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TBC Recommends: We the Unhoused on iHeartRadio · The Bechdel Cast

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  Speaker 1: On the Bechdecast. The questions asked if movies have women
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands
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  Speaker 1: or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, Zephi beast
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  Speaker 1: start changing with the Bechdel Cast.
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  Speaker 2: Hello, Bechdel Cast listeners, it's us. Oh, I thought you
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  Speaker 2: were going to say your name? Hi U.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we welcome to the Bechdel Cast. We're going to
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  Speaker 3: be doing something a little bit different this week, in fact,
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  Speaker 3: extremely different, in fact, something we've never done before.
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  Speaker 2: Wow, and isn't that thrilling. My name's Jamie Loftus. My
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  Speaker 2: name is Caitlin Toronte, and this is normally a podcast
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  Speaker 2: where we look at your favorite movies from an intersectional
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  Speaker 2: feminist lens. It was last week, it will be next week. However,
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  Speaker 2: this week we wanted to.
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  Speaker 3: Share a little bit of a new podcast, or rather
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  Speaker 3: a newly revived podcast that is coming to to iHeartRadio
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  Speaker 3: called We the Unhoused. Full disclosure disclosure alert. I am
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  Speaker 3: a producer on this show.
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  Speaker 2: Amazing.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: We want to sort of spread the word about this
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  Speaker 3: show as much as possible. It's a show that I
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  Speaker 3: first learned about in twenty twenty although it started releasing episodes.
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  Speaker 2: In twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 3: It is created and hosted by the incredible THEO Henderson,
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  Speaker 3: who is an unhoused activist and artist and reporter who
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  Speaker 3: lives in Los Angeles. He began with The Unhoused as
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  Speaker 3: a first person account of the unhoused experience in LA
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  Speaker 3: from the perspective of the unhoused, and that is what
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  Speaker 3: it will continue to be. So obviously, I mean, it's
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  Speaker 3: something that we've talked about on the Bechdel Cast in
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  Speaker 3: passing because we're a media criticism podcast, but houselessness and
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  Speaker 3: the treatment of unhoused people as a monolith is something
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  Speaker 3: that's very important to us and something that this show
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  Speaker 3: I think uniquely addresses. So we wanted to share a
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  Speaker 3: little bit with you and would really encourage you to
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  Speaker 3: subscribe to the show and also just follow THEO Henderson's
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  Speaker 3: work in general.
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  Speaker 2: It's invaluable, yeah, and find ways if you're able to
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  Speaker 2: support the unhoused community in your area, your unhoused neighbors.
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  Speaker 2: In LA there are over seventy five thousand unhoused people
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  Speaker 2: living in this city and our local government is doing
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  Speaker 2: very little to support them, and so many unhoused people
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  Speaker 2: rely on mutual aid from individuals and kind of small groups.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, we encourage people to find ways they can
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  Speaker 2: get involved in supporting their unhoused neighbors.
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  Speaker 3: And also just be armed with knowledge. I mean, I've
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  Speaker 3: learned so so much from wee then House over the
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  Speaker 3: years about the many complicated issues that face unhouse people
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  Speaker 3: today and the many many perspectives that unhause people come from.
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  Speaker 3: And so with that, we're going to kick it over
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  Speaker 3: to the amazing Theo Henderson. This is the first chunk
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  Speaker 3: of the relaunch episode of We the un Housed. We'll
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  Speaker 3: be linking to the feed for the series in the description,
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  Speaker 3: and if you want to hear the whole thing, which
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  Speaker 3: you should, head over to the feed and subscribe. We'll
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  Speaker 3: be releasing new episodes every two weeks on Tuesdays, So
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  Speaker 3: get your widy on house on Tuesdays, becdelcast on Thursdays.
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  Speaker 2: Really pace out your week, beautiful.
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  Speaker 3: All right, Here is the first episode of the We
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  Speaker 3: the on House relaunch with Leo Henderson.
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  Speaker 4: It's a simple truth that we can't escape. Houselessness is everywhere.
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  Speaker 4: It affects over half a million people in the United
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  Speaker 4: States alone. We try to make sense out of this tragedy,
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  Speaker 4: but it is a senseless endeavor. What I'm going to
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  Speaker 4: ask of you is a very tall order. I want
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  Speaker 4: you to take what you heard about houselessness and I
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  Speaker 4: want you to forget it. Are you still with me?
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  Speaker 3: Good?
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  Speaker 4: Let us have a conversation. My name is Theo Henderson, hoston,
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  Speaker 4: creator of Weeding in House, and I'm going to take
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  Speaker 4: you on a journey in this crisis. Being on house
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  Speaker 4: is a twenty four hour job, and my lived experience
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  Speaker 4: in houslesness is extensive. I was one of over seventy
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  Speaker 4: five thousand people experiencing houselessness on a given night in
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  Speaker 4: Los Angeles. Now, contrary to ill of people, I did
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  Speaker 4: not grow up and say, gee, I can't wait to
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  Speaker 4: live on the streets to encounter societal rejection and violence.
