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The Kitchen Sisters Present

Radiotopia

The Kitchen Sisters Present… Stories from the b-side of history. Lost recordings, hidden worlds, people possessed by a sound, a vision, a mission. Deeply layered stories, lush with interviews, field recordings and music. From powerhouse NPR producers The Kitchen Sisters (The Keepers, Hidden Kitchens, The Hidden World of Girls, The Sonic Memorial Project, Lost & Found Sound, and Fugitive Waves). "The Kitchen Sisters have done some of best radio stories ever broadcast" —Ira Glass. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced in by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) in collaboration with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell and mixed by Jim McKee. A proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    Lutah Maria Riggs Designs the American Riviera

    Stucco arches, red tile floors, exposed beams — the look and feel of the houses in the oceanfront towns of Santa Barbara and Montecito can be attributed to a woman architect known by one name: Lutah.  The Ohio-born and California-bred architect Lutah Maria Riggs was on track to be a teacher, one of few professions to welcome women in the early 20th century, when she won a scholarship to Berkeley by selling newspapers. Like architect Julia Morgan before her, she gained entry to the university's Beaux Arts influenced architecture program – one of only four women in her class. Also like Morgan, she was talented enough to capture the interest and mentorship of the head of the program, John Galen Howard, and a series of other older male architects who helped her launch her career and chaperoned her travel to Mexico, Spain, and other countries whose architecture was highly influential in California in the 1920s.  Riggs's most famous public project, the Lobero Theater in downtown Santa Barbara, was directly influenced by a serendipitous stop in Spain. Traveling on her own, Riggs took advantage of the network of women's hotels and clubs available in those days. She was always up for a dance, and was even friends with Martha Graham when the modern dance pioneer spent time in Santa Barbara.  Her work has helped define the indoor-outdoor, casual, one-story style that is most identified with southern California today. That has made her houses highly prized for their luxurious materials, swoon-worthy views, and easy living. Unlike many architects who focused on public commissions, many of her houses are still extant, and the real estate agents know what they've got. Zoe Saldana lives in a Lutah today, and architecture enthusiast Ellen DeGeneres has in the past. Riggs – who lived until the 1980s – continues to be one of Santa Barbara's most celebrated architects.   Produced by Brandi Howell for the New Angle Voice Podcast presented by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell.The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of PRX's Radiotopia podcast network.

    43 min

  2. 17 FEB

    Louis Jones - Activist Archivist, Detroit

    Louis Jones is a keeper— working as a Field Archivist at the Reuther Library at Wayne State University in Detroit, he cares for the largest labor archive in North America. Home to numerous union and labor collections from around the country, the Reuther Library also actively collects material documenting Detroit’s civil rights movement, women’s struggles in the workplace, the LGBTQ Archive of Detroit and more. Born in New York City, the grandson of a Pullman porter, Jones takes us through the archives with stories of the United Auto Workers, Cesar Chavez, Utah Phillips, A. Philip Randolph, the Civil Rights Movement, the 1967 Detroit uprising, and how archivists are examining and re-imagining their roles in the midst of Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement. Special thanks to the Reuther Library at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan; Nancy Beaumont and the Society of American Archivists (SAA); Paulina Hartono; The National Endowment for the Humanities; and supporters of The Kitchen Sisters Productions. Produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell.  The Kitchen Sisters Present is part of Radiotopia from PRX.

    23 min

  3. 3 FEB

    Betty Reid Soskin - Sign My Name to Freedom - 1921-2025

    On December 21, 2025, activist and trailblazer Betty Reid Soskin passed away in Richmond, California. She was 104. Over the years we've chronicled Betty's remarkable story and want to share it today in honor of Betty and Black History Month. In 2011, at age 89, Betty became America's oldest national park service ranger, a position she held until she retired at 100. Her bold and forthright tours and talks at the Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front Museum were legendary. As a Black woman who worked in the segregated war effort, she spoke from her personal experience revealing a fuller, richer understanding of the World War II years experienced by women and people of color on the home front. Betty's Creole/Cajun family was from New Orleans and her great grandmother had been born into slavery in 1846. Displaced by the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, Betty moved with her family to Oakland, where she grew up in the late 20s and 30s. During WWII she worked as a file clerk for Boilermakers Union A-36, a Jim Crow all Black union auxiliary, where she witnessed firsthand the discrimination faced by Black workers in the wartime industry. Betty raised four children in the highly segregated Diablo Valley area where the family was subject to death threats. She and her first husband, Mel Reid, owned one of the first Black record shops west of the Mississippi located in Berkeley. She also worked as a Field Representative for California State Assembly women Dion Aroner and Lonnie Hancock. In 2016, at age 94, Betty survived a violent home invasion and returned to work at the Rosie the Riveter Museum just weeks later. A singer, songwriter, poet and musician, Betty chronicled her life and work in a memoir, "Sign My Name to Freedom," which inspired both a stage play and a documentary film. Betty received numerous awards and honors throughout her life, including a presidential coin from Barack Obama in 2015 after she lit the national Christmas tree at the White House. Special thanks to: The San Francisco Public Library and Shawna Sherman of the African American Center of the San Francisco Main Library; This is Love Podcast and creators Phoebe Judge and Lauren Spohrer; and A Lifetime of Being Betty, a Little Village Foundation recording release produced by Mike Kappus. Thanks also to Betty’s son, musician and songwriter Bob Reid  http://www.bobreidmusic.com/ The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We are part of the Radiotopia network from PRX.

