Ohio Humans

Page Count, an interview-format podcast presented by Ohio Center for the Book at Cleveland Public Library, celebrates authors, librarians, booksellers, illustrators, publishing professionals, and literary advocates in and from the state of Ohio. Guests range from internationally recognized and bestselling authors to professionals working on a grassroots level to improve access to books and literacy resources.This episode was recorded before a live audience at the 2023 Ohioana Book Festival, presented in part by Ohio Humanities, at the Columbus Metropolitan Library on April 22, 2023. A panel of five authors discuss turning points in their writing careers—the good, the bad, the ugly, and the existentially fraught. This conversation covers everything from rejection to reader reactions, imposter syndrome, awards, inspiration, validation, and more.Featured authors include:Mindy McGinnis, author of the YA mystery A Long Stretch of Bad DaysRic Sheffield, author of the memoir We Got By: A Black Family’s Journey in the HeartlandJudith Turner-Yamamoto, author of the novel Loving the Dead and GoneAndrea Wang, author of the picture books Watercress and Luli and the Language of TeaFelicia Zamora, author of the poetry collection I Always Carry My BonesFor more information, visit the Ohioana Book Festival website.And, later this year, join WYSO and Ohio Humanities for the forthcoming series The Ohio Country. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

County Lines is WYSO's series focusing on small towns and rural communities in the greater Dayton area. Funded by a grant from Ohio Humanities, Community Voices producer Renee Wilde travels down the highways and back roads to tell stories of country life that go beyond the stereotypes. This week, hear three short stories from County Lines about Ohio’s rural-urban divide and the spaces in between. Listen to more stories from the series at wyso.org/county-lines.Act 1: Although the term Urban Sprawl was coined in the 1930’s, by the ‘70’s, it was a hot topic, as increasingly more rural areas, and farmland, were divided up and paved over into strip malls and subdivisions. This spreading ring around our cities where urban sprawl is happening is officially known as the Rural-Urban Fringe. Today on County Lines, producer Renee Wilde takes us there.Act 2: Looking out over the rolling farm fields from the front porch of his 94 acre farm in Gambier, located in Knox county, former Kenyon College professor and former Director of the Rural Life Center, Howard Sacks reflects on what the definition of rural character is, and what it means to him.Act 3: Steven Conn, the W.E. Smith Professor of History at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, is a regular contributor to the Dayton Daily News and the Huffington Post and a frequent lecturer in the US and around the world on a variety of topics. He’s also the editor of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective. His most recent book is Americans Against the City: Anti-Urbanism in the 20th Century. Today, he shares his thoughts about attitudes and public policy toward immigrants in southwest Ohio.And, later this year, join WYSO and Ohio Humanities again for the forthcoming series The Ohio Country. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Inspired by Socrates’s famous dictum that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” More Human, the official podcast of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Center at Cuyahoga Community College, features conversations with scholars and students in the humanities. Each episode explores how engaging with literature, philosophy, history, and art enables us to live deeper, fuller, more authentically human lives. On this episode of More Human, Dean Matt Jordan sits down with Ohio Humanities Executive Director Rebecca Brown Asmo to discuss the organization’s work to advance the humanities across the state, as well as the relevance of the humanities to career pathways and their significance for anyone who desires to live a life of consequence. She also shares Saeed Jones's poem "If You Had an Off Button, I’d Name You 'Off,'” from his anthology “Alive at the End of the World.” And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities.  Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

This week on Ohio Humans, we're revisiting Rachel Hopkin's 2020 conversation with journalist Tim Feran about the changing landscape of local newspapers in Ohio.This episode is part of the Federation of State Humanities Councils' “Democracy and the Informed Citizen” initiative, which seeks to deepen our knowledge and appreciation of the vital connections between democracy, the humanities, journalism, and an informed citizenry. Many thanks to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their generous support of this initiative and the Pulitzer Prizes for their partnership. The episode's opening and closing music is provided by Sokolovsky Music.And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.***The Poynter article about Gannett, the Ithaca Journal, and ghost newsrooms mentioned in the interview can be found at https://www.poynter.org/locally/2020/at-gannetts-ithaca-journal-local-news-staffing-is-down-to-one-reporter.Dan O’Brien's investigative reporting in Youngstown for ProPublica and the Youngstown Business Journal can be found at https://www.propublica.org/people/dan-obrien and https://businessjournaldaily.com/author/dobrienbusiness-journal-com.

