UnionDocs is thrilled to welcome Emanuele Berry and Diane Wu from This American Life to talk about one of their most recent works, Umbrellas Up. Umbrellas Up is a six-part audio series chronicling the protests in Hong Kong through a broad cross section of experience. Spanning from a group of 22-year-olds who believe their generation is cursed, to a conversation between an anti-cop protester and his father who worked as a policeman, Umbrellas Up tasks itself with documenting a massive reporting project centered on a city half-way across the globe.

We are delighted to have Emanuele Berry and Diane Wu in attendance for conversation with radio documentarians Carter Conley and Mooj Zadie. Together they will explore how to cover protests in surprising, human ways.

The conversation will be followed by an audience Q+A.

Illustrations by Yu.

For over 100 days now, protesters in Hong Kong have taken to the streets every weekend. We will listen to excerpts from this six part series to portray what it’s like to live through that.

Emanuele Berry is an Editor at This American Life. She came to This American Life from Gimlet Media. There she worked on several shows including The Nod, Undone and StartUp. Previously, Emanuele worked as a public radio reporter in Michigan and Missouri. Emanuele is a 2014 AIR New Voices Scholar. She is also the recipient of a 2015 Fulbright award to Macau, China.

Diane Wu is the managing editor of This American Life. She’s also worked at Science Vs from Gimlet Media. Before becoming a radio producer, she was a scientist.

Carter Conley is a video maker and editor. She is currently working on a feature length documentary on climate change and is a MFA candidate at Hunter College.

Mooj Zadie is a radio documentarian and music video director. He currently helps edit Fresh Air with Terry Gross on NPR. His recent work includes a half-hour long radio story about the performance artist Vanessa Place, produced with Carter Conley, and a listicle of the best music videos of 2019.