Focus: Black Oklahoma

This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Notarizing Democracy: Why Oklahoma Makes Absentee Voters Take an Extra Step" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is our second quarterly Snapshot story for 2026. We took you to the Admiral corridor for the first installment, when we explored Mental Health on the Margins. This time...

This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Notarizing Democracy: Why Oklahoma Makes Absentee Voters Take an Extra Step" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is our second quarterly Snapshot story for 2026. We took you to the Admiral corridor for the first installment, when we explored Mental Health on the Margins. This time...

This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Notarizing Democracy: Why Oklahoma Makes Absentee Voters Take an Extra Step" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is our second quarterly Snapshot story for 2026. We took you to the Admiral corridor for the first installment, when we explored Mental Health on the Margins. This time...

FBO’s Alana Mbanza is looking ahead at the future of health care in Oklahoma and what changes to Medicaid could mean for hundreds of thousands of Oklahomans who rely on SoonerCare for coverage. President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” includes significant changes to the federal Medicaid program, including new eligibility requirements and work-related provisions that could affect who quali...

A difficult chapter is unfolding for Osage language preservation in Oklahoma. The Osage language immersion school in Pawhuska, a program created to help a new generation learn and carry forward the language of the Osage people, is closing its doors. The decision has sparked questions about the future of language revitalization and the challenges of sustaining Indigenous education programs. Here’s...

This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Notarizing Democracy: Why Oklahoma Makes Absentee Voters Take an Extra Step" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is our second quarterly Snapshot story for 2026. We took you to the Admiral corridor for the first installment, when we explored Mental Health on the Margins. This time...

In Owasso, two quarries are seeking special exceptions to allow limestone mining in land currently zoned for agriculture. It is proposed to be located only 425 feet away from some residents' homes. A group of locals has banded together to fight against the encroaching quarries and push for policy change to protect others in the future. Their current success, however, lies in the hands of former ma...

This special episode of Focus: Black Oklahoma, Notarizing Democracy: Why Oklahoma Makes Absentee Voters Take an Extra Step is our second quarterly Snapshot story for 2026. We took you to the Admiral corridor for the first installment, when we explored Mental Health on the Margins . This time, our focus is elections. We wanted to explore one part of the process that feels pretty unique to Oklahoma....

Recently, the United States marked its 250th birthday and celebrated the Fourth of July. While many Americans reflected on the nation's founding ideals of freedom, liberty, and independence, for others, the holiday raised more complicated questions. FBO’s Roma Carter explores the varied meanings of America's 250th anniversary, examining how Indigenous and Black communities engage with the nation's...

This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Walking the Margins: Mental Health & Housing Precarity Along Admiral" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. A motel room. The interstate. Winter wind. Days of walking with no plan but to witness life on the street. Nick Alexandrov set out to report on mental health along an extended-...

This interview was taken from "Episode 66-Freedmen exclusion, Tulsa Food Not Bombs protest, & more" of Focus: Black Oklahoma . Music can entertain, inspire, and spark change—and few artists embody that power more than Rocky Dawuni. Born in Ghana and celebrated around the world, Dawuni blends Afro-roots music, reggae, and global influences to create songs that promote unity, social justice, and...

A court ruling affirming tribal authority over hunting and fishing rights on reservation lands has renewed conversations about sovereignty, citizenship, and belonging; It has also raised concerns among Freedmen descendants who remain excluded from certain tribal rights and benefits, including hunting and fishing privileges in some nations. Focus: Black Oklahoma correspondent Deon Osborne explores...

This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Walking the Margins: Mental Health & Housing Precarity Along Admiral" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. A motel room. The interstate. Winter wind. Days of walking with no plan but to witness life on the street. Nick Alexandrov set out to report on mental health along an extended-...

This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Walking the Margins: Mental Health & Housing Precarity Along Admiral" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. A motel room. The interstate. Winter wind. Days of walking with no plan but to witness life on the street. Nick Alexandrov set out to report on mental health along an extended-...

1:19 Bringing a child into the world should not come at the cost of a mother’s life. Yet in Ghana, many women continue to face significant challenges in accessing quality maternal healthcare. Behind the statistics are real stories of women, families, midwives, and healthcare workers navigating systems under pressure while working to ensure safer pregnancies and healthier futures. FBO’s Zaakirah Mu...

This is a short piece taken from our podcast "Walking the Margins: Mental Health & Housing Precarity Along Admiral" which you can listen to on demand at KOSU.org, the NPR app, NPR.org, or wherever you get your podcasts. A motel room. The interstate. Winter wind. Days of walking with no plan but to witness life on the street. Nick Alexandrov set out to report on mental health along an extended-...

1:25 Telling the truth is becoming more complicated—and more costly. Across the country and around the world, journalists are facing growing pressure for simply doing their jobs, and in the midst of it all, student journalists are stepping into an increasingly fraught landscape. What does it mean to pursue the truth when the stakes feel higher than ever? And how is this next generation navigating...

Walking the Margins: Mental Health & Housing Precarity Along Admiral A motel room. The interstate. Winter wind. Days of walking with no plan but to witness life on the street. Nick Alexandrov set out to report on mental health along an extended-stay motel corridor in Tulsa. What he found was a quieter, more elusive, more human story. Unfolding on sidewalks, overpasses, church steps, and in fle...

2:01 In communities across the US, questions about immigration enforcement and civil rights grow louder. For many Hispanic and Latino families, those questions are paired with something more personal—fear. Venson Fields takes us inside a community forum where frustration, uncertainty, and resilience met in one room to ensure community voices are heard. 12:04 On college and university campuses, stu...

00:50 For many families, Alzheimer’s doesn’t arrive all at once—it creeps in through forgotten names, missed appointments, and the quiet heartbreak of watching someone you love slip away. In the Black community, the disease hits harder and earlier. Zaakirah Muhammad has a story about Alzheimer’s—not just as a medical condition, but as a community issue that demands visibility, resources, and compa...

1:11 A 2016 study published in The Journal of the Oklahoma State Medical Association found that pancreatic cancer was the fourth most common cause of cancer death in Oklahoma from 2008 to 2012. FBO’s Zaakirah Muhammad examines why this cancer hits Black communities harder, what warning signs often go unheard, and how awareness, advocacy, and early action can save lives. 14:58 In communities across...

2:02 In part two of her look at the growing wave of attacks on free speech across college campuses, Nico Berlin takes us inside the story of the Maneater, the University of Missouri’s printed newspaper which switched to a digital only platform in May 2023 after nearly seven decades of publication. In her story, she reminds us that printed newspapers are significant because they make truth tangible...

1:33 Focus: Black Oklahoma’s Venson Fields turns our attention to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits crisis. Tens of thousands of families across the state are still feeling the ripple effects of the government shutdown—not in abstract political terms, but in their kitchens and on their dinner tables. 10:22 At the University of Central Oklahoma, student journalists at...

1:03 As the world celebrated a new ceasefire agreement in Gaza, other conflicts continue to rage across the globe, including in Sudan. In January, then Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared the Sudanese military and allied militias were committing genocide. What does this have to do with Oklahoma? Here’s FBO ’s Nick Alexandrov. 11:24 As federal budget cuts to healthcare and education take hol...

2:27 As the war in Gaza approaches its two year mark, criticism of Israel and support for the Palestinian population has ignited debates over free speech in the United States. Universities have become nexuses of protest against US support of Israel in the conflict, and the federal government’s response has been to block education funding for schools and targeting activists for deportation. State g...