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- This journey really started
back in 2011.

We'd been living in China
for about five years

traveling and reporting
for "The Atlantic" magazine.

When we came back to the U.S.,

we wanted to look at
our own country the same way.

- We're coming back
at the end of the recession.

America was still trying
to find its balance,

trying to find its way back.

We decided to go out
and see what was going on

in small-town
or even big-town America.

- We were looking for towns

that had some kind of story
to tell.

Something had happened
to them,

often involving
some economic shock.

- Jim put a posting
on his blog...

- Saying, "Tell us the story
of your town."

Within a week,
we got a thousand essays,

people saying...

- Not just, "Come to my town,"

but, "Here's the story
of my town.

"Here's the passion
of my town.

Here's why you have to come
and visit my town."

- "Here is why
the story of my town

is the American story
of this era."

- We thought there must be
something going on in America

that so many people wanted
to talk about their hometowns.

We had a little plane

that we'd been flying
for about 20 years

and thought, "This would be
a great way to go to places

where you can only get to
easily in a small plane."

We decided to do what
we had always done in China.

Go out, get connected
with not what you'd find

in the national media,
but what we would find

in the daily lives of people
in these towns.

- We went to these places
before the pandemic,

but what we saw
about how towns rise and fall

and fight to recover has a lot
to say to our world right now

as we try to create
a new future for ourselves.

- When people ask me
where I'm from,

I always say
I'm from California.

They say, "Well, where?"
and I say, "Near Los Angeles."

They say, "Well, where?"

I say, "Well,
from the Inland Empire."

And that will stop 'em
because the Inland Empire

is a place
that people don't know.

Start driving inland
from Los Angeles

towards Palm Springs.

You get to the area where

it's much flatter,
it's much hotter.

It's sort of just the fringe
of the Mojave Desert.

People in Los Angeles
or San Francisco would think

that's where the hicks
of California live

and just zoom on through

when they see what looks like
some sun-blasted hellscape.

I think being from here has
really shaped my self-image

as a sense of being
from a place

most people have either
never heard of

or if they have heard of it,
they often look down on it.

I knew growing up how proud
people in our town were

of a place
everybody else thought of

just as drive-through country
or flyover country.

As Deb and I have gone
to other parts of the country,

I feel as if, "Yeah,
I know what it's like

"here in South Dakota.

I know what it's like
here in West Virginia"--

the same pride and awareness
of how you're seen.

My own hometown is Redlands,

which is near Riverside,
which is growing,

and San Bernardino, which used
to be the economic powerhouse

of the Inland Empire.

But San Bernardino
was brought down

by a long string of problems
and seriously bad luck.

How many cities

have had an interstate highway
literally move away from them?

- When Jim was growing up,

this was
Norton Air Force Base.

At its peak,
Norton supported 12,000 jobs

and poured a couple
of billion dollars

into the surrounding towns.

The base closed in '94.

Now it's home
to a scrapyard for old planes

that will never fly again.

After all its losses,

San Bernardino
declared bankruptcy in 2012.

- I've spent most of my life
in San Bernardino.

This place was thriving
when the base was open.

When the base closed down,

it put us
in an economic chokehold.

San Bernardino
gets a black eye

because, you know, we had
the terrorist shootings.

There's a lot
of gang activity.

So this is the neighborhood
that we live in.

- This is
Project Fighting Chance.

We have
five national champions,

a junior Olympic
gold medalist.

We're a safe haven.
We feed the kids.

We have a chess club.
We have a art program.

- Can I get a light blue?

- We have our Guitars Not Guns
program.

- I knew there was a catch.

- There's always a catch, buddy.

- They think, "Oh,
this is just a boxing gym."

But that's far from the truth.

We are trying to be a part

of fixing what needs
to be fixed around here.

- A lot
of America's citrus fruits

come from the Inland Empire.

The groves and packing houses

have relied
on immigrant workers

and been a source of jobs
for them.

- When I grew up in Mexico,
we barely could afford shoes.

My dad picked the family up,
we traveled to California.

I've been in the
citrus business for 45 years.

I started when
I was 15 years old.

Now I am the manager
at Redlands Foothill Groves

and probably
the biggest grower.

The people that work here,
99% are immigrant people.

They do go back to Mexico,
like, mainly for Christmas.

But we have employees
that have been with us

over 30 years, and
that's really hard to find.

I've seen a big change
in the last two, three years.

We used to have people
waiting in line

to go and pick in the field.

Right now if I need
two people by tomorrow,

I'll be lucky to get one
if I do.

The lack of labor
is forcing us a lot

to look
for automatic machines.

I know of one packing house,

they run almost
with no people now--

all automatic.

- A huge amount of the stuff
we all buy

is made in Asia,
shipped through LA,

then brought
to the Inland Empire

for distribution
to the rest of the country.

Land here is flat and cheap--
perfect for warehouses.

For San Bernardino
to get back on its feet,

new jobs
for warehouse workers,

delivery people,
and truckers are critical.

But those jobs are also

the ones most at risk
for being automated.

- We're expecting
that the future of automation

will attack specifically
those jobs.

Think about
self-driving trucks...

the levels of automation
in the warehouses,

office, sales jobs,
restaurants--

income inequality will worsen.

So, if we don't manage to get
an area like San Bernardino

back on its feet,
it will be really troublesome,

because then all
the other areas

will also get into
economic hardship.

And just think
about what will happen

if places like Minnesota
or Michigan in the winter

see large levels
of unemployment

and possibly
forced homelessness

for economic reasons.

They're not going to stay
in Michigan in January.

They will come south
into the sun.

- We've seen homelessness

everywhere we've been
in the U.S.

It's especially bad
in California.

Volunteers in San Bernardino
take part in an annual census

to count people
experiencing homelessness.

It's a national program called
in the Point-in-Time Count.

- Good morning.
all: Good morning.

Everybody nice and warm?
Ready to hit the streets here?

I cannot thank you enough
for what you're doing

so we can help those people
that are out there.

Without you counting them,

showing us where they are,
who they are,

we can't get the resources
to them to help them.

- Hello.
Good morning.

- Good morning, sir.
- Good morning, sir.

- Be extremely careful.
You're waking somebody up.

Maybe you're walking
into a camp.

Just like somebody walking
into your living room,

that's their little,
sacred area.

- Would you mind taking
a survey with us?

- Sure.

- We have a film crew
from HBO here.

Would you mind getting filmed?
- No.

And how old are you?

- 63.
- Okay.

Did you sleep outdoors
last night?

- Of course.

I've been homeless 25 years.
- Wow.

- I can't be indoors.
I don't know how to be indoors.

- Do you have any income?

- Retirement.
- Disability? Oh, retirement?

How much per month
would you say?

- 300.

- I'm 60 years old.
August 21, 1958.

- Oh, okay.
Hispanic or Latina?

- Azteca Mexicana,
Cherokee Indian,

San Bernardino.

- Native American. Okay.

Do you have a spouse or partner
who is also homeless

and living with you?

- No.
- No?

- I'm by myself.
- Mm.

Have you tested positive
for HIV?

- No.

- Are you experiencing
homelessness

because you're fleeing
domestic violence?

- No.
My mother died.

- A new application
that we're using

is the ArcGIS 123
created by Esri.

We are able to send live data
right there and then.

- And that data is broadcast
up to a cloud,

aggregated
so we can see patterns

and relationships
of homelessness on a map

and on a dashboard.

These inform government leaders
about the severity

of what's going on
in the field.

And the dots on maps
can be "inquiried."

