CCEP Podcasts - Exploring Policy and Ethics in California

Uncertain Forecast, Episode 3 - Three Stories of Extreme Heat

Welcome to Uncertain Forecast, a podcast series created by the California Center for Ethics and Policy--or “CCEP”--at Cal Poly Pomona. The focus of our podcast is on climate justice, an issue that affects people worldwide, particularly where inequality is greatest, but which is often disguised or invisible.

In this episode of the series, CPP political science student Melane Olmeda takes a close look at how the most invisible yet deadliest climate change-related issue, that of extreme heat, affects the lives of ordinary people. Melane is interested specifically on how extreme heat is affecting three different communities: a young representative for Latinx communities who is involved with a local activist group, a roof contractor who is part of a group installing solar on roofs in Southern California, and a resident of Pomona. Melane weaves in other seemingly tangential climate issues, such as wildfires, that greatly exacerbate extreme heat events, and asks of the people she interviews what impact such events have on their everyday lives and the lives of those around them – as well as what they are doing about it with the resources they have.

We ask that if you like what you hear, if you care about these issues, please share our podcast with your friends, family, and colleagues.

Uncertain Forecast, Episode 2 - How the Unhoused Experience Climate Change

Welcome to Uncertain Forecast, a podcast series created by the California Center for Ethics and Policy--or “CCEP”--at Cal Poly Pomona. The focus of our podcast is on climate justice, an issue that affects people worldwide, particularly where inequality is greatest, but which is often disguised or invisible.

In our second episode of the series, CPP philosophy student Emily Reyes looks specifically at the impact of climate change on houseless people in Pomona, the surrounding community outside of the Cal Poly Pomona campus. Emily interviews key organizers and stakeholders to highlight two key issues in Pomona: access to food and access to adequate shelter by those most in need – the houseless population. With an eye towards understanding the challenges houseless peoples in Pomona face, Emily interviews a wide range of people on the ground, experiencing these issues first-hand, as well as people working for organizations attempting to mitigate some of these challenges.

We ask that if you like what you hear, if you care about these issues, please share our podcast with your friends, family, and colleagues.

Uncertain Forecast, Episode 1 - What Is Plastic?

Welcome to Uncertain Forecast, a podcast series created by the California Center for Ethics and Policy--or “CCEP”--at Cal Poly Pomona. The focus of our podcast is on climate justice, an issue that affects people worldwide, particularly where inequality is greatest, but which is often disguised or invisible.

In this first episode, CPP bio student Alec Iskenderian takes a close look at what people think of plastics. Inspired by an exotoxicology class where Alec learned that it takes about 500 years for plastic to degrade into a form of energy that can be used for living things, Alec interviews everyone he can, random people on the street, and a professor at Cal Poly Pomona, to find out more about the impact of plastics in our lives and the lives of the ecosystems and organisms around us. But he also looks at where we, people and their everyday lives, figure into this class of materials called plastic – how much do we produce, how does it affect public health, what is the relationship between plastic and climate change, and what, exactly, is plastic? 

We ask that if you like what you hear, if you care about these issues, please share our podcast with your friends, family, and colleagues.

Securing Justice Episode 8 - Three Stories About Housing and Music

This is the eighth and final episode in our series, and therefore we wanted to offer something special. CCEP recently hosted Betto Arcos, who is a journalist and storyteller, to recite three stories at the intersection of housing and music. A native of Xalapa in Veracruz, Mexico, Betto now lives in LA where he is a frequent contributor to KPCC and PRX Radio. He is also the author of Music Stories from the Cosmic Barrio.

If you’ve been listening to this podcast all season, these stories bridge many of the themes we’ve already explored, such as identity, adversity, and the importance of community building.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org. 

Securing Justice Episode 7 - Reflections on Housing and Home

This is the seventh episode in our series, which focuses on housing insecurity in California. This episode was created by two CCEP’s 2020-21 student fellows, Octavio Cuevas and Victoria Torres. As I mentioned in past episodes, each year CCEP recruits a new group of student fellows, whose coursework and research focuses on the year’s theme. 

For Octavio and Victoria’s episode on “housing insecurity”, they offer us a unique listening experience. It begins with their own meditations on the meaning of home and how housing access has shaped their lives. Then, they interview a friend and fellow student who has experienced homelessness. The student details their struggle and how it impacted their ability to learn and succeed academically. 

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org. 

Securing Justice Episode 6 - Racial Gaps in Homeownership, Income, and Savings (And Why They Matter)

In this episode, we share with you our final 2021 panel discussion hosted by CCEP, titled “Racial Gaps in Homeownership, Income, and Savings”, which brought together three experts on the history of housing and wealth inequality in the US, and Los Angeles more specifically. 

