The People's Recorder

Spark Media, Inc.
  • 4.9 (35)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
The People's Recorder

The People’s Recorder is a podcast about the 1930s Federal Writers’ Project: what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today. Each episode features stories of individual writers, new places, and the project's impact on people's lives. Along the way we hear from historians, novelists, and others who shed light on that experience and unexpected connections to American society today. The People's Recorder recounts a forgotten chapter in our history.  Join us on an unvarnished tour of America. The People’s Recorder is produced by Spark Media with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Florida Humanities, Virginia Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities, California Humanities and Humanities Nebraska. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 6 DAYS AGO

    Bonus Content - Discussion with the FDR Library

    Episode Summary: The Franklin Delano Library and Museum is an amazing place which just celebrated its 75th anniversary.  President Roosevelt had the idea to build the library on his family property in Hyde Park, New York, using private funds.  And then he donated the library and its historical collections, including all of his personal and official papers, to the US Government.  This started the precedent of Presidential Libraries that we continue today.   Last month, we sat down with the FDR Library and its director Bill Harris and had a great discussion about the Federal Writers' Project, its impact then, and why it still matters today.  Please join our host Chris Haley, writer-producers David Taylor and James Mirabello and historian Sara Rutkowski for a few highlights from that conversation. You can see the full discussion on the FDR Library’s YouTube channel here.   Links and Resources: Franklin Delano Roosevelt Library and Museum "Rewriting America: New Essays on the Federal Writers' Project" with Sara Rutkowski Credits: Director: Andrea Kalin Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello Editor: Amy Young Featuring music from Pond5 Featuring: Chris Haley, Bill Harris, David A. Taylor, Sara Rutkowski and James Mirabello Produced with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Florida Humanities, Virginia Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities, California Humanities and Humanities Nebraska.  For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    6 min

  2. OCT 31

    King's Speech

    This month, we're doing something a little different.  There are some amazing podcasts out there that give us a view of America through a distinctive lens. One of our favorites is Sidedoor: A podcast from the Smithsonian.   Every episode, host Lizzie Peabody sneaks listeners through Smithsonian's side door to search for stories that can't be found anywhere else. We're excited to share one of those stories. “King’s Speech” is about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the evolution of his iconic I Have a Dream speech.  It’s fascinating to chart the history of his speech and to hear how Dr. King was influenced by poet Langston Hughes, who worked with the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s and co-wrote a play with one of the writers featured in the People's Recorder, Zora Neale Hurston. Guests: Kevin Young, Director of Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture W. Jason Miller, Author of Origins of the Dream: Hughes's Poetry and King's Rhetoric Enjoy the episode!  To hear more, search for Sidedoor wherever you get your podcasts or go to www.si.edu/sidedoor. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    37 min

  3. SEP 26

    09 Is This Land Your Land?

    Episode Summary: This episode features two more stories of outsiders remaking themselves and California history.  Eluard McDaniel left the Jim Crow South for California as a boy, and remade himself as an activist and writer on the West Coast. His account of his life brought him national attention when it appeared in American Stuff, a book of creative works by members of the Federal Writers’ Project and Federal Art Project selected by Henry Alsberg. Miné Okubo was a rising artist with the Federal Art Project who drew on her art and her life story to depict a hidden history of injustice during World War II in her book Citizen 13660. Even decades later, a culture of silence surrounded that experience – until her book won an American Book Award and became testimony that sought redress for Japanese Americans incarcerated during the war. Speakers: David Bradley, novelist Seiko Buckingham, niece of Miné Okubo Jeanie Tanaka, niece of Miné Okubo David Kipen, journalist and author Links and Resources: "American Stuff" anthology by members of the Federal Writers' Project and prints by the Federal Art Project 'Citizen 13660" short film by the National Park Service "Sincerely, Miné Okubo" short film from the Japanese American National Museum "Pictures of Belonging" 2024 art exhibition Eluard McDaniel entry, Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives Reading List: Citizen 13660, by Miné Okubo Miné Okubo: Following Her Own Road, by Greg Robinson The Dream and the Deal, by Jerre Mangione “Bumming in California” by Eluard McDaniel, in On the Fly: Hobo Literature and Songs, 1879 – 1941, PM Press The Chaneysville Incident: A Novel, by David Bradley Dear California, by David Kipen Black California, edited by Aparajita Nanda California in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the Golden State with introduction, by David Kipen Credits: Host: Chris Haley Director: Andrea Kalin Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello Writer: David A. Taylor Editor: Ethan Oser Assistant Editor: Amy Young Story Editor: Michael May Additional Voices: Jared Buggage, Mariko Miyazaki, Kate Rafter and Amy Young Featuring music and archival from:  Pete Seeger Joseph Vitarelli Bradford Ellis Pond5 Library of Congress National Archives and Records Administration The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Manny Harriman Video Oral History Collection, Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, NYU Special Collections. For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder Produced with support from: National Endowment for the Humanities California Humanities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    34 min

