Leaving home to move on to a college campus is all about new connections – living with roommates, going to classes, joining clubs, playing sports, socializing, dating… all of which, of course, are either severely curtailed or banned outright under COVID protocols. So what is it like to live in a dorm right now? In … Continued

The post 9. The Residents appeared first on RacecarRadio.

It’s 2021, and we finally have several viable vaccines for COVID-19, but that doesn’t mean the pandemic is over. They need to be manufactured, they need to be distributed… and even then very real cultural obstacles exist to vaccinating enough of the population to allow social distancing to end. In this episode, we hear from … Continued

The post 8. The Vaccine appeared first on RacecarRadio.

Many of us don’t often associate college with homelessness, but as many as 14% of CUNY students have no fixed address – some living on couches, and many relying on shelters or living on the street. How does someone manage to work and study with that kind of personal instability? What if you’re also trying … Continued

The post 7. The Unhoused appeared first on RacecarRadio.

The 2020 presidential election is only days away, and everyone agrees the results are going to have momentous consequences for the country, but the importance of this election only serves to underscore serious systemic questions about participatory democracy in the US – who votes? who doesn’t? and why? and how? In this episode, we hear … Continued

The post 6. The Voters appeared first on RacecarRadio.

Along with doctors, nurses, and first responders, COVID’s media “heroes” included an unlikely and previously unheralded group, the “essential workers” – custodians, supermarket employees, delivery drivers, and other solidly blue-collar, often underpaid and under-respected men and women who all of a sudden seemed to be the only ones holding society together. What has this sudden … Continued

The post 5. The Essential Workers appeared first on RacecarRadio.

Theater is big business in New York, and central to its cultural identity, but the novel coronavirus has brought it to a standstill, and thousands of actors, directors, writers, technicians, and support staff are left scrambling to figure out what the next couple of years might look like, and if their industry will survive at … Continued

The post 4. The Thespians appeared first on RacecarRadio.

Nursing homes were some of the first and hardest-hit centers of COVID-19 infection, and have remained extremely challenging places to live and work in the face of the pandemic. Queensboro Community College nursing students Adam Kern and Kristen Rodriguez have been on the front lines of this battle for months now, caring for the residents … Continued

The post 3. The Caregivers appeared first on RacecarRadio.

Protesters marched for weeks following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. The demonstrations sparked a national conversation about the role of police in society — and protesting in the middle of a pandemic. All this and more in my conversation with community organizer, and incoming Graduate Center student, Shadley and Brooklyn … Continued

The post 2. The Protesters appeared first on RacecarRadio.