♪ TINA MARTIN: Next, on "Local, U.S.A."... Five journalists travel across America on an eye-opening journey.

CHARLES SENNOTT: How do we think about this incredibly divided moment we're in as a country?

This moment needs good journalism.

We have to do the work that really matters.

We have to be there on the ground.

GIRL: I hope that people can understand that we are not judgmental, that we are not unkind, or we are not, you know, a bunch of redneck hillbillies.

That's not what we are.

You don't know what it's like to have a kid with a temperature of 102, 103, 104, and not even a, a Tylenol to give it.

You don't know what it's like.

MARTIN: In communities across the country, they report on the issues that divide us and the stories that unite us.

BRITTANY GREESON: I feel like our country has a lot of healing to do.

MARTIN: "Crossing the Divide," next, on "Local, U.S.A." ♪ "Local, U.S.A." is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

SENNOTT : How do we think about this incredibly divided moment we're in as a country?

This moment needs good journalism.

We have to do the work that really matters.

We have to be there on the ground.

We have to be sure that when we are in a community, that that community is being heard.

WOMAN: And when you think about why people are angry, I think they've got reason to be.

I think they feel cut off because they have been.

They really have been forgotten.

♪ MAN: They feel they are not really sometimes welcome.

A lot of people stigmatizing the whole community.

MAN 2: People want actual, factual information.

Don't try to make something a clickbait-y title.

WOMAN 2: I want them to be able to understand that just because where I came from doesn't change the fact that I have big dreams, and that I want to be able to change the world just a little bit.

♪ You guys, welcome.

How are you doing?

We need to hear from corners of America that we haven't heard from.

And I want you to go out with a mission to seek out voices that we're not hearing.

And they might be even representing opinions that you profoundly disagree with.

That's the divide.

Have fun, go all out, and know we're here to support you.

♪ ♪ Good morning, world.

So we're about to head out for today's reporting.

I do think journalists do need to be more open with their process.

And I think it's very important to show, like, "No, this isn't fake.

This is why it's not fake."

I think approaching journalism as a public service, instead of a commodity is sort of was draws me to the profession.

We're just normal people doing a job, and that job is to help other people understand the world around them.

I could worry about the state of the media, but the only thing I can do is really take account of my own actions, and just be the best journalist I can try to be, but that actually starts with being the best human being I can be.

♪ Hey, guys, my name is Gabriel.

I'm one of the fellows of the Crossing the Divide project, and I'm going to be running a small, behind-the-scenes blog to let you guys in on the background, inner machinations of our project.

I'm learning as I go.

Hopefully I'll get better at it throughout the journey.

My experience of always seeing injustice and being an immigrant, being on the fringe, I know what it's like.

So I try to get to people who might be disenfranchised and see if we can tell their story.

Hey, Mahlia, where are we going now?

What are we doing?

We are going to Commerce High School to talk to the students.

(school bell ringing) MAN (on radio): This is New England Public Radio news.

Every morning, 1,100 students, mostly wearing maroon polos and tan slacks, funnel through the front doors of the High School of Commerce.

Reporter Rachel Cramer, from our partners at WGBH and the GroundTruth Project, brings us the story of Springfield's lowest-performing high school, and what it means for the students there.

(talking in background) CRAMER (in radio report): On an early Monday morning, a stream of sleepy teenagers... CRAMER: I haven't been a journalist for very long.

The idea of going into new communities and reporting on issues that I wasn't familiar with was a bit daunting.

BRIAN DAMBOISE: In the city of Springfield, it is challenging, because we have, you know, high poverty levels, and we have, you know, students coming to school with different trauma exposures.

Being able to understand where they're coming from or what they've been through, it helps you reach them.

- I love history.

- That's awesome.

- I love history.

- Yeah, what are your favorite subjects?

Yours is history.

Yeah, what's yours?

- Mine is math, any kind of math.

I love math.

- That's awesome.

There are so few, like, people love math.