- Social services receive
that information right away

so they are able to able
to reach out to these clients.

- So we had someone
that was homeless for 40 years

that we helped.

And it took them a long time,

but they're living
in an apartment.

- It takes a while, yeah.

But, you know, like,
I can't afford no place.

- No, but we have
affordable housing.

Is that something
that you would be open to?

- At $300 a month?
- It's only 30% of your income.

- Thank you very much
for your time.

- Thank you.
Thank you for your time.

- Here is a little goodie bag
for you.

- Thank you, ladies. Thank you.
- Thank you for your time.

- We're gonna leave this bag
with you, okay?

Well, my name's Maria.
- Okay.

Just a homeless guy.

- Through American history,

the idea
of getting off the farm,

getting out
of the little village,

going to the big city,
testing yourself,

has been one
of the big themes.

There's a reason why everybody
has heard about New York.

If you can make it there,

you can make it anywhere,
et cetera.

It's slipped
from public awareness

how many people in America

feel as if they could be
performing anyplace,

but they place
they really want to perform

is either where
they started out

or some other place they feel
is their responsibility.

And they want
to be there not just because

it has great restaurants
or great street life,

but because they can
help create

great street life there.

In this town of Redlands,
where I started out,

a lot of the virtues
of the way it is now

is because people
who could've been anyplace

made that decision.

- It's not a passive activity
to be a part of a community.

One of the things about
Redlands I fell in love with

is how people engage.

- Clint Brown works at Esri,

which makes the app used
in the homeless count.

Esri is
a computer mapping company

that adds a billion dollars
a year to the local economy.

- Why is this company here
and not in Seattle

or San Francisco or Boston

or Brooklyn?

- Oh, simple answer.

We came from Redlands.

We find it's a much better
place to live--

smaller towns.

much more affordable
for our employees,

can actually afford a home,

a much richer culture, and
a pace of life which is human.

- When the French writer
Tocqueville toured America

200 years ago,
what amazed him most

was that everyone seemed
to be involved in everything.

I'm struck by that same thing
in my town of Redlands.

I took it for granted
when I was growing up.

I did all these sorts
of things.

I had jobs as a newspaper boy,

newspaper sports editor,
orange picker, mailman.

- I'm from a Czech
immigrant family.

I've always had a dream

about going out
to see the rest of the world.

It's not an unusual dream

for people who grow up
in the Midwest

like I did
in Vermillion, Ohio.

First, you say Midwest
is a great place to grow up.

On the other hand,
you really also knew

that you needed to get out
and see the world.

First visit to California
to see Jim's family,

which was intimidating,

Redlands itself was everything

that I imagined California
would be and then some.

- It's hard to explain what
Circus is in this community.

I mean, you come to Redlands,

and Redlands is known
as a circus town.

You're driving around,
and on the side of the road,

there's a kid riding
a unicycle.

Circus is really important
to this community,

because first of all,
it's a second family.

You get in here, you meet
all these different people.

- So how many kids have
you got in the program?

- Right now
we are pushing 500.

Um...

- Yes.

- I need everybody.
Let's do it again!

- We like to use Circus
as social work.

We've gotten more people in,
more ages, more families.

We're truly
a community circus.

We're here
to support each other

and literally
lift each other up.

- When I was a kid
in the '60s,

Riverside, the city just down
the road from Redlands,

wasn't the happening place
it is today.

Riverside was just trying
to hold on as a citrus town

and was fading
as a resort town.

- We've made an emphasis
on investing in downtown.

The Mission Inn,
the Fox Theater.

There was public money

that was put into that.

I think it was close

to $100 million.

Now seeing apartments,
restaurants,

retail coming back
to downtown.

- Riverside is making itself

into a place people want
to live.

A few miles away,

San Bernardino is trying
to do the same thing.

You have to start
with young people.

They need to feel
their hometown

will give them a chance.

- When you typically think
of a high-poverty community,

you sometimes don't think
of high levels of success.

Bridging college and career is
what this school is known for.

- Kayley's proposing

obsessive-compulsive
personality disorder.

- They have, like, unwanted
thoughts that cause stress...

- Cajon High School's
graduation rates

were among the lowest
in the state.

Now they're over 90%.

They have
over 50 career pathways,

like advanced robotics
and animatronics.

- And we know that the medical
field is always in need,

so we have a very strong
medical assistance program.

- Ready?
Go.

One, two, three, four...

- The students
in dark-blue scrubs

love to teach what they know.

They're proud of the skills
that they've learned.

- We're gonna start here.

- They can definitely
start working

right out of high school
if they choose to.

A lot of them who have gone
into the military,

now registered nurses.

A lot of them will go
to college.

And I know as soon as they go
on their internships,

all the lights
are gonna go on,

and they're gonna really find

that perfect position
for them,

what they really want to do.

- Tonight
the prosecution is confident

that we will prove
beyond a reasonable doubt

that the defendant is guilty,
Your Honor.

- Over 40 years ago,

San Bernardino was named
an All-America City.

- I will be portraying
Sam Colostian.

- Publish...

- They were recognized
for innovation

and their strong sense
of community.

- I'll be representing
the people

of the state of California.

- Cajon High School
gives you hope

for San Bernardino's future.

- Most people's lives follow
the same basic arc.

You're born, you grow up,
grow old,

and, finally, you die.

Some towns can have
a similar fate.

A town left behind
by economic change

may just die off.

But sometimes a town
whose life was in the past

becomes reborn.

My view of American history

is the country's always been
in trouble,

and the story of any given
moment in American history

is how the in-trouble quotient
is balancing out

with the responding-
to-trouble-quotient.

I'm always asking people,

"In the long graph
of this city's history,

"of your history, where are we?

Is it an upslope
or a downslope?"

- I think we look at things
really differently.

Jim is the historian.

I'm listening on the sidewalk

of what's going on
at this moment.

I find that the best parts
of getting a sense of the town

are in the public spaces.

The kind of small bits,

how people relate
to each other,

to me, are really important.

- Five years ago,
a little more than that,

I put an item
on "The Atlantic" site,

saying, "Tell us the story
of your town

and why we should go there."

And the qualifications were,

first, that it should be
a small-er place,

in the sense that the media
only went there

when there was a problem.

You know,
when there was a shooting,

when there was
a public-health problem.

But there wasn't the sort
of three-dimensional portrayal

of it as a real place.

When we showed up
in these towns

over the last five years,

they had no idea
we were coming.

They weren't putting on

some big chamber of commerce
presentation.

We just showed up and said,

"We'd like to know the story
of your town."

And so we were catching people
sort of unawares.

- Another thing about getting
a sense of the town--

this comes from our living
in Japan, actually.

There are two words in
Japanese, tatemae and honne.

And tatemae is when

people say what they think
that you want to hear

in a very nice way.

And then there's the honne,
which is what they really mean.

Going into any place
that you don't understand,

the tatemae comes first,

but then people
can't help themselves.

You finally get what
the honne is after a while.

- Every 99 minutes,
a satellite scans the Earth...

gathering imagery and data
about the planet.

Those pictures are beamed down
to EROS,

a government facility outside
of Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

EROS holds
the world's largest collection

of images
of the Earth's surface.

- Two miles south,

Raven Industries is also
gathering data from above.

Raven makes balloons
for everything

from the military
to Macy's parade.

- Three, two, one, release.

- You wouldn't think
in a farming community,

they would have
high technology and aerospace.

It's a really key aspect

of why it's great
to live here.

Whenever we bring people
to Sioux Falls,

we bring 'em downtown,
and they really are surprised

to see that here in
a small town in South Dakota

that there's really so much
going on.

