Culture & Society

Many people enjoy the anonymity found in city living, but this also creates dangers for more vulnerable people like the homeless and elderly.

In Malaysia, an organization called Rice & Roses feeds the needy, paying particular attention to those living on the streets of Georgetown, Penang. The group of volunteers prepares meals and delivers them, and offers free education to street children.

More than a political buzzword, refugees are real people with real fears driving their decisions, and they take great risks to protect their families. A glimpse into the lives of immigrants living in refugee camps reveals their hunger for human rights and an opportunity to start over.

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Learn more about the topics covered in this episode with the following organizations:

Moscow is a city where dissidents live in fear. After emerging from a decade of post-­Soviet economic and political turmoil, the country, under Putin’s rule, is a place where authorities have tightened control over the media and stifled the opposition. The government maintains a narrative that insists on the country’s unique power in contrast with the rest of Europe. In 2011, thousands of protestors gathered in Moscow to protest electoral fraud – it was the biggest show of protest since the fall of the USSR.

Worried that Pasifika young people aren’t invested in the political decisions that affect their lives, Latayvia Tualasea-Tautai creates youth organization Labournesia to engage them in politics and lift up their voices – but can she find her own?

Sepideh is a young Iranian woman who dreams of becoming an astronaut. At night, she stares up at the sky while taking lessons from a space fanatic who teaches schoolchildren about astronomy. At home, full of hope and longing, she watches recordings of the world's first female space tourist, Iranian-American, Anousheh Ansari.

When Sepideh's father died suddenly six years ago, she discovered that she could feel closer to him by watching the stars, and so her dream was born. But not everyone around her appreciates her boundless ambition.

The Jewish Delis of Los Angeles serve an important role for connecting heritage to food. Factor’s Famous Deli has been a central pillar for the community for 70 years while newcomers like Micah Wexler and Michael Kassar of Wexler’s Deli bring a fresh take to classic deli food traditions.

Teen dad Noa must come to grips with his own feelings of shame in an attempt to support guys like him.

In San Francisco’s Chinatown, Brandon Jew walks the line between his Chinese heritage and his American upbringing with his restaurant, Mister Jiu’s. With the rapid gentrification of the neighborhood, the face of the country’s oldest Chinatown is changing while a younger generation holds on to the traditions and flavors of the past.

Kenya is well known internationally for its sandy beaches and wide‐open savannahs that attract foreign tourists every year. But behind the picture perfect postcard hides a bleak reality.

Immigrants around the world face unbelievable challenges on their journey searching for a new place to call home. While much of the reporting focuses on the backlash refugees face from their new host nations, many communities are opening their arms and minds.

Background image: Feryal Aldahash looks down on her third daughter Valgerour Halla at their home in Reykjavik, Iceland. January 8 2017. | Thomson Reuters Foundation/Filippo Brachetti

Banh Mi. Spring rolls. Pho. The war and its subsequent refugees. These are things most commonly associated with the Vietnamese culture and its people. But a group of chefs in Los Angeles (including Cassia’s Bryant Ng and Diep Tran of Good Girl Dinette) are hoping to demonstrate that there’s so much more than that. Featured in the episode: Cassia in Santa Monica, Good Girl Dinette in Highland Park, Red Boat Fish Sauce, and Minh Phan of Porridge & Puffs.

From the depths of a volcano to the density of a forest, people around the world are preserving natural wonders in their home cities. A docent at Mount Vesuvius shares why he has devoted his life to the volcano that destroyed much of the area in previous generations. A man in Hong Kong leads neighbors in a fight to preserve a historic forest that has become polluted.

Videos produced by RAI in Naples, Italy and RTHK in Hong Kong.

Big cities attract dreamers from all over the world. This episode features the people building communities of inclusion for immigrants.

In 1994 Rwanda suffered a devastating genocide. Close to a million were killed by neighbors, friends, even family.

The country has made great strides in economic recovery since then, but "people are not like roads and buildings" says Kiki Katese, pioneering Rwandan theater director. "How do we rebuild a human being?"

Kiki decided to start Ingoma Nshya, Rwanda's first and only women's drumming troupe, open to women from both sides of the conflict. There was only one requirement: to leave the categories of the past at the gate.

As one of the oldest cities in the world and of significance to followers of all three major religions, Jerusalem is constantly on edge. It is segregated into two distinct parts, East and West. In the streets, 18-­year-­old soldiers patrol the city with guns. Artists in both parts of the city are using art to find and fight for their own truth and bring about peace amid the regular eruptions of violence.

Facing up to their fears, environmentalists Ana and Khushee must get loud to save their creek.

Lagos, the largest city in Africa and an economic powerhouse, is characterized by extreme social inequalities, frequent power cuts and a rapidly increasing population. In the rest of Nigeria, political upheavals, including the militant insurgency of Boko Haram and a drop in oil production in the country’s oil sector, are among some of the challenges facing the government of Mohammadu Buhari, elected in 2015. Lagos, and its exploding art scene, is where these realities are brought to the fore of people’s consciousness.

Looking back to traditional practices can help us find modern solutions to various environmental and social issues of city life.

In Q'ewe, Peru, we follow Victoriano Arizapana, a Native leader nicknamed “The Engineer” as he leads the construction of the Q’eswachaka bridge. Residents from four different communities participate in the three-day construction of a traditional rope bridge using ancestral techniques taught through their Inca heritage.

