It’s been called ‘the most noble and absurd undertaking ever attempted by any state.’ During the height of the Great Depression, the U.S government hired out-of-work writers and laid-off reporters and sent them out to record the stories of all kinds of Americans. Called the Federal Writers’ Project, historians have called the program a giant “listening project.”

While on our summer break, we’re sharing the first episode of a new podcast series called The People’s Recorder. Host Chris Haley sets the stage, laying out 1930s America, the New Deal, and the cultural forces that both supported and opposed the Writers’ Project. The project of holding up to America raises questions: What history gets told? And who gets to tell it?

You can listen to rest of the series by searching for The People’s Recorder wherever you get your podcasts. Find out more at peoplesrecorder.info

Guests:

Scott Borchert, author

David Bradley, novelist

Dr. Douglas Brinkley, historian

Dr. Tameka Hobbs, historian

David Kipen, author

Dena Epstein, daughter of Hilda Polacheck

Studs Terkel, oral historian

Links and Resources:

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project

Born to Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project

Author Scott Borchert on the Federal Writers' Project and the WPA guidebooks

Article on Library on Congress symposium on The Millions

Further Reading

Soul of a People by David A. Taylor

Republic of Detours by Scott Borchert

California in the 1930s by David Kipen

First Person America by Ann Banks

Henry Alsberg by Susan DeMasi

Long Past Slavery by Catherine A. Stewart

Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston

Hard Times by Studs Terkel

For thousands of years, fluffy white dogs could be found across the Pacific Northwest. Their exceptionally soft, crimpy hair was shorn like sheep’s wool, spun into yarn, and woven into blankets and robes by indigenous women who carefully tended them in communities across Coast Salish territory. But a hundred years ago, the woolly dog quietly vanished. Why?

Today, the only known pelt of this extinct breed is in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and it might hold some answers. Through collaborate research combining Western science with Indigenous knowledge, we delve into this animal’s genome to learn the real story of the woolly dog’s disappearance.

Guests:

Audrey Lin, evolutionary molecular biologist, research associate at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and postdoctoral scholar at the American Museum of Natural History

Logan Kistler, curator of archaeobotany and archaeogenomics in the anthropology department of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

Liz Hammond-Kaarremaa, master spinner who studies traditional Salish textiles as a research associate at Vancouver Island University and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

Steven Point / Xwĕ lī qwĕl tĕl, grand chief of the Stó:lō Tribal Council, chancellor of the University of British Columbia, former lieutenant-governor of British Columbia, retired judge, and member of the Skowkale First Nation

Debra Sparrow / θəliχʷəlʷət, weaver, artist and knowledge-keeper from Musqueam. Foundational Salish weaving revivalist who, with her sisters, she has worked for decades to rejuvenate and teach traditional Salish weaving.

Violet Elliot / Snu’Meethia, weaver and teacher from Snuneymuxw First Nations living in Cowichan First Nations. She has been weaving for over 28 years.

Melissa (Missy) Hawkins, curator of mammals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

Hitch a ride on the Chandra X-ray Observatory as it scours deep space for some of the most enigmatic and misunderstood objects in the universe: black holes. What are they good for? Absolutely something.

This is the second episode of a two-part journey celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's operation of the space telescope.

Join us this summer for a cosmic journey full of events and virtual resources from around the Smithsonian that will transport you from our closest star, the sun, to the far reaches of the universe.

Find the full schedule on our website or follow along on social media @Smithsonian.

Guests:

Kim Arcand, Visualization Scientist and Emerging Tech Lead for NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Daryl Haggard, professor of physics at McGill University in the Trottier Space Institute

Priyamvada Natarajan, astrophysicist and professor at Yale University