The Problem of Our Time

Soil Restoration is Soul Restoration w/Elliot Royal

The episode connects soil restoration to human health and climate action, then examines food insecurity in Charlotte as both lack of funds and lack of proximity to healthy food retailers. It defines “food desert” using the federal criteria and cites a 2020 Sustain Charlotte figure that 15% of Mecklenburg County residents—about 180,000 people—lived in a food desert. Leaders from the West Boulevard Neighborhood Coalition explain West Boulevard has lacked a full-service grocery store since 1989, describing how grocery store location decisions track median incomes and framing food as a “new age version of segregation.” The community’s response is Three Sisters Market, a community-owned food co-op honoring Amy James, Lucille McNeil, and Dorothy Wade, building on Seeds for Change, a quarter-acre urban farm employing youth. The episode links food access work to environmental justice, community organizing, and food sovereignty, and shares ways to support through memberships and volunteerism. 00:00 Soil and Soul 01:23 Defining Food Deserts 03:22 West Boulevard Grocery Gap 05:15 Why Stores Avoid It 08:15 Food as Segregation 10:41 Community Co-op Solution 12:12 Three Sisters Origins 13:52 Seeds for Change Farm 16:36 Community Gardens Debate 20:12 How to Get Involved 23:16 Environmental Justice Link 29:22 Food Sovereignty Wrap 31:02 Closing Credits ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Visions of Our Public Transportation Future w/ Shannon Binns

This is episode asks the question: Is Charlotte's failure to provide a viable public transportation an environmental issue? Spoiler alert: YES! But how and what are some of the visions for the future. Host, Colin Harden sat down with Shannon Binns of Sustain Charlotte to find out. I also take the bus to work to see how trash it is and got an unexpected to call from my buddy Charles who tells me his bus story. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Trees Disparity w/ Joi Mayo

Host Colin Harden explores how trees and tree canopy connect to environmental justice in Charlotte, featuring Joi Mayo, Charlotte City Council District 3 member and Trees Charlotte community engagement manager.  ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

HEAT w/ Dr. Katherine Idziorek...and my Mom

Do you know what a heat island is? Probably not but if you do you may understand how dangerous heat can be; but to take it a bit further extreme heat and the injuries and deaths that can occur from impact people of color and people of lower incomes more than others. But why? I sat down with researcher and college professor Dr. Idzriorek who gave me some greater insight. Oh and my Mother joined the pod to tell her heat stroke story. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Environmental Justice, Participatory Science & the “Spidey Sensor” with Dr. Valerie Ann Johnson | Bonus Episode

In this bonus episode of The Problem of Our Time, Colin Harden shares a full interview with Dr. Valerie Ann Johnson, a medical anthropologist, scholar-activist, and board member across multiple North Carolina commissions and advisory councils. Johnson explains how her interdisciplinary work connects preservation history, public humanities, environmental justice, and participatory sciences. She defines environmental justice through its origins in 1982 Warren County, North Carolina, describing the injustice of toxic dumping in deliberately marginalized Black communities, and highlights health impacts such as cancer risks and endocrine disruption. Johnson discusses demystifying science through community and citizen science, including NASA programs and projects led by the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. She details the “Spidey Sensor” method, and describes community mapping and monitoring efforts to support organizing and policy advocacy against industrial waste, CAFOs, and landfills. 00:30 Meet Dr Valerie Johnson 02:56 Interdisciplinary Scholar Activism 07:43 Defining Environmental Justice 10:51 Health Impacts On Communities 13:59 What Is Participatory Science 19:56 Spidey Sensor Explained 24:43 Ways to Join Citizen Science 26:49 Mapping Hidden Poultry Farms 29:57 Data for Organizing and Policy 31:16 Rural Impacts and Environmental Injustice 34:40 Movement Then and Now 44:05 Afrofuturism and Imagining Justice 45:15 Hopeful Closing and Credits ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.