The Response

This week, we're bringing you the first installment of a new series that we'll occasionally produce: Disaster Dispatches. Each dispatch focuses on a specific disaster and will feature a short conversation with someone within or near a specific disaster zone who can provide insight into how things look on the ground and, in many cases, share first-hand accounts of the response.

First up, we have Meena Palaniappan joining us once again, this time to talk about the recent 5.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the city of Cianjur, which is in the West Java region of Indonesia, on Nov 21st.

Meena Palaniappan is the Founder and CEO of Atma Connect. She's an Ashoka Fellow, Fulbright Fellow, and awardee of the Million Lives Club. Since 2014, Meena has led Atma Connect to become a globally recognized technology company focused on helping vulnerable people connect, neighbor-to-neighbor, by sharing practical information and solutions, taking collective action, and building community resilience.

AtmaConnect built and deploys AtmaGo, a neighborhood-level mobile app in Indonesia and Puerto Rico for users to share real-time information and solutions to better prepare for disasters, improve their access to basic needs, and address chronic vulnerabilities. AtmaGo has reached over 10 million people in Indonesia and Puerto Rico.

Make sure to check out our full-length interview with Meena, where we take a deep dive into her work with Atma Connect more broadly.

Episode credits:

• Host and editor: Robert Raymond
• Presenter and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats

Make sure to follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Response is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters

The last decade has shown us that information on social media cannot always be trusted. In fact, it's oftentimes weaponized by nefarious forces. So how do we ensure that the information that is being shared during particularly sensitive periods — such as during natural disasters — is accurate and timely? Enter Atma Connect.

Atma Connect on an award-winning organization building the digital infrastructure to connect people together so they can share vital information and create bottom-up change.

Meena Palaniappan is the Founder and CEO of Atma Connect. She's an Ashoka Fellow, Fulbright Fellow, and awardee of the Million Lives Club. Since 2014, Meena has led Atma Connect to become a globally recognized technology company focused on helping vulnerable people connect, neighbor-to-neighbor, by sharing practical information and solutions, taking collective action, and building community resilience.

AtmaConnect built and deploys AtmaGo, a neighborhood-level mobile app in Indonesia and Puerto Rico for users to share real-time information and solutions to better prepare for disasters, to improve their access to basic needs, and to address chronic vulnerabilities. AtmaGo has reached over 10 million people in Indonesia and Puerto Rico.

Episode credits:

• Host and exectutive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Presenter and editor: Robert Raymond
• Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats

Make sure to follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Response is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters

Mutual aid is a concept and practice that has come up many times in the stories we tell on The Response — so we thought it would be helpful to devote an entire episode to exploring what mutual aid is with someone who is deeply immersed in it on the ground.

Joshua Potash — an anti-capitalist abolitionist based in New York City. Joshua co-founded Washington Square Park Mutual Aid which provides free food, clothing, and various supplies once a week in the New York City park. They also co-host events like film screenings, skill shares, and various trainings. The group was founded in response to NYPD violence with the aim of creating a counter-narrative and being a community hub for folks in the park and surrounding area.

In this episode, we explore some of the history and theory behind mutual aid and how it presents a counternarrative to capitalist ideology and a practical path away from it. We also learn about Joshua's work on the ground in New York City and discuss the concepts of municipalism, police abolition, and much more.

Episode credits:

• Host and editor: Robert Raymond
• Presenter and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats

Additional Resources:

Joshua Potash on Twitter, Instagram, and Substack

Washington Square Park Mutual Aid

Make sure to follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org or wherever you get your podcasts.

Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Response is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters

In the second of this 2-part series of The Response, we pick up where we left off in Episode 1 and continue our deep dive into how communities are responding to the growing abortion access crisis in the United States, sharing the stories of those impacted and highlighting a number of radical grassroots, mutual aid, and solidaristic efforts aimed at helping people access abortion in the places where it's currently outlawed or restricted.

Abortion access has always been limited here in the United States, but since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June of this year and the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion — things have gotten dramatically worse — especially in parts of the southern United States, the Great Plains, and parts of the midwest.

In the face of trigger laws banning and criminalizing abortion in many states — as well as state-sanctioned harassment and targeted campaigns against people seeking abortions — the centuries-old movement for reproductive rights and justice has only grown and strengthened. This movement takes many forms, and in the second part of this series we're going to explore mutual aid efforts focusing on medical abortion pills and emergency contraception.