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  Speaker 4: I don't fit the stereotypes of what news media, movies,
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  Speaker 4: and many house people think of an unhoused person. Most
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  Speaker 4: on house people don't. Being on house is so often
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  Speaker 4: made out to seem like an individual's fault, not the
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  Speaker 4: hundreds of thousands of systematic failures that have to take
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  Speaker 4: place to put someone in that position in the first place.
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  Speaker 4: Needless to say, the un housed are not a monolith.
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  Speaker 4: My history as an activist has been difficult but unnecessary journey.
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  Speaker 4: I drew inspiration on my role as an activist from
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  Speaker 4: this quote from Shirley Chisholm. Activism is my rent for
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  Speaker 4: living on this planning, which is kind of ironic. Isn't
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  Speaker 4: it paying with activism to fight for dignity and empathy
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  Speaker 4: in an indifferent world? However, the bill must be paid
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  Speaker 4: to foster a better world than I found it. My
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  Speaker 4: family has ties in activism, fighting in the Civil Rights
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  Speaker 4: era and the reelection of the first black mayor in Chicago,
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  Speaker 4: mayor Washington, where I was born and raised. Living in
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  Speaker 4: Chicago taught me a lot, and Los Angeles has been
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  Speaker 4: an entirely new kind of teacher after I moved here.
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  Speaker 4: As I made Los Angeles my home, the motivation to
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  Speaker 4: speak out against housing and justice became too great, particularly
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  Speaker 4: when I became unhoused myself in twenty nineteen. The house
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  Speaker 4: world was in complete obliviousness cows. People were concerned with
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  Speaker 4: the humdrum issues of their lives, that pumpkin spice lattes,
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  Speaker 4: and most importantly, making sure that they don't see the
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  Speaker 4: unhoused person sitting in their neighborhood. But for the unhoused people,
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  Speaker 4: hell was being unleashed with the new ordnance that was
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  Speaker 4: voted in called forty one eighteen. A word about forty
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  Speaker 4: one eighteen is touted as the new Jim Crow of
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  Speaker 4: Los Angeles. As you have known that from the history,
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  Speaker 4: majority of unhoused people are black and brown community members.
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  Speaker 4: And what this does It makes it illegal for unhoused
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  Speaker 4: or people to sit, sleep, and lie within five hundred
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  Speaker 4: feet of a postage sign that has been posted all
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  Speaker 4: over the city by city council members, neighborhood councils, and
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  Speaker 4: business improved District owners. In twenty nineteen, most people never
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  Speaker 4: heard of a show that was going to be made
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  Speaker 4: by an unhoused person for unhoused people. Sure they hear
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  Speaker 4: the occasion of New York Times, NPR or god forbid
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  Speaker 4: Fox News broadcast, but even the good coverage was always
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  Speaker 4: presented by house people for house people about unhoused people.
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  Speaker 4: I tried to make an SOLS symbol with this podcast,
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  Speaker 4: hoping to find a knowing year and build alleyship between
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  Speaker 4: unhoused people and house people. The disinformation campaign about the
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  Speaker 4: Inn House is threatening our will to be compassionate and
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  Speaker 4: empathetic to each other. We in House is constantly up
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  Speaker 4: against a pernicious belief that houselessness is a moral individual failure.
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  Speaker 4: Case in point, I have a friend a friend who
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  Speaker 4: is adamant that the unhoused community likes being out there.
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  Speaker 4: There's no critical thinking required, just quit uninformed sound bites
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  Speaker 4: that is being reinforced by mainstream media. I have always
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  Speaker 4: believed that if you can demonize a person, then you
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  Speaker 4: can criminalize in I wanted to show how individuals are
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  Speaker 4: affected by houselessness and weed in House does that. Took
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  Speaker 4: a figurative and literal breath and created this from scratch.
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  Speaker 4: Living outside, I had to utilize the twos I had available.
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  Speaker 4: I used the cheap phone, I edited and released episodes
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  Speaker 4: with the help of a couple of friends. I would
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  Speaker 4: speak with people about their stories, how city hall policies
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  Speaker 4: affected them, how the police disrespected and abused them, and
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  Speaker 4: how the young house were mistreated throughout the pandemic. It
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  Speaker 4: was all from the expert opinion by the people who
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  Speaker 4: are affected. Initially, I expected the show to hit local
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  Speaker 4: needs audiences. Imagine my surprise at people reaching out to
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  Speaker 4: me from out of state and out of the country
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  Speaker 4: who were displaced and unhoused and wished that Weedyan House
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  Speaker 4: was a part of their experience in their place of origin.