There's a lot of life,
a lot of activities.

- It's got the best
of both worlds.

Small enough
you don't have traffic,

you don't have a commute
to worry about.

It's big enough
that got a symphony,

we got plays coming through.

- There are opportunities
for jobs.

You got great bars
and restaurants.

Since six years ago,
we went from one brewery--

we're now gonna have 14
by the end of the year.

- People want to be downtown.

They want to live down here,
they want to shop down here.

And it wasn't that way
even ten years ago.

- In the 1980s, Sioux Falls
had a wave of growth

when South Dakota changed
its laws on credit cards.

Suddenly, by moving their
headquarters to South Dakota,

banks could charge customers
much higher interest rates,

which meant big profits

from people who don't pay off
their credit card each month.

Companies like Citibank
and Wells Fargo moved here,

creating thousands of jobs.

In Sioux Falls,
right by the iconic falls,

is the meatpacking plant,

where around 18,000 hogs a day
are slaughtered.

When the pandemic hit,
this was a COVID hotspot.

The jobs are
physically demanding

and are often done
by immigrants

with limited English.

- Sioux Falls
has long relied on refugees

and immigrants as workers.

Lutheran Social Services

is the agency
that helps settle them.

- We're kind of
the one-stop shop

for all services for refugees
in South Dakota.

We provide welcome on arrival,

but we also do housing
and job placement

and English language classes
and citizenship.

- Technology--

that was a new word
last week maybe.

Technology.

- Tablet.
- Tablet.

- Uh-huh.
- Cell phone.

- Okay, tablet, cell phone,
smartphone.

What else?

- Keyboard.
- Keyboard.

- The majority
of our full-time staff,

they're former refugees
themselves.

- I'm a medical specialist.

I help take clients

to their doctors' appointment

upon their arrival.

- I came as a refugee.

Lived here five years
and then became a citizen.

My "childrens" are citizen.

I'm very happy to live
in Sioux Falls

because this is a very
nice place to raise family.

- As you drive around,

you'll see great diversity
in our small businesses.

People that move in
to this community

that start barbershops
or hair salons,

grocery stores, restaurants.

- I'm a refugee, I'm a Black,

I'm originally from Somalia,
and I'm also Muslim,

so which means I'm
a combination of four elements.

I'm not a threat.

- My gosh,
think of what they've overcome,

especially refugees,
to get here.

I don't know what we would be

if we didn't have refugees
and immigrants in our country.

- I wouldn't be here, for one.

- 99% of the people living
in America

are either immigrants
or refugees.

The reason why America
is a great country now--

it's because of people like me
and you and everyone.

- When I say Sioux Falls,
South Dakota,

people think
of Mount Rushmore.

We are on the map
because of public art,

because somebody carved
these four faces

into the side of a mountain.

- Most of my art comes from
just observation of nature

and the "Arc of Dreams"
is a good example of that.

In terms of the narrative
of the "Arc of Dreams,"

the idea is that
we have dreams

that originate somewhere
in our consciousness

and we can take 'em a certain
distance, but at some point,

we have to trust ourselves
and the future.

The synapse
between the two arcs

represents that leap of faith.

- Public art--it's
a significant component here

in terms
of the quality of life,

why people stay
and don't move away.

And if they do move away
at a young age,

they almost always come back

because of the quality
of life.

- Good evening.
I'm Angela Kennecke.

Tonight...

- Angela Kennecke
is a well-known reporter

in our market.

Her daughter died
from a fentanyl overdose

a little over
a year and a half ago now.

And her daughter was actually
our family's nanny

for a couple years, and she was
a very special gal to us.

And that really hit us hard
when that happened.

- Nobody thinks this is going
to happen to them.

I knew there was a problem
with my daughter.

I didn't know
she was using heroin.

She didn't want me to know
what she was doing

because she was ashamed of it.

Emily was just a brilliant kid.

She was a gifted artist.

- By sharing our story,
you know,

we can help some people out.

- If fentanyl hadn't been
in my daughter's heroin,

she would still be alive.

- Angela, using her platform
as a reporter,

has really done a good job

of trying to create
an awareness in our community

of what the opioid challenges

that we face
in Sioux Falls are.

I think we're very good
at hiding those things

and not talking
about the problems.

- We need to replace judgment
with compassion,

and we need to replace
punishment with treatment.

- Angela's sharing
what she went through

with her daughter,

talking
about the opioid epidemic

in the context of an illness.

I think it's had a tremendous
impact far beyond Sioux Falls,

probably far beyond
South Dakota.

- South Dakota's
biggest industry

has always been agriculture...

but it's done by fewer
and fewer farmers.

So the little towns
that support farm families

often wither.

- My dad has a number
of little quips.

One of his sayings is,

"Farming is a great way
of life

as long as you don't have
to make a living at it."

I've wanted to farm
my whole life.

That's all I ever wanted
to do.

My dad told me and had
the foresight to know

that our farm is fairly close
to Sioux Falls

and may or may not be here
in the future.

It will likely be developed
at some point in time.

He said I had to get
a real job.

- Karl Oehlke's real job
when he's not farming

is as a physician's assistant
at a Avera Health.

Knowing the stress farmers
are constantly under,

whether from flooded fields
or low commodity prices,

Karl helped create
the Farmer's Stress Hotline.

- It's 24 hours a day.
It's confidential.

Talking to me on the phone,

I can empathize with them
and explain to them,

"Yeah, I know exactly
what you're going through."

The biggest thing
we're dealing with right now--

fear, anxiety.

"I'm working extremely hard,

"yet I have nothing to show
for it.

How can I keep my kids
in shoes?"

Trying to prevent suicide,

is, of course,
our biggest concern.

Prototypical farmer was always
the stereotype of a very stoic,

hardened person, you know?

And to let their guard down

is not something
that they're used to doing.

I've heard so many farmers
say to me

even by the end
of the interview

and maybe I haven't even
offered them a medication,

they just felt better talking.

It's just like this sense
of calm comes over them.

- Our history is shaped
by migration and conflict.

In the 19th century,
European immigrants moved west

into the homelands
of the Dakota Sioux

in the central U.S.
and Canada.

After a series
of broken treaties,

wars, and public hangings,

the Dakota were driven out
by the U.S. government

and scattered
to small reservations.

The Flandreau Santee Sioux

settled on land
near Sioux Falls.

- Where we're located here
in Flandreau,

we were two to three hours

from all other
Dakota communities,

so we all stay in touch.

- Anywhere we go,
we're Dakota.

Don't matter if we're in DC
or we're in China

or we're here in the homelands.

We'll be Dakota.

- How many here?
300 and some here on rez?

- Yeah.
Close to it, yeah.

- And total, 500, 600?
- About 600, 700.

- There was a thing called
Indian Court of Offenses

back in the day.

We weren't even allowed
to gather like this.

"Kill the Indian,
save the man."

The boarding-school era.

Started cutting our hair,
putting us in little suits,

putting us in boarding schools.

To speak to culture,
the language,

you were punished.

And then the freedom
of religion was, like, in 1978.

That's not that long ago.

So his grandpa, my dad,

they were both fluent speakers,
but...

sometimes it was hard
for them to speak

just because of that era.

- My older relatives,
grandparents and whatnot,

they were forced off the
reservation to find employment,

to make better lives,
if you will,

in the eyes of
the United States government.

- Growing up in Minneapolis,

we just knew we were Indian.

We knew that we went
to the little Indian programs,

and that was about it.

I had no idea of the history
that I was born in

from the land.