This conversation is special because the moderator, Alvaro Huerta, Associate Professor in Urban and Regional Planning and Ethnic and Women’s Studies at Cal Poly Pomona, provokes our panelists to talk about their personal experiences--experiences with housing, poverty, and racism. These personal reflections lay the foundation for a discussion about historical and contemporary forms of discrimination in homeownership and other forms of institutional oppression that perpetuate wealth inequality along racial and ethnic lines. 

Panelists:

• Dr. Gary Painter, Chair, USC Department of Public Policy; Director, Sol Price Center for Social Innovation; Director, USC Homeless Policy Research Institute
• Lori Gay, President & CEO, Neighborhood Housing Services Los Angeles
• Dr. Anaid Yerena, Assistant Professor, University of Washington, Tacoma

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org. 

Securing Justice Episode 5 - #Cancel Rent: Digital Organizing and Collective Struggle in a Global Pandemic

This episode tells a story about collective struggle during the pandemic by tuning into the ways the Healthy LA coalition navigates the bureaucratic dissonance of a call-in public comment system. It was recorded back in early 2020 and first aired on the “Digital Salon Podcast”, a project of the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative. 

In re-airing this episode, we thought we would do something a little different. We start with a brief conversation between the episode creator, Brady Collins, Assistant Professor of Political Science at CPP and his colleague, Dr. Cory Aragon, Professor of Philosophy at CPP, about the episode--what it was like to make it, what it is trying to get across, and what it means today.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org. 

Securing Justice Episode 4 - The Eviction Crisis on the Horizon: Rent Relief and Pandemic Recovery in California

In this episode, we share with you another 2021 panel discussion hosted by CCEP, titled “The Eviction Crisis on the Horizon: Rent Relief and Pandemic Recovery in California”. For this conversation, which I had the pleasure of moderating, we brought together three individuals leading the fight for rent relief in California, and particularly in Los Angeles. As with previous panels you’ll certainly hear some policy analysis here. However, we wanted to make sure we invited community organizers working at the grassroots level so listeners can also hear how the pandemic, and concomitant eviction crisis, is impacting the lives of tenants.

It’s worth mentioning that although this panel discussion was held several months ago, the issue is still very relevant today. The pandemic, while subsiding, is not over. And despite the funding for rent relief programs allocated to cities in the American Rescue Plan, renters remain vulnerable and an eviction crisis still looms on the horizon.

Panelists:

• Gary Blasi, Professor of Law Emeritus, UCLA

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  Faizah Malik, Senior Staff Attorney, Public Counsel

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  Pamela Agustin, Coalition Manager, Eastside LEADS

Moderated by Brady Collins, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Cal Poly Pomona and Faculty Fellow with CCEP. 

For a full video of the panel, visit CCEP's YouTube page.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org. 

Securing Justice Episode 3 - Moving Forward in Affordable Housing: The Role of Architects

In our third installment of Securing Justice, we share with you an episode created by one of CCEP’s 2020-21 student fellows, Itzia Salinas Cortes. To better understand the role that architects can play in addressing housing affordability, she interviews Jim Broeske, an architect with 40 years of experience working in Southern California. In their discussion, they talk about the ways in which building codes and design standards pose unique challenges to architects working in affordable housing construction, as well as creative solutions that architects--and cities--should consider to overcome them. 

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org. 

 

Securing Justice Episode 2 - Representations of Place, Home, and Security

In this episode of Securing Justice, we share with you a second panel discussion hosted by CCEP, titled “Representations of Place, Home, and Insecurity”. For this conversation, we invited three creatives--a filmmaker, a visual artist, and a theater maker--whose creative work somehow examines these themes in Southern California. The impact of art and artists on the city is a widely studied topic, and something that any urban resident has probably seen or felt in their day-to-day lives. For this reason I think listeners outside of California will still find this conversation relevant to their own experiences. 

Panelists:

• Jeremiah Hammerling: Emmy-award-winning documentary filmmaker, who has worked on a number of projects including City Rising for KCET.
• Alvaro Marquez: a visual artist and educator whose interdisciplinary practice integrates print-making, fiber art, installation, and sculpture.
• Marike Splint: a theater maker, Fulbright Scholar, faculty member in the Department of Theater at UCLA, and she specializes in creating work in public space that explores the relationship between people, places, and identity.

Moderated by Professor Rennie Tang, a designer, educator, and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at CPP, whose research interests include kinesthetic engagement in urban landscapes, intergenerational playscape for health and wellbeing, and choreographic spatial practices.

For a full video of the panel, visit CCEP's YouTube page.

This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.