Join us for a special virtual discussion about the Federal Writers’ Project in Nebraska. Listen to a dynamic panel moderated by The People’s Recorder host and award-

winning historian and author Chris Haley.

EVENT LINK

The People’s Recorder launched in 2024 and won a 2025 Silver Signal Award for Best History Podcast. Using the 1930s Federal Writers’ Project as a lens to view our past, the podcast asks the questions: how does history get recorded and who gets to decide which history gets told?

This special virtual event will build on the discussion started in the podcast, and will further explore the work and literary and cultural legacy of the Federal Writers’ Project in Nebraska.

Part of the WPA, the Federal Writers’ Project provided work for unemployed writers, editors, and other white-collar workers during the height of the Great Depression. The Writers’ Project had a mandate to produce state and city travel guides, and interview everyday citizens.

It was perhaps the largest and most chaotic publishing venture in American history, and yet it produced over 200 publications, and its flagship travel guide series remains important for its firsthand views of life in America. The Nebraska guide was a notable success and state bestseller.

This moderated discussion will focus on the work of the Nebraska Writers’ Project and how that speaks to Nebraskans today. That includes the experiences of Rudolph Umland, a hardscrabble farmer turned editor, Weldon Kees, a hardware businessman’s son turned poet, and Ruby Wilson, a nurse who found a passion for recording first person history. We’ll also shine a light on acclaimed author of the Plains Mari Sandoz and University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor and founder of Prairie Schooner, Lowry Wimberly, whose influence was critical to the Project’s success.

This special event is produced with support from Humanities Nebraska in partnership with Prairie Schooner and Lincoln City Libraries.

Learn more at https://www.peoplesrecorder.info/humanities-ne

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

Event Link - February 3rd at 1:30 pm EST/12:30 pm CST

Event Landing Page

The People's Recorder Episode 10: A Creative Incubator

Humanities Nebraska

Prairie Schooner

Lincoln City Libraries

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Episode Summary:

One of our favorite episodes to work on was “Episode 6: Native Historians do Stand-up” about the WPA project to preserve the Oneida language and history. But that was not the first time we explored this story. We first traveled to Oneida, conducting interviews and digging into archives, when we produced our documentary Soul of a People. One of those interviews was with the remarkable Loretta Metoxen.

Until her death in 2021, Metoxen was the Tribal Historian for the Oneida Nation, a position she served in for over two decades. She was tasked with preserving, documenting and interpreting her people’s history, culture, and traditions. Having learned directly from the WPA’s Oscar Archiquette, Metoxen is clear in her reflections on the groundbreaking work of the Oneida writers during the Depression and its huge impact today.

To hear the full interview, consider joining our Patreon Community at www.patreon.com/PeoplesRecorder

Additional Links:

Learn more about Loretta Metoxen

Oneida Nation Cultural Heritage Website

Oneida Books Rediscovered

Credits:

Director: Andrea Kalin

Interviewer: Oliver Lukacs

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Interview Re-record and Editor: Ethan Oser

Featuring Music from the Oneida Singers and Pond5

For additional content, visit www.peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Summary:

Studs Terkel was many things – a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, oral historian, radio legend, fiery populist, labor advocate and, above all, a master listener. For 45 years, his Chicago radio show invited everyday people to share their stories – the kind of history that often gets forgotten.

In 2006, we turned the tables and asked Studs to tell us his story. This never-before-released interview was one of his last before his death at age 96. Before we left, he signed our copy of his book about the Depression, Hard Times, with a simple message: “Keep up the good work.”

And that’s what we’re trying to do with The People’s Recorder – carry forward Studs’ legacy of person-first storytelling.

To hear the full interview, consider joining our Patreon Community at www.patreon.com/PeoplesRecorder

For just $5/month, you can have access to extended interviews, plus upcoming bonus episodes and AMA events. Support us on Patreon and keep these stories coming.

Additional Links:

Learn more about Studs Terkel

Studs Terkel Radio Archives

"Working" by Studs Terkel

Credits:

Host: Chris Haley

Director and Interviewer: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Editor: Ethan Oser

Featuring Music from Pond5

For additional content, visit www.peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Summary:

In 2006, award-winning filmmaker and producer Andrea Kalin sat down for an interview with bestselling author and renowned presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. Together, they discussed the social and political landscape of 1930s America, the Great Depression, and how the New Deal employed writers to document that unique moment in U.S. history.

Now, for the first time ever, that insightful and inspiring conversation is available for you to enjoy.

To hear the full interview, consider joining our Patreon Community at www.patreon.com/c/PeoplesRecorder.

For just $5/month, you can have access to extended interviews, exclusive bonus episodes and Ask Me Anything events. Support us on Patreon and help keep these stories coming.

Credits:

Director and Interviewer: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Editor: Ethan Oser

Featuring Music from Pond5

For additional content, visit www.peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: ‪@peoplesrecorder

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episode Summary:

Tune in for an important update on The People's Recorder!