- I love math.

- Are you going to be an engineer?

- I want to be a pilot in the Air Force.

GREESON: I often find that a lot of times when I'm sitting across from someone and interviewing them, we have a lot in common in terms of hardship and trauma, or just, like, observations about the world that sometimes we often felt left out of.

Because there's not a lot of people of my background in journalism right now.

POSEY: I like to meet people before I, like, shove a camera in their face, and just be as transparent as possible with the whole process, because I feel like that really helps people open up some more.

SENNOTT: Education in America.

Horace Mann said it's the great equalizer.

One of the big questions we're going to go to on the panel tonight is, "Is it still the great equalizer?"

This is the Crossing the Divide fellows, there are five of them.

(audience applauding) This was a very competitive process.

These are rock stars.

You might ask, "Why aren't the fellows up here talking with you?"

The idea is that they want to be here listening to you.

We are going to be doing a lot of, like, deep-listening sessions, and we're going to be trying to really focus on not just the issues themselves, but on people and their own personal stories.

Everyone in here is courageous to tell a story, and that's what we have to remind ourselves.

This is a sacred space.

This circle is a sacred space, right?

People talk about empathy as this soft skill, or this soft thing, and there's nothing soft about it.

It's really muscular.

All these kids had very similar stories.

The majority of them, like, centered around this idea of, like, being, you know, disappointed by your parents, coming out, like, heartbreak, loss-- these very human, universal themes.

My hope for you is that you never have to go through that experience ever again.

(talking in background) BOSCO: We saw that, as income inequality has grown in recent years, the achievement gap grew.

If somebody can read a piece that I write and get one little insight about something, about a really complex issue, and say, "Oh, okay, I understand that a little bit more," that's why I do this.

Gabriel's vlog is now live.

- Hey, guys, my name is Gabriel...

I'll be doing these vlogs weekly, so make sure you check back to see more content.

And now, let's go check out our first reporting.

CRAMER (in radio report): For New England Public Radio, I'm Rachel Cramer.

CRAMER: I definitely want to work on getting more conversational in my reporting.

I can tell a big difference, me talking like I normally do and my news anchor voice, "And this is very important."

Hey everybody, just figured I'd say goodbye.

♪ GREESON: The kids in Commerce, I think they saw the story when they, like, FaceTimed us in the van on the way to Kentucky.

Like, that was amazing, that they, like, still wanted to, like, talk to us.

STUDENTS (on phone): Thank you, guys!

Thank you!

(cheering) ♪ (marching band playing "Seven Nation Army") POSEY: I've never been to Kentucky.

That was the state I was most nervous about, just because I knew that there weren't going to be many people that looked like me.

When we first arrived at the football game, like, I got off the bus, like, super-tense, just petrified, and just nervous.

But, like, as soon as we got on the football field, and we met Ms. Slone, with open arms, and she was explaining how excited she was, and how excited her students were, it just, like, totally, like, relieved that anxiety.

Like, we were just people watching a football game, and nothing's going to happen.

There are going to be individuals who are, like, "Hey, what are you doing?"

And I'm just going to be blunt.

Like, "With Crossing the Divide, "and we're doing this project "because this region has been portrayed one way, and I'm trying to photograph it differently."

♪ LEE KEYLOCK: The idea is to sort of speak with conviction, speak aloud your partner's story as best as you can, in the first person, right?

So, if I'm Mary, I'm literally going to say at the beginning of my story exchange, "Hi, I am Mary Slone, and I want to tell you about my story."

The beauty of the story exchange is that when you give your story to somebody else, they're going to filter that through their own experience.

So it's not always going to always be a replicate of what you said, but the truth of it, there will be a truth that maybe you didn't even see to your story, and we have to give each other permission to do that.

PRESTON: "Hi, my name is Becca, and I'd like to tell you a story about an event in my life."

"My name is Preston.

When I was younger I was very sheltered."

