Human Powered
A podcast from Wisconsin Humanities, because being human is a shared experience, and we are here to explore it together. In season three, we are celebrating the people who make Wisconsin home. For ten years, our Love Wisconsin producers have been excavating beneath the surface of our state by talking with people and sharing what we learn, one story at a time. In this series, Love Wisconsin producer Jen Rubin reconnects with some of these people who generously shared their stories to offer nuance, delight, and complexity to our understanding of what it means to be a Wisconsinite.
In our first season, we went out to communities around the state to learn more about how our neighborhoods and lives are impacted by small but meaningful local projects — like getting hands dirty at community gardens in Green Bay, revitalizing history around a cooking fire on the Red Cliff Reservation, and collecting stories in small towns impacted by historic floods. Hosted by Jimmy Gutierrez and produced by Field Noise Soundworks.
Humanity Unlocked, the second season of Human Powered, is a series of six episodes about the power of the humanities in Wisconsin prisons. From a storytelling workshop at Oak Hill Correctional Facility to a poetry workshop with people who were formerly incarcerated to a conversation with writers and editors of prison newspapers, we explored the importance of finding tools for deeper understanding. Hosted by Dasha Kelly Hamilton and Adam Carr; produced by Field Noise Soundworks.
Human Powered
Bead by Bead
When James Price first learned how to bead, he was incarcerated at the Stanley Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. He had been told his whole life that he was not patient, but as he is tutored in beadwork by a group of Native American men, he discovers a history he wasn't taught in school. And, “bead by bead,” he also learns new things about himself.
Once he was released, James attended a college course on Native American history as part of the Educational Preparedness Program (EPP) at Marquette University. This humanities program integrates students on Marquette’s campus in Milwaukee with currently and formerly incarcerated students to create blended classrooms where all kinds of knowledge and experience come together, offering everyone a chance to see themselves as an intellectual. In this episode, we talk with professors and program co-founders Teresa Tobin and Rob Smith. As Prof. Smith tells us, the work of the humanities — understanding the human condition — is critical in today’s conversation around prisons.
Visit the Episode Extras on the Wisconsin Humanities website to learn about EPP, and to hear a bonus interview with Brian Rindfleisch and Wade Fernandez, who co-taught James's EPP class.
