December 17, 2020 But for COVID-19, "Less to Lean On," a special series on the Watson Institute’s Trending Globally podcast, might never have come to pass. The host of Trending Globally, Sarah Baldwin, Associate Director Steven Bloomfield, and several alumni and students worked for months to organize an April screening of “Providence Lost,” a documentary featuring one local family’s eviction, to be followed by a panel discussion on housing insecurity and homelessness. When COVID-19 shut everything down, Baldwin suggested transforming the students’ research and activism into a podcast series. “I don’t think any of us realized what we were saying ‘yes’ to. It took on a life of its own,” Baldwin explained. “Housing is fundamental. If and how we are housed can affect the outcome of almost everything else in our lives, from education to employment to basic health.” The experience has stretched Baldwin, who typically researches her podcasts solo. COVID’s likely impact on local housing-insecure individuals and institutional racism related to housing policies and practices were addressed in the first two episodes. Later episodes will feature Kettia, a working mother of two who never expected to experience eviction, and institutional actors, including Brown, that continue to have an impact on neighborhoods and housing. The final episode will explore possible policy solutions.