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Artwork for Almost There with Dwayne Betts
Society & Culture

Almost There with Dwayne Betts

Emerson Collective

How can we shape the place we call home? And how does it shape us? This season, host and poet Dwayne Betts talks to inspiring local leaders who are working to make their homes more connected, resilient, and joyful. We’ll travel across America to meet such leaders, including a high school mariachi teacher in the Rio Grande Valley, a book seller in Salt Lake City, a farmer in upstate New York, and a reverend on the West Side of Chicago. Learn what motivates their dedication to their community, and gain insight into how you can create change in the place you call home, too.

Produced by Magnificent Noise.

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  • 20 episodes
  • Avg 28 min
  • English

Episodes 20

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  • S2 · E8
    Jul 15, 2025 · 29 min

    The Most Human Space of All

    In the season two finale, Dwayne speaks with the writer Amy Low about living with the terrible diagnosis of stage four colon cancer, which she chronicled in her memoir, The Brave In-Between: Notes from the Last Room. Amy, who worked at Emerson Collective for nearly a decade, shares what she learned occupying the very “last room” of life: deep gratitude, the power of forgiveness, and how to live each moment with purpose. This season of Almost There is dedicated to the memory of Amy Low. Mentioned in this episode: The Brave In-Between: Notes from the Last Room by Amy Low Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Lina Misitzis, Patrick D’Arcy, Kevin Dupzyk, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at almostthere@emersoncollective.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • S1 · E7
    Jul 8, 2025 · 32 min

    A Place of Gratitude

    Karen Washington never imagined herself as a farmer. But after decades in New York City, she found her calling establishing community gardens that brought fresh food – and life-affirming beauty – to her neighborhood in the Bronx. Today, she lives on a farm in upstate New York where she grows fresh, healthy produce that she believes belongs on everybody’s plates. For more on our guest, Karen Washington: https://www.karenthefarmer.com/about Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Lina Misitzis, Patrick D’Arcy, Kevin Dupzyk, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at almostthere@emersoncollective.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • S2 · E6
    Jul 1, 2025 · 21 min

    The First Place I Felt Safe

    As a kid growing up below the poverty line on the west side of Salt Lake City, Calvin Crosby found immense pleasure and freedom in books. Years later, after a journey that took him to San Francisco and into a leadership role at the California Independent Booksellers Alliance, he bought the bookstore that first changed his life – The King’s English – and moved back home to Utah to run it. For more on our guest, Calvin Crosby, and The King’s English: https://www.kingsenglish.com/ Books mentioned in this episode: Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin Ramona the Pest by Beverly Cleary Three Junes by Julia Glass Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Lina Misitzis, Patrick D’Arcy, Kevin Dupzyk, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at almostthere@emersoncollective.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • S2 · E5
    Jun 24, 2025 · 18 min

    Dance Is Story

    If you think dance is just movement set to music, you’re missing something big. Award-winning director and choreographer Camille A. Brown argues that dance is the act of using physical gesture to manifest story—stories about ourselves, the lives we’ve lived, and where we’re from. Camille, whose work celebrates Black culture, helps Dwayne see the ways he’s moved through prison and his work with Freedom Reads as a liberatory dance for his community. For more on our guest, Camille A Brown: https://www.camilleabrown.org/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Lina Misitzis, Patrick D’Arcy, Kevin Dupzyk, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at almostthere@emersoncollective.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • S2 · E4
    Jun 17, 2025 · 22 min

    Mariachi Became Home

    Born and raised in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, Abel Acuña has been a mariachi musician for three decades. Now, he teaches mariachi at Edinburg North High School, the very same school he himself attended. He tells Dwayne how he uses the power of music to foster confidence and pride in his students—and explains why competitive mariachi is a perfect way for young people to find their place in the world. Don’t miss Abel and his students in the Sundance documentary hit, Going Varsity in Mariachi, now on Netflix. Mentioned in this episode: The documentary film, Going Varsity in Mariachi, streaming on Netflix. Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Lina Misitzis, Patrick D’Arcy, Kevin Dupzyk, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at almostthere@emersoncollective.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • S2 · E3
    Jun 10, 2025 · 28 min

