Walking the Margins: Mental Health & Housing Precarity Along Admiral

A motel room. The interstate. Winter wind. Days of walking with no plan but to witness life on the street. Nick Alexandrov set out to report on mental health along an extended-stay motel corridor in Tulsa. What he found was a quieter, more elusive, more human story.

Unfolding on sidewalks, overpasses, church steps, and in fleeting conversations with people living outside. This quarterly feature asks: How does this environment produce its own kind of mental strain? How do people cope with that stress? And what if, rather than the other way around, housing insecurity itself helps drive mental distress and addiction?

This special episode of Focus: Black Oklahoma is part of a larger quarterly effort from Oklahoma media addressing mental health. Find the rest of the quarterly and more stories and coverage from Tulsa Flyer, The Oklahoma Eagle, KOSU, La Semana, and The Frontier at TulsaFlyer.org.

Focus: Black Oklahoma is produced in partnership with KOSU, Tulsa Flyer, & Tri-City Collective.

Our theme music is by Moffett Music.

The production team for this special quarterly edition of Focus: Black Oklahoma are Quraysh Ali Lansana, Bracken Klar, & Jesse Ulrich.

You can visit us online at or FocusBlackOklahoma.com, & on YouTube @TriCityCollectiveOK.

You can follow us on Instagram @FocusBlackOK & on Facebook at Facebook.com/FocusBlackOK.

You can hear Focus: Black Oklahoma on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.

2:01 In communities across the US, questions about immigration enforcement and civil rights grow louder. For many Hispanic and Latino families, those questions are paired with something more personal—fear. Venson Fields takes us inside a community forum where frustration, uncertainty, and resilience met in one room to ensure community voices are heard.

12:04 On college and university campuses, student organizations can often reflect the political conversations shaping the nation beyond the classroom. At the University of Tulsa, a newly chartered chapter of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), the organization founded by Charlie Kirk, is beginning to do just that. FBO’s Jess Grimes takes a look at how the campus community is responding.

27:04 In part two of her interview with Mike Appeal, Vice President of Spring Creek coalition, FBO’s Roma Carter continues exploring why the Arkansas based chicken poultry industry thrives on Oklahoma lands, and highlights sustainable ways rural citizens are maintaining their land.

34:10 Baseball has long been known as America’s pastime. But when you look at who’s playing the game—and where they come from—the picture is far more global than fans might expect. In the World Baseball Classic, national teams from around the world take the field, with players representing countries across Latin America, Asia, Europe, and North America. The contrast between a global tournament built around national identity and a professional league rooted in American sports culture reveals the shifting demographic of baseball itself. FBO’s Phil Childs explores how the World Baseball Classic showcases baseball’s international reach.

42:26 For many women, menopause marks a major transition—one that can bring physical changes, emotional shifts, and a new understanding of their bodies. Despite how common the experience is, conversations about menopause often remain quiet, private, or even stigmatized. For Sondra Slade, the journey into menopause brought unexpected challenges. Her story is one of adjustment, reflection, and learning to speak openly about an experience shared by millions of women.

Focus: Black Oklahoma is produced in partnership with KOSU Radio & Tri-City Collective. Additional support is provided by the Commemoration Fund & Press Forward. Our theme music is by Moffett Music.

Focus: Black Oklahoma's executive producers are Quraysh Ali Lansana & Bracken Klar. Our associate producers are Jesse Ulrich, & Naomi Agnew. Our production interns are Alexander Evans, Roma Carter, Jess Grimes, & Anna Wilson.

You can visit us online at KOSU.org or FocusBlackOklahoma.com & on YouTube @TriCityCollectiveOK.

You can follow us on Instagram @FocusBlackOK & on Facebook at Facebook.com/FocusBlackOK.

You can hear Focus: Black Oklahoma on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://linktr.ee/focusblackok

00:50 For many families, Alzheimer’s doesn’t arrive all at once—it creeps in through forgotten names, missed appointments, and the quiet heartbreak of watching someone you love slip away. In the Black community, the disease hits harder and earlier. Zaakirah Muhammad has a story about Alzheimer’s—not just as a medical condition, but as a community issue that demands visibility, resources, and compassion.

14:02 In part one of Anna Wilson's story, we heard the numbers, and the stories behind them, revealing how queer youth in Oklahoma are disproportionately pushed to the margins, often with nowhere safe to land. In part two, we go beyond the statistics to find young people navigating rejection, resilience, and survival in a state where support can feel scarce.

25:55 In May of 2025, Oklahoma passed House Bill 1588, creating the Spring Creek Watershed Study Act, to address waterway contamination from poultry farm waste in northeastern Oklahoma. The bill’s passage is due in part to a local non-profit which has worked for decades to protect the Spring Creek Watershed. This month, Roma Carter has the first part of the story.

37:32 On a small stage in Tulsa, big stories are being told—stories of Black womanhood, survival, joy, and reckoning. World Stage Theater is bringing a bold new production to life with For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf a production of Ntozake Shange’s 1976 groundbreaking choreopoem. First written to give voice to what was too often silenced, the work still resonates decades later. Kelli McCloud-Schingen, executive director of World Stage Theater, discusses how this production honors Shange’s legacy while simultaneously speaking directly to the current moment.

41:12 Black history isn’t only marked by struggle—it’s also filled with moments of laughter, brilliance, and pride that stay with us for a lifetime. In this story, Sondra Slade brings us back to a personal remembrance, but also a shared one, echoing the quiet questions and powerful affirmations that shape how we come to know ourselves.

Focus: Black Oklahoma is produced in partnership with KOSU Radio & Tri-City Collective. Additional support is provided by the Commemoration Fund & Press Forward.

Our theme music is by Moffett Music.

Focus: Black Oklahoma's executive producers are Quraysh Ali Lansana & Bracken Klar. Our associate producers are Jesse Ulrich, & Naomi Agnew. Our production interns are Alexander Evans, Roma Carter, Jess Grimes, & Anna Wilson.

You can visit us online at KOSU.org or FocusBlackOklahoma.com & on YouTube @TriCityCollectiveOK. You can follow us on Instagram @FocusBlackOK & on Facebook at Facebook.com/FocusBlackOK.

You can hear Focus: Black Oklahoma on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts.

https://linktr.ee/focusblackok