Mid-Americana

Episodes

Season 2

Our second season, Immigration, features eight stories from people who left their native countries to make a new home in the Greater Midwest. We ask our guests what pulled them from their homelands, what challenges they faced while making a home in the Heartland, and how they contribute now to a changing Midwest.

Season 2: Immigration

Home is not a safe place: Irene Maun

Irene Maun is originally from the Marshall Islands, a Pacific island nation struggling with the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing and facing the devastation of climate change. She now lives in Dubuque, Iowa, where she is nurturing the health and resilience of a growing Midwest Marshallese community.

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Season 2: Immigration

Journey into the New: Dominique Serrand

Dominique Serrand was born and raised in Paris and has worked in American theatre for more than forty years. He came of age in an era of protest and sees the turmoil of our own time as a similar opportunity for a new beginning.

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Season 2: Immigration

Conversations with America: Abdirizak Abdi

Abdirizak Abdi is one of the thousands of Somali-Americans proud to call Minnesota home. As a high school principal, he has a vision for the future of America, for unity and understanding among diverse people, starting right here in the Heartland.

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Season 2: Immigration

I Reached for Books: Hem Rizal

Hem Rizal survived ethnic cleansing in Bhutan and a wildfire in Nepal before resettling with his family in the U.S. He taught at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as a Teach for America fellow and is now studying public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.

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Season 2: Immigration

Always in the Gray Areas: John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas

All his life, Guatemalan-American John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas has lived in the gray areas between worlds. This has made him skillful at building bridges between white Midwesterners and immigrants in the Heartland, a calling that has been both risky and rewarding.

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Season 2: Immigration

America Looks Like Scotland!: Zoe Bouras

Zoe Bouras emigrated from England to Illinois when she was ten years old. She now thinks of herself as a Midwesterner, but it took fifteen years to begin her own path to American citizenship.

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Season 2: Immigration

Stick To Your Roots: Pavel Polanco-Safadit

As a kid in the Dominican Republic, Pavel Polanco-Safadit pounded away for hours perfecting his technique as a classical pianist. This passion led him to the U.S., and eventually to the Midwest, where he has rediscovered his Latin Jazz roots and the Indiana roots of American Jazz.

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Season 2: Immigration

America Has Its Own Ghosts: Kao Kalia Yang

Kao Kalia Yang was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand and settled with her family in Minnesota when she was six years old. She is now a writer, public speaker, and teacher based in St. Paul.

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Season 1

Our debut season, Homecoming, features eight native Iowans who left the Midwest then came back to stay. We ask what pulled them away, what drew them back, and what they contribute now to a changing Midwest.

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This program is supported by Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities. The views and opinions expressed by this program do not necessarily reflect those of Humanities Iowa or the National Endowment for the Humanities.