You can listen to Part 1 of this series here.

Episode credits:

• Series producer and writer: Robert Raymond
• Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats
• Additional music: Chris Zabriskie, Do Make Say Think, and Pele
• Original artwork was created by Bethan Mure

This series features:

• Julie Amaon: Family medicine physician and the medical director for Just the Pill
• Jenice Fountain: Executive Director of Yellowhammer Fund
• Gulf South Plan B: Mutual Aid organization that distributes free emergency contraception in Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi
• Angel Jones: Recipient of medical abortion pills
• Laurie Roberts: Executive Director of Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund

Additional Resources:

Lists of Abortion Funds by state/region:

https://abortionfunds.org/

https://apiaryps.org/pso-list

The Response is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters

In the first of this 2-part series of The Response, we take a deep dive into how communities are responding to the growing abortion access crisis in the United States, sharing the stories of those impacted and highlighting a number of radical grassroots, mutual aid, and solidaristic efforts aimed at helping people access abortion in the places where it's currently outlawed or restricted.

Abortion access has always been limited here in the United States, but since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June of this year and the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision held that the Constitution does not confer a right to abortion — things have gotten dramatically worse — especially in parts of the southern United States, the Great Plains, and parts of the midwest.

In the face of trigger laws banning and criminalizing abortion in many states — as well as state-sanctioned harassment and targeted campaigns against people seeking abortions — the centuries-old movement for reproductive rights and justice has only grown and strengthened.

Episode credits:

• Series producer and writer: Robert Raymond
• Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats
• Additional music: Chris Zabriskie, Do Make Say Think, and Pele
• Original artwork was created by Bethan Mure

This series features:

• Julie Amaon: Family medicine physician and the medical director for Just the Pill
• Jenice Fountain: Executive Director of Yellowhammer Fund
• Gulf South Plan B: Mutual Aid organization that distributes free emergency contraception in Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi
• Angel Jones: Recipient of medical abortion pills
• Laurie Roberts: Executive Director of Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund

Lists of Abortion Funds by state/region:

https://abortionfunds.org/

https://apiaryps.org/pso-list

The Response is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters

Documentary #10: Wartime Mutual Aid in Ukraine

Short: For the 10th audio documentary episode of The Response, we're going to focus on the war in Ukraine. As the fighting grinds on, what kinds of solidarity and mutual aid actions are taking place in the country and in bordering countries to provide relief and assistance to refugees?

Long: In February, after a month's long prelude which many never believed would come to fruition, Russian troops landed in Mariupol and Odessa along the Azov and Black sea coasts, and Russian tanks rolled in through the Belarussian border crossing of Senkivka in the north. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had officially begun. A lot has happened since then, and what started as an anticipated speedy "decapitation" of the Ukrainian government, to quote the Kremin, has now revealed itself to be a war with no immediate end in sight. The impacts have been devastating to Ukraine and its effects have rippled out globally. And as the carnage continues, it's difficult to say just how devastating this invasion will be on the Ukrainian people in the months, years, and decades to come.

In the face of this horror, the Ukrainian people are not just fighting back against an imperial war of aggression, they're also coming together to take care of each other. Millions of people have been displaced by the war, both within Ukraine and as refugees to other countries — it's a humanitarian crisis on a scale much larger than the other disasters we've covered on The Response. In this episode, we're highlighting stories of Ukrainian resistance and solidarity. A small but significant glimpse into how the Ukrainian people have come together to survive the war, to strengthen their communities, and to fight for each other and their autonomy.

The transcript is available here:

The Response with Tom Llewellyn is a podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters

Episode credits:

• Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn
• Series producer (+ research and scriptwriting for this episode): Robert Raymond
• Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats
• Additional music: Death Pill, oh, deer!, American Football
• Original artwork was created by Bethan Mure

This episode features:

• Yaroslav Minkin – Chairman of the Board of the NGO Youth organization STAN
• Romeo Kokriatski – Managing Editor at the New Voice of Ukraine and Co-host of the podcast Ukraine Without Hype
• Yosh – Head of the NGO Feminist Workshop
• Joseph Bednarek – Senior Director for Global Grantmaking at Global Fund for Children.
• Ruslan Stanga – Senior Advisor at The Institute for Rural Initiatives in Moldova

But Next Time: "Higher Ground" On this week's episode of Shareable's The Response podcast, we're continuing to delve into community-rooted responses to disasters with "Higher Ground," part four of BUT NEXT TIME, a limited-run podcast that spotlights powerful stories of community-led disaster prevention and recovery. In this episode of The Response we'll travel to Houston, Texas, with Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta, hosts of But Next Time, to meet these changemakers in the final episode of their limited-run podcast.

