A Better Life? is a podcast series that explores how America’s failed response to COVID-19 has reshaped immigrants’ lives and their relationship to the United States. Each episode tells a different immigrant story and examines how the crisis has challenged or changed that person’s ideas of what it means to be American. A Better Life? Season 1’s lead producer was Mia Warren.
Our first season also included conversations with immigrant elders — grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles — to hear how they are coping during this time, and what they have learned over the years that can help the rest of us survive today’s challenges.
The second season continued to explore how COVID-19 has changed immigrants’ lives and their relationship to America. A Better Life? Season 2 shares new voices, new stories, and new perspectives as we asked the question, “As we navigate out of this pandemic, who gets to return to normal?” A Better Life? Season 2’s lead producer was Quincy Surasmith.
Awards
2020 Golden Crane Award from the Asian American Podcasters Association for Best COVID Coverage for A Better Life?, Season 1.
2021 Golden Crane Award from the Asian American Podcasters Association in the category of Society & Culture for A Better Life?, Season 2.
In July 2022, “A Better Life?” producer Zulekha Nathoo’s episode “Searching for Solace” won in the podcast category at the Atlanta Press Club.
2022 INN Nonprofit News Insight Award For Explanatory Journalism for A Better Life?, Season 2.
Season one
Should I Stay Or Should I Go?
When the coronavirus hit the United States, two immigrants — Heeja and Elsa — wrestled with the same question: should I remain in America, despite the flawed U.S. response, or return to my home country? Having sought a better life in the United States, both women are rethinking their ideas of America and arriving at different conclusions.
Call Your Elders: Staying at Home with the Barraus
Monique and Eric Barrau immigrated to the United States from Haiti in the late 1960s during the dictatorship of François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier. Now, more than fifty years later, they live in Florida, where they’ve quarantined together since mid-March. In our first Call Your Elders conversation, their daughter, New Jersey-based radio producer Florence Barrau-Adams checks in with them.
The Home Clock
When New York City became the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, Brooklyn-based producer Beenish Ahmed struggled over whether to visit her parents in Ohio or stay put. Her parents — a landlord and hairdresser who immigrated from Pakistan in the ‘70s — begged her to come home. When Beenish finally decided to go in May, she recorded that journey, and the discoveries she made about her family’s relationship with America.
Call Your Elders: Cooking with Philip and Niki
Philip and Niki Zias are Greek immigrants living on Long Island, NY. When they first moved to Queens, NY in the 1960s, their home was filled with music, food, and laughter. On this Call Your Elders segment, their granddaughter Anna pays them a visit.
Rosa’s Story: Undocumented and Unemployed in the Pandemic
Rosa — an undocumented Mexican immigrant who cleans hotel rooms in Phoenix, AZ — lost her income just a few weeks into the coronavirus pandemic. But she quickly fought back. Reporter and Feet in 2 Worlds fellow Maritza L. Félix tells us her story.
Call Your Elders: A Letter to Italy
In April, when COVID-19 was having a devastating impact on Italy, Sara Marinelli and Maria De Venezia were in San Francisco, separated from family and friends in their home country. Sara, a radio producer in the Bay Area, reached out to Maria who is from the same generation as Sara’s mother. Despite differences in age, the two women shared similar experiences as they tried to remain connected to Italy during the battle with COVID-19. They also found that they share a sense of identity that is both Italian and American.
Call Your Elders: Hugs from Here
After the U.S., India has the highest number of coronavirus cases in the world. In this episode of “Call Your Elders,” New York City-based journalist and former Feet in 2 Worlds fellow Ramaa Reddy calls her 93-year-old aunt Indira in Bangalore to see how she’s doing.
Black Immigrants in the Whitest State
Black residents in Maine make up just 2% of the state’s population, but they’re twenty times more likely to get COVID than white Mainers. We hear from two members of the state’s African diaspora — Lewiston, Maine city council member Safiya Khalid and civil liberties attorney Michael Kebede — about the history of African migration to Maine and how they were transformed by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
Call Your Elders: We’re Going to Be Okay
As an immigrant in New York City, Rosalind Tordesillas has looked to her Tita Margaret Gomez — who came to New York from the Philippines in the ‘70s — as a role model. In this episode of Call Your Elders the two New Yorkers remember their own resilience after 9/11, and Margaret offers inspiration for getting through this current moment.
Desi Voters, COVID-19, and the 2020 Election
In New Jersey, the number of voters with roots in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other Asian countries is growing six times faster than the general voting population. Yet, despite the potential for more power at the ballot box, longtime divisions are surfacing over religion, economic status and country of origin.
In the latest episode of A Better Life?, journalist Sabeena Singhani – Feet in 2 Worlds’ 2020 Election Fellow – examines the increasingly complex political landscape in her home state, just days before Election Day 2020.
Season Two
Two Cities Called Nogales
In March 2020, at the start of the pandemic, the U.S. sealed its border with Mexico. In the neighboring cities of Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, the unintended consequences of the border closure have come into sharp focus.
In the latest episode of A Better Life?, Producers Maritza Felix and Julio Cisneros visit both cities to learn more.
Searching for Solace
Jasmine Jiwani is part of Atlanta’s large Ismaili Muslim community. Covid restrictions prevented the community from gathering for the funeral of her husband, who died of Covid.
In the latest episode of A Better Life?, Producer Zulekha Nathoo reports on how the pandemic has created unique challenges for Jiwani and other Ismaili Muslims.
Delivering Community
In the latest episode of A Better Life?, Producer Oscar Durand tells the story of Cesar, a delivery worker from Mexico who found a cause and a community while organizing his fellow delivery workers in New York. We also speak with Hildalyn Colón Hernández from Los Deliveristas Unidos, a group that advocates for delivery workers in New York City.
I Want to Stay Here, Just Not Forever
Mohammed Ahsanul is an international student at the University of Wyoming about to complete his Ph.D. in applied mathematics. Once he finishes his degree, he expects to return home to Dhaka, Bangladesh—but not before his family reunites with him for the first time since the pandemic began.
In the latest episode of A Better Life?, Producer Naina Rao joins Mohammed and his family for a trip to see America as she examines the ways a better life in the U.S. doesn’t always mean a permanent stay.
Tested
After a year of holding classes on Zoom, schools across the country have returned to in-person learning this fall.
In the latest episode of A Better Life?, Producer Katelynn Laws visits the rural town of Monroe, North Carolina, a community with a large Latino population, to learn how students are making up for what many say was a lost year.
On the Sidelines
Covid-19 shut down or shortened most professional sports seasons in 2020 and even postponed the Olympics. What happened to all the people working behind the scenes at sports stadiums?
Producer Khari Thompson explores how the pandemic affected their livelihoods.
Getting it Right
A Better Life? speaks with Catalina Jaramillo of FactCheck.org and Nicolás Ríos of Documented about combating Covid misinformation directed at Latinos and Spanish-speaking immigrants, and to Daniel Le of Boat People SOS about his group’s successful efforts to get Vietnamese Americans on the Gulf Coast to get the Covid vaccine.
Whose Chinatown?
In Los Angeles Chinatown, local shops and restaurants eagerly welcome back customers as they return to business after the height of the pandemic shutdown. But the neighborhood’s rebound from Covid has been uneven. The pandemic has shone a light on the divide separating the successful and the struggling, as well as concerns about anti-Asian violence.
A Better Life? executive producer Quincy Surasmith explores the starkly different visions for the future of L.A. Chinatown and the organizations promoting these competing ideas.
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