Stories With A Heartbeat

North Carolina is one of only two states in the US where 16 and 17 years old kids are routinely charged as adults for even the most minor offenses. This policy has serious consequences for the youth i...

Amin Drew Law is a Palestinian-American poet and educator based in Washington D.C. In his poem, "The Secret Weapon of Chubby Boys," Amin taps into a classic schoolyard conflict and provides a hilariou...

Rafeef Ziadah is a Palestinian poet and human rights activist living in London. Her poem, “We Teach Life, Sir,” is powerful and poignant reminder of the human condition in conflict. On this bonus epis...

Graduation speeches tend to be predictable and repetitive. They rarely leave a lasting impression. But a couple months ago, Harvard Graduate School of Education student Donovan Livingston's voice echo...

As athletes from around the world compete for gold in Rio this summer, poets from across the U.S. are facing off in a different kind of competition. It is called a poetry slam. On this episode of Stor...

CJ Suitt is a young black poet living in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. And he has a simple and frightening question, "Would I be shot if I called the police?" CJ uses his poetry to combat stereotypes a...

In a month filled with tragedy, how do we make sense of it all? This week on the podcast, we use a poetic lens to try and find meaning within conflict. July 2016 is Dhaka and Baghdad and Medina and Ba...

School is full of conflict. This week we explore three conflicts in the classroom. Students and teachers use poetry and stories to reflect on moments of friction at school and help us understand why t...

Seven poets from across the US share new works written and posted to Facebook within one day of the recent mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando . These poems are raw, personal, and earnest. In ...

George Yamazawa uses spoken word poetry to address personal conflicts and inner struggles. Yamazawa is a National Poetry Slam Champion and his writing is deeply tied to his Japanese-American heritage....

Poet Mohammad Moussa believes his friend Deah Barakat was murdered in a hate crime; and he refuses to remain silent. Shattered Glass, Mohammad’s multi-media spoken word poetry show is a year of reflec...

Was the Chapel Hill Shooting a parking dispute or a hate crime? In this episode of Stories with a Heartbeat we talk about apologies and personal connections with two people at the heart of this questi...

In episode three, we follow Farris Barakat to Reyhanli, Turkey where he is working to complete his brother's mission and help Syrian refugee kids smile. Subscribe to this Podcast Stories with a Heartb...

In episode two, host Will McInerney talks with reporter Reema Khrais about her personal connections to the Chapel Hill Shootings, and Will travels to the Syrian border to visit a dental clinic named i...

In episode one, host Will McInerney talks with Farris Barakat about the night his brother Deah was killed along with Deah's wife Yusor Abu-Salha and sister-in-law Razan Abu-Salha. All three Muslim-Ame...