Missouri Humanities

In this episode, our guest is Vivian Gibson, author of The Last Children of Mill Creek and proof positive of the importance of telling your story. The book came out in 2020, amid the craze of the COVID19 pandemic, and has since grown to be a must-read. Mill Creek Valley was a segregated Black community in St. Louis city that was labeled "blighted" and razed for urban development in the late 1950s....

While we commemorate 250 years of American History, we're reminded of the people and stories who were here before the establishment of the United States. For this conversation, we're joined by Dr. Angela Cooper, Site Services Specialist at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, to discuss a place that was once one of the biggest civilizations in North America, home to the Mississippian people and the...

In this episode, we’re thrilled to dive into a conversation about a true Missouri legend, Samuel Clemens, aka the one and only Mark Twain. Twain is someone who has undoubtedly contributed to the nation’s literary legacy and helped so many of us better appreciate the written word. To help us learn more about this Missouri icon, we talked with Megan Rapp from the Mark Twain Museum in Hannibal, Misso...

Welcome to Season 5 of the Missouri Humanities Podcast, The Story of US: 250 Years as Told by Missouri. To kick off this season, we talked with Dr. Joel Rhodes, Executive Director of the State Historical Society of Missour. His contribution to our conversation helps get us in gear for a year of storytelling through Missouri’s lens. We talk about Missouri as a crossroads in more ways than one, Miss...

As we close out this year’s signature series, we are joined by Missouri Humanities Executive Director, Ashley Beard-Fosnow to discuss how the humanities have shaped American civic leadership and the role of Missouri citizens in contributing to our “American Experiment.”  Especially ahead of America’s 250th anniversary, how can each of us employ the power of the humanities to build a “more perfect...

September 28-October 5th is Good Neighbor Week. Signed into law in 2022, Missouri Good Neighbor Week encourages citizens of Missouri to “participate in events and activities to establish connections with their neighbors.” In honor of Good Neighbor Week, we’re sharing a conversation held during our 2025 Humanities Symposium: Ozarks Engaged: Citizenry and the Future of Our Communities This session i...

For this latest episode, we are taking a look back at early American history, hundreds of years ago, to explore the relationships between colonists/early Americans and Indigenous peoples in this part of North America. Specifically, how did Native groups influence early American government and civic engagement? Yes, this is a very big question, and a topic like this could fill volumes of books and...

This episode can best be described as “US Constitution 101.” Our guest is Dr. Silvana Siddali, professor of history at St. Louis University, and we’re diving into the foundational principles that have shaped the United States from its birth to its modern-day challenges. We’re going on a journey through the creation, evolution, and ongoing debates around the U.S. Constitution. So, grab your thinkin...

This episode of our Missouri Voices podcast is a special feature, a recording of the virtual keynote program from our 2025 Signature Series. This program, titled “From History to Action: Presidential Libraries and the Future of Civic Engagement,” highlights the vital role Presidential Libraries play in fostering democracy and civic engagement. The conversation, featuring insights from several Pres...

In our Season 4 premiere, we sit down with Dr. Jay Sexton, Director of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democrazy at Mizzou. As we explore the theme of "Civics and Citizenry" throughout this year, Dr. Sexton will guide us through defining some of the ideas and terms we’ll encounter this year and set the stage to help us better understand the role of civics in our daily lives, how they connec...

What do Walt Disney, J.C. Penney, the Pony Express, and Sliced Bread have in common? They all have incredible stories of innovation originating along Missouri’s Highway 36! Also known as The Way of American Genius, Highway 36 from St. Joseph to Hannibal connects individuals and inventions from rural communities in America's Heartland.   In this special episode, we’re sharing a previously recorded...

For the latest episode of Missouri Marvels, we dig into a groundbreaking initiative from Washington University in St. Louis, The Wash U and Slavery Project. Our conversation will highlight the St. Louis Integrated Database of Enslavement (or SLIDE), which makes historic Census and other key data searchable online, as well as efforts to  revisit connections between slavery and WashU's earliest lead...

In this episode, we invite you to meet us in St. Louis, Louis, for a conversation about the 1904 World's Fair. Joining our discussion is Adam Kloppe, a public historian with the Missouri Historical Society who worked on the new World's Fair Exhibit at the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, which opened in April 2024.  We discuss both the new perspectives and harsh realities faced when creatin...

Our guest for Episode 2 is Dr. Linda Godwin. Selected by NASA as an astronaut candidate in June 1985, Dr. Godwin became an astronaut in July 1986. A veteran of four space flights, Dr. Godwin has logged over 38 days in space, including over 10 EVA hours in two spacewalks. She retired from NASA in 2010 and is now a Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Mi...

Space settlement is rapidly becoming ever more likely. Will it look like the utopian vision of Star Trek? Or the dark future of Star Wars? Can our earthly ways thrive in the cosmos? For the first episode of this new season, we are thrilled to be able to share with you a previously recorded program from Missouri Humanities. On Feb 17th, 2024, Missouri Humanities held their Keynote Event for the yea...

As we conclude our season on the Roots & Routes of Missourians, we bring it back to the beginning to discuss Missouri’s first peoples. Joining our conversation for our final episode is Greg Olson, an independent researcher and author who lives in Columbia, Missouri. Greg talks with us about the vast and complex history of native peoples in this area, as well as the massive undertaking that is...

Dr Gene Chavez is known for documenting the life experiences of Mexican and other immigrants in the Midwest. In this episode, we discuss the impact of hispanic peoples putting down roots in Missouri, as well as Gene's work preserving Hispanic histories and his dedication to lifting up Hispanic voices, bringing awareness to these often untold or under-represented stories in Missouri and beyond.  

Our conversation for this episode features Patrick Murphy, an author and former television producer with 9 PBS in St Louis. He’s penned three books: Candy Men: The Story of Switzer’s Licorice, The Irish in St. Louis: From Shanty to Lace Curtain, and Places to Pray: Holy Sites in Catholic Missouri. We discuss the immigrant experience in Missouri, his inspiration behind writing about people and plac...

Family historian and genealogist Kate Huffman helps us answer questions about finding our roots. She has over a decade of experience in the field and even started her own genealogy firm, "Historic Kate Genealogy."  We discuss the drastic increase in public interest in genealogy, how technological advancements have changed the field, and the most fascinating parts of her job. We hope this conversat...

Part 2 of our 2-part "Black Movement" series focuses on The Great Migration in Missouri with Dr. Tony Holland, a retired professor of history and social sciences from Lincoln University and co-author of the book "The Black Heritage of Missouri." We discuss the causes and effects of this period, which is considered one of the biggest movements of people in history, as well as how we interpret and s...

This episode serves as part one of a two part series about Black Movement. Our guest for this portion is Dr. Bryan Jack, a professor of History at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville and author of The St. Louis African American Community and the Exodusters . The Exodusters were a group of Black migrants from the South that made the journey to Kansas by way of the Mississippi and Missouri...

Dr. Ness Sandoval joins us for Season 2's inaugural episode to help us set the stage for this idea of the “Movement and Settlement of Missourians.” He’s a demographer and sociologist at Saint Louis University, and it’s his job to help predict how places will look in the future, based on people. Our conversation digs deep into the current state of Missouri's people and places, and puts Missouri int...

A little "digestif" with our "Eat, THINK, & Be Merry" podcast hosts, Lisa Carrico & Caitlin Yager, and several members of the Missouri Humanities staff. In this final ET&BM episode, we wrap up the season by reflecting on some of our favorite episodes and takeaways. We also look ahead and introduce our 2023 Signature Series, "Roots & Routes: The Movement and Settlement of Missourian...

The 2022 Hunt. Fish. Gather. Program, presented by Missouri Humanities, The Kathryn M. Buder Center for American Indian Studies, and Washington University Dining Services, took place on November 3rd and 4th, 2022. This program creates an educational opportunity for Washington University and the local community, focused on an Indigenous model of health and wellness by incorporating traditional Nati...

In this episode, we integrate the humanities and science with our conversation with Bo Brown, outdoor wilderness educator, biologist, author of “Foraging the Ozarks,” and musician. We discuss the abundant plant biological diversity of the Ozarks, the popularity of foraging wild edibles—the history, the benefits, the dangers, the ethics and sustainability of foraging—and touch on cultural tradition...