  4. AUG 22

    08 Outsiders Remaking History

    Episode Summary: California has always attracted outsiders, from the Gold Rush in the 1800s to young actors and filmmakers drawn to Hollywood. California was especially a place of migration during the Great Depression, when tens of thousands came searching for jobs and new beginnings.  This is the first of two episodes about writers displaced by the Depression who took different paths to remaking themselves in California and documenting America. Future composer Harry Partch was more comfortable as a migrant than in straight mainstream society. Tillie Olsen found her way from Nebraska to become a reporter-activist who faced long odds to becoming a writer as a woman in the 1930s.  With their work on the Federal Writers’ Project, Olsen and Partch helped create an expansive picture of California, people in migration, and the day-to-day reality that included deep labor unrest. Tensions that roiled across America boiled over in the California Writers’ Project, signaling the struggles to come in the national office.  Speakers: David Bradley, novelist Mary Gordon, novelist Andrew Granade, musicologist and biographer David Kipen, journalist and author Links and Resources: California and the Dust Bowl - Oakland Museum of California California Gold: Story Map of 1930s California Folk Music "What Kind of Worker is a Writer" (about Tillie Olsen) by Maggie Doherty in The New Yorker "I Stand Here Ironing" by Tillie Olsen "U.S. Highball," composed by Harry Partch, performed in 2018 Harry Partch: The Outsider Reading List: California in the 1930s: The WPA Guide to the Golden State with introduction, by David Kipen Harry Partch, Hobo Composer, by S. Andrew Granade Tell Me a Riddle, by Tillie Olsen The Chaneysville Incident: A Novel, by David Bradley Payback: A Novel, by Mary Gordon Credits: Host: Chris Haley Director: Andrea Kalin Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello Writer: David A. Taylor Editor: Ethan Oser Assistant Editor: Amy Young  Story Editor: Michael May Additional Voices: Karen Simon, Tim Lorenz, Steve Klingbiel, Sarah Supsiri, and Ethan Oser Featuring music and archival from:  Joseph Vitarelli Bradford Ellis Pond5 Library of Congress National Archives and Records Administration BBC For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder Produced with support from: National Endowment for the Humanities California Humanities. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    45 min

  5. JUL 25

    07 A Voice for the Land

    Episode Summary: In the 1930s when America was deep in the disaster of the Dust Bowl, Wisconsin professor and wildlife expert Aldo Leopold brought a new way of thinking about how people engage with nature. Studying the dynamics of soil erosion and people’s behavior, he made suggestions for change that led him to the White House to meet the President. Leopold faced a personal crisis too, while writing his way toward a new understanding of our relationship with nature. When the Federal Writers’ Project recruited him to write for the WPA Guide to Wisconsin, the picture he described in the guide’s section on Conservation marked a path toward the modern environmental movement. In this episode, Leopold’s biographer, Curt Meine, connects the dots to Earth Day and a new generation of environmentalists. Speakers: Curt Meine, biographer Douglas Brinkley, historian Tim Hundt, journalist Links and Resources: Aldo Leopold film on PBS Gaylord Nelson announces the first Earth Day Human Powered Podcast, episode on The Driftless region Reading List: WPA Guide to Wisconsin A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work by Curt Meine You Are Here: Poetry in the Natural World, edited by Ada Limón  Credits: Host: Chris Haley Director: Andrea Kalin Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello Writer: David A. Taylor Editor: Ethan Oser Story Editor: Michael May Additional Voices: Tim Lorenz and Susanne Desoutter Featuring music and archival from:  Joseph Vitarelli Bradford Ellis Pond5 Library of Congress National Archives and Records Administration Wisconsin Humanities Also featuring the song “Wisconsin” performed by Madilyn Bailey.  Written by Madilyn Bailey, Martijn Tienus, John Sinclair and Clifford Golio, and produced by Clifford Golio and Joseph Barba.  Find the full song here and visit her Spotify artist page to hear more.     For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder Produced with support from: National Endowment for the Humanities Wisconsin Humanities Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    32 min

  6. JUL 11 · BONUS

    Bonus Content - A Conversation with Gerald Hill

    Episode Summary: Gerald Hill is an Oneida lawyer and the former President of the Indigenous Language Institute. This bonus features a conversation with Hill, who provides the voice for Oneida community leader Oscar Archiquette in our episode about the WPA Oneida Language Project in Wisconsin. For that episode, Hill read a handful of Archiquette’s quotes about his life and work on the WPA. After each reading, he gave valuable historical and cultural context for those quotes, which we are excited to share with you.  Before you listen to this conversation, we strongly recommend you listen to Episode 6: Native Historians Do Stand-Up, which is about Oscar Archiquette and the WPA Oneida Language Project, and how that work still inspires tribal historians today.  Links and Resources: Oneida Nation Cultural Heritage Webpage Oneida Books Rediscovered Further Reading: Oneida Lives edited by Herbert Lewis Soul of a People by David A. Taylor Credits: Director: Andrea Kalin Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello Editors: Amelia Jarecke and James Mirabello Featuring music from The Oneida Singers and Pond5 Produced with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Wisconsin Humanities.  For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    27 min

