The Leap

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The Big Pitch Mar 14, 2017

Show notes

San Francisco International High School is the city’s only high school exclusively for recently arrived immigrants. But you can also think of it as a factory.

What comes in are immigrant teenagers speaking 18 different languages, including Arabic, Russian, Tagalog and Spanish. Many haven’t been to school in years. Some have never used a three-ring binder, navigated a city, or shared a classroom with a member of the opposite sex.

What’s intended to come out are Americans with the full range of American options: go to college, be a scholar, a scientist, a teacher, an engineer. Every teacher here believes education is central to improving your life, but the students don’t always feel that way, at least at first.

Out of the Pond Feb 28, 2017

Show notes

Tesilya Hanauer grew up on a commune deep in a Northern California forest. When she was five, her mother joined a nomadic group of people whose philosophy involved breaking the bond between mother and child. They were called the Shivalila, and they believed that if parental bonds were severed, a communal consciousness might emerge that could eventually transform society. Over the next few years, Tesilia would follow them from California to the Philippines to rural India, hoping always for a glimpse of the mother she once had.

My Name Is Shawn and I Prefer He Dec 16, 2015

Show notes

Lately we’ve heard a lot of stories about people who, after years in the closet, found the courage to come out as transgender. But for Shawn, courage was never the problem.

Caught in a Pipe Dec 03, 2015

Show notes

It started with a knocking sound, then whispers, then the strange conviction that he could read people’s minds. In this story, we meet Frankie as he sprints away from his history of mental illness and toward the “normal” life he always wanted.

The Improbable Transformation of a Punk Pioneer Nov 18, 2015

Show notes

James Williamson became a punk rock legend as part the 1970s band The Stooges. But, a few years into it, he just walked away.

When a Stranger Gives You $125 Million Nov 03, 2015

Show notes

After a Seattle businessman left his fortune to a San Francisco blindness organization, its director went in search of an explanation. He found a secret the two men had shared.

The Dinner Date Oct 20, 2015

Show notes

Two friends, brought together in a tragic coincidence, take a leap back out of the darkness.

The Strange Journey of the World’s Worst Smell Oct 06, 2015

Show notes

What does the smell of butt crack and dead animal have to do with the demise of the American manufacturing industry and the battlefields of Iraq?

Welcome to The Leap Oct 01, 2015

Show notes

The Leap is about what it takes to start out one place and end up somewhere, or someone, else. Here's a sample of what you will hear on the podcast.