Since 2007, every single winner of the Scripps’ National Spelling Bee has been Indian-American – a fact that fuels stereotypes about so-called “model minority” students.
On today’s show: the perils of labeling. Then, we turn to a different kind of label: electrohypersensitivity. We’ll take a look at a growing group of individuals who claim to be suffering from the condition, and why they’ve moved to the national radio quiet zone.
National Spelling Bee Champions Face Stereotypes
- Shalini Shankar is an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Asian American Studies at Northwestern University. Her article for Pacific Standard “How Do You Spell Stereotype?” looks at the stereotypes surrounding the last seven winners of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
- She is also the author of Advertising Diversity: Ad Agencies and the Creation of Asian American Consumers.
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National Spelling Bee Champions Face Stereotypes
What Makes a Good Farmer
- Shizue RocheAdachi is a student at Yale University, headed out to Morris, Connecticut to talk to a farmer who’s forgoing the labels and relying on a story, not just adjectives, to win over his customers.
- You can listen to this story again at PRX.org.
Electrosensitive Refugees
- Steve Featherstone is a writer and photographer from upstate New York who made the journey to Green Bank, West Virginia where local skeptics are living alongside refugees from the electromagnetic age. He wrote about it for Popular Science “This West Virginia Town Has Gone Radio Silent.”
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Electrosensitive Refugees
MONIFF
- Laina Barakat is Executive Director of the Monadnock International Film Festival (MONIFF) and joined us to share some of the highlights of this year’s festival.
- MONIFF kicks off today in Keene and runs through this weekend. For more information, please visit their website: moniff.org
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MONIFF