Social distance…it means more than just six feet apart. What other kinds of distances did we encounter during 2020 and beyond? With support from Ohio Humanities, each episode of Toledo-based media thinkhub Midstory’s “Social Distances” podcast looks at a different cross section of society that has been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis—unpacking topics ranging from the environment, birth and death and shelter, to media, race relations and more through insights from historians, anthropologists, poets, policymakers, and other experts. In this episode, Dr. Akil Houston, professor of Cultural and Media Studies at Ohio University, unpacks how the social unrest of 2020 and beyond called into question our present—how we got here and where we go from here. Check out the full series at midstory.org/social-distances. And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities.  Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

County Lines is WYSO's series focusing on small towns and rural communities in the greater Dayton area. Funded by a grant from Ohio Humanities, Community Voices producer Renee Wilde travels down the highways and back roads to tell stories of country life that go beyond the stereotypes. This week, hear four short stories from County Lines about the next generation of Ohioans, and listen to more stories from the series at wyso.org/county-lines. Act 1: Aryn Copeland is a Senior at Wilmington College. She’s graduating with a degree in Agricultural Communications and is torn between two job offers—one in a rural community like the one she grew up in, and one in an urban area. In this interview with her professor Corey Cockerill, Aryn weighs the pros and cons of her decision in Corey’s office at the Robinson Communications Center on the Wilmington campus.Act 2:  Aryn Copeland interviews her professor, Corey Cockerill, about her journey from the suburbs to rural life. Corey Cockerill teaches Agricultural Communications at Wilmington College, but she didn’t live in a rural area until about 10 years ago. Corey grew up in the city of Mount Vernon, but when she went away to college—she met and fell in love with a farmer. Corey now lives on a farm and is raising two young children in his remote hometown of just over a thousand residents.Act 3: Future Farmers of America was founded in 1928 in Kansas City, Missouri as a way to educate the next generation of farmers. Today, FFA is a national organization for young people interested in leadership and agriculture. There are over a dozen local FFA chapters in the Miami Valley - including one at Northeastern High School in rural Clark County. Producer Anna Lurie went to Northeastern to learn about FFA and to teach the students a little bit about radio.Act 4: Clubs like FFA, which stands for Future Farmers of America, serve as both social and educational roles in rural communities. Kayla Wise credits FFA for her decision to pursue an agricultural degree. Kayla also never believed in climate change until she took a class at Wilmington College called Individual and Global Policy. Lucy Enge was also in that class, and she asks Kayla how it affected her viewpoint on climate change.And, later this year, join WYSO and Ohio Humanities again for the forthcoming series The Ohio Country. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

