Wed, 19 June 2013
Sophie and Fannie take you inside the Deenabandhu Children's Home - an orphanage in Chamarajanagar, a rural district in Karnataka, South India. It's a unique place governed by a singular philosophy, that all children should be treated as whole people. Deenabandhu raises orphaned and destitute children and also invites poor children from the surrounding neighborhoods to go to school there. Many children arrive at Deenabandhu malnourished and sick, but once inside are fed, clothed, and raised in a positive environment thanks to generous sponsorships mostly from people they've never met. In addition to encouraging the kids in academics, the abiding goal is to teach the kids life-skills in the hope they will return to their communities as responsible adults. Music by Noah Thorp. |
Wed, 12 June 2013
Garbage is inextricably tied to abundance, and we create so much garbage that some people make their livelihoods off it. We wanted to show you some alternative places and uses for your garbage, and the people who capitalize on it: Sophie and Fannie check out Jim Klinko's Furniture on Consignment in Westport, Connecticut, to hear about his life spent flipping other people's cast-offs for cash, and what his work means to him. Plus, we'll take you into some of New York City's finest dumpsters with a group of Freegans who scavenge through grocery store waste in search of their next meal. Then we'll introduce you to Miriam Goldstein, a young marine biologist who started her professional career looking for the Great Pacific Garbage Island. She didn't find a garbage island, but what she found floating in the ocean can only be described as "plastic chowder," and she says there's thousands of miles of it to go around.
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Wed, 5 June 2013
Garbage, shit, waste, crap, refuse, discards, dreck - these are all words we use to describe that pile of stuff we all collect but will soon find a way to make disappear. In America, it's never been easier to throw away your trash and in this episode we face the pile head-on. Fannie and Sophie hitch a ride with the NY Dept of Sanitation to make the morning pick up rounds, and later sit down with Anthropologist-in-Residence for the NY Dept of Sanitation, Robin Nagel, whose recent book, Picking Up, is a detailed survey of the Sanitation Department from the inside. Then we try and figure out just how much waste Americans are creating with the help of the EPA and Edward Humes, author of Garbology (a great book if this show happens to turn you into a trash nerd). Plus we dig up some footage of the late Professor William Rathje and the curious discoveries he made abot decomposition (or lack of) in our nation's landfills. Music by Dave Nelson and Kevin Shipp. |