New Broken Ground season focuses on environmental storytellers of the South

The podcast hands the mic to people reimagining how we get our news

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Aug. 17, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Today the Southern Environmental Law Center launched the sixth season of its award-winning and Webby-nominated podcast, Broken Ground. The latest series highlights journalists and creators rethinking ways to share environmental news in the South.

Over four episodes, listeners will hear from writers, photographers, and editors filling the growing gaps in environmental news coverage across the South's media landscape. Since 2005, about 2,200 local newspapers have folded across the country and the number of active reporters and journalists covering news has dropped by more than half, according to research from Penny Abernathy, a visiting professor at Northwestern who was previously at the University of North Carolina's Hussman School of Journalism. This has left more than 1,300 communities across the country, in both rural and urban areas, without a way to receive credible and comprehensive news coverage about local issues, making them a news desert. Southern states have the most counties without newspapers of any region in the U.S.

"The media landscape is shifting so fast, especially in the South," says Leanna First-Arai, host of Broken Ground. "And when you look at the places being left out as local news outlets disappear, it's so often the same communities that dirty industries target to dump pollution. This season each of our guests are reimagining how we deliver local news to communities to inform them about important environmental problems."

During the series, listeners head into the newsrooms – and living rooms – of some of the creative environmental storytellers covering the climate and environmental issues that matter most to the communities and people across our region.

Broken Ground guests this season are:

• Lyndsey Gilpin and Tajah McQueen, from the publication Southerly, who share how they focused on training local residents through a community reporting fellowship. Southerly equipped participants with reporter skills and tools to tell the environmental stories happening in their neighborhoods.
• Cornell Watson, who talks about the power of photography to tell a story and to bear witness in the South's quieter corners, places where bad actors often head to avoid prying eyes.
• Cameron Oglesby, a freelance writer who has reported for publications including The Nation, Yale Climate Connections, and Earth in Color. She discusses the importance of telling stories of prosperity and thriving in communities that are often presented only in terms of the injustices they face.
• Paola Jaramillo and Victoria Bouloubasis, from Enlace Latino NC, who share the inspiration behind their work on a bilingual Spanish-English news site out of North Carolina aimed at reaching the state's burgeoning Latino population.

"When environmental information is stifled, harm happens. Connecting to the stories of our neighbors and fellow Southerners facing environmental issues is a powerful force for action," says SELC Director of Communications Erin Malec. "This season is a reminder of all the people in our communities dedicating their talents to making sure those stories are heard."

Broken Ground now offers six seasons for listeners to stream. Each episode of the podcast focuses on sharing the environmental stories and voices in the South that don't often get the attention they deserve. From leaders of the environmental justice movement to Southerners living along the coast navigating sea level rise and higher tides, previous guests provide a powerful perspective on the ways environmental destruction collides with underlying inequities and the solutions Southerners are building. 

The latest season of Broken Ground can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

In 2023, Broken Ground won a bronze Anthem Award in the Sustainability, Environment and Climate Change Podcast category and was nominated Best Series by the Webby Awards. The podcast has also been nominated for an iHeart Radio Award for Best Green podcast, and The New York Times called it "an environmental 'This American Life' for the South." 

The Southern Environmental Law Center

The Southern Environmental Law Center is one of the nation's most powerful defenders of the environment, rooted in the South. With a long track record, SELC takes on the toughest environmental challenges in court, in government, and in our communities to protect our region's air, water, climate, wildlife, lands, and people. Nonprofit and nonpartisan, the organization has a staff of 200, including more than 100 attorneys, and is headquartered in Charlottesville, Va., with offices in Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Chapel Hill, Charleston, Nashville, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. southernenvironment.org

Broken Ground

Broken Ground is a podcast by the Southern Environmental Law Center digging up environmental stories in the South that don't often get the attention they deserve, and giving a voice to the people bringing those stories to light. https://BrokenGroundPodcast.org

SOURCE Southern Environmental Law Center