Social Distances: The Miner’s Canary

05/16/23 • 16 min

Social distance...it means more than just six feet apart. What other kinds of distances did we encounter during 2020 and beyond? With support from Ohio Humanities, each episode of Toledo-based media thinkhub Midstory’s “Social Distances” podcast looks at a different cross section of society that has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis—unpacking topics ranging from the environment, birth and death and shelter, to media, race relations and more through insights from historians, anthropologists, poets, policymakers, and other experts.

In this episode, Dr. Akil Houston, professor of Cultural and Media Studies at Ohio University, unpacks how the social unrest of 2020 and beyond called into question our present—how we got here and where we go from here. Check out the full series at midstory.org/social-distances.

And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Previous Episode

County Lines: Growing the Next Generation

County Lines is WYSO's series focusing on small towns and rural communities in the greater Dayton area. Funded by a grant from Ohio Humanities, Community Voices producer Renee Wilde travels down the highways and back roads to tell stories of country life that go beyond the stereotypes. This week, hear four short stories from County Lines about the next generation of Ohioans, and listen to more stories from the series at wyso.org/county-lines.

Act 1: Aryn Copeland is a Senior at Wilmington College. She’s graduating with a degree in Agricultural Communications and is torn between two job offers—one in a rural community like the one she grew up in, and one in an urban area. In this interview with her professor Corey Cockerill, Aryn weighs the pros and cons of her decision in Corey’s office at the Robinson Communications Center on the Wilmington campus.

Act 2: Aryn Copeland interviews her professor, Corey Cockerill, about her journey from the suburbs to rural life. Corey Cockerill teaches Agricultural Communications at Wilmington College, but she didn’t live in a rural area until about 10 years ago. Corey grew up in the city of Mount Vernon, but when she went away to college—she met and fell in love with a farmer. Corey now lives on a farm and is raising two young children in his remote hometown of just over a thousand residents.

Act 3: Future Farmers of America was founded in 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri as a way to educate the next generation of farmers. Today, FFA is a national organization for young people interested in leadership and agriculture. There are over a dozen local FFA chapters in the Miami Valley - including one at Northeastern High School in rural Clark County. Producer Anna Lurie went to Northeastern to learn about FFA and to teach the students a little bit about radio.

Act 4: Clubs like FFA, which stands for Future Farmers of America, serve as both social and educational roles in rural communities. Kayla Wise credits FFA for her decision to pursue an agricultural degree. Kayla also never believed in climate change until she took a class at Wilmington College called Individual and Global Policy. Lucy Enge was also in that class, and she asks Kayla how it affected her viewpoint on climate change.

And, later this year, join WYSO and Ohio Humanities again for the forthcoming series The Ohio Country. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Next Episode

The Landscape of Local Newspapers in Ohio with Tim Feran

This week on Ohio Humans, we're revisiting Rachel Hopkin's 2020 conversation with journalist Tim Feran about the changing landscape of local newspapers in Ohio.

This episode is part of the Federation of State Humanities Councils' “Democracy and the Informed Citizen” initiative, which seeks to deepen our knowledge and appreciation of the vital connections between democracy, the humanities, journalism, and an informed citizenry. Many thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their generous support of this initiative and the Pulitzer Prizes for their partnership. The episode's opening and closing music is provided by Sokolovsky Music.

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The Poynter article about Gannett, the Ithaca Journal, and ghost newsrooms mentioned in the interview can be found at https://www.poynter.org/locally/2020/at-gannetts-ithaca-journal-local-news-staffing-is-down-to-one-reporter.

Dan O’Brien's investigative reporting in Youngstown for ProPublica and the Youngstown Business Journal can be found at https://www.propublica.org/people/dan-obrien and https://businessjournaldaily.com/author/dobrienbusiness-journal-com.