- The Royal River Casino
opened in 1990.

The tribe runs it.

At that time,
we were the only show in town.

- Awesome.
- All right.

- The casino itself
is a huge economic engine,

not only for Flandreau,
but the surrounding areas.

The impact,
it multiplies everywhere else.

- Brought a lot
of the economy back,

and it brought a lot
of people back, too.

- Come on, come on.

- And it provides
for social programs,

everything
that the tribe needs--

government services.

You can say it helped
springboard us

into the revitalization
of the language program.

- How many people speak Dakota?

- Well, I can speak
for just this community.

Maybe three.

The tribe here made the effort

to push for
a language-immersion class.

Who are we
if we don't have our language?

- Powwows--it's not just
for one tribe.

It's many tribes.

We may not all speak
the same language,

but we all come together.

I'm Santee Dakota.
Ho-Chunk and Meskwaki.

As Native Americans,

I think it's real important
to have that cultural identity

for dancing and beadwork
and crafts and leatherwork.

I tell my kids, I said,
"You guys have to learn this,

because when I'm gone,
there's not gonna be anybody."

A lot of Natives have never
been exposed to culture,

you know, like this.

And if we can get more people

to be courageous
and get out there

in the center
and dance with us...

Just listen to the music,

and you'll get the rhythm
and you'll go.

- Last night at the Wacipi,
there's a little girl,

and she looked at me,
and she said...

That was saying hello.

And then all the other little
girls around them

were saying... .
"Hello, hello."

It gets emotional to just hear
them speak their language.

- It's saving our life.
It's saving our kids.

It's giving a chance,
a future...

for us to continue.

- The dark chapters
in American history

are still unfolding
in life today.

In our travels, we've been
struck by how differently

different communities
approach their past...

And which parts of it they
embrace and which they avoid.

Columbus, Mississippi, is
on the geological Black Belt,

a band of fertile soil
dating back millions of years.

The soil made it a good place
for plantations.

In Columbus, antebellum
mansions are reminders

of life
during the Confederacy.

The markers in
Friendship Cemetery are, too.

After slavery ended,

Jim Crow laws
and civil rights abuses

into the 20th century
and beyond

are things to be reckoned with
across the country.

Sandfield is Columbus'
historic Black cemetery.

- Today we are so elated
to stand here and tell you

that we have a marker
for Sandfield Cemetery.

Established before
the Civil War,

among people buried here
are Robert Gleed,

a former slave who served
in the state senate.

Reflect back, lest we forget
our history and our heritage.

all:

- We're here today because
on the 8th of May in 1865,

Union troops arrived
in Columbus.

That is effectively
when enslavement ended.

- Chuck Yarborough teaches

at the Mississippi School
for Mathematics & Science.

It's a public high school,
and every year

they explore the town's
history at the public library.

- He says in the diary,

Dr. Wilson received
a threatening letter

to the school today.

- "If you don't leave,
we will hang you."

- We gonna get the rope

and then we're gonna hang you
with the rope.

- Yeah.
- Like...

- There's some specificity
to that

that's even more
ominous feeling, right? Okay.

- So the first thing
that you'll notice that--

- In the archives,

students learn about life
in Columbus 150 years ago.

- But even right here,

you can find
"one Negro woman named Milly."

- Finding the Milly
that was associated

with this court case
is a whole nother thing.

- Then they write scripts
to perform in the cemetery

on Emancipation Day.

- Good afternoon,
good people of Columbus,

although my experience ought
to have taught me

that the people of Columbus
aren't always so good.

- The next document
we're going to look at--

page one and two
of the newspapers.

It says,
"Columbus, Mississippi,

November 3, 1875."

- "Under these instructions,

"a number of Negroes
were arrested

"and turned over
to the proper police officers.

"I regret to state
that the following Negroes

were shot and killed."

- And as we move
through downtown,

a mob led
by Jacob Hunter Sharp

attacked us.

They shot into our group,

killing four innocent Black men
and wounding three others.

- Makes them way more brave
in my eyes

because, like,
they're actively, like,

threatening to kill them

and telling them
how they're gonna do it.

- The ex-Confederates didn't
stop with the rumor, though.

We received a letter
threatening death

if we continued to educate
the freed people.

- I think this actually shows

that the people
who threatened them

understood the importance
of education

and how it could
be problematic

if people knew
how to read and how to write.

Taking away the education

keeps the community
in a submissive position,

and they would do that
by any means necessary.

- I feel like my story

is just the ultimate
American success story.

I am the son of a man
and a woman who were enslaved.

But my father bought his
freedom before the Civil War.

- Some of you
mistakenly believe

that only men helped establish
this community,

but let me let y'all in
on a little secret.

Behind every strong man,

there is an equally
if not stronger woman.

- I'm Mississippi State Senator
Robert Gleed,

a notable business owner
and political leader

in Columbus and Lowndes County.

Now, I used to tell
my children,

"We all stand on the shoulders
of someone who came before us."

We had our setbacks
as a country

and as a people in our day,

but it's clear
that progress has been made.

And I like to think
that you folks can reach higher

even when times are tough,

'cause those many years ago,

I offered my shoulders
for you to stand on,

and I hope you'll do the same
for those that follow you.

- When I moved here
from New York,

I experienced a little racism.

You know,
I was managing this hotel,

and some guests
did not understand

that I was the manager,
that it wasn't anyone above me.

But as the town began to grow

and I began to meet
more people,

there's more of an acceptance
of African American people

getting
in leadership position,

management position.

It takes some getting used to,
and it's not all of the South.

The younger generation is
very accepting of diversity.

They are making that change.

The past is the past,

and Mississippi is striving
for change.

- Factories around Columbus
used to make things

like blue jeans, hot dogs,
pork chops, and toilet seats.

Those industries disappeared,
leaving 20% unemployment

in the poorest state
in the country.

Getting out of that kind
of depression

doesn't just happen.

It takes community action.

The region around Columbus

started a development agency
called LINK

that's brought in lots
of high-tech manufacturers.

- If it can be done here,
it can be done anywhere.

- Convincing companies
to move here

is the job of Joe Max Higgins
and Brenda Latham.

- And we've built
a new industrial park

and are in the process

of doing a new industrial park
in Starkville.

- We found a niche
in advanced manufacturing.

We acquire property.
We install infrastructure.

We locate companies.

And if it all works out well,

we get that company in, and
we get 'em going and running.

Then we go and we do
another one and another one.

But first thing we got to do
a lot of times

is just put aside issues
or concerns or beliefs

that may not be true.

You know, people tell us
we're last in everything good.

- Well, I mean,
that's the rap we have,

whether it's true or not--
we're last in everything good.

- Mississippi was
the last state to still have

the Confederate stars and bars
on its state flag.

- Columbus has a foot
in antebellum

and a foot in the future.

Some days
they almost feel confused.

And when I got here, I said,

"Before I take this job,
answer a question for me.

"Are you a community

that values your past
more than your future?"

They said, "Oh, no."

Now, look,
I understand heritage,

and I understand culture,

but if you may offend somebody
that might want to invest here

and create jobs here,
why would you do that?

- It's a real shock when
traditional jobs disappear...

- The future will be working
alongside the robots.

- And the new ones call
for skills

that local people don't have.

As we've seen
around the country,

community colleges
are incredibly important

in preparing students
for new jobs

and, in the bigger picture,
fighting inequality.

This is the Communiversity
near Columbus, Mississippi.

- This is highly technical.

It is not the old shop.

The old vocational school
was sometimes

a penalty a person paid.

- Press at every station.

