December 7, 2023 • 14 mins
This week, we’re spotlighting We The Unhoused, a show created and hosted by Los Angeles unhoused writer and activist Theo Henderson — the only podcast created by the unhoused, for the unhoused, dispelling the myths that encourage housed people to see the unhoused as a monolith. Check out the podcast at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/we-the-unhoused/id1490017575 and https://www.wetheunhoused.com/. Enjoy!
Follow @wetheunhoused on Instagram.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
On the Bechdecast. The questions asked if movies have women
and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands
or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, Zephi beast
start changing with the Bechdel Cast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello, Bechdel Cast listeners, it's us. Oh, I thought you
were going to say your name? Hi U.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, we welcome to the Bechdel Cast. We're going to
be doing something a little bit different this week, in fact,
extremely different, in fact, something we've never done before.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Wow, and isn't that thrilling. My name's Jamie Loftus. My
name is Caitlin Toronte, and this is normally a podcast
where we look at your favorite movies from an intersectional
feminist lens. It was last week, it will be next week. However,
this week we wanted to.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Share a little bit of a new podcast, or rather
a newly revived podcast that is coming to to iHeartRadio
called We the Unhoused. Full disclosure disclosure alert. I am
a producer on this show.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
We want to sort of spread the word about this
show as much as possible. It's a show that I
first learned about in twenty twenty although it started releasing episodes.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
In twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It is created and hosted by the incredible THEO Henderson,
who is an unhoused activist and artist and reporter who
lives in Los Angeles. He began with The Unhoused as
a first person account of the unhoused experience in LA
from the perspective of the unhoused, and that is what
(01:43):
it will continue to be. So obviously, I mean, it's
something that we've talked about on the Bechdel Cast in
passing because we're a media criticism podcast, but houselessness and
the treatment of unhoused people as a monolith is something
that's very important to us and something that this show
I think uniquely addresses. So we wanted to share a
(02:05):
little bit with you and would really encourage you to
subscribe to the show and also just follow THEO Henderson's
work in general.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It's invaluable, yeah, and find ways if you're able to
support the unhoused community in your area, your unhoused neighbors.
In LA there are over seventy five thousand unhoused people
living in this city and our local government is doing
(02:39):
very little to support them, and so many unhoused people
rely on mutual aid from individuals and kind of small groups.
So yeah, we encourage people to find ways they can
get involved in supporting their unhoused neighbors.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And also just be armed with knowledge. I mean, I've
learned so so much from wee then House over the
years about the many complicated issues that face unhouse people
today and the many many perspectives that unhause people come from.
And so with that, we're going to kick it over
(03:20):
to the amazing Theo Henderson. This is the first chunk
of the relaunch episode of We the un Housed. We'll
be linking to the feed for the series in the description,
and if you want to hear the whole thing, which
you should, head over to the feed and subscribe. We'll
be releasing new episodes every two weeks on Tuesdays, So
(03:44):
get your widy on house on Tuesdays, becdelcast on Thursdays.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Really pace out your week, beautiful.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
All right, Here is the first episode of the We
the on House relaunch with Leo Henderson.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
It's a simple truth that we can't escape. Houselessness is everywhere.
It affects over half a million people in the United
States alone. We try to make sense out of this tragedy,
but it is a senseless endeavor. What I'm going to
ask of you is a very tall order. I want
(04:23):
you to take what you heard about houselessness and I
want you to forget it. Are you still with me?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Good?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Let us have a conversation. My name is Theo Henderson, hoston,
creator of Weeding in House, and I'm going to take
you on a journey in this crisis. Being on house
is a twenty four hour job, and my lived experience
in houslesness is extensive. I was one of over seventy
five thousand people experiencing houselessness on a given night in
(04:56):
Los Angeles. Now, contrary to ill of people, I did
not grow up and say, gee, I can't wait to
live on the streets to encounter societal rejection and violence.
I don't fit the stereotypes of what news media, movies,
and many house people think of an unhoused person. Most
(05:17):
on house people don't. Being on house is so often
made out to seem like an individual's fault, not the
hundreds of thousands of systematic failures that have to take
place to put someone in that position in the first place.