    29 min

  4. 20 JAN

    The Giving Game: Andrew Carnegie and the Evils of Wealth

    The Gilded Age was a time of unparalleled wealth and prosperity in America—but it was also a time of staggering inequality, corruption, and unchecked power. Among its richest figures was Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate who built his fortune on the backs of low-paid workers, only to give it away—earning him the nickname the Godfather of American Philanthropy. He didn’t just fund libraries and universities, he championed a philosophy: that it was the duty of the ultra-wealthy to serve the public good. But, as it turns out, even philanthropy is a form of power. So, what exactly have wealthy philanthropists done with their power? We explore that question at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, inside Carnegie’s former mansion. There, a board game called Philanthropy invites players to reimagine the connection between money and power—not by amassing wealth, but by giving it away. Produced by The Smithsonian's Podcast — Sidedoor.  With host and Senior Producer Lizzie Peabody. Featuring:  Christina de León, Associate Curator of Latino Design at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum Tommy Mishima, artist and co-creator (with Liam Lee) of the installation Game Room in Cooper Hewitt's triennial Making Home David Nasaw, author of the biography Andrew Carnegie The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Part of the Radiotopia network from PRX.

    35 min

  5. 6 JAN

    Marion Cunningham: Late Bloomer, Agoraphobic, Food Pioneer

    They don't make 'em like Marion Cunningham these days. Food writer, home cook, Fannie Farmer's new incarnation, James Beard’s sidekick, wizard of waffles. Marion was a treasured friend of The Kitchen Sisters, and in 2003, we sat down with her and recorded a long conversation. We've been digging through our archive of late looking for people and stories that inspire, that illuminate, that cut a new path and nourish the soul. Marion's story ticks all those boxes and more. Marion died in 2012. She left such a big hole in the firmament when she passed, but she left so much love, wisdom, guidance, and her amazing recipe for waffles behind. You can find that recipe on our website, kitchensisters.org. This story is part of The Kitchen Sisters Grand Dames of Cooking stories —  kitchen visionaries who worked to preserve, develop and pass on traditional foodways and cultural history through the art of cooking.

    21 min

  6. 16/12/2025

    Hidden Kitchens World—With Host Frances McDormand

    Host Frances McDormand leads us through this rich international story collection of land, community and food. From the organic olive groves and vineyards being grown on confiscated Mafia land in Sicily, to secret night clubs embedded in Soviet dissident kitchens. From tales of "cooking dogs" in Medieval England, to the little-known tale of agricultural explorers — the "Indiana Joneses of the plant world" — who introduced exotic dates from the Middle East to the Coachella Valley. We also go underground into the world of wine, war, and counterfeiting. Plus, actor Gael Garcia Bernal takes us to his grandmother's Sinaloa kitchen in Mexico, Salman Rushdie takes us to Chocolate Town, Werner Herzog eats his shoe, and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti gives us his recipe for happiness. Hidden Kitchens World was produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) in collaboration with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell, along with listeners around the world. Mixed by Jim McKee.

    49 min

  7. 02/12/2025

    The Keepers—With Host Frances McDormand

    The Keepers, from The Kitchen Sisters and PRX with host, Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand. Stories of activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors and historians. Guardians of history, large and small. Protectors of the free flow of information and ideas. Keepers of the culture and the culture and collections they keep. In this hour Henri Langlois’ legendary Cinémathéque in Paris, The Keeper of the National Archives, Nancy Pearl: the first librarian action figure, The Dark Side of the Dewey Decimal System and stories of Prince’s epic vault in Minneapolis and the Lenny Bruce Archive.

    55 min

  8. 18/11/2025

    Remembering Marcyliena Morgan - Keeper of the Hip Hop Archive at Harvard

    Today, we're thinking about Marcyliena Morgan, a keeper extraordinaire, a linguistic anthropologist who founded and championed the Hip Hop Archive at Harvard.  Marcyliena Hazel Morgan was born in Chicago, May 8, 1950 and passed away September 28, 2025. We were fortunate to interview her in 2018 as part of the opening story in our NPR series The Keepers, about activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors and historians. Keepers of the culture and the cultures and collections they keep. Guardians of history large and small, protectors of the free flow of information and ideas. Individuals who take it upon themselves to preserve some part of our cultural heritage. Marcyliena Morgan was all that and more.  Our story delves into the the founding of the Hip Hop Archive and Research Institute at Harvard by Dr. Morgan and Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. to “facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art, culture, scholarship and responsible leadership through Hiphop.” You’ll hear from Professor Morgan, Professor Gates, Nas, Patrick Douthit aka 9th Wonder, an array of Harvard archivists and students studying at the archive as well as the records, music and voices being preserved there. We've also included more of our original interview with Dr. Morgan.  The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. We're part of the Radiotopia Network from PRX.

    19 min
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About

The Kitchen Sisters Present… Stories from the b-side of history. Lost recordings, hidden worlds, people possessed by a sound, a vision, a mission. Deeply layered stories, lush with interviews, field recordings and music. From powerhouse NPR producers The Kitchen Sisters (The Keepers, Hidden Kitchens, The Hidden World of Girls, The Sonic Memorial Project, Lost & Found Sound, and Fugitive Waves). "The Kitchen Sisters have done some of best radio stories ever broadcast" —Ira Glass. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced in by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) in collaboration with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell and mixed by Jim McKee. A proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.

Information

  • Channel
    Radiotopia
  • Creator
    The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia
  • Years Active
    2014 - 2026
  • Episodes
    285
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    The Kitchen Sisters Present
  • Provider
    PRX

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