Soda City Speaks

Its voting season, and we are back with all the candidates, the only podcast that brings you all the candidates! In this episode we bring you Christa Williams, who is running for the at-large seat. Find out more about Christa and her campaign on her website: https://christawilliams.com/

You can hear all of the candidates, in your feed now!

And be sure TO VOTE ON NOVEMBER 7!

Its election season, and the only lace you can hear from the candidates is right here on THE podcast for all things Columbia: Soda City Speaks! In this episode we speak with Tyler Bailey who is running for the City Council At-Large seat. Find out more about Tyler's campaign on his website: https://tylerforcolumbia.com/

Listen to interviews with the rest of the candidates, all in your feed right now.

And be sure to VOTE ON NOVEMBER 7!

Its time for another city of Columbia elections, which means Soda City Speaks is back! In this ePisode we speak with Jesse Bullard who is one of three candidates running for the At-Large seat. Find out more about his campaign on his website: https://www.bullardforcolumbia.com/

Listen to interviews from the rest of the candidates, available in the feed now. And be sure TO VOTE on NOVEMBER 7!

We are back! Sorry for the long time away, but with another city of Columbia election, is another series of candidate interviews on Soda City Speaks!

We start our series off with Will Brennan who is running in District 3. You can find out more about Will and his campaign on his website: https://votewillbrennan.com/

Be sure to hear the rest of our interview from candidates running in city elections and be sure TO VOTE ON NOVEMBER 7!

On this month's episode we sit down with both candidates that are running for the district 4 special election: Beatrice King and Peter Brown.  Early voting has already started and election day is on March 28th, district 4 get out and vote! We start as always with headlines from the city, and end with community listings. 

You can learn more about the candidate at:

Beatrice King:

Peter Brown:

We are back! Sorry to have been away for so long, but we are back with a busy and invigorating 2023 of Soda City Speaks. In our first episode back we dive into the politics, debate and activism for abortion rights in the Capital city!  

We start this episode as we always do with headlines from around Columbia over the past month.  Then we move into The Fizz with Grant Burnette LeFever from the law firm Burnette Shut McDaniel, who successfully represented Planned Parenthood in their suit against the 6-week abortion ban.  Our main feature in this episode is with Debbie Billings and Lynn Teague, both reproductive right activists in our city.  And we end with community listings, lots to see and do in Columbia this month. 

Follow us on all the socials @sodacityseaks or email us at [email protected] with all your thoughts, ideas, and complaints ;)

We continue our conversations about the affordable housing crisis here in Columbia.  In part 1 we explored the economic causes of the crisis and in this episode we sit down with two organizations that are working on community-centered solutions to help people access and stay in affordable housing in our city.  First up is Interim CEO of the Columbia Housing Authority Yvonda Bean, who tells us about the history, challenges and plans for the authority, as well as the programs they offer to residents. Then we speak with two organizers from MORE Justice Columbia, Co-President Reverend Jackie Utley and Lead Organizer Lizzy Van Harn.  MORE Justice is a network of faith-based congregations that come together to transform the systems that cause suffering by holding local officials accountable for resolving these inequities and injustices. This year they are putting a focus on housing issue with the establishment of a housing trust fund.

As always, we also bring you Columbia headlines and community listings. 

This month we will be exploring the affordable housing crisis in Columbia, with two episodes this month!! Lucky you :)

We start with Lauren Taylor, the founder of Haven Home, who takes us on a deep historical and economic dive into the housing market, and its ramifications right here in Columbia. Links to some of the stuff we discussed:

Mid March marked the end of the second year that Covid-19 has been a part of our lives.  In this month of Soda City Speaks, we have a conversation with local Columbia organizer, activist and Lead Organizer at ZeroCovid SC, Tiffany James (@TiffanySJames) about the realities and challenges of Covid in our city. We are also joined by Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing), an epidemiologist & health economist, who was one of the first health professionals in the county to raise the alarm on the threat of Covid-19 to America. 

In the Fizz we hear excerpts from oral histories about Covid-19 conducted by students in the Covid-19 Oral History class at the University of South Carolina taught by Andrea L'Hommedieu, Director of the Department of Oral History at UofSC Libraries.

We start as always with headlines and end with community listings. 

Sorry for the last release this month, Omme was away from Soda City, spending some time in the city of gold (aka Dubai).

It's 2022 and we are back!! In this episode we start like we always do with headlines from the city of Columbia

The Fizz: Excerpts from the Mayoral Inauguration

This month we take a deep dive into food policy and food justice in Columbia, SC.  We were joined for an amazing conversation with Ashley Page Bookhart from SNAP-Ed, South Carolina and Christina Spach from the Food Chain Workers Alliance. Some of the resources we discussed: 

Columbia Food Policy Committee (CFPC)