Needless to say, the un housed are not a monolith.
(05:40):
My history as an activist has been difficult but unnecessary journey.
I drew inspiration on my role as an activist from
this quote from Shirley Chisholm. Activism is my rent for
living on this planning, which is kind of ironic. Isn't
it paying with activism to fight for dignity and empathy
(06:02):
in an indifferent world? However, the bill must be paid
to foster a better world than I found it. My
family has ties in activism, fighting in the Civil Rights
era and the reelection of the first black mayor in Chicago,
mayor Washington, where I was born and raised. Living in
Chicago taught me a lot, and Los Angeles has been
(06:25):
an entirely new kind of teacher after I moved here.
As I made Los Angeles my home, the motivation to
speak out against housing and justice became too great, particularly
when I became unhoused myself in twenty nineteen. The house
(06:45):
world was in complete obliviousness cows. People were concerned with
the humdrum issues of their lives, that pumpkin spice lattes,
and most importantly, making sure that they don't see the
unhoused person sitting in their neighborhood. But for the unhoused people,
hell was being unleashed with the new ordnance that was
(07:09):
voted in called forty one eighteen. A word about forty
one eighteen is touted as the new Jim Crow of
Los Angeles. As you have known that from the history,
majority of unhoused people are black and brown community members.
And what this does It makes it illegal for unhoused
(07:30):
or people to sit, sleep, and lie within five hundred
feet of a postage sign that has been posted all
over the city by city council members, neighborhood councils, and
business improved District owners. In twenty nineteen, most people never
heard of a show that was going to be made
by an unhoused person for unhoused people. Sure they hear
(07:55):
the occasion of New York Times, NPR or god forbid
Fox News broadcast, but even the good coverage was always
presented by house people for house people about unhoused people.
I tried to make an SOLS symbol with this podcast,
hoping to find a knowing year and build alleyship between
unhoused people and house people. The disinformation campaign about the
(08:18):
Inn House is threatening our will to be compassionate and
empathetic to each other. We in House is constantly up
against a pernicious belief that houselessness is a moral individual failure.
Case in point, I have a friend a friend who
is adamant that the unhoused community likes being out there.
(08:40):
There's no critical thinking required, just quit uninformed sound bites
that is being reinforced by mainstream media. I have always
believed that if you can demonize a person, then you
can criminalize in I wanted to show how individuals are
affected by houselessness and weed in House does that. Took
a figurative and literal breath and created this from scratch.
(09:05):
Living outside, I had to utilize the twos I had available.
I used the cheap phone, I edited and released episodes
with the help of a couple of friends. I would
speak with people about their stories, how city hall policies
affected them, how the police disrespected and abused them, and
how the young house were mistreated throughout the pandemic. It
(09:28):
was all from the expert opinion by the people who
are affected. Initially, I expected the show to hit local
needs audiences. Imagine my surprise at people reaching out to
me from out of state and out of the country
who were displaced and unhoused and wished that Weedyan House
was a part of their experience in their place of origin.
(09:51):
This podcast became the lightning rod for the world's moral consciousness.
All of a sudden, the mainstream media outlets that had
been treating the unhoused as a monolift for all those
years we're talking about my show, one that finally centered
the community they've been misrepresenting for so long. My medium
(10:11):
became a diverse attempt to get the message across. The
podcast was always just the beginning, as I moved in
these circles of people wanting to hear about the unhoused
community and their struggles. I was installed as activist and
Residents in UCLA in twenty twenty two as a way
to awaken the sympathy and empathy that was so sorely
(10:34):
lacking in housed and very affluent communities. Then creating a
newspaper that highlighted the struggles of unhoused people and being
read by unhoused people in twenty twenty two as well,
and currently in twenty twenty three, my newsletter, which highlights
the struggles that are beleaguering our communities. We in House
(10:55):
as a one man production was an important job, but
an exhausting and really heavy lived. More polished shows did
not have to continue with the obstacles that I endured.
But I pressevered and now we're relaunching the show with
a little more polished But the mission of the show
is still the same. So why would lost the show now?
