What We Will Abide

I've been wrestling with my anger about the havoc Covid-19 has wrought in our country and the ineptitude that has typified how we've dealt with it. But, I still feel I don't know enough to have an opinion at all. So, in this episode, I turn to Michael Taylor, a Respiratory Therapist who works in the York, PA area. We talk about his career and, in the main, how his expertise is utilized in the current pandemic. I don’t posit Mike Ta...

Once an aspiring Medieval historian, Jessica Edonick now serves as Dean of Students at the Pennsylvania College of Art and Design in downtown Lancaster, PA. She defines and redefines the position almost all the time, giving liberally of herself to students in need in a selfless, exhaustive way. As a member of the PCAD faculty, I work with her closely and refer students to her regularly. In a professional setting she is always kind,...

Osmyn Oree is an admissions counselor at the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design (PCA&D) and is a gradate of the college. He is also a photographer and an activist. We talk about the evolution of his work, his political consciousness, and a bit about his inner life amidst this turbulent time.

Osmyn Oree Photography

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Original music by Nick Peterson

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At some point along the way, Leo DiSanto and I recognized we were dependent on alcohol and took steps to release ourselves from the hold it had on us. What we learned was that things got worse before they got better, Drinking quiets the hobgoblins of self-hatred, but only for a short while, and then they come back with a vengeance. It's at that point that the real work begins.

DiSanto is a local Lancaster musician who performed regu...

Dawn Cox at Prana Functional Manual Therapy (PranaPT.com) came to the PT profession later in her life, and brings to bear her experience connecting with human beings in various sectors of her life in her work now. At Prana, physical therapists treat the whole human being, and don't just reduce people to their injury or their diagnoses.

In the era of COVD-19, Prana is still helping people navigate and lessen their pain with Teleh...

Bob Fenster is a social studies teacher and a musician. I met him a bunch of years ago at aconference on the Arab Spring in Philly. He's a New Jersey boy, born and bred, but I still retain enough (professional) respect for him that I felt like asking him a few questions about how he addresses controversial and contentious political issues in the classroom. Bob is the kind of teacher I aspire to be: self-reflective, both compassiona...

This is a crossover episode. These days I co-own 9 Panel Comics a comic book store with my friend Jon Darby. We buy and sell old and new comic books. We also produce a comic-related podcast. For this episode, I interview Lee Francis IV is the author of Ghost River, a graphic novel about the Conestoga, a native people who lived in what is now Central Pennsylvania, and the founder of Native Realities and Red Planet Books and Comics i...

While Part 1 focused mainly on mental health and constructive coping mechanisms to deal with anxiety and depression, in this episode we consider what so-called “American” values are —as opposed to Canadian values— and spend a good chunk of time critiquing the U.S. health care system.

There's also more of Sarah’s music, as it features songs from her newly released album The Family Curse.

Find all of Sarah's music here.

You can also fin...

I don’t know Sarah Jickling, but we talked for an hour about anxiety, depression, alter egos, pole-dancing, and just how goddamn big Canada is. I met her on Instagram, via the quirk of a misplaced hashtag. Not long ago, I loathed and readily excoriated social media and its tentacles, as they worm and wiggle their slimy way into our lives. As it turns out, social media isn't the problem -- the problem was, in fact, the tentacles of ...

Here is a live album of sorts; Liz Fulmer and her band playing at Tellus360 on August 18, 2019, for the Come As You Are words and music event. This is just the music.

SONG LIST

1) Come As You Are (Nirvana) Liz Fulmer: Vocals, Piano; Allan Dutton: Guitar.

2) Today (Smashing Pumpkins) Liz Fulmer: Vocals, Piano; Allan Dutton: Guitar; Brendan Stengle: Bass Guitar

3) Doll Parts (Hole) Liz Fulmer: Vocals, Piano, Perc...

Jamie Beth Cohen's Wasted Pretty is a YA novel set in 1992, a year in which grunge, indie pop, and new wave all seemed to get along. In a special live event at Lancaster's own Tellus 360 this past August, Cohen teamed up with local musician Liz Fulmer to present "Come As You Are," a concert during which Cohen read from her novel and Fulmer (and friends) played music from the period. In this episode, Cohen a...

"If you want to see humanity at its most vulnerable, a refugee camp will give you that image."

Mustafa Nuur immigrated to the US after a 10-year stay in a refugee camp in Kenya. He is originally from Mogadishu, Somalia and has lived in Lancaster PA since 2017.

In chapter IV of What We Will Abide's series on Immigration, Mustafa tells his own story, including the origins of his entrepreneurial drive, his first job in America a...