Best Ken Ferruccio Podcasts (2024)

1
Our Road: Then & Now -- E33: Ken's 19-Day Fast in Jail: PCB Landfill Abysmal Failure 40:52

27d ago40:52

40:52

In this episode, Ken and Deborah take off their gloves as the chemical war of words rages and is playing out in Warren County as a winner-takes-all battle for the PCB environmental justice narrative. Currently, the Warren County Environmental Action Team — which includes local, state, federal, EPA and academic-affiliated members, seeks to partner w…

1
Our Road: Then -- E32: The Dastardly Deed: What Was Behind the PCB Crime? 41:36

3M ago41:36

41:36

The above photo of T. Mitchell Langdon, a Johnston County, North Carolina farmer, was published in Newsweek magazine on September 6, 1982, with an article titled "Toxic Time Bomb." The photo was taken in 1979 by Fayetteville Observer reporter James L. Pate, Jr. In this episode, Deborah and Ken are focusing more closely on what could have been behin…

1
Our Road: Then -- E31: 1980: A Landmark Victory for Polluters -- Only the NIMBYs Stand in the Way 35:45

3M ago35:45

35:45

Photo: At his parent’s home in New Hampshire, Ken works on his manuscript titled: Toxic Aggression, Fighting on the Front Lines: The North Carolina PCB Story (October, 1980). In this episode, Ken and Deborah continue to share with their listeners the events of 1980 as they relate to their PCB situation in particular and as the events relate to the …

1
Our Road: Then -- E30: 45th Anniversary: The Grassroots Uprising that Birthed the Warren Co. Environmental Justice Movement: 21:58

4M ago21:58

21:58

In this late December, 2023, Podcast Episode 30, Deborah and Ken break from their chronological narrative in order to recognize and celebrate the 45th anniversary of the actual birth of the Warren County environmental justice movement. They follow the extraordinary events that take place in Warren County in late December, 1978, and early 1979, afte…

1
Our Road: Then -- E29: PCB Issues and Gubernatorial Candidates' Response 28:08

5M ago28:08

28:08

In this episode, the Warrenton Rotary Club invites Ken to speak about the PCB problem. Citizens are really concerned about Warren County becoming a PCB and toxic waste dumping grounds. Ken presents his analysis titled: “PCBs: Issues Without Answers,” and Attorney Frank Banzet suggests that Ken shares his PCB analysis with the candidates running for…

1
Our Road: Then -- E28 "The Past is Never Past," Reflections on NPR Throughline Podcast 45:00

6M ago45:00

45:00

Photo: William Sanjour, Former Branch Chief of EPA's Division of Hazardous Waste Disposal, warned in the late 1970s that reducing the scope of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) industrial hazardous waste disposal regulations would be devastating. He became an EPA whistleblower, speaking out about the dangers of weak and non-existent reg…

1
Our Road: Then -- E27: Straight from the Horse's Mouth: An Interview with Waste Management, Inc. 39:37

7M ago39:37

39:37

This episode continues to follow the first year of the Warren County, North Carolina PCB landfill opposition and the making of the environmental justice movement that is taking place in 1979. The local narrative is very much a national EPA narrative. PCBs in North Carolina, and EPA regulations in Washington, D.C. are the battle grounds. EPA is turn…

1
Our Road: Then -- E26: Sanjour Blows the Whistle on the EPA Chemical Name-Game 26:09

8M ago26:09

26:09

Photo: Screenshot of EPA Whistleblower William Sanjour, “They Blew the Whistle at Work Then Paid the Price,” Phil Donahue Television Show, February 28, 1996. Video Archives, YouTube. In this episode, Ken and Deborah ask their listeners why they should care about the seeming web of toxic waste relationships taking place back in the summer and fall o…

1
Our Road: Then -- E25: The Alleged Soul City-Afton Dump Connection 21:03

8M ago21:03

21:03

In this episode, Ken and Deborah receive alarming information from two reliable inside sources about a connection in the planning stages between Soul City and the proposed Afton PCB landfill site. Ken shares the information concerning the connection with Concerned Citizens committee members who advise him that he needs to share the information with…

1
Our Road: Then -- E24: In-Good-Faith Double-Cross 23:37

9M ago23:37

23:37

Photo: Secretary of Crime Control and Public Safety Herbert Hyde: Was he "in good faith?" On the heels of threats to Ken’s life and the break-in at the Ferruccio cabin, Ken examines his contradictory leadership position as a proponent of non-violent civil disobedience who felt it necessary to protect himself and Deborah with arms. In the aftermath …

1
Our Road: Then -- E23: EPA Approves Warren Co. PCB Landfill, Ferruccio Cabin Break-in, "Anti-PCB Leader Warns He's Armed" 21:31

