Radio Aula Mundi

Joanna Hopson is an Iñupiaq Arctic games coach and athlete who competed in the annual Arctic Winter Games, held this year in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. In addition to common winter events like curling and figure skating, the games include traditional indigenous competitions including single foot kick, knuckle hop, and stick pull. https://www.facebook.com/share/1D4gJBdzsi/ ••• Keith Secola is an An...

Roberta Noell Tom is a Diné (Navajo) artist and children’s book author. She is Áshįįhí born for Nát’oh Dine’é Táchii’nii, and a U.S. Navy veteran and aerospace professional. ‘Bebe Bear and Her Dream Adventures at Masani’s’ is written and illustrated by Roberta Noell Tom. It is her debut children’s book about a Diné girl who dreams of becoming an astronaut, engineer, and more. It encourages childre...

Keith Secola is an Anishinabe (Ojibwe) artist, garnering awards and accolades as a musician, a singer, a songwriter, a composer and a producer. He is highly skilled with the guitar, flute, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, and piano, and has played in venues from the halls of the Chicago Urban Indian Centre, to the walls of the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Blending Anishinabe roots with blues, rock, and...

Joanna Hopson is an Iñupiaq Arctic games coach and athlete who competed in the annual Arctic Winter Games, held this year in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. In addition to common winter events like curling and figure skating, the games include traditional indigenous competitions including single foot kick, knuckle hop, and stick pull. https://www.facebook.com/share/1D4gJBdzsi/ ••• Interview conducted b...

Michael Yellow Bird is a Professor at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, Canada. He is an enrolled member of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation in North Dakota, USA. His research interests focus on the effects of colonization and methods of decolonization, decolonizing social work, ancestral health, healthy indigenous aging, and shifting behavior, thoughts, beliefs, and ways...

William A Rodriguez is an indigenous Taino multi-instrumentalist, producer, arranger, composer, and performer. As an active member of the Taino/Arawakan community, he makes ceremonial tools for a variety of cultures. He lives on a sustainable farm in rural Georgia, United States. ••• https://archaicroots.com/ https://m.facebook.com/warodriguez0/ ••• K. D. Harryman is the author of Girls’ Book of K...

Lucy Smith is a Chicago-based musician and singer-songwriter who likes to explore and present jazz, folk, gospel, blues, and more. At the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence, Lucy Smith performs a special repertoire of traditional and original compositions and classics for ‘America: Songs and Stories of Protest and Freedom’, a multi-genre concert...

Byron Graves is Ojibwe and Lakota and was born and raised on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, where they played high school basketball. When they aren’t writing, they can be found playing retro video games, spending time with their family, or cheering on their beloved Minnesota Timberwolves. Rez Ball was their debut novel; Medicine Wheels is their second book. ••• https://byrongraves....

Byron Graves is Ojibwe and Lakota and was born and raised on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in Minnesota, where they played high school basketball. When they aren’t writing, they can be found playing retro video games, spending time with their family, or cheering on their beloved Minnesota Timberwolves. Rez Ball was their debut novel; Medicine Wheels is their second book. ••• https://byrongraves....

National Geographic Photographer Kiliii Yüyan is a visual storyteller, and Nat Geo Explorer, whose work has brought him to some of the world’s harshest environments. Chinese-American and Nanai/Hèzhé (indigenous East Asian), he has traveled across the polar regions working with indigenous cultures, wildlife, and underwater environments. Kiliii was a traditional dsai (kayak) builder until he became...

Lucy Smith is a Chicago-based musician and singer-songwriter who likes to explore and present jazz, folk, gospel, blues, and more. At the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the United States' Declaration of Independence, Lucy Smith performs a special repertoire of traditional and original compositions and classics for ‘America: Songs and Stories of Protest and Freedom’, a multi-genre concert...

A round table around midnight featuring... ••• Dominic A. Pacyga is professor emeritus of history in the Department of Humanities, History, and Social Sciences at Columbia College Chicago. He is the author of several books, including American Warsaw: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Polish Chicago, and, most recently, Clout City. ••• https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/author/P/D/au5845156.html •••...

Chris Neville is a lifelong musician and composer, playing across many genres and styles. He is the long time musical director of Chicago phenomenon Tributosaurus, and is a current member of several bands including The Meadowlark Lemons. The Meadowlark Lemons are a gritty funk, soul and jazz ensemble etched out of the streets and sounds of Chicago, Illinois. The quintet is made up of highly skille...

