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Stay ConnectedFree podcast of the award-winning public radio show State of the Re:Union. Each episode of SOTRU, host Al Letson travels to a new community to tell stories about the people who are doing extraordinary work to help each other, to engage their community, and to overcome obstacles. It’s a unique way of storytelling that documents the new America. SOTRU is presented by WJCT, co-distributed by PRX and NPR. Because things fall apart, it’s our job to bring them back together.
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When one city in upstate New York was having trouble with its economy, it came up with a big idea to try to solve the problem: making its own...money. But can a concept as innovative as that actually stand the test of time? Producer Samuel Whitehead brings us the story of Ithaca Hours. 
Usually during Black History month, we remember civil rights icons and reflect on their legacy. But over the past couple years, SOTRU has met a new generation of African-American leaders, people you may not see on TV specials or making nationally acclaimed speeches. Most of these men and women are on the front lines of their communities, rolling up their sleeves and diving in to what can be very unglamorous work. 
During a month selected to celebrate “history,” we certainly are treated to a lot of the same familiar stories: the battles won for Civil Rights, the glory of Martin Luther King Jr.’s words, the hardships endured by slaves. And as important as those narratives are for us to collectively remember, many others get lost in trumpeting the same heroic tales. In this hour, State of the Re:Union zeroes in some of those alternate narratives, ones edited out of the mainstream imagining of Black History, deconstructing the popular perception of certain celebrated moments. 
What happens if you move to Portland, Oregon and you’re not into bikes or beer? Or if, say, you don’t even speak English? East Portland, a part of the city that looks completely different from the hipster central we’re familiar with from Portlandia, is home to a growing number of immigrants and refugees. Many of them struggle to find work and a sense of connection to their new home in the Pacific Northwest. But some have found that in the effort to integrate, *soccer* can be a useful tool. 
Most of State of the Re:Union’s reporting is done right here in the United States, but today host Al Letson tells us a very personal story about his recent trip to Malawi. 
In the 1970s, a prominent schizophrenia researcher named Dr. Loren Mosher noticed that the standard treatment in the hospital– medication, confinement– didn’t have good outcomes. People didn’t get better in the long-term. So he launched an experiment, to try out pretty much the exact opposite of that treatment in the hospital. He called it Soteria. 
For all you Portlandia fans out there, we hate to break it to you: the city ISN’T actually Portlandia… Except when it is. People there are very serious about recycling and passionate about human-powered transportation. In this story, Julie Sabatier, host of the public radio show and podcast Destination DIY and also a Portland resident tells us about a particular Portland activity that you may think only exists on the TV show. This one involves the very unglamorous job of… moving. Hint: it involves bicycles. 
Last summer, we visited Tulsa, Oklahoma, where a devastating racial incident in 1921 still divides the city today. That legacy has made it tough for Tulsa to move forward into the future, but in the last decade, it’s tried hard to do just that. The city has a newly revitalized downtown and a growing arts scene, and it wants badly to be known for something more than the hard history that’s shaped it. Writer Russell Cobb used to live in Tulsa and he was never the city’s biggest fan. But he’s watched from a distance as Tulsa has turned a corner, and now… he kind of wants to come back. 
A twist on SOTRU’s regular Dear City letters feature: for this special podcast, we asked Berta Britz, who has been hearing voices for her entire adult life, to write a Dear Voices letter. This SOTRU short was produced in conjunction with our episode, The Hospital Always Wins. To listen to the entire episode, see pictures and more, visit our 
Among the most iconic landscapes in America is the Western Range, a stretch of millions of acres of land, much of it remote and undeveloped. Deep traditions tie people to this land. But in the 21st century, it is also contested ground. Development pressures threaten open space as the Sun Belt becomes an economic powerhouse. Border issues mean life in some of these rural places has been transformed by violence and politics. But new ways are being forged on these fronts, ways that involve collaboration, innovation, and the rediscovery and reimagining of history on the new Southwestern Range. 