  7. JUN 20

    06 Native Historians Do Stand-up

    Episode Summary: In 1977, Charlie Hill became the first Native comedian to perform on a national TV broadcast – a groundbreaking performance in television and cultural history.   “It was a huge moment,” said Seminole filmmaker Sterlin Harjo, “When Charlie Hill went on national television and simply spoke like a human being... He changed the public perception about what a Native person is.”  Charlie Hill’s comedic approach to the Oneida story is part of a long lineage of storytellers and historians defying stereotypes that includes Oscar Archiquette, a young Oneida working construction when the Federal Writers’ Project came to Wisconsin in the 1935. Archiquette joined a local unit of the Writers’ Project that sought to preserve the Oneida language and histories by interviewing elders and transcribing their stories. That work – and its blend of activism, culture and disarming humor – inspired later Oneida historians such as Loretta Metoxen and Gordon McLester and continues to inspire tribal historians today.   Speakers: Michelle Danforth Anderson, Oneida documentarian Gordon McLester, Oneida historian Loretta Metoxen, Oneida historian Betty McLester, Oneida elder Gerald Hill, Oneida elder Jennifer Webster, Council Member Links and Resources: Oneida Nation Cultural Heritage Webpage Charlie Hill's performance on the Richard Pryor Show, 1977 Oneida Notebooks Rediscovered, 1999 Human-Powered Podcast, Episode 5, "The Power of Indigenous Knowledge Further Reading: We Had a Little Real Estate Problem: The Unheralded Story of Native Americans in Comedy by Kliph Nesteroff Oneida Lives edited by Herbert Lewis Soul of a People: The WPA Writers’ Uncover Depression America by David A. Taylor “Indian Humor” chapter in Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria Jr. Credits: Host: Chris Haley Director: Andrea Kalin Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor and James Mirabello Writer: David A. Taylor Editor: Ethan Oser Story Editor: Michael May Additional Voices: Scott Nelson Elm, Gerald Hill, Ethan Oser and Marjorie Stevens Special Thanks: Christopher Powless Featuring music and archival material from:  The Oneida Singers Joseph Vitarelli Bradford Ellis Pond5 Library of Congress National Archives and Records Administration NPR MSNBC For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder Produced with support from: National Endowment for the Humanities Wisconsin Humanities Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    46 min

  8. JUN 13 · BONUS

    Bonus Content - Adapting Life Story Interviews to Crises Today

    Episode Summary: The Federal Writers’ Project interviews, collected in the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, have inspired generations with their personal experiences of American life. The Writers’ Project pioneered oral history and the idea of documenting history from the grassroots up. In this bonus, following the episode on the Writers’ Project interviews in Florida, we hear excerpts from oral histories recorded with the nonprofit group StoryCorps. In two conversations, four Floridians talked about their experiences early in the Covid pandemic when frontline workers, often people of color, were particularly vulnerable. StoryCorps, launched in 2003 with original WPA writer Studs Terkel on hand, is one of many oral history initiatives directly inspired by the Writers’ Project interviews. Links and Resources: American Folklife Center, Library of Congress Storycorps Tips for a great oral history interview Credits: Host: Chris Haley Director: Andrea Kalin Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello Editors: James Mirabello, Amy Young and Ethan Oser Writer: David A. Taylor Featuring music and archival material from: Pond5 Interview excerpts shared with permission from StoryCorps. The StoryCorps interviews were recorded and produced by StoryCorps and originally aired on April 17th and May 15th, 2020 on NPR’s Morning Edition. Those broadcasts were made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder Produced with support from: National Endowment for the Humanities Virginia Humanities Florida Humanities Wisconsin Humanities California Humanities Humanities Nebraska Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    5 min
See All (17)

Trailer

4.9
out of 5
35 Ratings

About

The People’s Recorder is a podcast about the 1930s Federal Writers’ Project: what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today. Each episode features stories of individual writers, new places, and the project's impact on people's lives. Along the way we hear from historians, novelists, and others who shed light on that experience and unexpected connections to American society today. The People's Recorder recounts a forgotten chapter in our history.  Join us on an unvarnished tour of America. The People’s Recorder is produced by Spark Media with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Florida Humanities, Virginia Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities, California Humanities and Humanities Nebraska. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Spark Media, Inc.
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2024
  • Episodes
    17
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Spark Media, Inc.
  • Show Website
    The People's Recorder

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada