We Live Here

By now, there are reports about Chinatowns across the country that are hurting for business because of anti-Asian xenophobia. We wanted to understand how anti-Asian xenophobia has impacted Asian Americans and Asian American-owned small businesses here in St. Louis. In this episode, we hear from a Taiwanese American therapist, a Chinese American organizer, and two Asian American small business owners about how the rise of anti-Asian xenophobia has affected their lives.

Schools are closed across the country and some are done for the rest of the academic year. The shift to online learning for many schools can also reveal the deep economic and racial inequities that characterize schools in our hometown and yours. We wanted to understand how this sudden change could affect long-standing racial and economic disparities in education outcomes. In our first first episode about the COVID-19 crisis, we will hear what the director of a local education nonprofit and a teacher are doing to keep kids from falling behind. 

We’ve spent the past couple of months preparing for a season on the theme “black on campus.” But with efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, like many of you, we can no longer go on with “business as usual.” We decided that now is not the time for a season about college campuses, especially when campuses are closed around the country.So we will be postponing the release of episodes about the black experience on college campuses until a later date. Instead, we’ll be putting a racial and economic equity lens on the outbreak of COVID-19… and recovery from it. Like you, we don’t know how this is going to play out. But what seems certain is that this crisis will hit those with the least in our society the hardest. And you’re going to be hearing a lot of phone conversations, because just like you we’re practicing social distancing. We want to hear your stories about how COVID-19 is affecting you, so send a voice memo to or you can call 314-516-5588 and leave a message. We’ll be dropping episodes at least once a week starting March 26. And we’ll step up production from there if we need to, so keep an eye on your feed. Be safe and be kind to each other.

The We Live Here team is about to start dropping episodes for our brand new season! This time, we’re talking about what it means to be black on campus. And we’re working with Educate, a podcast from American Public Media that explores stories about education and opportunity across the country. In the coming weeks, we’ll share the stories, experiences, and movements shaping the lives of black students across the country. And reveal the work being done to impact black students for generations to come.

St. Louis is home to longest running school desegregation program in the country. For generations it has shaped the students’ lives and how they see race in one of the most segregated places in America. On this episode we share five firsthand accounts of the trials and triumphs experienced during the program’s long history. What’s revealed is a portrait of a community that still struggles to make every student feel welcome in the classroom.