- We are second chances

for people to get
that high-school equivalency,

to get a job.

Many individuals
in our community

are one flat tire away
from losing their job

or not finishing
their education.

We help bring partners
to removing those barriers.

We lift up the community
as a whole.

- That's the best description
of community college

and what you do
that I've heard anywhere.

- If it can happen here

in the poorest of all states,

then surely the positive things

are replicable elsewhere.

- You go into this business

because you love
this business,

because it is
the most interesting way

you can possibly spend
your life.

An unexpected truth about
most people who are reporters,

including me,

almost all
professional reporters

are psychologically introverts
and shy.

And so you are looking
for a structural excuse

to go out in the world,
meet people,

and ask them about things.

If I'm just on the street,
I'm not gonna talk to anybody.

But if I'm on the street
as a reporter,

I'm gonna talk to everybody.

I have a license to say,
"Tell me your story.

Tell me your hopes.
Tell me what I don't know."

There's this secret power
that being a journalist gives

to almost everybody I know
in this business.

- At the far eastern tip
of the United States

is the tiny town
of Eastport, Maine.

- When we very first came here
in 2013, I did an article.

Its headline was,
"The Little Town That Might."

The conclusion was,
"Will Eastport make it?

I don't know."

Eastport has the deepest port
on the East Coast.

On the other hand,
it's so far away.

- There are just
not many people--

1,300 people

in a town that used to have
about 10,000

in its heyday
of sardine fishing.

The town has had
so many surprising disasters

come their way.

Everything on Main Street
burned down in 1887

or just before,
and they had to rebuild

the entire main street
of the town,

which they have
in a beautiful fashion.

- That was a sardine place.

That was the last one in this
area, wasn't it, Dickie?

- It was '83
I started working there.

And I got laid off
'cause there was no fish,

so I went blueberry raking.

Happiest phone call I ever got.
Said, "We got fish."

I said, "I'll be back."

Man, that clam digging.
Nope.

- You have to love
living here.

If you don't love living here,

you wouldn't put the work in
that it requires.

People are doing one, two,
three different things.

I'm the executive director
of the Port Authority.

I'm also a reserve police
officer here in town.

I'm the chairman
of the county commissioners.

I coach soccer
at a local high school.

And--oh, and my wife and I,

we flip real estate on the side
in our spare time.

That's the commitment that
you have to put in to be here.

It is a different type
of person.

"Resourceful" is probably

the best word
that I can come up with.

- I'd say there's
kind of two Eastports.

Right now we're
in the colored Eastport.

It's summertime, and there's
a lot of people around.

There's things
constantly happening.

And then there's sepia-toned
Eastport in the wintertime,

where everything
kind of calms down.

A lot of the colors go away,

but it's also a cleanse
spiritually and for your mind.

I'm 17, I'm a senior
at Shead High School,

and I also take
online college classes

with the UMaine system.

And I'll going on to either go
to Maine Maritime

for marine transportations
and operations,

or I'll be headed off
to a trade school.

I moved to Eastport
seven, eight years ago

with my parents
from the Jersey Shore.

I've kind of seen
how city life is.

I much prefer this.

It's summertime right now.
Primarily, I'm a lobsterman.

Spend most of my day in this
fishing aspect of Eastport,

which is one life,

but then I'll go home,
and I'll shower,

and I go out to the arts center
to a gallery opening

or a gig
or a classical concert.

With climate change and all,

I'm not really expecting
to fish

for more than 15 years
lobstering.

I think it's gonna move north.

I think we're gonna have
more opportunities

for the oysters and mussels,

and I'd like to take my
lobstering money and put that

into a sustainable
aquaculture business,

employing a lot
of local people,

but I think lobstering's gonna
go away.

- In 2003, a group called
The Women of the Commons

renovated a run-down building
down the waterfront,

making a shop and gallery
space for local artists.

- 2003, there were a lot
of boarded-up buildings.

They were a new kind of energy
for the downtown.

Okay, just checking.
- Good, yep.

- Some of them are from here,
some of them aren't.

Otherwise, things are good?
- Yes.

I'm about to call for more
copies of "The Lonely Loon."

- Now they've taken
on an even bigger project--

turning an old sardine cannery
into workspaces,

restaurants, and apartments.

- We'll hopefully get this done
by the end of September.

- Uh-huh.

Hugh French grew up
in Eastport.

Like people we've met
all over the country,

he moved away, then came home
to try to help his town.

He started the Tides Institute

with his wife,
Kristin McKinlay.

- We're committed
to this place.

That means collections,
exhibitions,

fostering new work,

getting involved
in the downtown heavily.

That's how you create change.

- One of our programs

is the StudioWorks
Artist-in-Residence Program.

So this year
we'll have 13 artists.

- My interaction with the tide

has been to wrap the pilings

of this old sardine factory.

I came up from Brooklyn,

and we get a month
in this little town

and make work based on it.

Eastport, it's amazing.

People are cool and weird,

and I'm weird.

- The Passamaquoddy tribes
near Eastport

celebrate their history
every summer.

- We're proud Passamaquoddies
of this time of year

and all the time.

- The Ancestral Paddle really
symbolizes what we've done

for thousands of years

using the waterways
to sustain ourselves.

- In its time,
Eastport has found and lost

so many ways
of sustaining itself.

It was once one of the busiest
shipping ports

till shipping went elsewhere.

There were
13 sardine canneries

on the waterfront,

but that industry moved
to Canada.

Traditional salmon fishing
ended

when the wild fish
were depleted.

Now there are salmon farms.

The town has invested millions
in the cargo pier

so they can ship wood pulp
from Maine forests.

- And we're one
of the last places

on the East Coast of the U.S.,
if not the last place,

where the forest comes right
to the sea.

We've done up to 400,000 tons
in one year, just wood pulp.

- How does a town like this

keep coming up with new ways
to create a future for itself?

It's not like Downeast Mainers
are famous for their optimism.

There's a fine line between
looking for the possibilities

and denying reality.

When we lived in China,
we used to joke

about how all the headlines
in the papers were

"Happiness Sweeps Nation
as Joy Abounds" or something.

And so I think that
you don't want to have

this kind of denying reality
happy talk.

But sometimes you just have
to try things,

realistic or not.

- Pregnant cows.

In 2010,
we did get a phone call

from a company
that was interested

in exporting pregnant
dairy cattle.

Okay, they want to put
a pregnant cow in a box

and ship it to parts
all over the world.

My general manager said,

"We don't know anything
about shipping pregnant cows."

I said, "Skip,
neither does anybody else."

What started off as
a little adventure of 450 cows

turned into approximately
50,000 head of cattle

that was exported
through the port of Eastport.

But the area of Turkey
these cows kind of went to

was affected mightily
by the Syrian conflict

there on the border,
and as a result,

right now that industry
has dried up and stopped.

You know, geopolitical forces,

we think, just, you know,
matter on TV.

But even in a small town,
they can affect

how many pregnant dairy cattle
we put in a box.

- Thanks to the Internet,

small towns have the
same access to national news

as big cities...

but local news
is a different story.

In many towns,

the local papers
have gone out of business,

or they're taken over
by investors

who cut local coverage.

Eastport's paper
is "The Quoddy Tides."

- My brother Hugh is director
of the Tides Institute.

We bookend the downtown,

with the Tides Institute
on one end

and "The Quoddy Tides"
on the other end.

"The Quoddy Tides" started
in 1968 by my mother.

- Edward French is the editor.

He publishes it with his wife,
Lora Whelan.

She's also a reporter.

