Champions of the Lost Causes podcast summer road trip

Champions of the Lost Causes podcast host Marvin Stockwell -- along with his daughter Vieve and his son Cormac -- will crisscross 17 states in five weeks this summer to document stories of people changing the world by championing causes.

"In my first 40 episodes, I've come to feel a real kinship with the people I've had on the show," Stockwell said. "Most of those episodes have featured people in my hometown of Memphis. I've interviewed a handful of people in other cities over Zoom, but nothing can replace face-to-face interaction and seeing the work first-hand. I thought it was time to see what’s happening in the rest of the country."

Stockwell began the podcast in 2019 to take his curiosity beyond his own civic cause – saving and reopening Memphis' shuttered Mid-South Coliseum.

"I first got curious about why I had the fire in the gut," said Stockwell, who began writing the full-length book, Champions of the Lost Causes, in 2018. "I wanted to get another lens on why people champion causes and learn from their experiences. This road trip is an extension of that."

We will travel along the route below, recording Champions of the Lost Causes podcast episodes along the way.

6/5: Ft. Smith, AR

6/6: Tulsa, OK

6/7: Wichita, KS

6/8: Oklahoma City, OK

6/9: Dodge City, KS

6/10: Drive to Colorado Springs

6/10-11: Colorado Springs

6/12-14: Denver

6/14: Durango, CO

6:15: Santa Fe/Albuquerque, NN

6/16: Flagstaff, AZ

6/17-18: Phoenix, AZ

6/18-20: Los Angeles

6/20-21: San Francisco, CA

6/22: Santa Cruz, CA

6/23: Redding, CA

6/24-27: Christmas Valley, OR

6/27-7/1: Portland, OR

7/2-3: Seattle/Tacoma

7/4: Vancouver, BC

7/5: Spokane, WA

7/6: Bozeman, MT

7/7: Keystone, SD

7:8: Minneapolis, MN

7:9: Des Moines. IA

7:10: St. Louis, MO

7:11: Drive to Memphis

In telling the stories of people championing causes, we will demonstrate that we all have the potential to change the world within our spheres of influence. The lost causes aren't lost, it turns out, because we found them, and increasingly, we are finding each other, for mutual aid and mutual encouragement. When people are encouraged, they are more likely to work to make positive changes in their community. That will resonate back to our hometown of Memphis, too! Listeners to the show tell me they are encouraged about what's going on in Memphis and elsewhere. So much on the news is negative, but my podcast features uplifting stories of hope. Stories of people working to change our city, our nation and our world are uplifting, and it makes people taking action much more likely. More people working to improve their communities will lead to the reform of society and, ultimately, toward bending the long more arc of the universe toward justice, as Dr. King described it.