A Tiny Plot: Trailer

Snap Judgment

Snap Judgment and PRX

Snap, Glynn, Storytelling, Wnyc, Society & Culture/personal Journals, Performing Arts, Washington, Society & Culture/documentary, Arts/performing Arts, Music, Arts

4.8 • 11.2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2025

⏱️ 2 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's barricades vs. bobcats, tents vs. tiny homes and a team of people fighting to stay together. Listen to a radical experiment in freedom that puts an entire city under the microscope…

"A Tiny Plot” is a new series from KQED’s Snap Studios. Producer Shaina Shealy embedded with a group of people in an encampment in Oakland at a park called Union Point. They were ordered to disperse, running out of time, but they were bound together by an extraordinary new idea: their own living space where they can set their own rules. Over five episodes, we learn the story of Mama D, Papa Eddie, President Matt and more. They invite listeners in to witness high-stakes decisions, devastating failures and wild successes.

Episode 1 drops August 21, 2025. Episodes will drop on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Listen right here on Snap Judgment.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In Oakland, California, a group of people living on the streets came together for an idea.
0:09.4	A tiny house community of our own.
0:12.5	I want to see this work.
0:13.4	I want to see this actually work for the city.
0:15.5	And we don't want to go without each other.
0:17.4	It wasn't just an experiment.
0:19.8	It was a lifeline. And this group of people, they were
0:24.2	ready to fight for it. You're not going to only mess with that one person. You're going to mess with
0:30.5	everybody here. From KQED Snap Studios, this is a tiny plot.
0:38.7	I'm Shayna Shealy.
0:46.7	And for the past few years, I've been following this small group of people in an epic battle for their own place on their own terms.
0:53.4	You guys have the privilege and the responsibility to build your own space out, how you want it.
0:56.0	So now's the time to show up. I don't want to be homeless anymore.
0:58.0	An audit in the city of Oakland found that the city is not prepared to deal with the homeless crisis.
1:06.0	So we was holding these shields like, go ahead, try to come through because we're not letting you in.
1:12.0	It's an incredible parcel of land, and the fight over how that land would be used really galvanized this movement.
1:18.7	What if it fails? What if it was made to fail?
1:22.2	What happens when people who've been shut out of a system that's failed them decide to take the lead, to write their own rules.
1:32.6	And when it all starts to fall apart,
1:35.2	who gets to decide what's worth saving?
1:39.0	Man, we did something, we accomplished something.
1:42.3	Now let's see how much further we could go.
	...

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