Human Powered

This special episode of Human Powered is the first of three recorded during Tradition Bearers, Live!, an evening featuring Wisconsin folk and traditional artists in conversation with folklorist Chrissy Widmayer. In August, Jennifer Jorden, a master Haudenosaunee beadworker, took the stage to share her art and stories of what it means to her and her community. You might have missed the event, but you can still enjoy the conversation and celebrate the creativity, cultural traditions, and person...

Katie Waddell believes that the work we call the humanities is like a bunch of love letters being written to other humans. She is the director of C21, the Center for 21st Century Studies, one of the first humanities research centers in the United States and a part of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. C21 was awarded a grant from Wisconsin Humanities in support of public programs exploring the “attention economy.” Now entering the third year of challenging “fast” culture with Slow Knowing...

Jim Winship is an oldster with a mic and a camera. His latest project combines his background as a social worker, retired professor, storyteller, and filmmaker to create his second film, Growing Older in Rural Wisconsin. In this episode, co-hosts Jessica Becker and Jen Rubin talk with Winship about what he’s learning in a state that projects that 1 in 5 people will be over age 65 within the next two decades, and many of those people are choosing to age-in-place. Winship shares stories about a...

What is it about reading and talking about a text like Plato's Allegory of the Cave that changes a person? “There's something magical about the humanities that allows adults, especially, to stop, reflect, think, and connect,” says Kevin Mullen, Assistant Professor of Continuing Studies and the Director of Adult Education for the UW Odyssey Project. His work focuses on expanding access to higher education for low-income adult students from marginalized communities. In this episode, co-hosts Je...

“History is an argument we have about the past and what it means for us in the present,” says Sergio González. He is an assistant professor of Latinx Studies at Marquette University and was the founding editor of Wisconsin101, a collaborative history project using objects as the centerpiece of understanding. Currently one of the hosts of “The Look Back” for Wisconsin Public Television, he collaborates with the Wisconsin Historical Society to engage middle school students in big questions, lik...