Unsettled

The Corinthian Baptist Church, a majority Black congregation, sits just three miles away from Plymouth Congregational Church, a majority white congregation. Two members of each decided to cross the racial divide, bring the congregations together and build relationships. Now, the church members hold joint Bible studies, watch sporting events and sing in choirs together. In this episode, we meet Caroline Peterson and Leslie Jackson, the women who made this happen, plus other community builders from across Iowa.

Poynter’s Jon Greenberg remembers watching news reporters during the Vietnam War on television as a 12-year-old kid. He said when there were only three networks they had to appeal to a broader market with a more vague political consensus. Today, there are endless channels, publications and accounts to get information from, and it’s easy to consume news in a way that doesn’t challenge your beliefs — or to avoid consuming news altogether. In this episode, we look at today’s media landscape and consider how a lack of trust and fractured realities in media have sowed division.

Driving through a small-town main street, you can see the facades of once thriving small businesses, grocery stores and newspapers that have now shuttered. While rural towns had held up a traditional ideal of tight knit communities, many have hollowed out since the farm crisis of the 1980s. On this episode of ‘Unsettled,’ rural sociologist David Peters explains how many small communities lost social involvement, as many rural residents now must travel out of town for work, school, healthcare and more. Also, most U.S. adults recently surveyed by the American Psychological Association reported that societal division is a significant source of stress in their lives. Lynn Bufka from the APA unpacks these findings and how division impacts our wellbeing.

Men discuss what gender and masculinity mean to them in the year 2025.

Women are less likely to be believed at the doctor when they're experiencing pain. Meanwhile, men are more likely to die by suicide. On this episode, we discuss the origins of this discrepancy.

Social media algorithms and differing stances on policy have contributed to a political gap between Gen Z women and men.

Imagine your world without women: the women you work with, the women you encounter in the service industry, maybe even the women who teach or care for your children. Women across the country are going on strike — on this episode of Unsettled.

Looking back at 100 years of the Equal Rights Amendment and looking ahead to what's next

To identify and understand what it means to be a woman, it's important to start with understanding identity and how we establish our own identities. Then, how our identities shape - and are shaped by - our communities and the world around us. From there, we use our identities to establish our own autonomy.

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