The Kitchen Sisters Present

A pioneer in her field, Catherine Bauer Wurster was advisor to five presidents on urban planning and housing and was one of the primary authors of the Housing Act of 1937. During the 1930s she wrote the influential book Modern Housing and was one of the leaders of the "housers" movement, advocating for affordable housing for low-income families.   Catherine Bauer’s life divided into two names and two geographies:  her urban east coast youth, and her later life in the Bay Area. She hobnobbed with the bohemian elite of the interwar years….brilliantly charming  the big architect names of the Weimar Republic, Paris cafe society, and the International Style:  Gropius, Mies, Corbusier, Oud, May, and her lover, Lewis Mumford.  Her glamour and charismatic presence endeared her to trade unionists, labor leaders, and politicians—who she tried to turn to her vision of housing as a worthy responsibility of the government—sexier and leftier during the Depression. Her arguments were a harder sell in the red scare fifties and ran into a dreary deadlock in the suburban sixties, as she later wrote from her west coast stronghold at the University of California, Berkeley. In the Bay Area she developed an academic career that also included her husband architect William Wurster, a daughter, and a house on the bay – all surrounded by the nature she quickly grew to love. Her legacy lives on to this day, as even the latest of housing legislation echoes the progressive ideals she was advocating for in her prime.   Produced by Brandi Howell for the New Angle Voice podcast from the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation. Editorial advising from Alexandra Lange. Thanks to host Cynthia Phifer Kracauer. Special thanks in this episode to Barbara Penner, Gwendolyn Wright, Sadie Super, Matthew Gordon Lasner, Katelin Penner, and Carol Galante.  Archival recordings are from the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library. Funding from the New York State Council on the Arts. 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 Radiotopia from PRX.

Phyllis Birkby became a significant figure in extending the lesbian women's movement to architecture during the 1970s

It is Tuesday, November 5, 2024, the day when millions of Americans go to the polls to vote for who will lead their towns, their states, the nation. Souls to the polls today across the country, and so much hangs in the balance. On this fraught and tender Tuesday, when all our nerves are frayed, we offer a moment of respite and contemplation — an episode of the podcast Constellation Prize from radio producer and filmmaker Bianca Giaever, featuring writer, poet and activist Terry Tempest Williams. Constellation Prize is a podcast from The Believer Magazine. This story is Episode 1 of a 4 part series. You can hear the whole Nightwalking series and more episodes of Constellation Prize wherever you find your podcasts. Our thanks to Bianca, The Believer, and the poet laureate of nightwalking, Terry Tempest Williams, for allowing us to share this story. The music in Nightwalking is by Ishmael Ensemble, John Carroll Kirby and Elori Saxl. Our theme music is "Day of the Dead" by Ted Savarese. We’re dropping this podcast on Tuesday, November 5. If you’re hearing it today and haven’t already voted we hope you’re headed to the polls for a little night voting. The Kitchen Sisters Present... is part of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent podcasts that widen your world. Thanks for listening.

July 17, 2024, Washington, D.C. Some 200 young people from across the nation aged 14-19 — aspiring poets, storytellers, MC's, activists — are gathered in the nation’s capital for the 29th annual Brave New Voices Festival — four non-stop days of slam poetry competition, coaching, workshops, late-night freestyling and in 2024, voting information. In summer, as the election loomed larger and larger we decided to turn our microphone to young people across America to hear their thoughts and feelings about the nation, about voting, about the election. Everyone always says young people are the future. But the truth is they are the present. And it is all on their plate. The Kitchen Sisters and producer Bianca Giaever traveled to the Brave New Voices Festival to take in the poets and their poetry, to listen and take the pulse of the moment. The hope, the scope, the vote.  On July 21, the day after the festival ended, President Biden dropped out of the race. Keep that in mind as you listen.   The Hope & The Scope was produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) and Bianca Giaever and mixed by Jim McKee. In collaboration with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Funding for The Hope & the Scope comes from The Robert Sillins Family Foundation, Susan Sillins & The Buenas Obras Fund. Special thanks to all the poets, the teams, the coaches, to the fabulous Future Corps 2024 and to all the staff, volunteers and radiant community of Brave New Voices. And to all we interviewed at the festival. Very special thanks to Youth Speaks, trailblazers of local and national youth poetry slams, festivals, mentoring, youth education and development — creators of the Brave New Voices Festival. Deep bow to Executive Director Michelle Mush Lee, Communications Director Bijou McDaniel, Stephanie Cajina, Joan Osato, James Kass, to Paige Goedkoop, Jamie DeWolf and Pawn Shop Productions and especially to Bianca Giaever who joined us in Washington, D.C. and came with her mic blazing. The Kitchen Sisters Present... is part of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, thought-provoking, deeply-produced, highly-entertaining podcasts that widen your world. Thanks for listening. Thanks for subscribing.

Tupperware, which gave generations of women a chance to make their own money outside the home, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. We revisit a story from the early years of The Kitchen Sisters about the iconic plasticware brand.