanese American Citizens League in directing U.S. policy as well as the little known Supreme Court case that helped close down interment camps. 

As part of Earth Day, we reached out to students, faculty and staff across all three University of Washington campuses.  We specifically wanted to know about how the pandemic impacted their ability to be sustainable. We asked participants the same three questions. Their responses are both deeply personal, insightful and offer us a way to think about sustainability in a post-pandemic world.

Giving Garden
CCUWBee Research Initiative
Sustainability Map

Naomi Wilson is a University of Washington alumna. She lives in Tacoma and works at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department. Wilson is also Korean American. In this episode, she talks about the tragedy in Atlanta that left eight dead, including six women of Asian descent. Wilson discusses how Asian women are stereotyped in the media and how that has impacted both her life and the life of her children. Wilson also talks about working at the health department during a pandemic and what has brought her joy during these difficult times. 

UW Tacoma School of Education Dean Rachel Endo returns to the podcast for a follow-up discussion. Endo came on the show in June of 2020 to talk about anti-Asian and anti-Asian-American sentiment during the pandemic. In this episode, Endo talks about the mass shooting in Atlanta that killed eight, including six women of Asian descent. We also talk about the idea that the alleged shooter was "having a bad day" and how the language used in the media informs our understanding. 

UW Tacoma Professor Laura Feuerborn joins us about race, equity and K-12 education. Feuerborn researches social emotional learning. This model focuses on a student's individual needs, feelings and emotions while shifting away from a more punitive approach to school discipline which has historically lead to disproportionally higher rates of suspension and explosions for BIPOC students. Feuerborn also discusses the new Education Specialist in School Psychology program at UW Tacoma and how it's training the next generation of school psychologists to be more equity-minded.