    A Place for Redemption

    Welcome to the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church, where we meet Reverend Marshall Hatch Jr. He leads The MAAFA Redemption Project, a faith-based program that supports young men in West Garfield Park on the West Side of Chicago. Marshall tells Dwayne how he’s working to build a space where young men resist despair, become agents of change in their city, and move forward with a deep understanding of the American past. For more on our guest, Marshall Hatch Jr.: https://www.maafachicago.org/home Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Lina Misitzis, Patrick D’Arcy, Kevin Dupzyk, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at almostthere@emersoncollective.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • S2 · E2
    Jun 3, 2025 · 32 min

    My New Kentucky Home

    Do you have to be born in a place to feel like you are of that place? The conductor Teddy Abrams has been asking himself that question for the last decade. Originally from San Francisco, he has earned recognition as one of today’s youngest and most dynamic conductors while serving as music director of the Louisville Orchestra. For Teddy, music is a bridge across Kentucky, a magical force that binds him to the state’s hills and hollers, bluegrass and bourbon—and, of course, its people. For more on our guest, Teddy Abrams: https://louisvilleorchestra.org/about/conductors/teddy-abrams/ Music featured in this episode courtesy Louisville Orchestra. Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Lina Misitzis, Patrick D’Arcy, Kevin Dupzyk, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at almostthere@emersoncollective.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • S2 · E1
    May 27, 2025 · 23 min

    A Place Outside of Geography

    For documentary filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, place is as much about emotion and history as it is about a geographic location. Guided by the ways he’s used place in his documentary work – including An Inconvenient Truth, He Named Me Malala, and most recently, Deaf President Now! – Davis turns the tables on Dwayne, asking him about his relationship to the places he has lived, from growing up in PG County, Maryland to serving time in prison as a young man, and how they have shaped his poetry. For more on the work of our guest, Davis Guggenheim: https://concordia.studio/ Mentioned in this episode: The documentary Deaf President Now!, now playing on Apple TV+. The poem “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Lina Misitzis, Patrick D’Arcy, Kevin Dupzyk, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at almostthere@emersoncollective.com. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • May 22, 2025 · 2 min

    Season 2 Trailer: The Power of Place

    Season 2 of Almost There is coming soon. This season, we’re talking to inspiring local leaders with big dreams for the places they call home. We’ll travel across America to meet these leaders: a high school mariachi teacher in the Rio Grande Valley, a book seller in Salt Lake City, a farmer in upstate New York, a reverend on the West Side of Chicago, and others. Learn what motivates their dedication to their community, and gain insight into how you can create change in the place you call home, too. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

  • S1 · E20
    Nov 7, 2023 · 31 min

    Joan Salwen • You can do WHAT with seaweed???

    Joan Salwen has a thing for cows. After all, she grew up helping her grandfather tend to the livestock on his farm in Iowa. But as an adult, Joan was shocked to learn that cows are pretty terrible for the environment: they burp huge amounts of methane, a destructive greenhouse gas driving climate change. So she built a company, Blue Ocean Barns, around a surprising solution: making feed with a red seaweed native to Hawaii that dramatically reduces cows’ methane emissions when they eat it in smal

  • S1 · E19
    Oct 31, 2023 · 29 min

    Tiana Epps-Johnson • Want to protect democracy? Hug an election official.

    Across the U.S., local election administrators are the unsung heroes of democracy, helping to protect our right to vote. But who is protecting them? Scarce resources and increasing threats of violence are causing many in the profession to find new jobs. Fortunately, Tiana Epps-Johnson has big ideas on how to make their jobs easier.

  • S1 · E17
    Oct 17, 2023 · 34 min

    Sara Zewde • The anti-slavery roots of America’s public parks

    When Hurricane Katrina barreled toward her home stretch of the Gulf Coast, Sara Zewde had not yet decided what she wanted to do professionally. But the aftermath of the storm inspired her to work across ecology, infrastructure, and culture as a landscape architect.

  • S1 · E13
    Sep 19, 2023 · 31 min

    Shari Davis • You—yes, you—can decide how the government spends money

    Shari Davis first began dreaming about how to empower young people as a teenager, while serving on the Mayor's Youth Council in Boston. In 2014, the Mayor of Boston asked Shari to launch the country's first youth-focused “participatory budgeting” effort—a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.

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