Viola ‘Vi’ Waghiyi is a Sivuqaq Yupik, Native Village of Savoonga Tribal Citizen, mother, and grandmother. Since 2002, she has worked with Alska Community Action on Toxics (‘ACAT’) and serves as Environmental Health and Justice Director. She is a nationally recognized environmental justice leader and is frequently invited to speak locally, nationally, and internationally. Vi serves as a leader of...

Josh Chicoine is the creative force behind Cult Canyon, a Chicago-based band that has recently released a debut album, ‘Smoke Tricks’. Cult Canyon's music has been described as California-Style Folk Rock. The band features strings and other orchestrations to bring fullness to its pop stylings. As a new acoustic and rock music group on the Chicago scene, Cult Canyon is headed by singer-songwrit...

Todd Kessler is a singer-songwriter and recording artist in the Chicago area. Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, Todd Kessler was always singing. He began playing the trumpet at 9 years old, but by 12, he’d fallen in love with the guitar and began writing his own songs. ••• https://toddkesslermusic.com/ https://www.hemifran.com/artist/Todd%20Kessler/ ••• Daisychain is a female-fronted blues/p...

Michael Hanna is the vocalist of Naked Brunch, a Chicago-based Slut Rock band. Slut Rock is a fusion between Funk and Glam Rock with the purpose of getting into the rhythm of your own body. In 2026, the Chicago Reader, one of the city’s most important cultural magazines nominated Naked Brunch ‘Best Emerging Band’. Their recently released album ‘At The Humanoid Motel’ was voted ‘Best Local Album Of...

Sepultura (Portuguese: [sepuwˈtuɾɐ], ‘grave’) is a Brazilian heavy metal band formed in Belo Horizonte in 1984 by brothers Max and Igor Cavalera. They were a major force in the groove metal, thrash metal and death metal genres during the late 1980s and early 1990s. After 40 years of existence together, they are currently completing a farewell tour across the entire globe. ••• https://www.sepultura...

All interviews conducted by Marco Rixecker in New York City, New York, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Ashland, Oregon, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Seattle, Washington, Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, including with Estevan Rael-Gálvez and Kevin Schultz... ••• Dr. Estevan Rael-Gálvez is the executive director of ‘Native Bound Unbound: Archive of Indigenous Slavery’, leading a global team in th...

K. D. Harryman is the author of Girls’ Book of Knots, forthcoming in 2023 from BlazeVox Books, as well as Auto Mechanic’s Daughter (Akashic, 2007). The recipient of the 2019 Rumi Prize and the 2018 James Hearst Poetry Prize, she serves as the poetry editor for Five South. She is originally from Kentucky and lives in Los Angeles. ••• https://poets.org/poet/k-d-harryman https://karenharryman.com/ ht...

Robert Madden is an author and archaeologist at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. For many years, he sifted through existing records of Native American artifacts to look for the oldest dice in the United States. His research led him to the conclusion that dice, games of chance, and gambling have been a persistent feature of Native American culture for at least the last 12,000 years, with...

Viola ‘Vi’ Waghiyi is a Sivuqaq Yupik, Native Village of Savoonga Tribal Citizen, mother, and grandmother. Since 2002, she has worked with Alska Community Action on Toxics (‘ACAT’) and serves as Environmental Health and Justice Director. She is a nationally recognized environmental justice leader and is frequently invited to speak locally, nationally, and internationally. Vi serves as a leader of...

Todd Kessler is a singer-songwriter and recording artist in the Chicago area. Born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, Todd Kessler was always singing. He began playing the trumpet at 9 years old, but by 12, he’d fallen in love with the guitar and began writing his own songs. ••• https://toddkesslermusic.com/ https://www.hemifran.com/artist/Todd%20Kessler/ ••• Interview conducted by Marco Rixecker...

Joanna Hopson is an Iñupiaq Arctic games coach and athlete who competed in the annual Arctic Winter Games, held this year in Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. In addition to common winter events like curling and figure skating, the games include traditional indigenous competitions including single foot kick, knuckle hop, and stick pull. https://www.facebook.com/share/1D4gJBdzsi/ ••• Interview conducted b...

Michael Yellow Bird is a Professor at the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba, Canada. He is an enrolled member of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation in North Dakota, USA. His research interests focus on the effects of colonization and methods of decolonization, decolonizing social work, ancestral health, healthy indigenous aging, and shifting behavior, thoughts, beliefs, and ways...