9M ago21:31

21:31

For once, the EPA uses the precautionary principle — something the Agency seldom applies to its decisions. Since January, 1979, the Hunt Administration has been looking to delay the EPA’s decision on the PCB landfill in Warren County and has been pretending to seriously consider the in-place carbon treatment of the roadside PCBs. Then the Agency de…

1
Our Road: Then -- E22: House Bill 290 Preempts Environmental Civil Rights & "PCB Cleanup Hunt's Folly" 22:53

10M ago22:53

22:53

What should have been a slam dunk by the Hunt Administration to bury the roadside PCBs in Warren County by March or April of 1979, weather permitting, has been anything but that. Apparently, Governor Hunt had been so confident that he would bury the PCBs in Warren County, that he warned citizens there that public sentiment would not deter the state…

1
Our Road: Then -- E 21: Johnston County Gas Mask Protest and More 32:32

10M ago32:32

32:32

By Deborah and Ken Ferruccio

1
Our Road: Then -- E 20: Aggravated Citizens Meet With EPA Part 2 32:03

10M ago32:03

32:03

In this episode, the meeting with Warren County Citizens Concerned About PCBs delegates and EPA Office of Toxic Substances officials continues. Delegates discuss EPA’s hazardous waste disposal regulations and express their skepticism. They have every reason to believe that Warren County’s future is in peril. Their groundwater is at best about seven…

1
Our Road: Then -- E19: 50 - 5' -- Honest Science for the People is a Threat to the State 29:22

11M ago29:22

29:22

In this episode, a delegation of Warren County Citizens Concerned About PCBs meets with EPA officials to find out if the rumor is true that the EPA is going to drop the 50 foot required distance between the bottom of a toxic waste landfill to only 5 feet. They learn that the agency does plan to drop this regulation, and they learn much more. Throug…

1
Our Road: Then -- E18 The Hand That Rocks a Cradle Can Also Make a Fist 28:27

11M ago28:27

28:27

In this episode we are returning to our Warren County PCB landfill narrative as the history is unfolding in January and February, 1979. Why should our listeners care about what happened forty-four years ago? Because the Warren County PCB landfill history is actually a history of the EPA’s war of toxic aggression, and to know this history is to unde…

1
Our Road: Now -- EP 17: Rome is Burning, and EPA Lit the Fires 33:50

1y ago33:50

33:50

Nearly two-thousand years ago, the Emperor Nero played music and partied as he watched 70% of Rome burn to the ground. Today, we are metaphorically watching Rome burn as our environment and health are assaulted again and again by pollution from loosely-regulated petrochemical and related industries, causing communities to be poisoned, global temper…

1
Our Road: Now -- E16 East Palestine, Ohio Chemical Disaster: A Wake-Up Call 21:35

1y ago21:35

21:35

In this episode, we’re pausing our historical narrative of the Warren County PCB history to focus on the horrific February 3, 2023 Norfolk Southern Railroad train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. Eleven train cars spilled 115,580 gallons of toxic vinyl chloride and other chemicals, including benzene, on the ground, and the chemicals were then de…

1
Our Road: Then -- E15: Unreasonable Risk: A Warren County Delegation to Governor Hunt --Part 2 28:46

1y ago28:46

28:46

On January 18, 1979, we recorded and later transcribed our meeting with Governor Hunt. This episode is based on the transcript of that recording. In this Part 2 of the Warren County delegation to Governor Hunt, Warren representatives continue to make their case against the PCB landfill perfectly clear to Governor Hunt. Larry Limer queries the Gover…

1
Our Road: Then -- E14: Rev. Willie T. Ramey Electrifies the Room: A Warren County Delegation to Governor Hunt--Part 1 21:50

1y ago21:50

21:50

On January 18, 1979, we recorded and later transcribed our meeting with Governor Hunt. This episode is based on the transcript of that recording. In this episode, Warren County Citizens send representatives to fill the nine chairs the Governor finally agreed to have. Leading the delegation, Deborah presents the 4,500 signatures of citizens who sign…

1
Our Road: Then -- E13: A Game of Chairs: Negotiations for a Meeting with Governor Hunt 14:10

1y ago14:10

14:10

In our last podcast, Episode 12: Now, we fast-forwarded to the present because of recent testing at the PCB landfill conducted in conjunction with the 2022 40th anniversary of the 1982 PCB protest movement. We shared the documented evidence from four independent scientists who had studied the PCB landfill over the years and who had reported the pro…

