The Promised Land Radio Show...
profiles leaders and visionaries who are transforming lives and communities. This award-winning public radio show delivers their stories with a sense of adventure that engages and inspires.
Host Majora Carter
Education was Majora Carter’s way out of her troubled South Bronx neighborhood of the 1970s. And when circumstances took her home again, her history of unorthodox approaches to persistent problems provided the blueprint for a promised land that had been with her all along.
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Episodes
Cheryl Rogowski
Where does our food come from? Since we pay close attention to so many aspects of food in the holiday season, host Majora Carter visits the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area, where Cheryl Rogowski, a fourth-generation farmer, grows 200 varieties of fruits and vegetables. In 2004, Ch...
Marla Spivak
When you sit down at your holiday table, thank a bee. A third of the food on your plate is made possible by these pollinators, whose numbers are being decimated by disease and colony collapse disorder. But the bees have a champion in Marla Spivak, a University of Minnesota researcher and MacArthur "...
Reimagining a Way of Life
Vietnamese American fisherfolk in the Gulf region are trying to rebuild their lives — opening sustainable farms, gas stations, nail salons, and aquaponic projects — while also dealing with the mental anguish that surfaces when a lifetime on the water suddenly disappears....
Wilma Subra
Chemist Wilma Subra has spent her career defending local communities against Louisiana’s powerful oil and gas industry. She received a MacArthur Fellowship for helping “ordinary citizens understand, cope with and combat environmental issues.” When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill happened ...
Nat Turner
For Nat Turner, garden rakes and shovels are tools for transformation. He's transformed an old store in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward into an urban Eden. Blair Grocery is now both a nontraditional school and an urban farm run by youth who’ve dropped out of mainstream education. Majora spends two ...
Kyshun Webster
Dr. Kyshun Webster is a man who gets things done. And before that, he was a kid who got things done. Now the founder and executive director of Operation Reach, an extensive family of programs for kids throughout the Gulf South, Kyshun has been working to improve his community since he was a kid him...
Winona LaDuke
Outspoken, engaging, and unflaggingly dedicated to matters of ecological sustainability, Winona LaDuke introduces host Majora to the pine forests, lakes, and windswept plains of the White Earth Reservation; and she talks about harnessing wind power, nutrition and diabetes, preserving heritage crops,...
John Francis
Decades ago, in response to an oil spill off the coast of California, John Francis made a vow to give up riding in motor vehicles, and stepped out on a walk. And he kept on walking for the next 22 years. Wherever he went, he carried a message of respect for the Earth — silently for 17 of those yea...
Brenda Palms Barber
Brenda Palms Barber wasn’t always drawn to beekeeping. But her quest to find work for residents of Chicago’s economically disadvantaged North Lawndale neighborhood — where some 50 percent of adults have been in the criminal justice system — led her to start Sweet Beginnings, a transitional j...
Nalini Nadkarni
Pioneering researcher and "queen of the forest canopy" Nalini Nadkarni shows host Majora Carter the wonders of the Olympic rain forest — from the treetops! And the two visit a correctional facility where Nalini’s innovative Moss Project employs a team of prisoners turned botanists....
Live: A Conversation with Wyclef Jean
In a show recorded live before an audience at WNYC Radio’s state-of-the art Jerome L. Greene Performance Space, Majora Carter sat down with Grammy Award-winning musician Wyclef Jean for a lively conversation on his work as an artist, activist, and humanitarian....
Work in Progress
Host Majora Carter takes up the subject of work — work by visionaries whose influence changes lives and transforms communities. Join Majora as she meets the next generation of urban farmers, goes behind the scenes for the greening of Hollywood, talks green jobs with Van Jones, and rides the r...
Earth Day Special
From the Bronx to Belfast to Los Angeles, host Majora Carter navigates the intersection of environmental, social, and health issues. Learn why the new Yankee Stadium has raised questions about the use of community resources; how a £30 million project will bring hope to Northern Ireland's abandoned ...
Different Takes on the Legacy of M.L.K.
Host Majora Carter takes a fresh look at the reach of King's influence. Some of the most interesting voices in civil rights today weigh in and help us gauge how far we've come. Meet a minister who suggests that King's legacy holds no meaning for today's children, and author and activist Dr. Vincent ...
Listener Comments
"Nothing like crying in the car on the way to work listening to another touching episode. Keep on keepin' on."
"This report about Vietnamese fisherfolk in the Gulf Coast region was excellent "
"I heard your segment last night & I am in love! You got my attention! A new loyal listener. Keep up the good fight! Much love for your work!"