Housesness did not go away when I stopped doing with
(11:16):
You in the House, and in September of twenty twenty two,
it has continued and now has escalated. We have a
lot to talk about, we have a lot to explore,
and we have a lot to do to change the
narrative about houselessness and how we look at our fellow
human beings. If I told you that anyone that's in
(11:36):
a medical emergency is in risk of being thrown from
their home, would you believe it? If I told you
that there are over sixty eight thousand unhoused children and
the Los Angeles Unified School District, would you be empathetic
or dismissive? If I told you that the people who
picked the fruits and vegetables in your refrigerator are un
(11:59):
housed even though they are employed. Would you be motivated
to speak out against this and justice. This is the
truxt of my show, getting you informed so we can
do something about it. The show deals with all aspects
of houselessness, not just the obvious unhoused encampments. Weed the
(12:21):
in House will break down terms such as agency and
laguage such as nimbies in what they mean to our community,
and in every episode will spotlight unhoused news which is
crucial to the unhoused community. My goal is to consolidate
all things in house here, educate the community who would
(12:42):
be unaware of the nuances of houselessness, and motivate people
to do something about this humanitarian crisis. Before we delve
deep into this topic, I want you to get to
doving my story, my dessentant to houselessness and how I
navigated it, through it and out of it. So we're
(13:03):
bringing in a good friend of mine at podcaster and
her own right be Honey, and that's what's up next
on weedia House.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Once again, that was the first chunk of this episode
of We the Unhoused. We encourage you to subscribe to
the show listen to it as it comes out.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah, we have a lot of amazing episodes coming up.
The next one is going to be about the Unhoused
Day of Remembrance, which happens every year shortly before the
Christmas holiday in LA. It's a day where the unhoused
community memorializes people in the community that have been lost
in the past year. So THEO will be covering not
(13:48):
just the event, but the history of the event and
speaking with and memorializing those we've lost this year. So
a lot to look forward to listen to. We the
end House, and thank you for listening to this unconventional
episode of the Bechtel Cast.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yes, indeed, we will be back next week with our
regularly scheduled programming, but we appreciate you giving this a listen.
And yeah, we'll be back next week for a live
episode on It's a Wonderful Life?
Speaker 4 (14:24):
But is it?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
But is it?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Tune in next week.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Bye bye bye,
On the Bechdecast. The questions asked if movies have women
and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands
or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, Zephi beast
start changing with the Bechdel Cast.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hello, Bechdel Cast listeners, it's us. Oh, I thought you
were going to say your name? Hi U.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
Yeah, we welcome to the Bechdel Cast. We're going to
be doing something a little bit different this week, in fact,
extremely different, in fact, something we've never done before.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Wow, and isn't that thrilling. My name's Jamie Loftus. My
name is Caitlin Toronte, and this is normally a podcast
where we look at your favorite movies from an intersectional
feminist lens. It was last week, it will be next week. However,
this week we wanted to.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Share a little bit of a new podcast, or rather
a newly revived podcast that is coming to to iHeartRadio
called We the Unhoused. Full disclosure disclosure alert. I am
a producer on this show.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
We want to sort of spread the word about this
show as much as possible. It's a show that I
first learned about in twenty twenty although it started releasing episodes.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
In twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
It is created and hosted by the incredible THEO Henderson,
who is an unhoused activist and artist and reporter who
lives in Los Angeles. He began with The Unhoused as
a first person account of the unhoused experience in LA
from the perspective of the unhoused, and that is what
(01:43):
it will continue to be. So obviously, I mean, it's
something that we've talked about on the Bechdel Cast in
passing because we're a media criticism podcast, but houselessness and
the treatment of unhoused people as a monolith is something
that's very important to us and something that this show
I think uniquely addresses. So we wanted to share a
(02:05):
little bit with you and would really encourage you to
subscribe to the show and also just follow THEO Henderson's
work in general.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
It's invaluable, yeah, and find ways if you're able to
support the unhoused community in your area, your unhoused neighbors.
In LA there are over seventy five thousand unhoused people
living in this city and our local government is doing
(02:39):
very little to support them, and so many unhoused people
rely on mutual aid from individuals and kind of small groups.
