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
Human Powered Presents: Uprooted
For this special edition of Human Powered, we are sharing an episode of a series called Uprooted produced by our friends at Wisconsin Life and WPR.
In 1980, there was an exodus of Cubans who left their homes for the United States as part of the Mariel Boatlift. This includes almost 15,000 Cuban refugees who were sent to Fort McCoy in Sparta, Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Humanities awarded a grant to the La Crosse Public Library in support of an interactive online exhibit on the history of the 1980 Cuban migration. 125,000 Cubans fled to the US and it was a paramount moment of the Cold War. The exhibit is called Uprooted and you can browse the stories and collection at lacrossehistory.org/online-exhibits/uprooted
Additionally, a podcast series called “WPR Reports: Uprooted” explores this history and shares stories from people like Enrique Moré. Moré is a musician who came to Wisconsin from Cuba and now is a big part of the La Crosse-area music scene. He and other Cubans share stories about their early lives, moving to Wisconsin, and what life is like living in limbo.