"My name is Lizzie, "and I'm going to tell you a personal story.

"Come the sixth or seventh week of freshman year, "my dad passed away.

"Even though I was grieving it, my mom grieved it harder.

"She was basically grieving herself to death.

"And then come around mid-January, "and I go home, "and as I walk in, and I see her, and she's not breathing.

"And, so in short, she passed away that day.

"This woman was my best friend, "my role model, my hero, but most of all, she was my mom."

KEYLOCK: Thank you so much for sharing your stories.

They are... it's not easy, right?

You can, like... (exhales) You can let it go now, you can shake it off, right?

How do you feel now that you've told that one?

- Yeah, I definitely feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

GREESON: Lizzie Jones was a, a young woman I met.

I thought, like, with her talking about the loss of her parents, it was so important to show that loss for people nationwide to understand that, like, there are people in eastern Kentucky who have, like, a deep amount of pain, and some of that is attributed to the coal industry in different ways outside of jobs, which is including, like, black lung and, and the loss of family members.

I asked her if she could take me to her parents' grave site.

And so we went up on the mountain to their grave site, and then I just gave her her space.

♪ She was basically having, like, a spiritual conversation with her parents.

And I thought that was really beautiful.

And for me that was, like, a breakthrough with someone I've documented, to be, like, that intimate with me.

I was photographing eastern Kentucky as a Kentuckian.

Even though I didn't grow up in Kentucky my entire life, I moved there when I was 12, and I still identify as, like, very much a Southerner, like, culturally.

I'm 24 years old, and I hadn't really spent as much time as I should have thinking about, like, what my roots were, coming from a lower-class background.

For a lot of people from that region, it's something that you feel like you have to be ashamed of, and it was almost, like, an emotionally repairing thing for me, because for the first time in my life, like, I felt like my perspective was valid.

MAN: It's no coincidence that these folks chose Appalachia, but they've done that because this region is emerging so rapidly, and there is so much potential here.

But outside these mountains, people don't see that.

ERIC BOSCO: I'm Eric Bosco.

I want to hear from all of you.

You know, if you could tell the rest of the country something about the health care in this region, that's really what I will be writing about.

I'm gonna try to tackle health care here in Kentucky.

We're gonna talk to a really awesome local expert who's almost 90 years old, named Eula Hall, and she's supposed to be really the caretaker, medically, for a lot of people in the region.

POSEY: "Oh, there's no health care "in my city, so I'm just going to go out and get some."

And she did, and she brought clean water, too.

I was just, like, "Dang, girl, what haven't you done?"

BOSCO: You talked about all the health challenges back then, but what are they like now?

You know, what do the patients deal with?

You don't know what it's like to have a kid with a temperature of 102, 103, 104, and not even a Tylenol to give it.

Who do you... no phones-- what do you do?

You rock your baby, they cry, you cry.

You know, you don't know what it's like.

You know, I've been a pretty good warrior.

I've fought like hell to make it available to the people, to everybody, not just somebody that can pay.

If they can pay, that's fine, but if they can't pay, that's fine, too.

This clinic is more like a community center.

We've got the food pantry, and we've got the clothing center.

They call it the Mud Creek Mall.

(man talking in background) WOMAN: MAN: CRAMER: What do you want the world to know about eastern Kentucky?

GIRL: I hope that people can understand that we are not judgmental, that we are not unkind, or we are not, you know, a bunch of redneck hillbillies, who, if you show up, we're going to spit chewing tobacco at you.

That's not what we are.

And I hope that people understand that eastern Kentucky is, is more than that, and that we're open to new things, and we, we love people here.

CRAMER: Mary Slone sent a comment saying that the audio-visual piece Brittany and I collaborated on was, like, the best representation of her community.

Yes.

And this is the math side, it's not a complicated thing.

CRAMER: For me, that was definitely a point in which I think we crossed that divide.

GREESON: The note that Mary Slone wrote us like, literally made me cry, and I'm not a crier.

