Name: Bonus: a conversation with an Indigenous birth worker on Long Island by Color Code
Duration: 37 min 10 s
Description: Ahna Red Fox is from the Shinnecock Nation on the eastern end of Long Island. After a traumatic birthing experience, she began her journey as a community-based birth worker. She talked to Nick about her experience.

The town of North Bellport on Long Island sits in the shadows of a massive landfill. This predominantly Black and Latino neighborhood also has the lowest life expectancy on Long Island, as well as the second-highest rates of asthma. Environmental activists do not think this is a coincidence, and for decades have waged a battle to shut down the Brookhaven Landfill, which they believe is making their community sick.

A landfill and "a textbook case of environmental racism"

On this bonus episode, we bring you our full conversation with Dr. Robert Bullard, "the father of environmental racism." He was featured on our episode on the Brookhaven Landfill, which looms over the town of North Bellport on Long Island. In this in-depth interview, he talks about the effects of environmental racism and lays out tangible solutions that can help bring justice to Black and Brown communities like North Bellport that have been plagued by waste for far too long.

Bonus: A conversation with the "the father of environmental justice"

We take a look at efforts on Long Island to address racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality.

Long Island mothers face “an injustice made purposefully invisible”

Ahna Red Fox is from the Shinnecock Nation on the eastern end of Long Island. After a traumatic birthing experience, she began her journey as a community-based birth worker. She talked to Nick about her experience.

Bonus: a conversation with an Indigenous birth worker on Long Island

About two dozen communities on Long Island is a food desert, meaning fresh, nutritious groceries are difficult to access. In this episode, we speak with Jon Stepanian, president and CEO of Community Solidarity, and volunteers like Boone who work together to address food insecurity on Long Island. Jessica Rosati, the Chief Program Officer for Long Island Cares Inc, tells us about the state of food insecurity. And Tambra Raye Stevenson, founder and CEO for WANDA: Women Advancing Nutrition Dietetics and Agriculture, provides us with context about how systemic racism impacts the U.S. food system, creating what she refers to as “food apartheid.”

‘Food apartheid’ starves minority neighborhoods on Long Island

"Excited delirium” is a controversial term that is used by some to describe a person who experiences an acute, extreme disruption in their behavior and ability to think, and often comes up in relation to people who have died in police custody. Last season, we turned to my colleague Isabella Cueto, a Sharon Begley science reporting fellow at STAT. She traveled to Miami to learn more about the historical roots the term has in the medical examiner’s office there. We're bringing this episode back today and will return with a new one next time.

Revisiting: "A city on fire"

Wyandanch is a proud, resilient community on Long Island. Like much of the northeastern U.S., it has been impacted by heavy wildfire smoke blowing in from Canada. But particularly distressing for this community is that Wyandanch has some of the highest rates of asthma and the highest rate of pediatric asthma ER visits on Long Island. Asthma is exacerbated by poor air quality, which can be caused by smoke and industrial pollution.

Wildfire pollution widens asthma inequities on Long Island

When the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, Some experts assumed the virus would affect everyone even-handedly, regardless of their race or socioeconomic background. But the reality of Covid proved to be far from the “great equalizer” – Black and brown communities had higher rates of infection and death. Among the factors exacerbating Covid-19’s impact is America’s legacy of racial and economic segregation.

Why Covid-19 wasn’t the ‘great equalizer’

Early geneticists were convinced they could use genetics to reshape society to their ideals and believed that the human race could be improved through selective breeding. An early seat for eugenics in the U.S. was Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island. As the lab’s influence began to extend to the halls of Congress, the Supreme Court, and internationally, Cold Spring Harbor became known as the eugenics capital of the world.

How Long Island became the ‘eugenics capital of the world’

In the final episode of season two, we delve into how housing — and today’s housing crisis — intersects with health care. We also explore how racial discrimination has played a part in causing this crisis, as well as present-day housing segregation on Long Island. We speak with Olivia Winslow, a demographic reporter at Newsday who investigated widespread housing discrimination by real estate agents on Long Island. We also talk with Alina Schnake-Mahl, an assistant professor of health management and policy at Drexel University, who tells us about how housing is health care and what that means in the suburbs — especially during a housing crisis.

Housing is health care

Hosted by award-winning journalist Nicholas St. Fleur, Color Code weaves together stories and experiences of physicians, patients, historians, and other experts to illuminate the history of racism in the health care system and how it has — and continues — to impact people of color and underserved communities.

Bonus: a conversation with an Indigenous birth worker on Long Island

Color Code

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