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

Black holes could unlock the mysteries of creation and live at the heart of nearly every galaxy. But these invisible balls of extremely dense matter have never been fully understood, especially when they were only a theory. We travel through a cosmic wormhole back to the 1930s to learn how the first astrophysicist to successfully theorize a black hole, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, was ridiculed and rejected by his scientific community.

This is the first 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, si.edu/cosmicjourney. 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

Priyamvada Natarajan, astrophysicist and professor at Yale University

Arthur I. Miller, author of "Empire Of The Stars: Obsession, Friendship, and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes"

The cicadas are back for some fun in the sun, and this time, they’re louder than ever! For the first time since 1803, Broods XIII and XIX will be emerging at the same time, covering the American South and Midwest with trillions of cicadas. As Smithsonian entomologist Floyd Shockley readies his nets for the biggest bug invasion in centuries, we look back at the emergence of Brood X in 2021, and explore how cicadas have captivated our human ancestors for millennia.

Guests:

Floyd Shockley, entomologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

Gao Hong, professional pipa player, composer, and educator

Jim Deutsch, curator at the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Jan Stuart, Melvin R. Seiden Curator of Chinese Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

"God in a cup." "Perfection." "The world's best coffee." Panamanian geisha coffee has been called many things, but never Smithsonian Bird Friendly certified. That might soon change, however, as researchers from Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s Migratory Bird Center find new ways to grow coffee in harmony with migratory songbirds. Join us for this fully caffeinated romp through Panama’s coffee farms as we learn all about the birds and the beans.

Guests:

Ruth Bennett, research ecologist at the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute’s Migratory Bird Center

Katherine Araúz Ponce, fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and PhD student at The University of Georgia

Maria Ruiz, owner of Ruiz Coffee Distributors

Ratibor & Aliss Hartmann, owners of Finca Hartmann, specialty coffee and ecotourism

Price Peterson, owner of Hacienda La Esmeralda

If you’ve bought a plane ticket recently, you’ve probably had the option to pay a few extra dollars to offset your carbon emissions. That money might go toward planting some trees… but how many trees? Researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute are trying to answer this very question by hand-measuring trees, weighing wood, and climbing to the top of the canopy. We tag along to see how carbon is measured, and why so much ends up in tropical forests.

Guests:

Joshua Tewksbury, director of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama

Helene Muller-Landau, senior scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute researching tropical forests and ecosystems, leader of ForestGEO Global Carbon Program

David Mitre, research manager for ForestGEO at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Sergio dos Santos, project manager for the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute’s Hydro-Meteorological and Oceanographic Monitoring Program in Panama

Luisa Fernanda Gómez Correa, intern at the Forest Carbon Lab at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

Eline De Loore, graduate student at Ghent University conducting research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

It started as a rumor in the cafeteria of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama: monkeys on an island in the Pacific were doing something no one had ever seen them do before. But when researchers went searching for these elusive capuchin monkeys, they discovered more questions than answers.

Guests:

Claudio Monteza, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute fellow and researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

Brendan Barrett, researcher at the University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior

Meg Crofoot, director of the Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. Former Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute fellow