A Tiny Plot: Trailer

It's barricades vs. bobcats, tents vs. tiny homes and a team of people fighting to stay together. Listen to a radical experiment in freedom that puts an entire city under the microscope… "A Tiny Plot” is a new series from KQED’s Snap Studios. Producer Shaina Shealy embedded with a group of people in an encampment in Oakland at a park called Union Point. They were ordered to disperse, running out of time, but they were bound together by an extraordinary new idea: their own living space where they can set their own rules. Over five episodes, we learn the story of Mama D, Papa Eddie, President Matt and more. They invite listeners in to witness high-stakes decisions, devastating failures and wild successes. Episode 1 drops August 21, 2025. Episodes will drop on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Listen right here on Snap Judgment. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices https://dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

• 0:02Speaker 00

  In Oakland, California, a group of people living on the streets came together for an idea.

• 0:09Speaker 01

  A tiny house community of our own. I want to see this work. I want to see this actually work for the city. And we don't want to go without each other.

• 0:17Speaker 00

  It wasn't just an experiment. It was a lifeline. And this group of people, they were ready to fight for it.

• 0:26Speaker 01

  You're not going to only mess with that one person. You're going to mess with everybody here.

• 0:33Speaker 00

  From KQED Snap Studios, this is A Tiny Plot. I'm Shaina Shealy. And for the past few years, I've been following this small group of people in an epic battle for their own place on their own terms.

• 0:47Speaker 02

  You guys have the privilege and the responsibility to build your own space out how you want it. So now's the time to show up.

• 0:55Speaker 01

  I don't want to be homeless anymore.

• 0:57Speaker 03

  An audit in the city of Oakland found that the city is not prepared to deal with the homeless crisis.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  So we was holding these shields like, go ahead, try to come through because we're not letting you in.

• 1:12Speaker 04

  It's an incredible parcel of land, and the fight over how that land would be used really galvanized this movement.

• 1:18Speaker 05

  What if it fails? What if it was made to fail?

• 1:22Speaker 00

  What happens when people who've been shut out of a system that's failed them decide to take the lead, to write their own rules?

• 1:33Speaker 00

  And when it all starts to fall apart, who gets to decide what's worth saving?

• 1:39Speaker 01

  Man, we did something. We accomplished something. Now let's see how much further we can go.

• 1:49Speaker 00

  Listen to A Tiny Plot, a five-part series about scarcity, survival, and the one thing people in this group wanted most: control over their own lives. A story told by the people who lived it. Episode 1 drops right here on August 21. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.