Martina Byrne is a community builder and quiet changemaker rooted in Hilltown, County Down. Originally trained in marine biology and business development, Martina’s path shifted after becoming a mother, when she experienced firsthand the isolat...

Vincenta Leyden lives in Hilltown, County Down, Northern Ireland, near the Mourne Mountains. Born in Northern Ireland and raised partly in the Republic of Ireland, her life has unfolded along the border between two places and identities. Gro...

Nula McNulty is a lifelong resident of North Leitrim, Ireland, who returned home in 2003 after years working on Ireland’s east coast and two years in China as a food technologist. Raised on a mixed farm near the Northern Ireland border, she ...

Two stories again in this episode:Carmel Loughlin grew up in the Republic of Ireland but spent time crossing the border frequently to visit family in the North, until the Troubles broke out when she was about 12 years old. She has spe...

In this episode we share two conversations with people we met in Manorhamilton in the Republic of Ireland, just across the border from Northern Ireland. Like so many things, conflict and tensions are not confined within a political line that...

Israel Eguaogie was 17 when he left Nigeria and relocated to Germany as an asylum seeker. A decade later he moved to Dublin and soon after that, shifted north to Belfast. It was a decision that horrified his mother back in Nigeria, who had h...

Lewis Lyttle is an ex-Loyalist prisoner. He was sentenced to 15 years for attempted murder during The Troubles and was released early, with the signing of The Good Friday Agreement. Now Lewis works to facilitate cross-comm...

Bronagh McAtasney is the daughter of John Bosco McAtasney, a master weaver and the...

Aoife Moore is an independent investigative journalist from Derry, Northern Ireland and formerly worked as a political correspondent for the BBC.She calls herself a victim of England’s legacy in Ireland and says that every face...

Jonny Clark is the program manager for Public Theology at Corrymeela, often called Ireland’s oldest peace center.Born in New Zealand and married to an American, Jonny has ...

Lisa Retezan works as a substance use disorder navigator at a day shelter for youth who are unhoused. She openly shares her story with them about her own struggles with addiction.Lisa took her first sip of alcohol at age 15 and struggled...

Bruce Sunpie Barnes is a bandleader who plays accordion and harmonica for Sunpie and the Louisiana Sunspots. The band travels around the world playing what he calls Afro-Louisiana music: a fusion of zydeco, blues, Creole funk, gospel and tunes ...

Caitlin Carney is co-owner of Porgy’s Seafood Market in New Orleans.Caitlin calls herself the “Lady Monger.” Her business, Porgy’s Seafood Market, is a purple storefront on a busy corner in Mid-Ci...

Another bonus this week to share a behind the scenes conversation with journalist Barry Yeoman and A Peace of My Mind's John Noltner, who collaborated to produce this multimedia series of interviews and portraits for Still Here: Stories from a ...

Darrah Fox Bach is the restoration programs senior manager at the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana.Darrah cultivated her love for the outdoors in her native San Francisco, where environmentalism ...

Rosina Philippe lives in Grand Bayou Indian Village, a community that is entirely based in water. The homes, along with the church, can only be reached by boat. This was not always the case. “We had solid ground beneath our feet,” she recalls. ...

Alex Kolker is a coastal scientist with the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.During the Covid-19 lockdown, while others baked sourdough bread, Alex was studying satellite images of the Mississippi River Delta. As an oceanographer...

Ebony Woodruff is an agricultural attorney in Chalmette, Louisiana.Ebony entered law school with plans to become a corporate attorney. As the daughter of a welder-electrician and a teacher, her initial goal was upward mobility. “It was r...

Kristian Bailey is a farmer, and he also considers himself a land steward and teacher. At Orais Hand Farm, located across the road from the Mississippi River, he is trying to move away from the idea of human dominion over nature. Instead, he is...

Chief Devon Parfait spent his early years in Dulac, a bayou community at the watery edge of Louisiana. He caught fish from the dock, bounced on his neighbor’s trampoline, and went out on his grandfather’s shrimp boat. But Hurricane Rita destroy...

Nate Suppon's mother died when he was an infant. He says he was born into a home filled with depression, anxiety, and turmoil. A lack of love. And he tried to fill that void with drugs and alcohol. Between the ages of 15 and 38, he was addicted...

Dan Brandt is a father, a husband, and an entrepreneur who says he likes to think of himself as a kind, decent person who tries to do the next right thing. Dan stopped drinking when he was 35 years old and he is now 56. He didn't lo...

Josue Gonzalez grew up in difficult circumstances that he said left a lot of holes in his life. Holes where the sense of love and belonging, and being cared for should have been. He tried filling those holes with different things.He reme...

Vanessa Weyaus is a member of the Lynx clan of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. Her name in Ojibwe translates as The Shining Light in the Sky Woman. Vanessa spent years in addiction, eventually living on the streets and running from t...

John Gerber is a graphic designer and a fine artist in Minneapolis. He describes himself as someone who thinks and feels deeply. He has had an on again / off again relationship with alcohol. He stopped drinking completely between the ages of 30...