Missouri Humanities

What do Walt Disney, J.C. Penney, the Pony Express, and Sliced Bread have in common? They all have incredible stories of innovation originating along Missouri’s Highway 36! Also known as The Way of American Genius, Highway 36 from St. Joseph to Hannibal connects individuals and inventions from rural communities in America's Heartland.  In this special episode, we’re sharing a previously recorded program from earlier this year. In June 2024, Missouri Humanities hosted a Think-N-Drink event in St. Joseph, Missouri, which is a series that engages Missourians in thoughtful dialogue on the humanities in a laid back setting. Join us as we explore the history of Missouri Highway 36 and how it has sparked some of this country’s great innovations and innovators, and dive into community stories about how this period of ingenuity continues to shape our small towns today!

For the latest episode of Missouri Marvels, we dig into a groundbreaking initiative from Washington University in St. Louis, The Wash U and Slavery Project. Our conversation will highlight the St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement (or SLIDE), which makes historic Census and other key data searchable online, as well as efforts to  revisit connections between slavery and WashU's earliest leaders. This discussion features Dr. Geoff Ward, Professor of African and African American Studies (AFAS); Director, WashU & Slavery Project, and Kelly Schmidt, Reparative Public Historian and Associate Director of WashU & Slavery Project.

In this episode, we invite you to meet us in St. Louis, Louis, for a conversation about the 1904 World's Fair. Joining our discussion is Adam Kloppe, a public historian with the Missouri Historical Society who worked on the new World's Fair Exhibit at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, which opened in April 2024.  We discuss both the new perspectives and harsh realities faced when creating the exhibit, as well as the innovation, grandeur, and spectacle of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition that still inspires wonder and awe to this day. 

Our guest for Episode 2 is Dr. Linda Godwin. Selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in June 1985, Dr. Godwin became an astronaut in July 1986. A veteran of four space flights, Dr. Godwin has logged over 38 days in space, including over 10 EVA hours in two spacewalks. She retired from NASA in 2010 and is now a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Missouri. Our conversation explores humankind's fascination with space, the future of space exploration, and how the Humanities and STEM are more closely linked than one might think.

Space settlement is rapidly becoming ever more likely. Will it look like the utopian vision of Star Trek? Or the dark future of Star Wars? Can our earthly ways thrive in the cosmos? For the first episode of this new season, we are thrilled to be able to share with you a previously recorded program from Missouri Humanities. On Feb 17th, 2024, Missouri Humanities held their Keynote Event for the year’s signature series at the James S McDonnell Planetarium in St Louis, the perfect setting for this conversation featuring St. Louis Public Radio’s Elaine Cha and Dr. Erika Nesvold, astrophysicist and author of "Off Earth: Ethical Questions and Quandaries for Living in Outer Space."

As we conclude our season on the Roots & Routes of Missourians, we bring it back to the beginning to discuss Missouri’s first peoples. Joining our conversation for our final episode is Greg Olson, an independent researcher and author who lives in Columbia, Missouri. Greg talks with us about the vast and complex history of native peoples in this area, as well as the massive undertaking that is writing about roughly 12,000 years of indigenous peoples. 

Dr Gene Chavez is known for documenting the life experiences of Mexican and other immigrants in the Midwest. In this episode, we discuss the impact of hispanic peoples putting down roots in Missouri, as well as Gene's work preserving Hispanic histories and his dedication to lifting up Hispanic voices, bringing awareness to these often untold or under-represented stories in Missouri and beyond.  

Our conversation for this episode features Patrick Murphy, an author and former television producer with 9 PBS in St Louis. He’s penned three books: Candy Men: The Story of Switzer’s Licorice, The Irish in St. Louis: From Shanty to Lace Curtain, and Places to Pray: Holy Sites in Catholic Missouri. We discuss the immigrant experience in Missouri, his inspiration behind writing about people and places, and why it's imperative that we continue to share stories of those who came before us and chose Missouri to put down roots, especially when it wasn’t exactly easy to do so.

Family historian and genealogist Kate Huffman helps us answer questions about finding our roots. She has over a decade of experience in the field and even started her own genealogy firm, "Historic Kate Genealogy."  We discuss the drastic increase in public interest in genealogy, how technological advancements have changed the field, and the most fascinating parts of her job. We hope this conversation helps shed some light on this complicated and certainly hot topic, and maybe helps guide you in the right direction to discover some of your own family’s roots & routes!

