Only In America With Ali Noorani

Prioritizing vaccine access for vulnerable communities is critical to a successful pandemic response – but it’s only one piece of the puzzle. This week’s guest is Valentina Pereda, a communications expert and documentary filmmaker based in LA. She tells Ali about her work tracking and combatting misinformation in the Latino community, particularly around COVID-19. Valentina helped produce the following vaccine PSAs: Imam Muhammad Kolila: https://www.facebook.com/MasjidAlshuhadaa/videos/1119238831834139/ Dr. Lily Cervantes: https://www.facebook.com/1548681666/videos/10224241052444509/ Dr. AK Agundiabe: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CKl_0WvHFKw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link  

Recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and achieving herd immunity won't be possible, Laura Spinney argues, unless we prioritize immigrant communities.  This week Ali talks to Laura, a science journalist and author of Pale Rider: The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World, about why protecting ourselves is impossible without protecting the most vulnerable. 

Immigrants have played a key role in our nation’s response to COVID-19 – and they’re especially vulnerable to the pandemic’s devastating effects. So for our next series, we’re talking to public health experts, science journalists and more to understand how communities are responding to the pandemic and the systemic challenges that it has shed a light on.

Building a truly successful legal immigration system will take more than undoing Trump policies – it’s going to take an overhaul of a long-outdated system that cannot meet our modern immigration needs. So, where do we go from here? Ali talks to Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, about how Congress and the administration can tackle the remnants of Trump-era policies – and why a broader vision for a legal immigration system is vital for our nation’s future.  

Among President Biden's immigration actions is a $4 billion four-year plan to address root causes of migration in Central America. But when lawmakers talk about addressing migration's “root causes,” what do they really mean? And who has a seat at the negotiation table? Ali talks to Joy Olson, a foreign policy expert and the former executive director of the Washington Office on Latin America, about untangling Trump’s asylum mess, what was missing from previous regional approaches, and what she hopes the Biden administration will focus on. 

Joe Biden is expected to rescind Trump’s travel ban almost immediately after taking office this week – but where does our national security conversation go from there, and how do we balance it with smart immigration policies? Ali talks to Elizabeth Neumann, a security expert who served at DHS during the Trump administration, about why rescinding the ban will make us safer, and what smarter policies could look like.  

This week, Ali talks to Mark Hetfield, President and CEO of HIAS, about what a Biden administration means for refugee resettlement. HIAS is one of nine primarily faith-based organizations partnering with the federal government to help resettle refugees, and is also engaged in refugee advocacy at the national and international level. Mark and Ali spoke about the obstacles refugees face on the road to resettlement, the policy decisions facing the Biden administration, and what a modernized refugee program could look like.

We’re hitting the ground running in 2021 and for season 4 of Only in America, with a series focused on what President-elect Biden’s first 100 days mean for the 117th Congress and what our immigration system could look like. We’ll start by seeing what the Biden administration can do during its early days — and then shift to what the implications are in Congress for longer-term, bipartisan solutions for reform on key issues like DACA, border security and more. 

In our final episode of the season, we get a glimpse of the challenges migrant youth face in other parts of the world. Ali talks with Irena Abdelalem Abdelmaksoud, a protection officer who specializes in working with unaccompanied children at Info Park, a grassroots NGO in Belgrade, Serbia, that has been assisting refugees in the area since 2015. They provide urgent aid, psychological support, accommodation, information and other services for refugees across Belgrade, a major transit hub for refugees making the arduous journey to the European Union.

This week we dive into the importance of mental health care in the U.S. — in particular for immigrant youth. Ali talks with Luna Greenstein, a senior content manager at the National Alliance on Mental Illness, about personal stories of immigrants’ mental health experiences, and how by understanding these stories, we can get a sense of the mental health challenges that young immigrants may face more often than their peers.

Ali talks to two people who have years of experience creating a safer environment for young immigrants to address their trauma and heal. Their work focuses on disrupting cycles of poverty and helping them build skills and access resources to build a better life. Molly Baldwin is the founder and CEO of Roca in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Victoria Ramirez-Morales leads Roca’s Central American Youth Initiative.

For the last few episodes of season three, we’re taking a look forward. Specifically, to the young immigrants who are shaping our nation’s future. We’ll hear about immigrant youth experiences and the unique challenges they face across a variety of backgrounds, including growing up as a first-generation immigrant, addressing trauma and violence prevention, and navigating higher education. 

In lieu of a regular, full episode this week, we hope you’ll join us live for the National Immigration Forum’s annual convening, Leading the Way, Nov. 16-19. Each day from 3-5 p.m. Eastern, we’re bringing together influential voices for critical conversations about immigration and the role of immigration in our nation’s future. Tune in to hear more about the path forward.

For our special post-election episode, Ali talks to Robert P. Jones about the future of American identity, interpreting recent polling trends, and what the numbers reveal about how we can heal and build a path forward. Robert is CEO and Founder of the Public Religion Research Institute, or PRRI. He’s also the author of “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.”

This week, we’re taking a bit of a break from the relentless election news cycle. Ali chats with Nancy Jooyoun Kim, whose debut novel, The Last Story of Mina Lee, has become a New York Times and USA Today Bestseller since being published in September. They discuss immigrant experiences in the U.S. and how telling those stories can bring a powerful perspective to a complicated topic. Plus, how her book challenges the assumptions of the American Dream and the types of immigrant stories we often hear.

In the final episode of our pre-election deep dive into civic engagement, Ali hears about the experiences of two first-time voters who recently became U.S. citizens through the Forum’s New American Workforce program. Karla Garcia, a Honduran immigrant who works for the D.C. Board of Elections, talks about her father’s experience voting for the first time this year and the changes she’s seen in the Latinx electorate over the years. Ambica Prakash, an entrepreneur born and raised in India, spoke about her journey through the naturalization process and her perspective on civic engagement as a new American.

Ali sits down with Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, the executive producers of Little America, an Apple TV anthology series telling the immigrant stories we don’t often hear in American pop culture. They chat about the about the power of storytelling, how to create a sense of connectedness amid division, and what’s missing from conversations on immigration.

This week Ali speaks to Bob Worsley, a businessman and former Republican member of the Arizona State Senate. He recently wrote a book called “The Horseshoe Virus” on polarization in politics. An active member of the LDS Church, Bob spoke about how his faith informed his civic engagement — and why advocating for commonsense immigration policies doesn’t have to be partisan.

This week, we're looking at how marginalized communities are leveraging their collective power this election season – even if they can’t vote themselves. By emphasizing connectedness at a time when it’s needed the most, organizers are finding new ways to engage their communities and advocate for Dreamers and other immigrants. Ali chats with Greisa Martinez Rosas, executive director at United We Dream, the largest immigrant-led youth network in the country.

This week Ali talks to Adamou Mohamed, an organizer and civic engagement coordinator with Church World Service. He leads their efforts working with refugee leaders on voter registration, education, and turnout. He and Ali spoke about the unique experiences and challenges refugee voters face, and the importance of building engagement across communities.