Uptown Chats

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About

Join Jaron and Lonnie as they explore issues in their community through the eyes of everyday people, and discuss how environmental justice is showing up in the news. It’s not just for experts, it's for everyone!

The podcast is officially 1 year old! Now that we're older and wiser, we're releasing episodes twice each month - on the second and last Monday of each month.

Uptown Chats is the official podcast of WE ACT for Environmental Justice. WE ACT was founded in 1988 and has offices in New York City and Washington, D.C. You can find us online at weact.org.

Meet our Hosts

Jaron Burke

Jaron is the Environmental Health Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. He coordinates WE ACT's community based air quality monitoring and leads the Healthy Homes campaign focused on reducing household exposures to mold, lead, and air pollution along with other hazards. He has a passion for addressing the health impacts of climate change and promoting social justice.

Lonnie J. Portis

Lonnie “LJ” Portis is an Environmental Policy and Advocacy Coordinator at WE ACT for Environmental Justice, focusing on the organization’s New York City policy initiatives. Working as a policy and management consultant before joining WE ACT, LJ collaborated with a New York City Councilmember to explore the adaptive reuse of Rikers Island for urban farming. He studied the various modes of urban farming, clean energy production, and public land use opportunities as part of this project, which sparked his interest in urban environmental policy and advocacy work and eventually led him to join WE ACT.