On May 4, 1970, members of the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of demonstrators, killing four students and wounding nine on the campus of Kent State University. The impact of the event reverberated nationwide, triggering a dramatic increase in the ongoing student strike against US involvement in Vietnam and eventually shifting public opinion against the war.This week marks the 53rd anniversary of the shootings. In 2020, we spoke with poet and playwright David Hassler about, “May 4th Voices: Kent State, 1970,” a play based on the university’s oral history archive, and Mindy Farmer, Director of the May 4 Visitor’s Center on the Kent State campus.Listeners can watch a recorded student production of Hassler’s play at youtube.com/watch?v=Q-gOyP9TAmo. A one-hour radio special of the play is available on Public Radio Exchange and at may4voices.org.And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities.  Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Invisible Ground is a podcast series that explores the history of Southeast Ohio communities by telling the stories of its people, places, and events. In this episode, learn a bit more about Athens, Ohio, and its residents and places: the Berrys, the Davisons, Mount Zion, and the Westside of Athens from students in the Andrew Jackson Davison Club at Athens Middle School who researched, written, recorded, and produced these short stories. Funded by Ohio Humanities and the Ohio University College of Fine Arts Community Fund, this episode is part of a project for Tantrum Theater and their debut play Hotel Berry and is a collaboration with Invisible Ground, the Andrew Jackson Davison Club, Mount Zion Baptist Church Preservation Society, the Southeast Ohio History Center, and Athens Photographic Project. And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities.  Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Amended, a podcast from our friends at Humanities New York, asks how we tell the story of the (unfinished) struggle for women’s voting rights. Who gave us the dominant suffrage narrative? And who gets left out? In this episode, Laura Free, a historian of women and politics, reflects on the suffrage story she learned as a child, one that centers a few white women. She speaks with historians Bettye Collier-Thomas and Lisa Tetrault about the work they’ve done to show there is much more to the story. Next, Laura travels to Seneca Falls, New York, site of the 1848 women’s rights convention, with historian Judith Wellman. Dr. Wellman describes a movement that was both complex and diverse, and helps us to see an old story in an entirely new light. This episode serves as the prologue to the series, inviting listeners to amend their understanding of women’s suffrage history. Listen to Amended in full on the HNY website or in the Humanities New York feed wherever you listen. And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities.  Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Today, we’re revisiting our 2021 interview with Dr. Hasan Kwame Jeffries for our Perfecting Democracy series about his book Bloody Lowndes: Civil Rights and Black Power in Alabama’s Black Belt and how race and racism influence voting in the United States.In this episode, journalist Ron Bryant asks Dr. Jeffries what lessons we can learn from how people viewed the Civil Rights Movement as it was unfolding and why understanding slavery is essential to grasping American democracy.This episode is a rebroadcast of "Perfecting Democracy," a series exploring the topic of civic and electoral participation using history and jurisprudence to illuminate contemporary issues. The series offers a humanities perspective on electoral engagement in Ohio and America’s multivocal democracy. In each episode, experts from around the state share thought-provoking insights on how best to understand our democracy and why it matters. Perfecting Democracy was made possible by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Federation of State Humanities Councils.And, later this year, join us for The Ohio Country, a forthcoming series from WYSO Public Radio and funded by Ohio Humanities. Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—will tell their stories about the about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country. You can listen in this feed, at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.

Just before Ohio became a state in 1803, the U.S. government passed the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 to regulate the settlement of the Northwest Territory. There was cooperation between settlers and the Indigenous people of Ohio in those years before statehood, an exchange of ideas and technology and lots of intermarriage in cosmopolitan communities. But over time, pressure from the new settlers for more land increased.And so, the early years of statehood were full of conflict and death. U.S. leaders pressed for treaty after treaty, all with questionable motives, and the Ohio tribes were pushed onto reservations further and further north in the state. Then, the U.S. government imposed forced removals.But the descendants of those Indigenous people who were forced to leave their homelands in Ohio exist today.This year, join Neenah Ellis and Chris Welter at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO Public Radio to hear Native men and women from different tribes and their allies—plus teachers, artists, scholars, parents, landowners, foresters, young people, and historians, too—tell their stories about the lands above the Ohio River, known as the Ohio Country.Some episodes will be sad and difficult to hear—but important, we think, so Ohio can face and embrace all of its rich, layered complicated self. The Ohio Country is a forthcoming series from WYSO and funded by Ohio Humanities. You can listen at WYSO.org, ohiohumanities.org, and in all those other places where you get podcasts.This series is made possible, in part, by the National Endowment for the Humanities' A More Perfect Union initiative. Any views expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of Ohio Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Host Rachel Hopkin is joined by musicians Floco Torres of Akron and Sebastian Arze of Asunción, Paraguay.Torres is a hip hop artist based in Akron and one half of the duo Free Black!, which he formed in 2018 with producer/drummer HR3. For more information about Floco and his music, visit flocotorres7.bandcamp.com and nobodycaresnews.com.Arze lives in Asunción, where he is a member of the reggae-grunge band Deficiente. To learn more about the group, visit linktr.ee/Deficiente.Covid Conversations is a podcast series from the Center for Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University in which artists and humanities professionals from Ohio and their counterparts elsewhere in the world discuss how their lives and work have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.The series is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant and distributed by Ohio Humanities. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin and mastered by Paul Kotheimer at OSU.Music for this podcast is provided by Pixabay.For more about the Center for Folklore Studies, where the full recordings of each episode will be archived along with contextual information about each episode, please visit cfs.osu.edu.To learn more about Ohio Humanities podcasts and other projects and programs, please visit ohiohumanities.org.