Host Chris Haley shares the state of the podcast now in the wake of recent funding cuts and also the exciting plans we have coming up over the next few months, including a sneak preview of "Gospel of Fear," our trilogy of episodes about Congressman Martin Dies, the playbook he used to attack the WPA and the Federal Writers' Project, and how we're all still feeling the impact of that playbook today.

The People's Recorder is also now on Patreon! Support the podcast and help keep these stories coming and out in the world where they belong. Become a patron for only $5/month and receive access to exclusive interviews, bonus episodes, AMA events, and more!

For more information and to sign up, visit: www.patreon.com/peoplesrecorder

Image Description and Credit:

Protestors in Center City Philadelphia, 1939, staging a symbolic "funeral" for the Federal Writers' Project, a Works Progress Administration program soon to be gutted by federal budget cuts. From the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Episode Credits:

Director: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Editor: Ethan Oser

Featuring Music from Pond5

For additional content, visit www.peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes Summary:

A beautiful and powerful art exhibition is touring the country right now, called Pictures of Belonging, which explores three artists of Japanese descent - Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi and Miné Okubo. The exhibition puts these artists and their work in their rightful place in the history of American art.

For this bonus episode, producer and lead writer David Taylor visits the exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and shares his insights about Miné Okubo, who was featured in Episode 9: Is This Land Your Land? She was a painter who was working with Diego Rivera on murals for the WPA when she was detained and sent to an incarceration camp during World War 2. She used her artwork to bear witness to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during the war.

Links and Resources:

Pictures of Belonging: Japanese American National Museum

Pictures of Belonging: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Citizen 13660 - a short film from the National Park Service

Sincerely, Miné Okubo - a short biography from the Japanese American National Museum

Further Reading:

Citizen 13360 by Miné Okubo

Miné Okubo: Following Her Own Road by Greg Robinson

Peaceful Painter: Memoirs of an Issei Woman Artist by Hisako Hibi

The Other American Moderns: Matsura, Ishigaki, Nora, Hayakawa by ShiPu Wang

Credits:

Director: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Editor: Amy Young

Featuring music from Pond5

Produced with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Florida Humanities, Virginia Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities, California Humanities and Humanities Nebraska.

For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The People’s Recorder was funded in part with a grant from Wisconsin Humanities. But did you know that Wisconsin Humanities also has their own podcast, Human Powered?

Hosted by Adam Carr and Dasha Kelly Hamilton, Human Powered focuses on the power of the humanities in Wisconsin's prisons. We wanted to share an episode from that terrific show with you today.

People in prisons are cut off from their families, their communities, and in some cases their own feelings. Making art in prison can be a way to affirm your humanity in a place that is often dehumanizing. So, when organizers of an exhibit of prison art put out a call for submissions, they were flooded with responses from incarcerated artists working without support, formal programs or materials. This episode tells the story of that exhibit.

Guests:

Joshua Gresl

John Tyson

Sarah Demerath

Debra Brehmer

​

Learn more about Human Powered at www.wisconsinhumanities.org/podcast

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Episode Summary:

In the 1930s, the notion of making an incubator for creativity in a region devastated by the Great Depression got tested in Nebraska. This episode looks at what happened there when the Writers’ Project came to town, through a group of creatives from contrasting backgrounds, including a hobo, a nurse and a hardware store poet – all under the watchful eye of a university professor and a celebrated novelist.

Starting from chaos, they ignited a surprising alchemy and made the Lincoln office one of the most productive Writers’ Project hubs in the country. The Season 1 finale listens in as Americans face war clouds on the horizon, and a national radio show asks, “Can we count on youth to uphold the American Way?”

Speakers:

Stephen Cloyd, librarian and historian

Marilyn Holt, historian

James Reidel, biographer and poet

Douglas Brinkley, historian

Links and Resources:

Rudolph Umland and the Federal Writers' Project

The Nebraska Federal Writers' Project - Lincoln City Libraries

Mari Sandoz and the Writers' Project

Weldon Kees reads his poem, "1926"

WPA Guide to Nebraska (free PDF)

Prairie Schooner

Reading List:

Vanished Act: The Life and Art of Weldon Kees, by James Reidel

Nebraska During the New Deal, by Marilyn Irvin Holt

Soul of a People by David A. Taylor

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, by Timothy Egan

The Collected Poems of Weldon Kees, edited by Donald Justice

Crazy Horse, by Mari Sandoz

Credits

Host: Chris Haley

Director: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Writer: David A. Taylor

Editor: Ethan Oser

Assistant Editor: Amy Young

Story Editor: Michael May

Additional Voices: Jared Buggage, Sam Hanks, JoJo Drake Kalin, Antonio Macias, James Mirabello, Mariko Miyazaki, Kate Rafter and Sarah Smack

Featuring music and archival from:

Aaron Copland

Alexandria Symphony Orchestra

Joseph Vitarelli

Bradford Ellis

Mike Sayre

Ceiri Torjussen

Pond5

Library of Congress

National Archives and Records Administration

New York Public Radio Archives Collection

Nebraska Public Media

For additional content, visit peoplesrecorder.info or follow us on social media: @peoplesrecorder

Produced with support from:

National Endowment for the Humanities

Humanities Nebraska

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.