- Papers like this
around the country

are under all kinds
of pressure.

Your paper is thick, and it is
absolutely full of news

from 20 correspondents.

What's your secret?

- I don't know
that we have a secret,

but I think it's important for
newspapers not to keep cutting,

because if you keep cutting,

there's less and less reason
for people to buy the paper.

- We try to focus

in a way that relates directly
to local issues.

- So we've had
long debates here

over an oil refinery
or the tribal casinos.

And we present
what's happened elsewhere.

Communities that don't have
a local paper,

the cost for local government
increases, for instance.

We try not to enter into
the national debate too much.

It can, particularly
in this polarized time,

just put people off.

- Playing the role of the
newspaper in a small community

is always a delicate balance.

- I always feel, you know,

I'm okay as long as there's
no more the half the population

that crosses over
to the other side

when I walk down the street
because they don't want

to talk to me.

- People will come up to you
or give you a call and say,

"This is what
I'm worried about.

"Is there any way
that you can look into it

and write about it?"

That's a really
beautiful feeling

to have someone trust you
like that.

- Right, right.
- Yeah.

- We try to provide a voice
for the people

and the communities
that might otherwise

might not have a voice

so that people in power have
to address their concerns.

I think without
community newspapers,

democracy will really suffer.

- We've now been to Eastport
five times in six years.

Maybe asking
if Eastport will make it

is the wrong question.

The town was established
over 200 years ago...

and Native people were here

for thousands of years
before that.

Countless generations
have made a life here...

and countless more will.

- When you tell somebody
you're from Eastport, Maine,

or any small town
for that matter,

they just assume
that you've never seen

the bright lights
and the big city.

They'll look at you and say,
"Well, this is a cell phone.

You ever seen one
of those before?"

It's just that belief

that, somehow,
by living out here,

we're not as metropolitan
and as savvy

as to what's going on
with the world.

I would argue perhaps we know
it even a little better

because we take the time
to focus on it,

and that makes us
a whole lot more worldly

than people believe.

That's probably one stick jab,
if you will,

from if you go to a big city

and somebody finds out you're
from a small town.

They just assume that you
haven't been paying attention.

- All of the travel and living
in far-flung places

that we've done

has also changed
our relationship in some way.

I mean,
we're stuck together forever

because we have
so many shared experiences,

a lot of them challenging,
a lot of them glorious.

We have a shortcut
for so many things we can say.

No one else
would ever understand us.

- Or "grasscutter for dinner."
- Grasscutter for dinner.

That was Africa.
That was our honeymoon.

- It was a giant rat.
- Yeah.

We knew it bonded us
as a family

when we did a lot of this
travel with our little kids.

We were a unit,
and sink or swim,

we were in this together.

We had to figure it all out.

- Historically,
geographically,

very difficult
to get through here.

People that came over here,

they were okay
with being isolated.

They had to be.

If you have
a tougher kind of person...

There was a poet laureate,
Louise McNeill.

She wrote a book called
"Gauley Mountain."

The very last poem in it,
it says the people here

"now possess the last dark
current of the wilderness."

- Jeff, could you give me
a level check?

- Hi, this is Jeff Daniels
with the Ben Daniels Band.

Join us this week

in live performance
on "Mountain Stage."

- West Virginia tends
to make the national news

for a few,
predictable things...

The collapse of coal mining

and for being one
of the first places

hit hard by the opioid crisis.

There are
growth problems, too.

Charleston has about half as
many people as it did in 1960.

- We have a few rules
when we go to a new city.

We never ask
about national politics

because that conversation
goes nowhere.

Airspeed is coming alive.

79 knots and full power.
Up we go.

- We do look for things

that people are struggling
with or achieving locally

that the national press
doesn't usually notice.

- The "Mountain Stage"!

- The West Side of Charleston

looks like what
you might expect

when you hear
about the city's troubles...

But every town is full
of things you don't expect.

- John and Tighe and
Ellen Bullock came up to me,

and I thought
they wanted me to paint

something on their building
like an advertisement.

And they said, "No, no.

"We want you to paint something
on the building

"that will change
the community,

change community,
change this whole place here."

These are Union troops
from the 34th Ohio Regiment.

They were stationed
right over here.

Painted some homeless people.

Her name was Froggy.
She passed away.

And Jim pushed her around.

She was a Navy veteran.

Natalie Tennant,
first female mountaineer.

Just various people came by.

Smitty would come by every day
and say,

"You got to put me in
with my dog.

You got to put me in there
with my dog."

I said, "Where's your dog?"

He said, "Oh, my dog's
been dead for ten years."

I said, "Oh, oh."

- I'm from a small coal town
in West Virginia

that had just become
dilapidated over the years,

and when I moved to Charleston
and I saw this neighborhood,

I thought, "Why is nothing
being done about it?"

Tighe Bullock
and his sister Megan

have been renovating old
buildings on the West Side.

- This was my first project.

It's the Bully Trap
Barber Shop.

Elk City Records.

This is Charleston's
newest distillery.

We're gonna do a quality
West Virginia corn whiskey.

This is a future
Books and Brews site.

- I was a coal miner.

I started off mining
at the age of 18, actually.

Right before bankruptcy,

kind of exited out
and opened a restaurant.

- He's so committed
to the project

that he actually moved his
family in across the street.

- Back in the studios

at 580 WCHS, the voice
of Charleston, West Virginia.

And I have some special guests
in the studio,

James and Deb Fallows.

And these are--
Good morning.

- Good morning, Mr. Mayor.
- Good morning.

When we were here in 2014
at the election time,

there was a levy
for the library.

People waving placards saying

"come vote yes
on the library levy,"

and it passed.

- Yeah, but they have
another one.

Might be hard.

You know,
the argument against it,

ladies and gents,
is the fact that,

"We don't need libraries.
We have computers."

- Oh, Deb has
the whole counter-argument.

- Oh, no, oh, no.
Wrong answer.

- Well, then take it, Deb.
Take it, take it.

- Really, the libraries
are the heart and soul

of the communities.

It's more than books,

and it's more than computers
and resources now.

Libraries have become
a combination

of education centers,
civic and social center.

There are classes on how
to do your job résumé...

- Go ahead and write,
"in eBay" there for me.

- How to be an eBay merchant.

Libraries have free sessions
with a nurse,

or they'll bring in a lawyer.

If you go into any public
library in the country,

people who don't have
computers at home or Wi-Fi

will come for access,

which is, as we know
these days, just critical.

I would really argue,

"Yes.
Vote yes on that library levy."

- I'll vote for it
if that helps any.

All right,
James Fallows and Deb Fallows.

We'll break, and we'll back
on 580 live.

- I came here when I was 22
on a grant.

I lived in Los Angeles
at that time.

Beginning. From the beginning.
From the very beginning.

I took to it immediately.

Loved the people, the country.

So beautiful.

You count it down and--

Started "Mountain Stage."

Public broadcasting,

West Virginia
public broadcasting,

wants to do a live show
on radio.

We had no expertise.
We had no equipment.

We had no money.

Took us 26 shows
till NPR invited us

to be a national radio show.

- Our host and co-founder,

he's also the artistic
director of "Mountain Stage,"

Mr. Larry Groce.

- Like that! Beautiful.

Okay, here we go.
Thank you guys for coming.

I hope that you enjoy the show.

- When you're out of here,
you find out sooner than later

that people have a
certain view of West Virginia.

People in the big picture.

They assume certain things
about you,

and they assume
you have limitations,

and they assume that
you're gonna be a certain way

and your style is gonna be
a certain way

because that's
what people do there.