Like, when you know that you can walk away and have, like, an impact on someone, or a community as a whole.

An editor can tell you, like, "Great job," but, like, when Mary Slone tells you, "Great job," like, you've done a really good job.

SANCHEZ: The people of Kentucky were probably some of the most lovely people that I met along the trip.

Kentucky was one of my favorite stops.

POSEY: Packing the van has begun.

♪ BOSCO: I do think it's possible to cross the divide.

I think as, as people we have certain things that we have in common with just about anybody, no matter what walk of life you're from.

CRAMER (in radio report): On a hot Friday afternoon in September, Neil Spears drives off a paved road, through a creek, and up to his friend's hemp farm... For West Virginia Public Broadcasting, I'm Rachel Cramer in Pikeville, Kentucky.

♪ SANCHEZ: Hello, St. Paul!

(man playing stringed instrument, singing in Somali) (audience snapping and clapping rhythmically) SENNOTT: Today we really hope to explore a generational divide that can sometimes open up inside an immigrant community.

You have those who remember the war and who are from there, and you have those who came here young or were born here, and who don't remember the place as much, or who don't know it at all, because they've never been there.

When you look out at it, what do you see?

What do you see in those divisions, and how do you see yourself impacted by those?

My son was actually watching something from the TV.

He came across CNN talking about Somalia.

My son's, like, "Look, your people!"

And I look, and I'm like this.

And I'm, like, "My people?"

And then, "Who are you?

I thought you were my people."

And he's, like, "No, no, no, not me-- your people, like, where you came from."

And I was, like, "Lord have mercy."

(audience laughing) It was, it was so interesting, because at that moment, I realized that my son is 100% American, and anything else that he sees, he sees Somalia-- I am Somali and maybe some American, but I am not fully American.

But he's the American.

SANCHEZ: The Somali community has been mis-portrayed or mishandled by a lot of the media.

When this advent of terrorism occurred, and they were, like, "We have to go explore this, this terroristic hotbed."

And so that's how they were approaching this entire community.

♪ (cheering) CRAMER: It was a lot tougher for us to find people to talk to, or, you know, we'd contact someone, and then they wouldn't get back to us.

It definitely gave me a greater appreciation for people who are based in communities and are building a reputation and building trust.

SANCHEZ: It was very difficult to explore and cover a community like that in two weeks.

Truth be told, we were also there as parachute journalists.

I'm from Minneapolis, and I live there.

It was being a tourist in my own house.

BOSCO: ...one of our cards?

WOMAN: No, I didn't.

- Well, take, yeah.

- Oh, thank you.

- Yeah, we'll talk about this... - There's no need.

(talking indistinctly) SANCHEZ: And I used my experience as an immigrant to say, "Look, I remember my home country of Venezuela.

"I know what it's like.

"My, my group has been miscast in the press, "and I know what that feels like, and I'm not here to do that to you."

What are we doing today?

- Today we are looking for more sources in Cedar Riverside.

- Mm-hmm.

- So far we have nothing, but we are going to get lunch.

- We have some sources.

- We have some.

- Okay.

- I don't have anything... - All right.

- ...photo-wise, so I'm freaking out.

GREESON: I wasn't frustrated at the people that we were not getting access, I was just frustrated with the premise that, like, we had this assumption that we would.

There was times where there was tension, like, "Why aren't you taking photos right now?"

It's, like, "'Cause these people blatantly don't want to be photographed."

I think the thing that was the most valuable for me was learning, like, what I will and will not do.

(talking softly) BOSCO: I haven't worked directly with a photographer or a video person, like, directly by my side through the whole process.

But really, like, being side by side as they're producing their stories showed me how similar the process is for a photographer and for a videographer and for a writer.

Even though we take different approaches, and we have different styles, we all sort of go through the same, like, creative process.

♪ My job, actually, in that moment was not about the pictures.

