Cradle of Student Protest
Travel to Nashville, Tennessee, "the cradle of student protest," to learn about Fisk University's activist legacy–from the Jubilee Singers in the 1800s to the sit-ins of…
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Material Memory explores the effects of our changing environment—from digital technologies to the climate crisis—on our ability to access the record of our shared humanity, and the critical role that libraries, archives, museums, and other public institutions play in keeping cultural memory alive.
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Sankofa
Travel to the Lowcountry of South Carolina to learn about the Mather School, founded after the Civil War to serve the newly freed, and the Gullah Geechee people, whose t…
Episode detailsBy Actions and Not by Words
Dive into Tuskegee University's vast collections, from the notebooks of George Washington Carver to archival speeches from luminaries Myrlie Evers, Shirley Chisholm, Ame…
Episode detailsIf Walls Could Talk
Learn about Alcorn State University student life–and civil rights protests–in the 1960s, and how a community-centered approach to librarianship has made Alcorn indispens…
Episode detailsWalking on Sacred Ground
Morgan State University archivist Ida E. Jones discusses the history of Maryland's largest HBCU and how it is deeply entwined with the history of Black politics, activis…
Episode detailsCadence to the Rhythm of Life
Kofi Amu Horne, who created the theme music for this season, started drumming with his Ghanaian mother before he was two. Here, he talks about drumming as a spiritual pr…
Episode detailsThere's Magic in Creating Something from Nothing
Librarian and curator Erika Witt speaks about Southern University at New Orleans's African art collection, a transformative trip to Egypt, and how GLAMs can and must mak…
Episode detailsOur Ancestors' Wildest Dreams
This season, we're taking a tour of the treasures housed in HBCU libraries and archives. Meet two women instrumental to the HBCU Library Alliance: executive director San…
Episode detailsSeason 3 Trailer: HBCU Library Alliance Tour
In this season of the Material Memory podcast, we're taking an audio road trip to explore the libraries, archives, and museums at six Historically Black Colleges and Uni…
Episode detailsCrisis as Catalyst: Notes from DCDC
Special episode! Three stories about crisis as catalyst: capturing NHS COVID-19 stories; rethinking anti-racism and anti-ableism at the Wellcome Collection; & toward a c…
Episode detailsWhat We've Learned and What We Can Do
What did we learn? What can we do? In the season 2 finale, host Nicole Kang Ferraiolo and producer Lizzi Albert share their biggest takeaways, from climate change's uneq…
Episode detailsHeritage Has a History
Anthropologist Dr. Blessing Nonye Onyima discusses the effects of colonialism and climate change on Nigeria's cultural heritage, from the changing migration patterns of…
Episode detailsThe Home of Memory
Where do we house our memories? What does it mean to lose our records? Drawing on her experience as an archivist and as a hurricane evacuee, Itza Carbajal speaks about t…
Episode detailsLiving Heritage
Intangible or "living" cultural heritage includes folk arts, food, and other traditions. Host Nicole Kang Ferraiolo talks to media scholar Saiful Alam Chowdhury about ho…
Episode detailsClimate Displacement and Cultural Resilience
Victoria Herrmann, president of the Arctic Institute, discusses climate displacement in the United States, the risks it poses to communities and traditions, and how cult…
Episode detailsHow We Tell the Story of Disaster
Anthropologist and emergency management specialist Dr. Crystal Felima speaks about her work on climate hazards, disaster narratives in Haiti and Puerto Rico, and the rol…
Episode detailsArchivists Against the Climate Crisis
Archivists Eira Tansey and Ben Goldman discuss their research on the impact of climate change on U.S. archives. They share their approaches to climate activism and the s…
Episode detailsDoes it Matter? Cultural Memory and the Climate Crisis
Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity—but how does cultural heritage fit in? Hear from all seven of this season's guests as they weigh in on why cultur…
Episode detailsSound and Meaning: Preserving Native American Voice and Song
In this episode of Material Memory , we return to the Autry Museum of the American West in southern California, where a project is underway to preserve audiovisual mater…
Episode details"Hello, Friends" The Story of the Indians for Indians Radio Hour
In this episode of Material Memory , we talk with a staff member at the University of Oklahoma who has been working to preserve the recordings of the Indians for Indians…
Episode detailsNot Even in the Dictionary
Iñupiaq dialects—spoken by people in the northernmost parts of Alaska—are considered "severely endangered," with about 2,000 native speakers of these dialects alive toda…
Episode detailsThe Duty of Memory
Radio Haiti, the nation's first independent radio station, gave people a voice in speaking out against government oppression while speaking up for human rights and democ…
Episode detailsConnected to the Legacy
In this episode of Material Memory , we talk to experts at the Amistad Research Center who are working to digitize the audio field recordings of African-American academi…
Episode detailsThe Ethics of Access
How can recordings of indigenous languages be made accessible to the communities they represent? In this episode of Material Memory , we talk to experts about the ethica…
Episode detailsKeeping Cultural Memory Alive: What's at Stake?
Kathlin Smith introduces the Material Memory podcast in a conversation with CLIR President Charles Henry about the threats to our cultural record and what is at stake if…
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