Podcast Episodes

• Keeping Cultural Memory Alive: What's at Stake?

  2019-11-16

  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 it's lost.

• The Ethics of Access

  2019-12-09

  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 ethical considerations and complexities of providing broad access to recordings that may be culturally sensitive—sacred sounds, songs and language—and why it’s important to reconnect people to their own content. One lesson? The story doesn’t end once something is digitized.

• Connected to the Legacy

  2019-12-09

  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 academic and linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner. His work established a connection between the languages of West Africa and African Americans living in the low countries and sea islands of South Carolina and Georgia. We listen to some of these recordings, discuss their importance, and hear how they bridge the distance between time and place.

• The Duty of Memory

  2019-12-19

  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 democracy. In this episode of Material Memory, we talk with the Duke University Libraries staff who have been working to preserve a large collection of tapes of programming broadcast before government forces destroyed the station and its documents. We hear about the recovery of the audio and its importance in Haitian history.

• Not Even in the Dictionary

  2020-02-26

  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 today. In this episode of Material Memory, we chat with the people who are preserving, transcribing, and translating collections of audio and video recordings of Iñupiaq dialects. They discuss the joys and challenges of preserving the history and culture of the people for the next generation.

• 'Hello, Friends' The Story of the Indians for Indians Radio Hour

  2020-03-18

  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 Radio Hour program, a long-running broadcast that started in the 1940s at the university’s WNAD station. We’ll hear about the show’s founder, the complications of dealing with a well-used collection of many different Native voices, and the process of providing access to this important historical resource about tribal life.

• Sound and Meaning: Preserving Native American Voice and Song

  2020-04-24

  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 materials documenting Native American voice and song. We’ll learn about the vital process of community-building and the relationships forged along the way.

• Does it Matter? Cultural Memory and the Climate Crisis

  2020-11-10

  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 culture matters, what’s at stake, and where we'll be headed in the coming episodes.

• Archivists Against the Climate Crisis

  2020-11-10

  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 superpowers librarians can bring to the fight for environmental justice, both within and outside of their employer institutions.

• How We Tell the Story of Disaster

  2020-12-18

  Anthropologist and emergency management specialist Dr. Crystal Felima speaks about her work on climate hazards, disaster narratives in Haiti and Puerto Rico, and the role of libraries.