The 40th anniversary of PCB protests in North Carolina is about to be commemorated. To mark the occasion, we revisit one of the most listened-to episodes from our first season. This story comes from Warren County. In the early 1980s, Warren County became a flash point in the fight for something that didn’t even have a commonly used name at the time: environmental justice. 

These days, members of this community are not only marking that history, they are taking new approaches to raising environmental awareness. Their work begins with support for small farmers, particularly those of color.

Jereann King Johnson and Joe O’Connell have teamed up to tell the story of local environmentalism in the present day. 

As we continue this second season of Living Downstream, make sure to subscribe, wherever you get your podcasts. Please leave comments and rate us on your favorite app - it helps others to find us.

Read more: New Growth in the Birthplace of Environmental Justice - Encore

On this episode of Living Downstream, we meet Catherine Coleman Flowers. In 2020, she released her first book, Waste: One Woman's Fight Against America's Dirtiest Secret. The book documents her two-decade crusade to expose the shameful conditions that many of her Alabama neighbors endure. Some Americans take for granted that when they flush the toilet their waste will travel to a place where it can be safely and effectively treated. But for others, the sewage may go only as far as their back yards, to become breeding grounds for insects and disease.  
 
In 2020, Flowers became a MacArthur Foundation Fellow - an award colloquially known as the "genius" grant for her work in Alabama and around the world. She also is the founder of CREEJ, the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice, and a current vice chair of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. 
 
Flowers talked in January, and again in April, with Living Downstream host Steve Mencher. In this episode we'll also hear selections from the documentary about Flowers, called The Accidental Environmentalist, and a story about a distant cousin and friend of Flowers, Pamela Rush, used by permission of NPR's All Things Considered.

Read more: Catherine Coleman Flowers: Warrior for Environmental Justice

More than a year into the pandemic, the Bronx is still the New York City borough with the highest death rate from COVID-19. That's where we begin the second season of our Living Downstream podcast.

Last year, Ese Olumhense, former Bronx reporter at THE CITY, explored why residents there were dying from the virus at a rate double the city's average. Public health experts said Bronx residents, who are overwhelmingly Black and Latinx, were more likely to work outside of their homes, regularly exposing them to the virus. The borough also sees high rates of chronic illnesses like diabetes and asthma, which can make COVID-19 infection more dangerous.

Read more: Struggling to Breathe in the Bronx

Season 2 of Living Downstream: The Environmental Justice Podcast premieres Earth Day (4/22/21). Producers are checking in from around the country, from California to North Carolina. And we'll talk with EJ warrior Catherine Coleman Flowers. Here's a preview.  

Read more: Living Downstream Podcast: Season 2 Preview

 CritterCam

NorCal Public Media is keeping an eye on critters! Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we are surrounded by extraordinary nature and amazing wildlife, but our animal neighbors are not always easy to spot. Naturalist Tracey Simmons leads us on a tour to meet fascinating mammals, birds, and insects that are hard to see even though they are living right here with us. With the help of nature photographers and stealthy motion-activated trail cameras, we get an up-close view that Tracey shares fun facts about. Want to see shy river otters playing or hear how coyotes talk to each other? Watch CritterCam!
 
Tracey Simmons is a naturalist and science communicator. A graduate from San Jose State University’s Biological Sciences program, they have published research in the journal Ecology and Evolution and assisted with wildlife rehabilitation at Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley. Tracey is very interested in making the natural world accessible to young people.
  

 

 
  1. Environmental articles
  2. Where have all the Herring Gone?
  3. Opening the Mouth of Walnut Creek
  4. Network Listens for Passing Salmon

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