It was about, to leave, like, a positive memory in their mind of a journalist who, like, genuinely cared about their story, and not about just making these sensationalized images.

SANCHEZ: It's almost like diplomacy in journalism.

It's, like, tearing down that wall of politics and preconceptions about the press and their intents to be able to get to this person at a, at a human level.

♪ DAVID GILLETTE: Well, hey, everybody, and welcome to "The Wrap."

You know, it's really a platitude these days, but we do live in a very divided country.

And, Gabriel Sanchez-- University of Minnesota!

I got to shake your hand, fellow Gopher, - Yes, thank you, thank you.

- Welcome back home to Minnesota.

So what have you been learning, Gabriel?

What are these divides, what are you perceiving?

- In the Somali community, it's a lot of the young people who are really sticking to their guns in terms of tradition and identity.

- Surprised you, I bet.

- A little bit, a little bit.

As an immigrant, I had kind of an interesting experience in, in that, you kind of end up living in two separate worlds.

You have your world at home, with the traditional culture, and then you have the person you have to be in mainstream America.

For someone like me, who kind of blends in more than a Somali-American person would, the standard Somali-American person would, I wondered what they go through in these two separate worlds.

People just grow their own... POSEY: And seeing how, like, the generations...

I remember Gabriel telling me, so you were raising your kids to be just American?

- No, I mean, I want them to have both worlds.

Because I do have that, too.

NAIMA DHORE: My name is Naima Dhore, and I'm a mother of two, two boys.

And I'm a certified organic farmer in St. Croix, Minnesota.

POSEY: It was pretty refreshing with Naima, because we got, like, so much access.

Like, we even got into her home and her farm.

Best reporting day ever.

DHORE: What I want for them is to, to love their American culture and learn about their Somali culture, as well.

POSEY: The word on the street was, Naima was the first female Somali organic farmer in the state of Minnesota.

I had to verify that, and I let her know, like, "I have a verification process that I have to go to."

And like, no one could verify it yet, so I could not put that in my piece, that she is the first.

And so that was really helpful to, like, demonstrate that process.

Like, "This is how you verify a fact.

"You have to call people.

"It doesn't mean it's not true, "it's just, haven't been verified, "and I don't feel comfortable putting out a non-verified fact."

Because that is how you get fake news, and we don't do that.

♪ DHORE: We love it here, and we want to stay here for long term.

MAN: You get the lady?

- Huh?

- You get that, yesterday?

- Yes, we did.

We interviewed her, I took her portrait.

She's a total rock star.

- That's good.

- Yeah, yeah, thank you so much.

- (talks softly) - Yeah, yeah, no, thanks.

BOSCO: Take care.

CRAMER (in radio report): For Minnesota Public Radio, I'm Rachel Cramer.

Mahlia, where are we going?

- We are going to Montana.

- Yay!

SANCHEZ: I think what we are doing is, will maybe help people understand what we do and why we do it, and all these layers of confirmation and verification that is our professional standard, I think that's not understood or appreciated.

♪ ERIC WHITNEY (in radio report): I'm Eric Whitney with Montana News.

Wildfires burned more than a million acres across Montana this year.

While the smoke has cleared, the debate over wildfires and forest management is ongoing.

Some Montana lawmakers are blaming what they call "environmental extremists," who've managed to stop some logging.

From our partners at WGBH and the GroundTruth Project, Rachel Cramer reports on an effort to find common ground.

CRAMER (in radio report): Tucked in the thickly forested valley between the Mission and Swan mountain ranges of western Montana, the small tourist town of Seeley Lake feels tranquil after a dramatic wildfire season.

CRAMER: Coming into Montana, I felt pretty confident about the reporting that we were going to do, because I had time to see what happened in the other places and to kind of use those experiences.

I've been hearing some language being used around... by some of the lawmakers about environmental extremists and, and all of that.

Like, do you feel like it's a more divisive time right now?

Or is this an opportunity for collaboration?

