May 14, 2022

A Process of Survival

Elena pitched, reported, wrote, and produced this story as their master’s thesis at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. It was edited by Anna Sussman, Lisa Armstrong, and Queena Kim. Kori Suzuki voiced the host intro.

This project is an audio narrative about natural resource greed in California, and the people who have felt its impact the most. The Winnemem Wintu were first removed from their land through genocide during the Gold Rush. But this story is about the displacement they’ve endured in the last hundred years at the hands of water and fire, and what they’ve had to do just to survive.