Technical.ly followed 10 Philadelphians for our Thriving audio doc. Hear the trailer

Ghulam Danesh and his family fled Kabul as the US military withdrew from Afghanistan. He now lives in the Oxford Circle neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, where he’s trying to piece together a new life.

Linda Hines has lived in South Philly her entire life, working childcare jobs on a high school education. A nationwide labor shortage in early childhood education means she’s an older worker that the American economy needs to retain — but she needs new certifications.

Colombia-born Gisselle Poveda is expanding her family’s North Philadelphia restaurant, and Michael Tan is still recovering his Old City pastry shop from the wreckage of the pandemic.

Dorianna Diaz is trying to mix gig work with her life as an artist, and Jaquan Fields has a dream of growing the birthday clown business he’s grown out of Frankford where he lives now into a fully-fledged traveling circus.

These stories are remarkable and yet so commonplace. These people are a few of the 10 Philadelphians whose economic journey Technical.ly has followed for more than a year as part of our Thriving project — which has featured more than a hundred interviews from a dozen US cities and focus groups. The goal? Add lived experience to the rich data we have about what it takes to economically thrive in the United States.

The project is culminating with an audio documentary that we’re releasing as a 10-part podcast. We at Technical.ly led the project and produced the audio doc with Rowhome Productions, thanks to support from the William Penn Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts and the Knight Foundation. Listen to the series trailer below.

For those in Philadelphia, join us tonight to celebrate the release of the first episode.

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This report is part of Thriving, a yearlong storytelling initiative from Technical.ly focused on the lived experiences of Philadelphia and comparative city residents. The goal is to generate insights about the economic opportunities and obstacles along their journeys to financial security. Here's who we're focusing on and why.