About the Series
(Re)Search for Solutions is a podcast created by the Media and Social Change Lab (MASCLab) at Teachers College, Columbia University. We use media to amplify research and to center the perspectives of a diverse range of experts – researchers, practitioners, and community members and leaders – in order to interrupt singular and oftentimes narrow discourses of complex social and natural phenomena. Complex problems require that we maintain their complexity in how we imagine, design, and report on solutions. This is true both of the smallest challenges and of the most complicated issues that adversely impact people’s lives - from school selection to climate change, from access to affordable health care to income inequality. In this podcast, we partner with research teams to lift study findings off the flat pages of a journal article and transform them into compelling narratives that can increase engagement by public audiences. “Solutions” refers to the work of research teams who aim to improve social conditions through their research and also to the new questions, creative practices, and applications that research inspires. We hope you listen and get involved.
Season 1
Season 1 of the (Re)Search for Solutions podcast is a limited series focusing specifically on unexpected and creative ways that researchers are looking at solutions to the persistence of gun violence. To develop these stories, we collaborate with the experts (professors, community members, doctors, activists, teachers, and more) to understand the stories surrounding their work.
Listen to Research for Solutions here, or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, or Google Podcasts.
“Every episode I have heard has been rewarding. A rare blend of academic rigor and heart… with neither drowning out the other. The hosts explore topics with intelligence, depth and nuance while never forgetting the real people who are the heartbeat of these issues.”
- Professor Ekow Yankah, Cardozo Law School
"This innovative podcast series is helping to shine a smart, empathetic light on some of society's stickiest problems, including firearm injury. I was honored to get to talk with them about how the everyday tragedies of gun violence hurt every American, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, or geography -- and how we can create a path forward, together.”
- Dr. Megan Ranney, Rhode Island Hospital & Brown University
Trailer Transcript
[Music fades in behind the narration]
Sonali: (Re)Search for Solutions is a podcast where we cover research about pressing issues in our world today. We focus on approaches that are less likely to make the news. The goal of the show is to bring innovative research on these issues and the people involved to your ears in a way that makes research resonate. I’m Sonali Rajan and I’ll be your host.
[Intro music plays at full volume]
[Intro music fades out]
Sonali: This season of (Re)Search for Solutions is a limited series focusing on unexpected and creative ways that researchers are looking at solutions to the persistence of gun violence. As your host and a researcher in this field myself, you’ll hear me sit down with professors, community members, non-profit professionals, doctors, activists, teachers, young people and more. We talk to them about their work, and more importantly, their stories.
[Clips from the series play]
Clip 1
Sonali: (Driving) So, we’re driving by. (Car beeps) We’re in West Philly right now, right?
Keith: Mmmhm.
Sonali: We’re in West Philly. So we’ve just passed a couple of overgrown lots that haven’t been cleaned… [fades out]
Clip 2
Keith Green: You know, not seeing like trees and grass and really like understanding the importance of those things - you know, you tend to take that for granted.
Clip 3
Professor Charlie Branas: I’ll launch that by saying, there’s this old saying that “the federal government has all the money, the states have all the power, and the cities have all the problems.”
Clip 4
Professor Lalitha Vasudevan: So I wondered if, first, you could say a little bit about what ACES refers to, and what your research invites us to consider.
[Narration restarts]
Sonali: To give you a little background about who I am, I’m a professor in the Health and Behavior Studies Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. I also hold a faculty position in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health. Much of my work focuses on gun violence and adverse childhood experiences, but you’ll hear more about that a little later in the series.
Sonali: This limited series started as a way to share more about the research being done in the area of gun violence prevention, to call attention to critical partnerships between researchers and local communities, and to debunk existing myths about this highly polarizing issue. We also wanted to highlight -- in an accessible and interactive way -- what effective solutions to this issue can look like. I was frustrated with the way certain types of research about gun violence that are innovative and exciting don’t always come to the public’s attention--and these are ideas that could save lives. I talked with my friend and TC colleague, Lalitha Vasudevan, who leads the Media and Social Change Lab at Teachers College, and we came up with the idea for a limited podcast series on gun violence research.
Sonali: In addition to the podcast, (Re)Search for Solutions is also a web platform - researchforsolutions.com. The site is full of additional media related to the topics discussed in each of the episodes. These will be anything from news coverage, articles, and TED talks, to episodes of other podcasts, blog posts, and maybe even a playlist here or there. We hope that these resources will allow our listeners to dive deeper into episode topics, using other forms of media to explore the research that we discuss.
Sonali: You’ll be able to listen to episodes of (Re)Search for Solutions on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Google Play. As you listen, you’ll be able to share your thoughts about each of the episodes by using the hashtag #R4S. As the series develops, we’ll be looking to hear from you! Give us some feedback and let us know what you’d like to learn more about. We’re looking forward to an awesome season and we hope you are too.
[Intro music fades in for credits]
[Music plays]
[Music is lowered behind the credits]
Sonali: (Re)Search for Solutions is produced by Azsanee Truss, Joe Riina-Ferrie, Sonali Rajan, and Lalitha Vasudevan. It was edited by Azsanee Truss with the help of the (Re)Search for Solutions team. Our music is “Research Area” by Poitr Pacyna and can be found on shockwave-sound.com. As I mentioned, you can find us online at ResearchforSolutions.com, and you can listen to our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Google Play.
[Music fades out]
The views expressed in this episode are solely those of the speaker to whom they are attributed. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the faculty, administration, staff or Trustees either of Teachers College or of Columbia University.