Kristen Meinzer, Associate Producer
Kristen Meinzer is an associate producer for The Takeaway and co-host of The Takeaway's Movie Date podcast.
A Thanksgiving-week series on the concept of "home," and the individual details that define it differently for each person.
MoreHome is where you hang your hat. There's no place like it, or so we're told. But what exactly is home? Is it a place? A state of mind? A smell, sound or look? Or the presence of a person we love?
During the week of Thanksgiving, we'll be exploring the notion of home each day. We'll look at the details that matter: from the specific structural aspects of a home to our ideas of what constitutes a homeland. And we'll be talking with people across the United States (and maybe even outside it).
John and Celeste will also share their personal memories of home, and what the word home means to them.
Tell us: What says 'home' to you? What are the details that make a place look like, smell like, or sound like home to you? Is home a place you long for, or do you carry it with you? Is there something that makes you love or dread the thought of going home for the holidays?
This is the latest assignment with The Takeaway iPhone app. Take a photo of the things that make a place home to you. Record audio of the sounds. And take video of the events that make it that way.
If you don't have an iPhone, just submit the photo below. If you do, get the app.
Kristen Meinzer is an associate producer for The Takeaway and co-host of The Takeaway's Movie Date podcast.
Former digital editor at The Takeaway, former producer at The Brian Lehrer Show.
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The show is a co-production of WNYC Radio and Public Radio International, in collaboration with New York Times Radio and WGBH Boston.
Major funding provided by:
Comments [12]
Home is a soft place to land, anytime, no matter what.
As my colleague, Alexa Mills wrote, I currently write a similar series on CoLab Radio (http://colabradio.mit.edu/) entitled, "Where do I Hang My Hat?" which explores more personal experiences in my lifelong quest for a place to call home. To me home is not necessarily a physical space, but rather a place of interior peace and well-being.
My co-worker Giovanna Bortolamedi, has spent her lifetime 'hanging her hat' both in Rome and in the United States. Now an adult, she's exploring her life in homes - from Catholic boarding school in Italy, to homecooked meals in rural North Carolina, to her latest apartment on Beacon Hill - in a lovely series (aptly) titled "Where do I hang my hat?" http://colabradio.mit.edu/?cat=646
Home is the neighborhood one grew up in, the school, the grocer shop, the church and not having to worry about getting evicted or raise in the rent because the home belongs to the family all paid for. It is much more than that, but you can never go home again! So, home is in the memory, never to be replicated.
I agree with the other listener's feeling from Miranda Lambert's song " The house that built me" Does everyone have one of those?? My Home means the neighborhood i grew up in with all those other "Sandlot" kids. No other place would ever fill its shoes. Not even the more flashy one we later moved in to... o memories.
Anyplace where there's a boatload of dysfunction and recrimination.
Home can be the Pennsylvania Turnpike...
Home is where my husband and dog are.
Home is where I get my mail delivered.
You know, Miranda Lambert has that song about 'the house that built me' and I for sure have one of those, it was my house in Mission Viejo California. Many of my formative years spent there. Home nowadays though, doesn't mean the structure, so much as it does the people around me. I need my people, (and pets) much more than the things, smells, or furniture!
home is the smell of warm waffles & syrup, the sound of Saturday morning cartoons, the glint of sunshine streaming through the curtains and the promise of new adventures in the backyard and beyond with my boisterous brothers & sisters...
Home has a feeling of refuge where you can be yourself and do things you love and be around people you know well and can grow with. It's a place where you can learn good truths about how to live properly in society. It can define your social status and how you choose to live.
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