And, of course,
that's not the way it is.

I mean, people here
are like everywhere.

Their tastes are wide.

They like a lot of kinds
of music.

- But I think it's gonna take
a long time

to reverse some stereotypes
that people have.

I mean,
it's gonna be a long time

before people see West Virginia
like they see Vermont,

even though we have a lot
of similarities.

- When you tell people
you're from Charleston,

what's the main thing you feel
like they misunderstand?

- Well, usually when you say
you're from Charleston,

they say, "I love
your fabulous restaurants."

- Yes, okay.

- "I love the"...

- The coastline.

- I say,
"Charleston, West Virginia,"

not South Carolina,
and they say, "Oh."

- And what do they say then?

- Like, "Sorry."
Like, feel sorry for us.

- In 2016,
the "Gazette-Mail" exposed

how pharmaceutical companies
were dumping massive amounts

of opioids on small towns
in the state,

resulting in the highest
overdose rates in the country.

Eric Eyre won a Pulitzer
for his reporting.

- People went
to legitimate doctors at first,

who actually thought they were
doing the right thing

because of all the marketing
by Purdue Pharma.

Then they would get hooked, and
the doctor would cut them off,

and then they'd wind up
at the pain clinic.

You had these small towns.

Kermit, that has 400 people,

had nearly 9 million
hydrocodone pills

in two years.

And they were doing
the same thing here.

I don't know if you've talked

to the public health
commissioner--

- Not yet.

- His point was

we're not gonna solve this
addiction crisis overnight,

but we can stop the deaths.

She did say that he's supposed
to come to drug court today.

But his mom said that there's
a bag packed under his bed.

- He knows he's going
to placement.

- He's not listening to her.

He's not doing anything
that she asks.

- To try to prevent addiction
and crime before they happen,

Charleston, like many cities,
has a drug court.

- I don't think we should.
Let's keep him.

- Keep him.
- Restrict where he goes.

- Yep.
- Right.

- Judge Joanna Tabit
and her team

at the juvenile drug court

divert teens who've abused
alcohol or drugs

away from traditional court
or jail.

As a treat for the kids
for making progress,

everyone comes out
to the ball game.

- I'm doing a lot better.

All my drug screens
have been negative,

and I've been good
and everything.

- She'd been, what,
ten when I got you?

- Yeah.
About six years.

Yeah.

If it wasn't for her,

I wouldn't be getting my head
on straight and going good.

- And I'm the grandmother.
I'm not the mother.

I got custody of her.

I think it's a good program.

But it's just a lot on me,

'cause where I work,
strange hours.

I work 7:00 P to 7:00 A,

and, you know, sometimes
I get mandated for 16.

And then you got to go to
drug court or you have to go...

You know, it's a little
time-consuming,

but it's working.

Do whatever works.

- In the '80s,
as in so many cities,

an enormous urban mall came
to Charleston

and crushed
the local downtown stores.

But years later,
the mall failed,

and the old downtown started
to revive.

- We're here
on Capitol Street.

This is kind of the central,
developed area of Charleston.

We're gonna visit later on,

and it's actually where you're
gonna be speaking tonight--

Taylor Books.

Ann Saville,
she and her husband

really became
the anchor tenant

for the further development
of this area.

- We had a view of the country

that was different from the
prevailing view in this way--

almost every place we went,
people said,

"Yeah, the U.S. is really
in horrible shape,

"but here in Starkville,
Mississippi, you know,

things are really
moving ahead."

Local-level engagement,
innovation, experimentation

is actually doing much better.

In Charleston, they found
some really creative ways

to rehab the West Side.

West Invest is a plan
to get teachers and cops

to move into
challenged neighborhoods,

where they could help buying
and fixing up a house.

Two police officers came up
with the idea.

- You got two guys.
Now, here's our plan.

Let's get officers this grant.

They will be able
to take this grant,

buy a home in what we call
neighborhoods of challenge

which includes crime,
dilapidated buildings,

lack of neighborhood norms.

- You know,
I noticed that yeah,

a lot of us worked here,

but a lot of us
didn't live here.

It's affected
how we policed.

I just really wanted officers
to move back into the city,

get that baseline
of how Charleston really is.

- You just have a real buy-in

when you live there
with the people and all.

And they become more
than just neighbors.

They become family.

- And, Reverend Ealy,

I believe this has been
divinely inspired.

We started
a construction company

solely to employ felons.

So, other than
the licensed contractors

who have agreed to serve
as mentors for these guys,

if you don't have a felony,
we don't want to talk to you.

And they'll be paid
the same wage

as we would pay anybody
in the free world.

We have banks willing
to come in

and coach these folks
financially.

Now we're improving
their credit scores

before they ever leave prison.

- I'm going home
in five months.

Can't wait for that.

And this here,
it definitely does get you used

to being not stuck back sitting
with a bunch of inmates.

- What we're finding is good,
honest, hardworking people

who just have hit brick wall
after brick wall

in trying
to get started again.

- A lot of people tried
to get me

not to put my restaurant
over here,

and I'm like, "Why?"

I said, "If you do it right,
everybody come."

We have town hall meetings
in here.

Everybody that's running
for something

come, want to do something
in here.

- Adrian Wright played
in the NFL with Tampa Bay.

He moved back to Charleston
to take care of his mom

and opened a barbecue place.

- Here it is
seven years later.

I'm the number-one barbecue.

Getting voted to be
on Food Network.

My daughter and my wife

basically run
the day-to-day operations now.

This definitely make me
feel good

that my kids came to live
with me.

I'm glad I came back home

to experience this and
to help build Charleston up.

- We were moving up from
California to the Northwest...

And heard Bend
was a gorgeous town...

in the High Desert,

which always has this
really evocative sense to it,

the High Desert.

- Bend, Oregon, is the
culmination of this journey

because it's a town that found
its way back from failure.

- Bend was
a pretty depressed place.

Talking about the '80s

right after the logging boom
had sort of ended,

it was just sort of
a tough time.

- Bend was very much
a blue-collar town.

It has become a four-season
tourist destination.

- People had heard of it
being a vibrant community.

Next thing you know,
we're gonna move here.

- The people who've come
in the last ten years

don't understand
what it was like 30 years ago.

This was a small,
depressed timber town

that had to reach bottom.

But we were committed.

- I was an actress in LA,
and it was great.

But we wanted to raise
our family up here,

so I am actually gonna go back
to school

and get my master's
and be a school counselor.

- My company's based in Austin,
but I can do most my job here,

you know, through
video conference or whatnot.

- When I was in LA and sitting
in traffic on the 405

and I had to drop everything
to go for this audition

and, like,
missing my kids' play,

I'm like,
"What the--am I doing?"

You know?

And, like,
I probably won't get the job.

I didn't get the job.
And I'm like, "This is insane."

I want to just be present.

- This is one
of the best places

to bike and run and swim.

Because of that, there's
high demand to live here.

My wife was a professional
distance runner.

I was a professional
triathlete.

We started a company making
food products for ourselves.

Bend is a place where people
move because they want to.

It means that
you will even work in a job

that you're maybe less
fulfilled in

because you can
fulfill yourself

in the other aspects
of your life,

primarily in recreation.

There's
a general understanding

in the business community

that if it's a fresh-powder
day, your employees

probably aren't going to be in
until 11:00 or 12:00.

And we support that.

- Yeah!

- It's just a little bit
different priority system,

value system, I think.

- You got that!

- That's part of why
we live here.

- Yee-haw!

- Bend has over 20 brewpubs

and is the home
of Deschutes beer.

