State of the Re:Union

Host Al Letson and guest producer John Biewen (of the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University) present a collection of stories from Durham, North Carolina. In this hour of SOTRU, we explore the role of sports in the lives of young people, and their families, as the kids pursue success in athletics and in life.

What happens if you move to Portland, Oregon and you’re not into bikes or beer? Or if, say, you don’t even speak English? East Portland, a part of the city that looks completely different from the hipster central we’re familiar with from Portlandia, is home to a growing number of immigrants and refugees. Many of them struggle to find work and a sense of connection to their new home in the Pacific Northwest. But some have found that in the effort to integrate, *soccer* can be a useful tool.

In the 1970s, a prominent schizophrenia researcher named Dr. Loren Mosher noticed that the standard treatment in the hospital– medication, confinement– didn’t have good outcomes. People didn’t get better in the long-term. So he launched an experiment, to try out pretty much the exact opposite of that treatment in the hospital. He called it Soteria.

Last summer, we visited Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a devastating racial incident in 1921 still divides the city today. That legacy has made it tough for Tulsa to move forward into the future, but in the last decade, it’s tried hard to do just that. The city has a newly revitalized downtown and a growing arts scene, and it wants badly to be known for something more than the hard history that’s shaped it. Writer Russell Cobb used to live in Tulsa and he was never the city’s biggest fan. But he’s watched from a distance as Tulsa has turned a corner, and now… he kind of wants to come back.

In this American Graduate special, State of the Re:Union takes a closer look at school, community, and the dropout crisis in this country.  With reporting from both urban and rural schools, and interviews with education experts, SOTRU3 goes “back to basics,” looking at strategies that get to the heart of what makes students want to learn.

In this episode, SOTRU travels to Holyoke, Massachusetts, home of the Care Center. an alternative school just for pregnant and parenting teens who’ve dropped out of high school. It’s not your typical GED program, either: it’s modeled on a prep school, so students are learning fencing, rowing, yoga and poetry along with basic math and reading. Their personal histories are fraught with homelessness, domestic violence, gangs, food insecurity—the entire student body is living at or below 50 % of the poverty level, and 2/3rds of them dropped out of high school by the 10th grade. Despite all that, between 70 and 85 percent of Care Center students go on to college. In this American Graduate special, State of the Re:Union goes deep inside this school—learning its philosophy and the life stories of students and teachers—to explore what it takes to turn a teen mom’s life around. For more information on this American Graduate Special, please visit our episode page for individual stories, photos and links.

Team Semper Fi More than two million veterans have come home so far from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. For returning veterans, reintegrating into society can be a challenge. How do you find your place, when you’ve changed and the people you love don’t recognize you? When that old life is gone and you have to start a new one from scratch. In this hour State of the Re:Union explores reintegration and asks the question: how do you come back home from war? For more information on, visit our episode page for photos, links and music information. And keep up with the latest SOTRU releases and events on Soundcloud, iTunes, Facebook and Twitter.

Photo by Anthony J. Merced Every day in America, more than 7,000 students drop out of school. In a State of the Re:Union first, this episode combines radio drama and documentary to explore America’s dropout epidemic through the intimate story of one man’s attempt to make a difference in the lives of a group of high-risk kids. Based on the celebrated off-broadway show by SOTRU host Al Letson, this episode chronicles Letson’s journey teaching at a summer camp at the Sanctuary on 8th Street, a community center in an economically challenged neighborhood of Jacksonville, Florida. For more information on how to support our Kickstarter campaign, click here.

Quaint storefronts along Main streets, covered bridges over clear streams, cows from dairy farms dotting green valleys: across the state, these are the iconic images of Vermont. But beyond its pastoral beauty, this is a place that prides itself on its independent spirit. In this hour, we’ll hear a range of stories of the way Vermont’s “small town state” identity manifests: from finding new ways to treat mental health problems, to a gallery with a surprising monthly ritual to dealing with the most devastating natural disaster the state has ever seen. For more information about The Small Town State, visit our episode page for photos, links and music. And we’d love to hear what you think about this episode. Please comment below to get the conversation started.

The Tri-Cities are Richland, Pasco and Kennewick—3 cities clustered near one another in the vast plains and deserts of Washington state, to the east of the Cascade Mountains. It’s a region that seems like it would have little to attract newcomers—it’s largely remote, prone to dust storms, not close to any major city. But, over the decades, this area has drawn people from the world over, and, in this episode, we’ll explore how and why. For more information about The Unlikely Perfect Place, visit our episode page for photos, links and music. And we’d love to hear what you think about this episode. Please comment below to get the conversation started.