Like, what's sort of the temperature that you're feeling?

- Yeah, in fact, it's these collaborative efforts, the, the Southwestern Crown Collaborative, this is what breaks through the gridlock.

It's when you get these diverse perspectives coming to a single table that you actually find viable political solutions.

♪ Brittany and I climbed a mountain in Montana to go set this prescribed fire with the Native American firefighters.

First of all, Brittany was scared to death of driving up this mountain.

She's in control.

(chuckles): Take a deep breath.

Well, there you are.

GREESON: I don't like this.

SANCHEZ: I offered to drive, and she's, like, "No, I'm going to prevail."

Then, when we got high enough, we ended up having to climb the more sheer part of the mountain by foot.

Little bit out of shape, clearly.

We're following those firefighters up there.

(panting): Now we're really in for it.

(Greeson exclaims) SANCHEZ: How're you feeling?

- I see why they work out.

I haven't had time on this road trip.

I'm eating fast food.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

- Journalists, this is why you've got to eat your veggies.

I gained a lot of respect for Brittany that day.

So Gabriel and I are out here, trekking this unmarked terrain with some incredible firefighters.

This is just a peek of what we're actually walking through.

GREESON: Native Americans had been controlling burns and using prescribed burns in this landscape for thousands of years.

♪ I think my goal with this really is to make something that my mom would want to look at.

I think that is something we've been missing out a lot, is how to connect with, like, common people, like, people who are real and tangible and work, you know, 16 hours a day.

That person is my mom, that character is my mom.

BOSCO: My name is Brittany, and this is the story of how I wound up living in Kentucky.

I was about 12 years old, and I went on vacation with my mom and her new boyfriend.

My dad was out of the picture, he had passed away.

We were living in North Carolina, but went to a different part for vacation, and my mom started to, to drink.

I thought maybe there were drugs involved, I couldn't really tell, I was only 12-- I didn't really know what was going on.

As we were driving, her boyfriend started to punch my mom in the face.

And we kept going, we were still driving as this fighting was happening, and eventually, I started screaming and crying and, and asking for help pretty desperately, and my mom ended up pulling the car over.

She sought refuge with our family, and that's the story of how I wound up living in Kentucky.

(participants snapping) "Hi, everyone, I'm Xavier.

"This story is about the first time that I fell in love.

"When we'd hang out after school, "and we started drinking and we started partying a lot, "I started going down this path "and kind of realizing it wasn't necessarily what I wanted, "and that it was, you know, it was kinda crazy, "and, you know, I was pretty depressed, "and then I found out that she was pregnant.

"Unfortunately, she had a miscarriage.

"We broke up about two weeks after that.

"And... "I tried to commit suicide... (choking up): four or five times..." Sorry.

"I tried to hang myself, but the rope broke.

"I tried to shoot myself, "but my brother came in and saw me.

"And that was really hard, "because he was really nervous that... "that I was going to keep hurting myself.

"Like, I'm getting better, "and I'm no longer depressed, "and it all just kind of stems from my first heartbreak.

"Hopefully, like, just learn to love myself, "and, you know, "whether people see me as something different "or I see myself as something different, "I hope that I can... "find the, the part of me that I want to be.

(softly): That's my story."

(participants snapping) Sorry.

- You did good, you did good.

Each of the Narrative 4 experiences that sort of shook up my world a little bit, because we were hearing these very intense stories that high schoolers were willing to share with us, and a lot of the students talked about suicide.

I mean, that seemed to have affected everyone.

Like, they knew someone in their family or in their school who had committed suicide or who had attempted to commit suicide.

Yeah, it just doesn't seem fair.

That, like, kids should have to go through what a lot of them have gone through.

♪ I fell in love with those kids, and Montana's landscape.

CRAMER (in radio report): For Montana Public Radio, I'm Rachel Cramer.

WHITNEY: This story came to us from Crossing the Divide, a cross-country reporting trip... BOSCO: And one of the things that I hope we get to keep doing is telling people's stories that they want to be told.

