Ohio Humans

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.

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?

When the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920, a large number of Native American women still could not vote. The U.S. government did not recognize them as citizens. And if having U.S. citizenship required them to renounce tribal sovereignty, many Native women didn’t want it. But early-twentieth-century writer, composer, and activist Zitkála-Šá was determined to fight for both.

In this episode, host Laura Free speaks with digital artist Marlena Myles (Spirit Lake Dakota) whose art is inspired by Dakota imagery and history, and by Zitkála-Šá’s legacy. Dr. Cathleen Cahill, author of Recasting the Vote: How Women of Color Transformed the Suffrage Movement, returns to help tell the story of Zitkála-Šá’s struggle for a “layered” U.S. citizenship that included the acknowledgment of Native American sovereignty.

This final episode of the Amended series demonstrates once again how those who have been marginalized within U.S. democracy have worked, and continue to work, to hold the nation accountable for its promise of liberty and equality for all.

Listen to Amended in full at https://humanitiesny.org/our-work/amended-podcast/ 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.

This week, we’re thrilled to share “The Power of Indigenous Knowledge,” an episode from the first season of Human Powered, a podcast from our friends at Wisconsin Humanities.

This episode starts with a meal around a fire, in a place where people have been cooking and eating for more than 5,000 years. Hosts Marvin Defoe and Edwina Buffalo-Reyes, members of the Red Cliff band of Lake Superior Ojibwe in Bayfield County, discuss the Red Cliff Tribal Historic Preservation Office’s three-year collaboration with two archaeologists helping excavate sites on tribal lands. Listen to hear what they are doing to reclaim and revitalize the deep history and culture of their people—and to help train a new generation of scholars committed to centering indigenous knowledge.

Listen to the first season of Human Powered in full at wisconsinhumanities.org/podcast and, next week, hear an episode from the upcoming second season right here in our podcast feed!
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.

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.