An invitation into rural corners of the South
A deep commitment and intimate connection to our place in the world is powerful, regardless of its size or how easy it is to find on a map.
Podcast host Leanna First-Arai says the people who invite us into their small, rural corners of the South on the new season of Broken Ground are a testament to the big impact of having a strong connection to a place, of any size.
This season you’ll hear from some of the people living in these places polluters are betting are out sight, therefore out of mind, and how their communities are pushing back against the threats to their quality of life, homes and businesses.
Read the interview with First-Arai for a glimpse of what went into making Broken Ground’s latest season.
This is your third season hosting Broken Ground – what makes this one different?
It has been a big privilege to collaborate on this season in a different way than the other ones. With our fifth season that covered the fight against the Byhalia Connection oil pipeline, I was already very intimately connected with the situation there. Last season we talked to environmental journalists across the South, and I already had working relationships with some of the subjects and the issues they covered.
This season for me has been an opportunity to learn about some really shocking situations and issues that were not on my radar.
Can you give us an example?
I learned so much about how biomass impacts the South. Policy in the U.K. that drives this transatlantic industry is wacky and should be something that, as humans connected across the seas, we have learned from. We should not be causing Southern forests to be so quickly chewed up and shipped over to burn into U.K. power plants.
I’m really excited to share with listeners the issues that we learned about and not only the level of shock, but the level of charm we found in some of these amazing corners of the South.
What do you want people to know about this season of the podcast?
One of the things we are hoping comes across this season is the way that Southern stereotypes have historically been damaging to many people living across the South. We’re bringing in and getting to know people living in lovely small towns from Fair Bluff, North Carolina, to Anniston, Alabama.
You’ll meet some surprising characters from all walks of life who are part of a coalition that’s calling for clear air and water.
In so many small towns across the rural South, there’s such persistent poverty and a feeling of fading away or being forgotten. For some rural places, there’s also excitement around what environmental futures could look like. The door is open for building even more small, close-knit communities that have their own amazing ways of stopping the powers that be from getting away with polluting in these remote places.
How does the team approach a new person or place?
The fact that we are exploring has kept us grounded. We’ve been committed to finding out what environmental justice and injustice look like in rural places.
With reporting in general and going into some of these beautiful corners of the South, it’s important to be humble, super open to learning, and to seek surprises and the rupturing of our own stereotypes that we carry with us.
There is so much persistent poverty across the rural South that has been inherited across generations and carries trauma with it. We went into these spaces just as ready to learn as ever, but also with a lens of trying to learn how communities are organizing and trying to carve out a brighter environmental future for themselves.
What are some takeaways from your reporting on issues particular to those communities?
Perhaps the most broad and striking takeaway from all this reporting has been the persistent theme of state environmental regulators being positioned to allow industry to conduct their dirty business – whether we’re talking about titanium mining in Georgia or biomass plants, landfills, or fishing across the South. In these stories, regulators seem to look the other way when residents are very clearly stating what they do or don’t want in their community.
How does Broken Ground offer listeners something unique that they won’t get from other environmental podcasts?
Working on this podcast with a team that has such intense expertise, we are often able to focus on solutions on Broken Ground. I think people like to hear fresh thinking around how to make things better at a time when it’s hard to understand what’s possible.