Final Projects
For their final projects, students were invited to produce works that responded, however loosely, to the Scene on Radio podcast series, The Repair, exploring the climate crisis and its roots in colonialism, patriarchy, exploitative capitalism, white supremacy, and ideologies that emerged from the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution.
Don’t Go Near the Water: PFAS Contamination in Pittsboro, by Katherine Wang
PFAS contamination has been an emerging environmental concern throughout the 20th and 21st century. The town of Pittsboro, North Carolina, just thirty minutes outside of Durham, has been facing this issue. Here is a look at the story of PFAS contamination in Pittsboro and the people working to help understand and manage the problem.
Music Credit:
freemusicarchive.org – Blue Dot Sessions
“Don’t Go Near the Water” by The Beach Boys
Echoes of Enlightenment, by David Tierney
An audio collage exploring themes such as self-understanding, happiness, and the sonic (dis)orientation of daily life. Broadly, this piece aims to capture how we might feel and hear the uneasy legacy of a human subjectivity bent on limitless progress.
Voices, in order of appearance: Gareth K., Peter L., Juliette C., Xavier G.
Includes a sample of Jürgen Habermas’ 1984 lecture at Cornell University.
Black Anonymity, by Jenna Smith
When examining the landscape of Black documented history, the absence of certain voices, names, and narratives is ever present. In this piece, we follow the epidemic of weaponized anonymity in order to understand why these historical silences occur, and what path forward we have to rectifying them
Featuring:
Jasmine Cobb
Khadija McNair
Kris Mayfield
Welcome To This Beautiful and Toxic Place, Sockie, by Adam Skinner
What does it mean to bring a child into this toxic and beautiful world? This story grapples with ways in which I have perpetuated settler-colonialism, specifically by owning a home in a gentrifying neighborhood. Looking forward to self-remediation by maintaining relationships, building new ones, and feeling hopeful about Sockie’s existence.
To Be Silent is To Be Complicit, by Rebecca Ritterband
The ADL (Anti-Defamation League) reports that antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in 2021. Listen in to hear a glimpse of what it is like to grow up Jewish in a world filled with so much hate.
Climate Breakdown Affects, by Preetha Ramachandran
An interview with Mahitha Ramachandran, a youth climate activist (and my sister). Mahitha describes how she understands and expresses climate breakdown-induced emotions, from grief to hope.
ACT 1: GRIEF
Interlude: Privilege
ACT 2: HOPE
Music:
– the way of freedom by siddartha
– year of the dragon by sufjan stevens (enjoy your rabbit)
– rischa textile by fornax
– fissure fornix by trailhead
– the 1975 by the 1975 (notes on a conditional form)
– warm fingers by piano mover
– wind chimes behind my house
What’s Next? by Nasya Lucien
I hope this piece explores what life feels like. What it means to us in relation to ourselves and our surroundings. What emotions arise as we come to terms with the fact that this meaning and feeling is all temporary. What do we think will come next? In seven stages, this explores the feelings elicited from the opportunity to live while understanding it will come to end one day.
Music:
Closer by Goapele
Nothing Even Matters by Lauryn Hill
I Gotta Find Peace of Mind by Lauryn Hill
Poetry:
My Own Words–> an Original collection by Me
When Great Trees Fall by Maya Angelou
This House is a Home, by Danny Gonzalez
People say that it’s not the place that makes a home, it’s the people in it. So why did it hurt so much when La Casa, Duke’s “home” for Latinx students, changed its location? And what does it mean for the Latinx students in the grand scheme of things during their time at Duke?
Music:
“Nostalgia” by A. Cooper
“Alienated” by A. Cooper
“Liebestanz (Dance of Love)” by Lobo Loco
Beyond the Dollar, by Britt Fuller
Gentrification in Durham. Understanding how black communities are disproportionately displaced through legacies of racial discrimination. And looking ahead towards equitable urban planning.
Interviews: Constance Wright, Reginald Johnson, Monique Holsey-Hyman, and Nate Baker
Music: “Alabama” by John Coltrane and “Bronc-Glows” by Bull City Sounds
Capitalism and Sustainability: An Impossible Utopia? by Derek Chen
With our society barreling towards a climate crisis, many people have begun to look around to try to figure out who or what is to blame. As of late. the common culprit seems to be capitalism – the system the US and some of the world’s most powerful countries have been built on. But developments in the business world are challenging this notion that capitalism will bring the demise of our planet, that capitalism and sustainability are mutually exclusive. So, with our society at a tipping point, this begs the question: can a capitalist system and a sustainable society coexist?
The Ethics of Data Science, by Bradley Bowen
On a daily basis, we absorb data originating from our activities online and in public. Large organizations collect this data, often without us knowing. In this episode, I explore the ethics of data science through multiple case studies, with insight from Duke Statistics professor Dr. Cetinkaya Rundel.
Music:
“Technology of Silence” – The Squad
“Simple Piano Solo” – Threnody
“Suspense” – Surge
“Glass Piano” – Podington Bear
“Who We Are” – Cold Noise
Lemurs, Madagascar, and the Climate Crisis, by Pranav Athimuthu
When we talk about climate change, we tend to think first of its effects on humankind. Yet, we are but one of the approximately nine million species of plants and animals that stand to lose our homes at the hands of this existential crisis. Lemurs are facing critical endangerment due to the effects of climate change on their native ecosystems on the island of Madagascar. In this piece, Pranav—a volunteer with the Duke Lemur Center, one of the leading organizations dedicated to the study of lemurs—explores the plight of these treasured primates, and advocates for a more expansive, inclusive view of climate conservation. (Audio in two parts.)
With thanks to James Herrera, Charles Welch, Fulgence Thio Rosin, Erin Hecht, and the animals and animal care staff at the Duke Lemur Center.
Music (from freemusicarchive):
Crowander – Last Look
Audiorezout – Knowing
Axletree – Fire Tree (Violin Version)
Axletree – All in a Garden Green
Independent Music Licensing Collective – Seaview
Piece contains clips from the PBS show “Zoboomafoo.”
Il Rapimento: 55 Days in Captivity, by Matty Alexander
Aldo Moro is kidnapped by s communist guerilla group, Brigate Rosse (Red Brigades), in the spring of 1978, just months before the Italian presidential election in which Mr. Moro was expected to be a leading candidate. His 55 days in captivity are chronicled through archival audio.
Music:
Pescatori di Perle. Mi par dudir ancora [Pêcheurs de perles. Je crois entendre encore]
by Aristodemo Giorgini
