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KPBS Midday Edition

New Podcast Brings Stories Of San Diegans' First Day In The City

Walter Lam is pictured with a family member on a beach in this undated photo.
Walter Lam is pictured with a family member on a beach in this undated photo.

New Podcast Brings Stories Of San Diegans First Day In The City
New Podcast Brings Stories Of San Diegans First Day In The City GUEST: Andrew Bracken, creator, producer and host, My First Day

This is a podcast that you will be able to subscribe to. We will hear experts every day. The creator and host is Andrew and he is here in the studio what does. Thank you for having me. What gave me the idea that this idea was first in sending a would make a good podcast question right I think the origin started when I first met the host. It was at a charity function. He's a lovely man and we were talking and talking about living in San Diego like normal stuff what our kids did and warehouses were and just really mundane things. He happened to be a speaker at the charity event spoke about his experiences in where he came from and he was a farmer refugee. It just kind of like jumped out at me. It was an interesting experience. We are both just guys in San Diego but we had very different backgrounds and experiences. I just wanted to explore those stories because this is a pretty common occurrence. It's a town where a lot of people are not from here. I am from Chicago. You me a lot of Chicago folks at her to. Give us an idea of some of the people that will meet. The first voice who here is Mohammed was a engineer from Iran. When he came, he had never been to the states before and you little to nothing about California at all. Something that he had an experience was living with pets. So he came late and he had problems with this visa so had to find housing quickly. I never experienced living with six cats and a dog under one roof. At the time I was growing up it wasn't very common to have pets. So at the beginning I said no I will find another place but I couldn't so I had it come back. They are very really nice people. A gives us a bit of a glimpse into experiencing San Diego that we would never thought of ourselves. We've all had experiences of something new and things that just stay in your memory even things that are small. They stick with you decades later and a fun thing about the project is when I first talked to them about it and you see the glimmer in their eye and it comes back to them it doesn't matter if they came when they were 20, six years old, they just have that connection to that moment. I think it's a nice entry way to learning about people's lives. Binds us together. Another person was Donna Frye I think the first time when I talk to her she started telling the story of what she remembered at that time. Even as she was a young child she had distinct memories. When I think about how those types of experiences shape me to where I am now, I think a lot of it. You will go in the ocean to get healthy as we were kids. As we fast forward to the 90s, you got to the point where you didn't go in the ocean because you get sick. So one thing led to another but what started me off on a different career path was based on my experiences as a kid. I love the way that we will recognize some of these voices and that will give us an insight into ways we would never known before. Are you still looking for people to tell stories? We are still looking for voices. We do have a fair amount for this season but it's a joy to hear these people stories. So I'm still kind of talking to people about it. How can people get in touch with you question We set up an email address. It is my first set -- my first day stories@Gmail.com. Thank you so much for coming and giving us a glimpse.

San Diegans share the story of their first day in the city in a new podcast.

My First Day is a podcast produced through the KPBS Explore project, an initiative to bring original content from and about the San Diego community.

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The first episode of the podcast brings us the story of Walter Lam's first day in San Diego after he arrived from Uganda.

On Wednesday's Midday Edition, we spoke to Andrew Bracken, the creator, producer and host of the podcast, about what the stories of San Diegans' first days in the city can teach us.

New episodes of the podcast will be released each week, and excerpts will be played on KPBS Midday Edition on Wednesdays.

New Podcast Brings Stories Of San Diegans' First Day In The City