So yeah, we encourage people to find ways they can
get involved in supporting their unhoused neighbors.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
And also just be armed with knowledge. I mean, I've
learned so so much from wee then House over the
years about the many complicated issues that face unhouse people
today and the many many perspectives that unhause people come from.
And so with that, we're going to kick it over
(03:20):
to the amazing Theo Henderson. This is the first chunk
of the relaunch episode of We the un Housed. We'll
be linking to the feed for the series in the description,
and if you want to hear the whole thing, which
you should, head over to the feed and subscribe. We'll
be releasing new episodes every two weeks on Tuesdays, So
(03:44):
get your widy on house on Tuesdays, becdelcast on Thursdays.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Really pace out your week, beautiful.
Speaker 3 (03:50):
All right, Here is the first episode of the We
the on House relaunch with Leo Henderson.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
It's a simple truth that we can't escape. Houselessness is everywhere.
It affects over half a million people in the United
States alone. We try to make sense out of this tragedy,
but it is a senseless endeavor. What I'm going to
ask of you is a very tall order. I want
(04:23):
you to take what you heard about houselessness and I
want you to forget it. Are you still with me?
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Good?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Let us have a conversation. My name is Theo Henderson, hoston,
creator of Weeding in House, and I'm going to take
you on a journey in this crisis. Being on house
is a twenty four hour job, and my lived experience
in houslesness is extensive. I was one of over seventy
five thousand people experiencing houselessness on a given night in
(04:56):
Los Angeles. Now, contrary to ill of people, I did
not grow up and say, gee, I can't wait to
live on the streets to encounter societal rejection and violence.
I don't fit the stereotypes of what news media, movies,
and many house people think of an unhoused person. Most
(05:17):
on house people don't. Being on house is so often
made out to seem like an individual's fault, not the
hundreds of thousands of systematic failures that have to take
place to put someone in that position in the first place.
Needless to say, the un housed are not a monolith.
(05:40):
My history as an activist has been difficult but unnecessary journey.
I drew inspiration on my role as an activist from
this quote from Shirley Chisholm. Activism is my rent for
living on this planning, which is kind of ironic. Isn't
it paying with activism to fight for dignity and empathy
(06:02):
in an indifferent world? However, the bill must be paid
to foster a better world than I found it. My
family has ties in activism, fighting in the Civil Rights
era and the reelection of the first black mayor in Chicago,
mayor Washington, where I was born and raised. Living in
Chicago taught me a lot, and Los Angeles has been
(06:25):
an entirely new kind of teacher after I moved here.
As I made Los Angeles my home, the motivation to
speak out against housing and justice became too great, particularly
when I became unhoused myself in twenty nineteen. The house
(06:45):
world was in complete obliviousness cows. People were concerned with
the humdrum issues of their lives, that pumpkin spice lattes,
and most importantly, making sure that they don't see the
unhoused person sitting in their neighborhood. But for the unhoused people,
hell was being unleashed with the new ordnance that was
(07:09):
voted in called forty one eighteen. A word about forty
one eighteen is touted as the new Jim Crow of
Los Angeles. As you have known that from the history,
majority of unhoused people are black and brown community members.
And what this does It makes it illegal for unhoused
(07:30):
or people to sit, sleep, and lie within five hundred
feet of a postage sign that has been posted all
over the city by city council members, neighborhood councils, and
business improved District owners. In twenty nineteen, most people never
heard of a show that was going to be made
by an unhoused person for unhoused people. Sure they hear
(07:55):
the occasion of New York Times, NPR or god forbid
Fox News broadcast, but even the good coverage was always
presented by house people for house people about unhoused people.
I tried to make an SOLS symbol with this podcast,
hoping to find a knowing year and build alleyship between
unhoused people and house people. The disinformation campaign about the
(08:18):
Inn House is threatening our will to be compassionate and
empathetic to each other. We in House is constantly up
against a pernicious belief that houselessness is a moral individual failure.
Case in point, I have a friend a friend who
is adamant that the unhoused community likes being out there.
(08:40):
There's no critical thinking required, just quit uninformed sound bites
that is being reinforced by mainstream media. I have always
believed that if you can demonize a person, then you
can criminalize in I wanted to show how individuals are
affected by houselessness and weed in House does that. Took
a figurative and literal breath and created this from scratch.