After first-hand research
all over the country,

we've determined that the
number of breweries in a town

is a great indicator
of how it's doing overall.

- I was voted most likely
to succeed in high school,

and that's still--
that still is gonna happen.

Here we go.

- Work it, work it.
- Work it, work it.

In Bend, freelance can be
really ups and downs.

My dad moved to Bend in 1962.

And he worked for
Brooks-Scanlon, the sawmill.

- And so the Bend of the 1960s
when you came here,

what was it like?
- It was just a mill town.

And the Brooks-Scanlon Lumber
Company was a huge operation.

- Like West Virginia,

Oregon's economy
always depended on one thing.

In West Virginia, it was coal.

In Oregon, it was trees.

But in the 1980s,
the timber industry crashed,

and sawmills closed.

Bend suddenly had the highest
unemployment in the country.

- It was pretty staggering.

We had a lot of mill workers

that had a lot of skills
and nowhere to go.

It was really hard
on most people.

- Downtown Bend
was kind of boarded up.

- There was a saying in Bend,
you know.

"The last one to leave
downtown,

turn out the lights."

- Bend was pretty empty
when I was a kid.

I think that Bend was really
kind of grasping

for what was gonna be next.

My friends, whose parents were
in other industries,

there was hope.

More tourism was starting
to happen.

Bend has always had
Mount Bachelor to rely on,

and people were
still coming to ski.

- We began to realize a lot
of people were moving here

who had come here on vacation.

They may have come to ski.

But then they said, "You know,
this is a pretty nice town."

- Mike Hollern was also
at Brooks-Scanlon.

He saw that the land where
they once grew timber

could be used
to build communities.

They created a series
of planned neighborhoods

designed to encourage
a social life,

with front porches
and back alleys.

Stores and schools are close
to houses.

- The reason that people like
living on the Westside of Bend

is that you can walk
everywhere you want to go.

That's not always available

in the newer, suburban model
of development.

- As the mills were
shutting down,

a plan to turn them
into a retail district

was led by Bill Smith.

- When the sawmill closed,
they had 30 people employed.

Now there's 4,000 people
employed in the area.

- Bend has become this haven
for remote workers

that work for companies
outside of Oregon.

I tell entrepreneurs,

"You can build your business
anywhere today."

Technology allows that.

Capital and your customers

don't care
where you're located.

- Deschutes County has
about 6,000 people a year

moving into the county.

So many new people
are moving in.

A lot of times, this is

the first place people will go

because they don't know

anybody else in the community

and they need to start making
some social connections.

Last night, we had a program
out at a brewery in here town

with author Rich Benjamin.

- I've written a book called
"Searching for Whitopia."

How do I define a whitopia?

That it is at least 85% white,

the majority of that growth
has been from white residents.

- Bend has more than 90%
white people.

Why is that happening?

- About white-on-white
gentrification.

- Last night was
a really great conversation

for how we can embrace
diversity.

How do we make this
a welcoming place

for people that are moving
into Deschutes County?

- If I could change anything
in Bend, it would be diversity.

- Tom Bedell and his stepson,
RA Beattie,

make custom guitars in Bend.

What would the naysayers say
is wrong with Bend?

- It's too big.

- Yeah, if they got here first,

they would now say
it's too big.

I wouldn't say that.

So there's always pressure,
you know?

Like, now that I live here,
Californians, stay home.

- Right?

- Yeah.
- But that's not fair.

- It's really hard to complain

about the people that
are making your economy work.

- Growth is fascinating
because communities think

that the secret
to their...

prosperity is growth.

And I believe

that our whole culture
is gonna go through a change

to where growth
isn't "the ideal thing."

If climate change comes
from growth, right?

Expanding economies
isn't necessarily

adding to the quality of life
of humans on this planet.

- The real question is,
how do you grow in a fashion

that doesn't create continued
reliance upon the automobile?

I have so many friends now

that are looking
to either move out of town

because they can no longer
afford to live here

or are forced to commute
30 minutes a day.

And so that sort of corrodes

a community,
you know, cohesiveness

because it
no longer allows people

to live in the communities
where they work.

- Who determines a town's
relationship to nature?

There are still places

where you can imagine
a world without people.

When Europeans arrived, they
carved out farms and ranches.

Small towns were places
to buy and sell goods.

But as the country
industrialized,

the landscape turned into
something unrecognizable...

Or these days,
all too recognizable

because the same strip malls,

box stores, and chain
restaurants are everywhere.

And when nature is erased,
how can you ever get it back?

It's a tense question in Bend.

- My name's Sky Sharp,
and what we do here

is we raise beef
in a good way,

and we sell it farm to table.

I chose this life
a long time ago

because it was just where
I felt right, you know?

My whole adult life,
I've been a cowboy.

Like, bunched cows
and rode horses.

I just ended up
really liking cows

more than I liked people.

My horses and my dogs,
we try to work as a unit.

In the five years
that we've been here,

it's growing so fast

as far as people moving
from California and wherever.

Lots of farms and ranches

getting turned
into subdivisions.

Doesn't feel like communities
see food producers

as necessity.

It's hard.

I met those cows
when they're born.

You know,
I witnessed their first steps.

And I also take away
their last breath, you know?

So it's emotionally tough.

I love watching the subtleties
of things

that always reminds me
as a human being

that I'm part
of something much bigger.

My whole life, I've felt
like I had a purpose,

and that purpose was
to be a shepherd

and a steward to nature.

That's what we try to do here.

- We started this project

in the wake
of a global financial crisis.

And as we finish,

the world is dealing
with upheavals

on a historic scale.

- The pandemic has transformed
just about everything.

And inequalities
in race and class

are now in everyone's sight.

- It's easy to forget

that our history is full
of convulsive moments.

Every town has had
its heartbreaks and setbacks.

And these days, every town
is dealing with new ones.

- On this journey, we've seen

how towns have pulled
themselves up in the past.

We can learn
from how they did it.

Recovery takes
working together.

It's harder
in polarized times,

but towns do it
by focusing on local issues

that are outside the divisions
of national politics.

- Each town has individuals

who feel a responsibility
to their community.

- We tried a lot
of different things with you.

Nobody gave up on you,

so we don't want you giving up
on yourself.

- Democracy has always
depended on leadership.

- The woman chief is powerful.
The women ruled.

I don't know
how it shifted to the men.

I hope these girls look at me
and say,

"I could be that
one of these days."

- Community colleges
help people start

and restart their lives.

- We take everyone.
We're open to everyone.

Everyone has
an opportunity here.

- Local newspapers and media
play a crucial role.

National news isn't gonna tell
you what matters in your town.

- Voters need journalists
at their city council meetings

and their school board
meetings.

This community
stepped up to say,

"We want you to stay here
and keep doing journalism."

- Public art
helps us understand

where we've been
and where we're going,

especially when people
disagree on those things.

- If you're at a place
where there is no scene,

you make your own scene.

I'm the person dumb
or crazy enough

to put my money right here.

I'm going to do
contemporary art

in San Bernardino.

- Forward-looking towns take
on climate change

and growth.

The pandemic reminds us that
humans aren't above nature.

We're part of it.

It seems like wherever we go,

people have a certain kind
of stubbornness.

Even when things are dark...

They're imagining
a better future.

- People would ask,

why am I spending
so much time on this?

Why am I not doing this
in a bigger city?

I found this quote
in "Julius Caesar"...

I always felt this way.

This is a place where,
actually, the tide's in,

and if you put your boats out

or if you put your ventures out
right now,

you know, we can make something
of ourselves.