SKID ROAD

JOSEPHINE ENSIGN

The Skid Road podcast amplifies a diversity of voices about homelessness and displacement in Seattle and in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. The podcast series challenges us to learn from the past, from people with the lived experience of homelessness and displacement, and from people tasked with addressing homelessness in order to make more informed policy and program choices.

Episodes

  1. 03/04/2025

    A Conversation with Lois Thetford, PA

    "What is going on in our society, and what ways can we change what's happening?" Lois Thetford asked this in 1970 when she moved to Seattle and worked on grassroots community organizing--something she continues to do in her 80s. Questions that are as pertinent and urgent today as they were then. I've had the pleasure of working with Lois since 1995 when I met her when I began working at what was then the independent 45th Street Clinic in Seattle. She is a mentor and an inspiration. We can all use positive change agents in our lives and in our communities. Listen to her story and her perspectives and be thankful there are people like her in our country.

  2. 03/23/2025

    A Conversation with Rep Frank Chopp (1953-2025)

    "Where's the greatest need?" Frank Chopp said he constantly asked himself during his lifetime as a health, housing, and social care advocate, first in direct services in Seattle and then as our longest-term Speaker of the House in Olympia. From starting some of Seattle's earliest social housing programs, advocating for Apple Health for Kids, the Apple Health and Homes Initiative, behavioral health initiatives, Home and Hope, the Doorway Project, to new projects he was working on up until his death yesterday, Frank Chopp was a force of good in this world. As Frank said to me in my interview with him in 2022, "It's the right thing to do." I was fortunate to have worked with him on the Doorway Project and the Apple Health and Homes Project. I saw firsthand just how masterful Frank was at working across differences to help make policies and programs that "help the unfortunate," that help build healthy, thriving communities for us all. We need more people, more politicians, more true public servants like him. Frank, you are sorely missed.

  3. 04/13/2025

    Nancy Amidei (1942-2025)

    We've lost another great pillar of wisdom, strength, inspiration, and leadership. Nancy Amidei spent her life as a public servant, teacher, and social worker advocating for food, housing, and public health justice. From 'saving brain cells' through her work helping defeat Reagan's attempt to make ketchup a vegetable in school lunches, through thousands of classes and workshops (and one book) on Advocacy 101, enticing young people to monthly meetings of the Partnership for Youth by bringing bags of chocolate (and bananas), organizing a 'save public health' Seattle group during the Great Recession--the only time I ever heard her tell us that she was pessimistic), to her wildly engaging and instructive 'butter as votes' story--oh how we admire and miss her. I've already written about how and why Nancy motivated me to move across the country in 1994 to live and work in Seattle, a decision I've never regretted. I got to know and work with Nancy for over thirty years. I hope I have absorbed some of her passion, drive, and commitment to doing what's right. I cannot remember why I took this photograph, but it is representative of the good feeling of having Nancy looking over my shoulder. Here is the podcast of my oral history interview with Nancy. We all have work to do... Additional photographs of Nancy Amidei in action.

  4. 05/13/2025

    A Conversation with Mary Pilgrim, RN

    Happy end of National Nurses Week with this year's theme of "The Power of Nurses." Last year, I highlighted some of the nurses I have interviewed for my Skid Road project. Today, I highlight an interview with a stalwart nurse, Mary Pilgrim, who ran Harborview Medical Center's nurse clinic at the main homeless shelter at the Downtown Emergency Service Center in Pioneer Square, Seattle. When I interviewed her a the Jack Straw Cultural Center on July 22, 2015, Mary had been a nurse for 42 years and was nearing retirement. Listen to what she had to say about her work and perspective on homelessness in our city and country.

  5. 06/16/2025

    A Conversation with David Carlbom, MD

    Dr. Carlbom is the Medical Director, Harborview Respiratory Care Department, and Associate Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. One of his mentors was the late Dr. Michael Copass at the Emergency Department, Harborview Medical Center. Dr. Carlbom spoke with me about his medical work. I was struck by the depth of his compassion and insight into not only emergency/intensive care for patients from all walks of life, but also teaching medical residents and paramedics. Please listen to his powerful stories.