1
Our Road: Now -- E12: PCB Landfill Site "Open Wound" That Should Not Be Developed 31:13

1+ y ago31:13

31:13

In this episode, we are pausing our chronological narrative of the origins of the Warren County environmental justice movement in order to address current issues related to the status of the PCB landfill site. On September 24, 2022, EPA Director Michael Regan and an entourage of EPA officials, civil rights representatives, and fence line community …

1
Our Road: Then -- E11: Jan. 4, 1979 EPA Public Hearing: The People Speak 37:00

1+ y ago37:00

37:00

The Hunt Administration’s “regardless of public sentiment” statement and the threat of becoming a dumping ground for PCBs, and perhaps for an interstate hazardous waste dumping ground as well, have driven an estimated 700-800 Warren County citizens to the January 4, 1979 EPA Public Hearing held at the National Guard Armory in Warrenton, N.C. In thi…

1
Our Road: Then -- E10 Part 2: EPA Public Hearing: Independent Scientist Responds 17:44

1+ y ago17:44

17:44

In the last episode, Part 1 of the January 4, 1979 EPA Public Hearing, our listeners hear state and EPA officials describe the conceptual engineering design of landfill technology. As officials argue that the application of this landfill design will transform the geological (soil) and hydrogeological (groundwater) inadequacies of the proposed Afton…

1
Our Road: Then -- E9: EPA Public Hearing: State Makes Its PCB Landfill Case, EPA Defends It 35:31

1+ y ago35:31

35:31

Warren County Citizens Concerned About PCBs has done the unthinkable. In just two weeks, an executive committee has quickly formed an unprecedented multi-racial grassroots coalition and conducted a hard-driving education and action campaign in order to get the people to the January 4, 1979 EPA Public Hearing where it is critical for them to speak t…

1
Our Road: Then -- E8: A Huge Reversal of Waste Disposal Plans 25:45

1+ y ago25:45

25:45

1978 is ending on an existential note for Warren County citizens. The county is under attack on two fronts — the PCB landfill in Afton and the 500-acre, multi-state hazardous waste landfill in Inez. Citizens take the dual threat seriously, and an unlikely coalition of citizens begins to form. Representatives of the Afton Gun Club, the NAACP, and th…

1
Our Road: Then -- E7: The Ultimatum - Second Waste Assault 21:47

1+ y ago21:47

21:47

The county is more than buzzing from the Hunt Administration’s announcement that public sentiment will not deter the state from burying the roadside PCBs in Warren County and from the time-crunch citizens are under with the EPA public hearing just days away. The steering committee meets and decides that citizens need to hire an independent soil sci…

1
Our Road: Then -- E6: Archives, Public Sentiment 28:55

1+ y ago28:55

28:55

Ken and Deborah’s lives change forever on December 20, 1978, when they hear an announcement on Warrenton’s WVSP NPR radio station that the state plans to buy property in the Afton community of Warren County to bury PCBs that had been spewed along the roadsides of 15 counties that previous summer. Afton is the rural community where they live. They a…

1
Our Road: Then -- E5: Connecting The Dots - The Picture Unfolds 18:22

1+ y ago18:22

18:22

Although citizens are unaware at the time, the fall of 1978 is critical to Warren County’s future. The state manages to pick up a test-mile of roadside PCBs in the county and to temporarily store them on land owned by the Governor’s 1976 campaign manager who is also a member of the Industrial Development Commission. The foot is in the door. Governo…

1
Our Road: Then -- E4: The Midnight PCB Dumpings – The Making of a Public Health Crisis 20:12

1+ y ago20:12

20:12

In early August, 1978, with high hopes, Ken and Deborah leave for a weekend camping trip to Bear Island, NC, but find the broiling temperature, windless air, and nearly invisible teeny carnivorous sand fleas too much. On their ride home, they encounter, mile after mile, large, yellow warning signs that read: “CAUTION PCB CHEMICAL SPILL ALONG HIGHWA…

1
Our Road: Now -- E3: Pollution is Not Somewhere Over There 22:54

1+ y ago22:54

22:54

In this special segment, the Ferruccio's daughter, Kyra Christina Ferruccio Ramírez, explains how she did not seek out environmental activism but learned that pollution is pervasive and comes in many forms and that we all must do our part to help make our environment(s) safer for humans and more-than-humans. She celebrates the Warren County PCB env…

1
Our Road: Then -- E2: 1982 Six Weeks of Civil Disobedience 30:02

1+ y ago30:02

30:02

The day was hot, but so were the people. It was September 15, 1982; the time for civil disobedience was at hand. Warren County citizens were fired up because Governor Jim Hunt was using military force to bring in the first of 10,000 truckloads of toxic PCBs to a landfill built just above the county’s groundwater. The multiracial coalition of citize…