To perform in her first-ever spoken word event, outspoken dancer and writer Tina Bonsu Maro explores parts of her identity she never has before. Will she be able to honour both her Ghanaian and Cook Island heritage on the big day?

Jake Myrick and Noriko Kamei have taken their love for namazake and created Sequoia Sake, a small brewery in the heart of San Francisco. Rooted in the traditions of Japanese sake brewing, they work to resurrect an heirloom rice in California and pioneer the young but growing craft sake movement in the US.

Two extraordinary women of Palestinian descent, Reem Assil and Lamees Dahbour, use food to bring their misunderstood homeland closer to Western tolerance and acceptance.

Indonesia, where the national motto is “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” or “Unity in Diversity,” is home to both the world’s largest Muslim majority as well as six additional religions. The country has had a difficult history under the 32-­year dictatorship of General Suharto whose repressive and corrupt militarized rule led to the deaths of hundred thousand.

Climate change affects us all, and less-developed communities, that are more closely tied to the land, often suffer more directly from environmental transformation. The changes include dramatic fluctuation of water sources, diminishing crop yields, and failure of long-held farming techniques. Discover how community leaders are adjusting, engaging with the international community and seeking innovative methods and new technologies to find sustainable ways of living.

Los Angeles’ booming food scene is being shaped by a new generation of chefs. Visit almost any kitchen in Los Angeles and it is likely you will find a migrant chef combining ethnic cuisines with new flavors and techniques. And often within the food, is a story of their migration.

“The politics of migration, the labor economy, all that drama plays out in the restaurants that we go to,” says journalist and author Rubén Martínez

Great water demands require greater water solutions to keep big cities afloat.

Water activists combat climate change and illegal wetland development that is causing towns to flood in Argentina. Graciela Capodoglio founded the Natural Reserve of Pilar to preserve the floodplain ecosystem in the province of Buenos Aires.

In Mexico City, citizens formed an organization using innovative education models and technologies to address the city’s water shortage issues.

Videos produced by Construir TV in Argentina and SPR in Mexico.

On the front line of the Syrian war, 30-year-old Commander Arian guides a female battalion towards the city of Kobane to release its people from the grip of ISIS in Alba Sotorra’s empowering tale of emancipation and freedom.

Former refugee Octaves attempts to discover the truth about his long-deceased mother but even if he finds his long-lost relatives will he find the peace he desires?

Cuba is a multi-layered, complex, culturally-rich island, known primarily for the 1953 revolution of Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. The revolution, America’s subsequent trade embargo and the economic struggles that the island faced has had a notable impact on the kind of art that was created. Much of it was inspired by a sense of cohesion and unity, with Cuban artists promoting the belief that socialism would work. More recently, and in the context of renewed normalization of relations between the U.S.

Chef Claudette Zepeda-Wilkins opens her new restaurant, El Jardín, in San Diego. Inspired by the traditions of generations of Mexican women and combining regional heirloom ingredients from across Mexico, Zepeda-Wilkins takes a huge risk to elevate the cuisine in her hometown.

Jazz Singsanong of Jitlada Thai and Louis Tikaram of E.P. & L.P. transport the palate around the world with the complex flavors of Thai cuisine. These chefs work to bring balance to the complexity of flavors that reflect the mixed cultural influences of their own backgrounds and experiences.

People all over the world are confronting traditional norms around gender and sexuality that are difficult to break. Despite opposition and discrimination from their communities, these people are armed with the courage to truly be themselves. The small steps people take to assert their role in society, can result in major leaps for future generations.

Urban planners and average citizens around the world are working to improve transportation in congested cities. In Bangkok, an architect fed up with his daily commute studies the combination of traditional boats and modern trains to beat traffic. In Bogota, a professor and his students develop a citywide electric car sharing system to ease congestion in dense urban areas.

Videos by Thai PBS in Thailand and TAL in Colombia. 

The West African country of Mali is a birthplace of the blues, a musical tradition later carried by the transatlantic slave trade to America's cotton fields. Yet today, the music and musicians of Mali are in grave danger. As fundamentalist Islam and sharia law become more widespread, dance and secular music are prohibited, musical instruments are destroyed, and musicians are forced to flee their homeland.

Young filmmaker Iggy-Timo Booth must delve deep into his family history to find belonging within his Samoan cultural heritage.

Maintaining a sustainable way of life through organic farming is possible — even in big cities. In this episode, a woman in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro shows us how to maximize every last bit of local produce, while urban dwellers and beekeepers in Paris are developing a culture of sharing in rooftop gardens.

Videos produced by TAL in Brazil and QLM in France.

Virtual reality experiences, comic books, and architectural mapping are all forms of storytelling being used by artists and activists around the world to raise awareness of social problems. From calling out sexual assault in India to documenting war crimes in Gaza, these modes of communication are connecting people to issues across the world.

Before the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, Azzedine Nouiri, the world champion in seated shot put, inspires his childhood friend Youssef to take on the challenge of qualifying for the Games despite their lack of means and formal training. They struggle to conquer the extraordinary in order to have the same rights and opportunities as ordinary men at home, in Morocco.

Aspiring fashion designer Favour challenges herself to design a fashion collection that is both modern and embraces her Congolese heritage.