  6. 09/30/2025

    A Conversation with Liz Rambus, RN

    Of all the oral history interviews I've done with people over the years, my conversation back in November 2017 with Liz Rambus best highlights what community health nursing can be, what the work can do to make a difference in the lives of people marginalized by poverty and racism. In this interview, Liz talks about her personal path into community health nursing and her work as a community health nurse with the Seattle Indian Health Board. She stayed in that job for many years and became a highly valued member of the health and social care team. (Her community health nursing position is open in case you know good nurses interested in applying.) Liz speaks of the importance of access to basic health care, respite care, permanent supportive housing, harm reduction services, empathy and community-building efforts. "We need a lot more education for people to learn to live together in this community and stop pushing aside the most vulnerable." It's heartbreaking (and infuriating) to me now to re-listen to her interview and what she says about the positive effects of ACA ("Obamacare") in expanding healthcare access for the Indigenous patients she cared for. Washington State was an early adopter of the Medicaid expansion made possible by the ACA. Those gains in healthcare access are being erased by the current Trump administration. Taking away people's access to healthcare (affordability and enhanced program expansion to health-promoting resources like supportive housing) certainly does not make America healthy again. These rollbacks of Medicaid across our country disproportionately affect the most vulnerable people in our society. It also affects working-class families.

  7. May 25

    Lois Thetford, 1945-2026

    Lois Thetford, PA, was one of the first people I met when I moved to Seattle from Baltimore in late 1994. She worked at the 45th Street Clinic, a longstanding community health clinic that she helped start. At the time I met her, she was running their women's clinic, and later on, I worked alongside her as a provider at their homeless youth clinic. And so much more. Homeless services advocacy, faculty preceptor for the student-run University District Street Medicine program, faculty member at the University of Washington's MEDEX Program. Lois was warm, funny, compassionate, and gifted as a teacher and a healthcare provider. A mother, grandmother, quilter, tap dancer. I remember her tap dancing while singing "When I'm Sixty Four" at the end of a youth clinic staff meeting on her sixty-fourth birthday. She died a few days ago and will be sorely missed by her family, friends, former patients, advocates, and community members. Some years back, I interviewed Lois about her amazing work. You can listen to the interview here. And here are photos I have of Lois over the years.

  8. Aug 5

    The Origin Story of My Skid Road History Project

    As I continue with my Skid Road project and podcast, add more Seattle-based oral history interviews, and segue into the history of homelessness and displacement in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia, I want to share this interview recording. Jack Straw Cultural Center's sound engineer, Daniel Guenther, interviewed me about my project on April 10, 2024. Daniel was one of the main sound engineers who assisted me with studio recordings of over sixty individuals between June 2015 and May 2025.

  9. Aug 11

    A Conversation with Tamara Bauman

    I had the pleasure of talking with Tamara Bauman about her work on domestic violence and homelessness, and her advocacy for community-driven solutions. She talks about her lived experience and her insights into how much power struggles, egos, and politics get in the way of meaningful solutions. When I spoke with her in the spring of 2024, she was working at Solid Ground in Seattle. She is currently the founder and director of the Wellbeing Revolution: Leading with Heart and Strategy. Applying her Pasifika cultural values and wellbeing design principles, she consults with nonprofit organizations to assist them with the recalibration work necessary to be more effective in their work. Listen to what she has to say and prepare yourself to be inspired.

  10. 1d ago

    A Conversation with Rev Rick Reynolds

    Here is my Skid Road project interview with Rev Rick Reynolds on March 6, 2017. 'Rev Rick' talks about how he became involved in street ministry and Operation Nightwatch, and what he has learned from his decades of work. One piece of wisdom he shares in this interview, included in my "Listening to Skid Road" 25-minute video (edited by Jill Freidberg in 2018), is this: The housing first model really makes sense, and I think it takes a lot of convincing people who aren't current in the science of it, or haven't thought it through much. Well, even some of the people in recovery that I know sometimes feel as though the Housing First model rewards bad behavior. But I keep thinking there's a lot of folks in housing that still struggle with mental health and addiction disorders. It's a lot easier to deal with when you're inside than when you're sleeping in the jungle or in a sort of tenuous shelter situation." As Housing First continues to be blamed for the increasing number of people experiencing various forms of homelessness in Seattle, it's important to listen to experts like Rev Rick. Also, it's important to remember that Housing First requires ongoing, excellent supportive services, including behavioral health, ideally co-located in the housing. Those services are expensive and too often lose funding or experience high staff and agency turnover. Housing First, done right, works for many people experiencing chronic homelessness. But it is not a panacea, as we are seeing here in Seattle. We still need emergency and longer-term shelter options for people, and much better access to street-based, outpatient, and inpatient behavioral health services.

  • 10 Episodes

About

The Skid Road podcast amplifies a diversity of voices about homelessness and displacement in Seattle and in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. The podcast series challenges us to learn from the past, from people with the lived experience of homelessness and displacement, and from people tasked with addressing homelessness in order to make more informed policy and program choices.

Information

  • Creator
    JOSEPHINE ENSIGN
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2025
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2024 JOSEPHINE ENSIGN
  • Show Website
    SKID ROAD