December 17, 2020
But for COVID-19, Less to Lean On, a special series on the Watson Institute’s Trending Globally podcast, might never have come to pass. The host of Trending Globally, Sarah Baldwin, Associate Director Steven Bloomfield, and several alumni and students worked for months to organize an April screening of “Providence Lost,” a documentary featuring one local family’s eviction, to be followed by a panel discussion on housing insecurity and homelessness. When COVID-19 shut everything down, Baldwin suggested transforming the students’ research and activism into a podcast series.
“I don’t think any of us realized what we were saying ‘yes’ to. It took on a life of its own,” Baldwin explained. “Housing is fundamental. If and how we are housed can affect the outcome of almost everything else in our lives, from education to employment to basic health.” The experience has stretched Baldwin, who typically researches her podcasts solo. COVID’s likely