(09:05):
Living outside, I had to utilize the twos I had available.
I used the cheap phone, I edited and released episodes
with the help of a couple of friends. I would
speak with people about their stories, how city hall policies
affected them, how the police disrespected and abused them, and
how the young house were mistreated throughout the pandemic. It
(09:28):
was all from the expert opinion by the people who
are affected. Initially, I expected the show to hit local
needs audiences. Imagine my surprise at people reaching out to
me from out of state and out of the country
who were displaced and unhoused and wished that Weedyan House
was a part of their experience in their place of origin.
(09:51):
This podcast became the lightning rod for the world's moral consciousness.
All of a sudden, the mainstream media outlets that had
been treating the unhoused as a monolift for all those
years we're talking about my show, one that finally centered
the community they've been misrepresenting for so long. My medium
(10:11):
became a diverse attempt to get the message across. The
podcast was always just the beginning, as I moved in
these circles of people wanting to hear about the unhoused
community and their struggles. I was installed as activist and
Residents in UCLA in twenty twenty two as a way
to awaken the sympathy and empathy that was so sorely
(10:34):
lacking in housed and very affluent communities. Then creating a
newspaper that highlighted the struggles of unhoused people and being
read by unhoused people in twenty twenty two as well,
and currently in twenty twenty three, my newsletter, which highlights
the struggles that are beleaguering our communities. We in House
(10:55):
as a one man production was an important job, but
an exhausting and really heavy lived. More polished shows did
not have to continue with the obstacles that I endured.
But I pressevered and now we're relaunching the show with
a little more polished But the mission of the show
is still the same. So why would lost the show now?
Housesness did not go away when I stopped doing with
(11:16):
You in the House, and in September of twenty twenty two,
it has continued and now has escalated. We have a
lot to talk about, we have a lot to explore,
and we have a lot to do to change the
narrative about houselessness and how we look at our fellow
human beings. If I told you that anyone that's in
(11:36):
a medical emergency is in risk of being thrown from
their home, would you believe it? If I told you
that there are over sixty eight thousand unhoused children and
the Los Angeles Unified School District, would you be empathetic
or dismissive? If I told you that the people who
picked the fruits and vegetables in your refrigerator are un
(11:59):
housed even though they are employed. Would you be motivated
to speak out against this and justice. This is the
truxt of my show, getting you informed so we can
do something about it. The show deals with all aspects
of houselessness, not just the obvious unhoused encampments. Weed the
(12:21):
in House will break down terms such as agency and
laguage such as nimbies in what they mean to our community,
and in every episode will spotlight unhoused news which is
crucial to the unhoused community. My goal is to consolidate
all things in house here, educate the community who would
(12:42):
be unaware of the nuances of houselessness, and motivate people
to do something about this humanitarian crisis. Before we delve
deep into this topic, I want you to get to
doving my story, my dessentant to houselessness and how I
navigated it, through it and out of it. So we're
(13:03):
bringing in a good friend of mine at podcaster and
her own right be Honey, and that's what's up next
on weedia House.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Once again, that was the first chunk of this episode
of We the Unhoused. We encourage you to subscribe to
the show listen to it as it comes out.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
Yeah, we have a lot of amazing episodes coming up.
The next one is going to be about the Unhoused
Day of Remembrance, which happens every year shortly before the
Christmas holiday in LA. It's a day where the unhoused
community memorializes people in the community that have been lost
in the past year. So THEO will be covering not
(13:48):
just the event, but the history of the event and
speaking with and memorializing those we've lost this year. So
a lot to look forward to listen to. We the
end House, and thank you for listening to this unconventional
episode of the Bechtel Cast.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yes, indeed, we will be back next week with our
regularly scheduled programming, but we appreciate you giving this a listen.
And yeah, we'll be back next week for a live
episode on It's a Wonderful Life?
Speaker 4 (14:24):
But is it?
Speaker 2 (14:24):
But is it?
Speaker 3 (14:25):
Tune in next week.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
Bye bye bye,
The Bechdel Cast News
Hosts And Creators
Caitlin Durante
Jamie Loftus
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