When communities face the aftermath of catastrophes, what does it take to ensure that the next time will be different?

In Houston, it takes a city council member who bicycles in her neighborhood to hear from constituents about what they need most. It takes 12 moms who organize to take legal action against the landlords that have kept their families in moldy, substandard apartments. And it takes a city official who blows the whistle on corrupt and dangerous practices related to housing policy.

Listen in to hear their stories as they work tirelessly to ensure that next time will be different.

The Response is an award-winning documentary film, book, and podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters with host Tom Llewellyn.

Episode credits:

Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn

Series producer: Robert Raymond

Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats

Let us know what you think of the show: [email protected]

But Next Time: "Rising Waters" On this week's episode of Shareable's The Response podcast, we're continuing to delve into community-rooted responses to disasters with "Rising Waters," part three of BUT NEXT TIME, a limited-run podcast that spotlights powerful stories of community-led disaster prevention and recovery In this episode we meet activist-parents who are fighting to save their families' homes despite a perfect storm of greedy landlords and hurricane-related flooding.

Along the way, they connect with leaders in Puerto Rico who have also been resisting and rebuilding in the wake of ongoing disaster.

Whether they are educating their communities, building back power grids, or bringing their fight to the courtroom, these community leaders are working together to shape the healthier future we all deserve.

Listen in to hear their stories as they work tirelessly to ensure that next time will be different.

To go deeper into some of the ongoing mutual aid projects in Puerto Rico that emerged following Hurricane Maria, our award-winning documentary film, "The Response: How Puerto Ricans Are Restoring Power to the People," is now available on YouTube with Spanish, French, and Portuguese subtitles (in addition to the original version in English).

And if you're interested in hosting a screening of the film for your community, organization, or university, we've got a step-by-step guide to help you out.

The Response is an award-winning documentary film, book, and podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters with host Tom Llewellyn.

Episode credits:

Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn

Series producer: Robert Raymond

Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats

Let us know what you think of the show: [email protected]

But Next Time: "From the Ashes"

On this week's episode of Shareable's The Response podcast, we're continuing to delve into community-rooted responses to disasters in California, from the fires to the pandemic with "From the Ashes," part two of BUT NEXT TIME, a limited-run podcast that spotlights powerful stories of community-led disaster prevention and recovery

Following climate-fueled wildfires and the pandemic, people banded together to build mutual aid networks, translate emergency messages in Spanish and indigenous languages, and disseminate crucial recovery information to their communities. In Sonoma County organizers hit the fields with information about where to get food, shelter, and support. In San Francisco, they set up a strong response to COVID-19 in the city's Mission District.

Tune in to hear how these leaders act collectively to confront those in power, work for justice before and after disaster, and together answer one vital question: how can next time be different?

The Response is an award-winning documentary film, book, and podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters with host Tom Llewellyn.

Episode credits:

Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn

Series producer: Robert Raymond

Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats

Let us know what you think of the show: [email protected]

This week, we're continuing our collaboration with the Rise-Home Stories Project to bring you the first episode of BUT NEXT TIME, a limited-run podcast that spotlights powerful stories of community-led disaster prevention and recovery.

As fires ravaged California's world-famous wine country in 2017, a community radio station, emergency dispatcher, and tenant organizers helped the most vulnerable in their community survive and recover. Community organizers and hosts of the podcasts But Next Time, Chrishelle Palay and Rose Arrieta, bring us the first of four stories of hard-won lessons learned from people on the front lines of California's wildfires and Texas' storms as they work to answer the question, how can next time be different?

The Response is an award-winning documentary film, book, and podcast series from Shareable.net exploring how communities are building collective resilience in the wake of disasters with host Tom Llewellyn.

Episode credits:

Host and executive producer: Tom Llewellyn

Series producer: Robert Raymond

Theme Music: "Meet you on the other side" by Cultivate Beats

Let us know what you think of the show: [email protected]