Photo Credit: Lloyd Cederstrand

In this episode Al Letson and guest producer Lu Olkowski visit a tiny town in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio where, for a century, residents have shared the common bond of identifying as African-American despite the fact that they look white. Racial lines have been blurred to invisibility, and people inside the same family can vehemently disagree about whether they are black or white. It can be tense and confusing. As a result, everyone’s choosing: Am I black? Am I mixed race? Or, am I white?

For more information on “As Black As We Wish to Be” 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.

Listen to the Broadcast on WJCT’s On Demand Page

Host Al Letson and WJCT's Karen Feagins in studio with Luther Delp.

We’ve had a few people ask us about the live broadcast of our Jacksonville episode on WJCT so we wanted to post it in case you missed some or all of it.

If you head over WJCT’s on demand page and click Listen you can hear the entire two hours with host Al Letson and WJCT’s Karen Feagins.

And if you want more information about any of the organizations featured in the show, check out the links below:

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• Save the St. Johns River Ferry
• Save Mayport Fishing Village
• Jumping Fish: Advocating for Our Waterways through Athletics
• Veterans Farm
• Brooks Adaptive Sports and Recreation

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At this point in the 21st century, it’s kind of impossible to talk about community-building without, at some point, talking about the internet. The way we meet people, establish connections, maintain our relationships and fight for what we believe in has been radically transformed by the web—and it’s still transforming. But often, when we’re talking about these changes, the focus is either on pure enthusiasm about the possibilities presented by the limitlessness of the web, or anxiety about online connections replacing physical ones. In this episode, we explore how the “virtual” has turned into the “real” in people’s lives.

For more information on “Virtual Reality” 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.

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Photo Source: Jonathan Zander from Wikimedia Commons

Jacksonville, Florida is a lot of things: a military town. A church town. A beach town. And it can be all those things because Jacksonville is the largest city in the whole country: 841 acres of sprawl, highways, and strip malls dotted with tiny, unique neighborhoods. How does a place this huge and diverse lurch forward to keep pace with the rest of the country? The quick answer: often, it doesn’t. But once in a while, in small surprising ways, this place can be an incubator for innovation. In host Al Letson’s hometown episode, SOTRU asks: is Jacksonville is moving backward, stuck in neutral, or shifting towards progress?

For more information on “Grinding the Gears,” 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.

Courtesy: Bob Torrez. All rights reserved.

Tucson sits in the borderlands, the desert landscape where America and Mexico meet. This place is crisscrossed by boundaries, visible and invisible—from the US border wall that cuts the Sonoran desert in half, to live-wire political divides in Tucson itself. In this episode, we tell stories about what happens when people cross borders, risking their lives and their reputations to take a chance on the other side

For more information on Borderlands, visit our episode page for photos, links and music information.

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.