Only in America with Ali Noorani

Latest Episodes:

Gulab Jamun and Fried Okra: Cultural Understanding in the Deep South May 08, 2019

Show notes

Susan West is director of the Conversational English Ministry for the Montgomery Baptist Association in Montgomery, Alabama. A retired teacher, she previously taught English to the families of foreign officers receiving officer training at Maxwell Air Force Base. She highly recommends the children's book "The Hundred Dresses" by Evelyn Estes.

In Their Shoes: Empathy and Immigration May 01, 2019

Show notes

Belinda Bauman is a writer, teacher and advocate living in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is the author of "Brave Souls: Experiencing the Audacious Power of Empathy." Belinda is also the founder of the One Million Thumbprints, which advocates for women in the most dangerous conflict zones in the world. Her work has also appeared in HuffPost and The Daily Beast.

Building Trust: Lessons from Small Town Police Chiefs Apr 24, 2019

Show notes

Ali chats this week with police chiefs Andy Harvey of Palestine, Texas; Dwight Henninger of Vail, Colorado, and Steve Stahl of Maricopa, Arizona. They spoke about how they each connect with their immigrant communities, the importance of trust and keeping communities safe.

Chief Harvey spoke about relational policing, Chief Henninger recalled borrowing a model program from another county to successfully engage immigrants in Vail, and Chief Stahl talked about building bridges with trust.

Bearing Witness Along the Border Apr 17, 2019

Show notes

Ali's guest this week is Beth Cossin, a network pastor with the Heritage Church in the Quad Cities in Iowa and Illinois. She is also site director for the Esperanza Legal Assistance Center in Moline, Illinois. Beth recently visited the southern border with fellow pastors from the Wesleyan Church.

She talks with Ali about bearing witness on the delegation trip to El Paso and Ciudad Juarez, the importance of sharing the stories of migrants and serving the underserved in her community.

"The Least Politically Prejudiced Place in America" Apr 10, 2019

Show notes

Ali speaks this week with Amanda Ripley, a contributing writer to The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Emerson Collective. She is the author of "The Smartest Kids in the World – and How They Got That Way" and "The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why." Amanda recently profiled Watertown, New York, "The Least Politically Prejudiced Place in America."

She talked to Ali about her start in journalism, the importance of traditional institutions in civil life and meeting two lifelong friends named Ann in Watertown who are political opposites.

Seeking Justice in Honduras Apr 03, 2019

Show notes

Kurt Ver Beek is co-founder and president of the Association For A More Just Society, a Christian organization dedicated to achieving justice in Honduras through the implementation of reforms that would end corruption, violence and injustice. He is also on the faculty of Calvin College. Kurt spoke with Ali about the battle to end corruption and violence in Honduras, how the country has (and hasn't) changed, and the hope he finds in the Honduran people.

H-1B and H-4: The Need for High-Skilled Migrants Mar 27, 2019

Show notes

William R. Kerr is the D'Arbeloff Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School & co-director of Harvard's Managing the Future of Work initiative. His latest book is "The Gift of Global Talent: How Migration Shapes Business, Economy and Society."

Molika Gupta holds two masters degrees & is a patent licensing professional based in the Detroit area. She has an H-4 visa & advocates for other H-4 visa holders. Molika founded the Facebook group Immigrant Spouses ReWrite Your Story & the advocacy group Save H4EAD.

Ali spoke to Bill & Molika about high-skilled migration, the Trump administration's impact on visas, and H-4 advocacy.

Revisiting the Utah Compact: An Immigration Plan Looks Forward Mar 20, 2019

Show notes

Derek Miller is the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber in Salt Lake City, Utah. Earlier in his career, he worked as legal counsel on Capitol Hill and more recently as president of World Trade Center Utah.

Derek and Ali discussed the reasons behind the signing of the Utah Compact, a declaration of five principles that guide Utah's immigration discussion. The Compact ended up reverberating through the national immigration discussion. The pair also discuss the beauty of Utah, its rural areas and the struggle within the Salt Lake region to fill jobs in all industries.

A Sense of Duty: Instilling Values at the Public Service Academy Mar 13, 2019

Show notes

Brett Hunt is the executive director of the Public Service Academy at Arizona State University. Previously, he served as a U.S. Army captain and Foreign Service officer .

Sara Nieves Pereia is a student and communications lead at the academy. Originally from the Azores islands, she recently became a U.S. citizen. Sara and her American husband moved to his home state of Arizona in 2011.

Ali spoke to Brett and Sara about the values the academy instills in students, the traumatic transition of immigration to the US, and what public service means to them.

Joke's On Us – Insights from Satirist Lalo Alcaraz Mar 06, 2019

Show notes

Lalo Alcaraz is a nationally-syndicated cartoonist, writer and producer based in Los Angeles. He is the creator of the first politically-themed Latino comic, "La Cucaracha," the founder of Pocho.com and was a writer and producer for the 2016 Fox series Border Town. He was also a cultural consultant for the Disney Pixar feature Coco. He is currently a consulting producer and writer for The Casagrandes, which will premiere this fall on Nickelodeon.

Lalo talks to Ali about his parents' journey from Mexico to Southern California, how their struggle informs his work today and how he foresees the country's future.