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  Speaker 4: This podcast became the lightning rod for the world's moral consciousness.
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  Speaker 4: All of a sudden, the mainstream media outlets that had
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  Speaker 4: been treating the unhoused as a monolift for all those
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  Speaker 4: years we're talking about my show, one that finally centered
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  Speaker 4: the community they've been misrepresenting for so long. My medium
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  Speaker 4: became a diverse attempt to get the message across. The
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  Speaker 4: podcast was always just the beginning, as I moved in
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  Speaker 4: these circles of people wanting to hear about the unhoused
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  Speaker 4: community and their struggles. I was installed as activist and
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  Speaker 4: Residents in UCLA in twenty twenty two as a way
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  Speaker 4: to awaken the sympathy and empathy that was so sorely
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  Speaker 4: lacking in housed and very affluent communities. Then creating a
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  Speaker 4: newspaper that highlighted the struggles of unhoused people and being
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  Speaker 4: read by unhoused people in twenty twenty two as well,
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  Speaker 4: and currently in twenty twenty three, my newsletter, which highlights
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  Speaker 4: the struggles that are beleaguering our communities. We in House
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  Speaker 4: as a one man production was an important job, but
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  Speaker 4: an exhausting and really heavy lived. More polished shows did
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  Speaker 4: not have to continue with the obstacles that I endured.
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  Speaker 4: But I pressevered and now we're relaunching the show with
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  Speaker 4: a little more polished But the mission of the show
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  Speaker 4: is still the same. So why would lost the show now?
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  Speaker 4: Housesness did not go away when I stopped doing with
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  Speaker 4: You in the House, and in September of twenty twenty two,
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  Speaker 4: it has continued and now has escalated. We have a
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  Speaker 4: lot to talk about, we have a lot to explore,
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  Speaker 4: and we have a lot to do to change the
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  Speaker 4: narrative about houselessness and how we look at our fellow
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  Speaker 4: human beings. If I told you that anyone that's in
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  Speaker 4: a medical emergency is in risk of being thrown from
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  Speaker 4: their home, would you believe it? If I told you
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  Speaker 4: that there are over sixty eight thousand unhoused children and
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  Speaker 4: the Los Angeles Unified School District, would you be empathetic
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  Speaker 4: or dismissive? If I told you that the people who
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  Speaker 4: picked the fruits and vegetables in your refrigerator are un
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  Speaker 4: housed even though they are employed. Would you be motivated
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  Speaker 4: to speak out against this and justice. This is the
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  Speaker 4: truxt of my show, getting you informed so we can
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  Speaker 4: do something about it. The show deals with all aspects
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  Speaker 4: of houselessness, not just the obvious unhoused encampments. Weed the
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  Speaker 4: in House will break down terms such as agency and
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  Speaker 4: laguage such as nimbies in what they mean to our community,
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  Speaker 4: and in every episode will spotlight unhoused news which is
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  Speaker 4: crucial to the unhoused community. My goal is to consolidate
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  Speaker 4: all things in house here, educate the community who would
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  Speaker 4: be unaware of the nuances of houselessness, and motivate people
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  Speaker 4: to do something about this humanitarian crisis. Before we delve
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  Speaker 4: deep into this topic, I want you to get to
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  Speaker 4: doving my story, my dessentant to houselessness and how I
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  Speaker 4: navigated it, through it and out of it. So we're
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  Speaker 4: bringing in a good friend of mine at podcaster and
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  Speaker 4: her own right be Honey, and that's what's up next
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  Speaker 4: on weedia House.
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  Speaker 2: Once again, that was the first chunk of this episode
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  Speaker 2: of We the Unhoused. We encourage you to subscribe to
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  Speaker 2: the show listen to it as it comes out.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we have a lot of amazing episodes coming up.
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  Speaker 3: The next one is going to be about the Unhoused
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  Speaker 3: Day of Remembrance, which happens every year shortly before the
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  Speaker 3: Christmas holiday in LA. It's a day where the unhoused
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  Speaker 3: community memorializes people in the community that have been lost
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  Speaker 3: in the past year. So THEO will be covering not
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  Speaker 3: just the event, but the history of the event and
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  Speaker 3: speaking with and memorializing those we've lost this year. So
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  Speaker 3: a lot to look forward to listen to. We the
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  Speaker 3: end House, and thank you for listening to this unconventional
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  Speaker 3: episode of the Bechtel Cast.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, indeed, we will be back next week with our
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  Speaker 2: regularly scheduled programming, but we appreciate you giving this a listen.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah, we'll be back next week for a live
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  Speaker 2: episode on It's a Wonderful Life?
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  Speaker 4: But is it?
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: But is it?
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  Speaker 3: Tune in next week.
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  Speaker 2: Bye bye bye,