Part 2 of our 2-part "Black Movement" series focuses on The Great Migration in Missouri with Dr. Tony Holland, a retired professor of history and social sciences from Lincoln University and co-author of the book "The Black Heritage of Missouri." We discuss the causes and effects of this period, which is considered one of the biggest movements of people in history, as well as how we interpret and share this history today.

This episode serves as part one of a two part series about Black Movement. Our guest for this portion is Dr. Bryan Jack, a professor of History at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and author of The St. Louis African American Community and the Exodusters. The Exodusters were a group of Black migrants from the South that made the journey to Kansas by way of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers in search of better opportunity post-Reconstruction. 

Dr. Ness Sandoval joins us for Season 2's inaugural episode to help us set the stage for this idea of the “Movement and Settlement of Missourians.” He’s a demographer and sociologist at Saint Louis University, and it’s his job to help predict how places will look in the future, based on people. Our conversation digs deep into the current state of Missouri's people and places, and puts Missouri into context with other similar states in our nation.

A little "digestif" with our "Eat, THINK, & Be Merry" podcast hosts, Lisa Carrico & Caitlin Yager, and several members of the Missouri Humanities staff. In this final ET&BM episode, we wrap up the season by reflecting on some of our favorite episodes and takeaways. We also look ahead and introduce our 2023 Signature Series, "Roots & Routes: The Movement and Settlement of Missourians."

The 2022 Hunt. Fish. Gather. Program, presented by Missouri Humanities, The Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, and Washington University Dining Services, took place on November 3rd and 4th, 2022. This program creates an educational opportunity for Washington University and the local community, focused on an Indigenous model of health and wellness by incorporating traditional Native foods and decolonizing the Westernized food system here in the United States.This year, we were joined by Chef Nephi Craig (White Mountain Apache/Navajo), a pioneer in the development of restorative indigenous food practices, a term critical for social recovery and indigenous resurgence during an age of fast food and disease. Chef Nephi has 24 years of culinary experience and is the founder of the Native American Culinary Association, a network dedicated to the research, refinement, and development of Native American cuisine. Craig provides training, workshops, and lecture sessions on Native American Cuisine to schools, restaurants, and tribal entities across America and abroad.

In this episode, we integrate the humanities and science with our conversation with Bo Brown, outdoor wilderness educator, biologist, author of “Foraging the Ozarks,” and musician. We discuss the abundant plant biological diversity of the Ozarks, the popularity of foraging wild edibles—the history, the benefits, the dangers, the ethics and sustainability of foraging—and touch on cultural traditions, indigenous land management and the spiritual relationship with the earth, and the health impacts of humans transitioning from a hunting/gathering diet to an agrarian one.

This special episode is a recorded panel discussion that followed the premiere of our debut short film, "Won't You Feed My Neighbor", which highlights some of the work being done in our Missouri communities to combat food insecurity and improve access to food. The panel features Maile Auterson (Springfield Community Gardens), Jocelyn Fundoukos (Operation Food Search), and Dr. Mary Hendrickson (Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security, University of Missouri).

Adrian Miller, known as the “soul food scholar”, is a lawyer turned food writer who has written three books on the impact of African American foodways. He joins us for this special episode as we discuss his research on soul food, barbecue, and how he thinks food brings us together.  Adrian served as the keynote speaker for our 2022 MOmentum Gala, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ special initiative “A More Perfect Union”. 

In this episode, our conversation with Suzanne Corbett–acclaimed writer, producer, and food historian–digs into the many ways cookbooks, recipes, and ingredients serve as a unique kind of cultural heritage. We also discuss what it’s like to write about such an experiential topic as food, and how we can look to food writing, like cookbooks,  as a way to learn more about ourselves and our collective past.

This special episode is a recording of our 'Think-N-Drink" event that took place on April 20th, 2022, at Mother's Brewing Company in Springfield, MO. In this conversation with three local restaurateurs, we dive into how they are helping their community--and beyond-- think critically about the relationship between food, community, sustainability, and cultural ties. This event kicked off our symposium entitled "Humanities & Food: Sustenance & Sustainability in Our Communities" in partnership with Drury University.

In this episode, we highlight the surprising history of women in the beer brewing industry, and talk with two women who have made their mark brewing beer here in Missouri: Abbey Spencer of Third Wheel Brewing Co in Saint Peters, MO, and Bri Burrows at Big Rip Brewing Co. in Kansas City, MO. They discuss their unexpected career paths, some great resources available to aspiring brewers, and their varied experiences in this beloved, fast-paced, ever-changing world of beer.