‘Humankind’ Series Serves Up Inspiring, Surprising Stories

David Freudberg has spent a great deal of time over the last 20 years traveling around the country producing documentaries for public radio. In the process of meeting countless people from all walks of life, he says, he has detected an increased feeling of isolation among Americans and a deep desire for more meaningful human connections outside the home.

“I hear from people over and over again that we need more of a sense of community,” Freudberg says. “American culture has unfortunately gotten very fragmented. People feel disconnected in their cars and in their living rooms where they’re isolated in front of their television. We need some way to forge deeper bonds with community.”

These troubling observations finally led the 44-year-old Boston-area resident to produce a 14-part series titled “Humankind.” It airs this week on KPCC-FM (89.3), beginning today at 9 a.m.

“Humankind” presents inspirational stories about a variety of people who have reached out to strangers with genuine compassion and generosity or who have overcome adversity through these same qualities.

On Tuesday, for example, “Unconditional Love” tells touching stories surrounding an all-volunteer hospice in North Carolina where patients receive free care. It includes interviews with people who have left their jobs and sometimes their homes in order to care for others at the hospice.

Freudberg believes there is a public thirst for this kind of inspiring journalism. He also feels these types of stories are being largely ignored by a media largely obsessed with more sensationalistic topics.

“The media is overly exploitative,” he states. “We can choose a higher road. I just got a letter this week from somebody in Utah who is recovering from an illness. She said the ‘Humankind’ series was healing and it really uplifted her. I get a lot of calls, letters and e-mails like that. People want to have a media that is constructive. Instead, they feel a lot of it is a toxic force.”

One of Freudberg’s most memorable experiences while making the series involved a summer camp in Maine where Palestinian and Israeli teenagers converge in an attempt to understand one another and create friendships. “Peace Camp” airs today.

“One night a couple of Israeli kids and a couple of Palestinian kids were sitting around strumming a guitar and singing in their squeaky adolescent voices,” Freudberg recalls. “They really cherished those friendships they had made. You could see it was very genuine. But sadly one of the kids said, ‘I’m kind of afraid of going home. Here we don’t even think about 1/8the Israeli-Palestinian conflict 3/8. We’ve become friends. We play sports together, we tell jokes and we have a great time together. But when we go home, reality is going to hit me.’ That was just very poignant.”

The intriguing question of how much an individual should donate to charity is examined in Tuesday’s “Giving Back” documentary. Freudberg believes this is a vital issue that is rarely discussed.

“We hear millions of appeals to please give money to this or that 1/8cause 3/8,” he observes. “But how do people make those decisions of where and when to give and how much to give? Sometimes the worst thing you can do is give. How do you determine whether something is worthwhile? I’m fascinated by these questions because I wrestle with them myself.”

“Giving Back” includes a story about a young couple in Cambridge, Mass., who decide to become philanthropists even though they possess very little money. They end up setting aside $3,000 or $4,000 for charitable giving. But instead of giving this money away to some faceless organization, the couple send out fliers to public schools asking if any teachers need extra cash for projects they haven’t been able to get funded.

“They were deluged with amazing petitions from these schools just asking for $200 or $300 for small things,” Freudberg explains. “They were so touched by the human connection. This was a case where they were really interacting directly rather than through some anonymous nonprofit. I just thought it was a very neat idea.”

Freudberg is attempting to raise funding for another series of “Humankind” documentaries. He admits he was surprised to find so much positive, humanitarian work being done at the grass-roots level. He believes there are enough stirring stories to sustain a “Humankind”-type of series for years.

* “Humankind” airs 9-11 a.m. today, Tuesday and Wednesday, and 9-10 a.m. Thursday on KPCC-FM (89.3). Cassettes can be ordered at https://www.humanmedia.org