What’s Happening In East Palestine? with Emily Wright and Justin Garner of River Valley Organizing

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness

Sony Music

Science, Self-improvement, Comedy, Education, Society & Culture

4.9 • 21.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2023

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When a train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, just over a month ago, the team at River Valley Organizing sprang into action. River Valley Organizing is a multi-racial, multicultural working class organization that radically builds community throughout the Ohio River Valley—and they’ve been calling attention to the possibility of a train derailment like this for years. Since this catastrophic incident, they’ve been advocating for residents’ health and safety, holding political and business leaders accountable, and getting the word out about what’s going on in Ohio. Today, we’re releasing a conversation Jonathan recorded on Instagram Live with Emily Wright and Justin Garner from River Valley Organizing. Listen in to learn more about this environmental and public health disaster, and what the future could look like for residents of Columbiana County. This is still a fast-developing situation, so make sure to follow River Valley Organizing for the latest. They’re on Instagram @rivervalleyorganizing, Twitter @RiverValleyOrg, and Facebook @rivervalleyorganizing. Their website is rivervalleyorganizing.com. Emily Wright is the Development Director for River Valley Organizing. Justin Garner is the Communications Director and LGBTQIA+ Rep for River Valley Organizing. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation. Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook. Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com. Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our associate producer is Zahra Crim. Our editor is Andrew Carson. Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Getting Curious, I'm Jonathan Bannes. Today we're releasing a bonus episode about
0:04.8	the Trainder Realment in East Palestine, Ohio just over a month ago. We know from guests like
0:10.2	Aaron Brockovich that a community is only as healthy as the air, they breathe, and the water they
0:15.5	drink. If you have not seen that movie honey, get your life together. When this train
0:20.0	derailed and exposed Ohio residents, their pets and local wildlife to hazardous materials,
0:26.1	and they've been feeling the health impacts ever since. Last week on Instagram live, I had the
0:30.7	opportunity to speak to two community advocates from River Valley organizing about what's happening
0:36.1	on the ground in Ohio. These two guests, Emily Wright and Justin Garner, live in the immediately
0:41.7	surrounding communities and have been directly impacted as a result of this Trainder Realment.
0:47.2	This conversation was so impactful that we wanted to release a modified version of it
0:51.2	for our podcast feed as a bonus episode. The audio quality is not the best we've ever done, so just
0:57.6	bear with us on that. Mine is not as good as theirs is specifically, but I really was so moved by
1:04.0	the information and I thought the information was so impactful from the people who got to listen to
1:08.5	it on Instagram live that we should release it here. Without further ado, here is our conversation
1:14.0	with Emily Wright and Justin Garner from River Valley organizing where I asked them, what's happening
1:19.2	in East Palestine? We are trying again. We are trying again. Trying again.
1:29.7	Oh, it's like in the words of iconic Alia, I've at first you don't succeed, dust yourself off
1:33.9	and try again. Hi everyone. Hi, hi, let's pick it up where we left off. Oh, Ohio. Okay. Oh,
1:41.6	Ohio. Emily, take it away. What is going on? So about actually a month ago yesterday on February 3rd
1:49.6	and part of my voice, we've all had symptoms since this and the talking so much so it may sound a
1:55.8	little rough. I apologize or I live just you know, I don't live in East Palestine. I live one
2:00.1	community over them about six miles from the Durralman site. We had a large train to rail on Friday night
	...

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