♪ Good morning, Snapchat.

We made it to beautiful California.

I'm so excited to be here.

I love Snapchat.

It's, like, my favorite social media next to Instagram.

Snapchat's really fun, just 'cause I felt like that was, like, connecting with the audience.

So the person I needed to speak to today, he was unavailable.

And I'm just going to check his schedule to talk later.

But it's always good to talk in person over the phone, just because you want to build a relationship.

My source just called back and said he's free to speak, so that's another important tip when doing journalism: stay close by in the area, because your day could change.

(organ playing) So rejoice.

I said rejoice.

Public policy makers, they have broken up the cultural enclaves in the African-American community.

Every other community is permitted to have them.

What are some similarities or some contrasts that you see between... you know, what you experienced during the Civil Rights era and what we see today?

For those, for those of us in the room who are younger.

BROWN: The only thing that's different today is that we have some laws on the books.

But in terms of the culture, in terms of the habits of the mind... (hits table): we're the same.

POSEY: The objective journalist in me was, like, "Oh, this is great."

But, like, Mahlia the person, I was, like, "He was saying a lot of, a lot of good stuff that deserved some, like, snaps."

It was really very interesting, like, when he made that analogy, like, "Oh, the Chinese have Chinatown, "the Japanese have Japantown, the Latinos have the Mission."

He's, like, "Oh, but what do the African-Americans have?"

BROWN: In San Francisco, the median income for blacks is $29,000, but for whites, it's $101,000.

That's in so-called liberal, progressive San Francisco.

GREESON: Walking around these really beautifully constructed buildings, and then you're seeing literal camps of people who have been pushed out.

And it was just, like, a really jarring contrast.

You know, almost like realizing like, too late.

That the people had already been pushed out and stripped of their community a long time ago.

People tend to fear each other because they hate each other.

They hate each other because they do not know each other.

They do not know each other because of a lack of communication.

All we need to do is get together.

What my hope is, that white folks be humble enough to connect with, fellowship with, to share with, work with black folks.

Let's stop this nonsense.

And blacks have got to have the same notion.

(talking in background) CRAMER: I would say that it's difficult for me to go up to a stranger and start talking to them.

I'm a very introverted person.

Can you explain a little bit about the organ here?

Can you... - Oh, yeah, sure!

Each one of these stops have different sounds.

I'll demonstrate a couple for you.

CRAMER: I can definitely see a change from the beginning of this trip to the end of this, where I've just gotten used to being out there a little bit more.

And so that's something that's...

I can tell, just within, like, two and a half months, that change.

♪ Reading most publications today, you'd think that everyone was fighting and at each other's throats.

And what I found surprising was that so many people were welcoming and even-keeled across the trip.

Because what I encountered along the way was just a lot of people who want the same things.

They want health care, they want their family to do well, they want to be happy, they want independence.

POSEY: Once you get down there, once you find those commonalities and you start talking to folks on the ground, like, "Oh, we're more alike than we are different."

CRAMER: All of us cared a lot about the people we were meeting, about the issues we were covering, and about the people who were going to see our work.

And I hope that we made some small step in rebuilding some of the trust that has been lost between the public and the media.

GREESON: On the ground, people are a lot more decent and a lot more complex in their standards and viewpoints and, and value systems.

And so it was an entire mosaic.

I think the country is this blend of people, and that's what made this journey for me extremely beautiful.

I think we, as journalists, have a responsibility to report against what you already think you know, or what you already know.

Just to see, maybe you find something that you didn't.

GREESON: I feel like our country has a lot of healing to do.

And, you know, we can't keep equating experiences, and we can't keep yelling over one another and be, like, "Mine's worse."

And when we just open up that conversation and start listening to each other and recognizing that it's different, I feel like our country will begin to heal.

♪ ♪ ♪ MARTIN: "Local, U.S.A." is made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

♪