Host Rachel Hopkin is joined by visual artists Cat Sheridan of Columbus and Gabriel Amza of Timișoara, Romania.Sheridan uses many different media in her artistic work, with a special focus on ceramics. She is the director of the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery in downtown Columbus.Amza is a Romanian photographer, curator, and community organizer. His work usually takes the form of long-term documentary projects and installations, often with themes relating to social justice and the environment.Covid Conversations is a podcast series from the Center for Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University in which artists and humanities professionals from Ohio and their counterparts elsewhere in the world discuss how their lives and work have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.The series is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant and distributed by Ohio Humanities. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin and mastered by Paul Kotheimer at OSU.Music for this podcast is provided by Pixabay.For more about the Center for Folklore Studies, where the full recordings of each episode will be archived along with contextual information about each episode, please visit cfs.osu.edu.To learn more about Ohio Humanities podcasts and other projects and programs, please visit ohiohumanities.org.

Host Rachel Hopkin is joined by authors Natalie Richards of Columbus and Fatima Sharafeddine of Beirut, Lebanon. Richards is a New York Times bestselling author of seven books for young adults. Sharafeddine is an award-winning writer and translator of books for children and young adults. She is also a writing tutor. Covid Conversations is a podcast series from the Center for Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University in which artists and humanities professionals from Ohio and their counterparts elsewhere in the world discuss how their lives and work have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic. The series is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant and distributed by Ohio Humanities. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin and mastered by Paul Kotheimer at OSU. Music for this podcast is provided by Pixabay. For more about the Center for Folklore Studies, where the full recordings of each episode will be archived along with contextual information about each episode, please visit cfs.osu.edu. To learn more about Ohio Humanities podcasts and other projects and programs, please visit ohiohumanities.org.

Host Rachel Hopkin moderates a conversation between Dublin, Ohio-based Smitha Magal and Priya Murle of Chennai, India. Both women are dancers and teachers of one of India’s oldest classical dance traditions, Bharatanatyam, and senior disciples of renowned dancer Sudharani Raghupathy.After some years teaching in her native India, Smitha Magal formed her own dance school SILAMBAM in 1992 after moving to Dublin, Ohio. Smitha is originally from Chennai in India, where she met and studied alongside Priya Murle, her long-time friend and colleague. Murle was a senior teacher at Shree Bharatalaya prior to founding the Shri Silambam Academy of Fine Arts in 2012 in Chennai.Covid Conversations is a podcast series from the Center for Folklore Studies at the Ohio State University in which artists and humanities professionals from Ohio and their counterparts elsewhere in the world discuss how their lives and work have been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.The series is funded by an OSU Global Arts and Humanities Discovery Theme grant and distributed by Ohio Humanities. It is produced and presented by radio producer and folklorist Rachel Hopkin and mastered by Paul Kotheimer at OSU.Music for this podcast is provided by Pixabay.For more about the Center for Folklore Studies, where the full recordings of each episode will be archived along with contextual information about each episode, please visit cfs.osu.edu.To learn more about Ohio Humanities podcasts and other projects and programs, please visit ohiohumanities.org.