Think back, maybe way back, about your childhood. How many times did you move, and why? You might have complicated memories of making new friends and the reasons for the move – a parent’s job, or a hope for better education. There might be beautiful recollections from those homes, too, a favorite dinner, a place where you played games or climbed a tree.
Bobbi Dempsey, a guest on this weekend’s show, moved more than 70 times before she graduated from high school. Her family was often fleeing from a rent they could not afford, or abusive situations. Many times they would leave in the middle of the night and she would wake up somewhere entirely unfamiliar. Experiencing homelessness and housing insecurity shaped every part of Dempsey’s life – that feeling of starting over, again and again, and the big and little losses, from having a hard time washing clothes to tracking down mail and documents.
When I talked with Dempsey about being on our show, I asked her what it was like coming out of school after a move. She said she would walk out and have no idea which direction to walk. We talked about how we could help listeners feel that uncertainty, that emotion. And then she went to an old school of hers, and recorded herself walking and thinking about her young self. A person just trying to get home, like Odysseus. You’ll hear the sound she collected and her story in the show.
Dempsey’s story is in Going for Broke: Change of Address, the first episode of a special three-part series airing on public radio stations Nov. 5, Nov. 12 and Nov. 19. We collaborated with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project for the series, and Ray Suarez joins us as host. The overall theme is the care economy – what if we put more care into housing, or mental health, or work?
You can find Going for Broke on your podcast app of choice, but if you really want to do us a solid and help others find it, check out Going for Broke on Apple Podcasts and leave a review. Tell them TTBOOK sent you!
If you want to follow everything for the series in one place, head to ttbook.org/goingforbroke.
I hope you get a chance to listen and share with your friends. Let us know what you think.
–Shannon