1
Our Road: Then -- E1: The Making of the Movement 30:17

1+ y ago30:17

30:17

On December 20, 1978, Warren County, North Carolina citizens learn that the state intends to bury PCB-contaminated soil in a landfill in their county regardless of public sentiment. On behalf of citizens, Ken Ferruccio responds that there will be “due process first, then civil disobedience.” These six words are probably the first time in history th…

1
Our Road: Then and Now -- E0: An Introduction 6:06

1+ y ago6:06

6:06

Episode 0: Is an introduction to Our Road to Walk: Then and Now. It previews the podcast series hosted by Deborah and Ken Ferruccio and broadcast from Warren County, North Carolina, known as the birthplace of the environmental justice movement. The purpose of the series is to share the inside, untold, documented, forty-four-year PCB landfill histor…

Podcasts Worth a Listen

Ken Ferruccio Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

1
Our Road to Walk: Then and Now

Deborah and Ken Ferruccio

1
Our Road: Then & Now -- E33: Ken's 19-Day Fast in Jail: PCB Landfill Abysmal Failure 40:52

1
Our Road: Then -- E32: The Dastardly Deed: What Was Behind the PCB Crime? 41:36

1
Our Road: Then -- E31: 1980: A Landmark Victory for Polluters -- Only the NIMBYs Stand in the Way 35:45

1
Our Road: Then -- E30: 45th Anniversary: The Grassroots Uprising that Birthed the Warren Co. Environmental Justice Movement: 21:58

1
Our Road: Then -- E29: PCB Issues and Gubernatorial Candidates' Response 28:08

1
Our Road: Then -- E28 "The Past is Never Past," Reflections on NPR Throughline Podcast 45:00

1
Our Road: Then -- E27: Straight from the Horse's Mouth: An Interview with Waste Management, Inc. 39:37

1
Our Road: Then -- E26: Sanjour Blows the Whistle on the EPA Chemical Name-Game 26:09

1
Our Road: Then -- E25: The Alleged Soul City-Afton Dump Connection 21:03

1
Our Road: Then -- E24: In-Good-Faith Double-Cross 23:37

1
Our Road: Then -- E23: EPA Approves Warren Co. PCB Landfill, Ferruccio Cabin Break-in, "Anti-PCB Leader Warns He's Armed" 21:31

1
Our Road: Then -- E22: House Bill 290 Preempts Environmental Civil Rights & "PCB Cleanup Hunt's Folly" 22:53

1
Our Road: Then -- E 21: Johnston County Gas Mask Protest and More 32:32

1
Our Road: Then -- E 20: Aggravated Citizens Meet With EPA Part 2 32:03

1
Our Road: Then -- E19: 50 - 5' -- Honest Science for the People is a Threat to the State 29:22

1
Our Road: Then -- E18 The Hand That Rocks a Cradle Can Also Make a Fist 28:27

1
Our Road: Now -- EP 17: Rome is Burning, and EPA Lit the Fires 33:50

1
Our Road: Now -- E16 East Palestine, Ohio Chemical Disaster: A Wake-Up Call 21:35

1
Our Road: Then -- E15: Unreasonable Risk: A Warren County Delegation to Governor Hunt --Part 2 28:46

1
Our Road: Then -- E14: Rev. Willie T. Ramey Electrifies the Room: A Warren County Delegation to Governor Hunt--Part 1 21:50

1
Our Road: Then -- E13: A Game of Chairs: Negotiations for a Meeting with Governor Hunt 14:10

1
Our Road: Now -- E12: PCB Landfill Site "Open Wound" That Should Not Be Developed 31:13

1
Our Road: Then -- E11: Jan. 4, 1979 EPA Public Hearing: The People Speak 37:00

1
Our Road: Then -- E10 Part 2: EPA Public Hearing: Independent Scientist Responds 17:44

1
Our Road: Then -- E9: EPA Public Hearing: State Makes Its PCB Landfill Case, EPA Defends It 35:31

1
Our Road: Then -- E8: A Huge Reversal of Waste Disposal Plans 25:45

1
Our Road: Then -- E7: The Ultimatum - Second Waste Assault 21:47

1
Our Road: Then -- E6: Archives, Public Sentiment 28:55

1
Our Road: Then -- E5: Connecting The Dots - The Picture Unfolds 18:22

1
Our Road: Then -- E4: The Midnight PCB Dumpings – The Making of a Public Health Crisis 20:12

1
Our Road: Now -- E3: Pollution is Not Somewhere Over There 22:54

1
Our Road: Then -- E2: 1982 Six Weeks of Civil Disobedience 30:02

1
Our Road: Then -- E1: The Making of the Movement 30:17

1
Our Road: Then and Now -- E0: An Introduction 6:06

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