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The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

The Kitchen Sisters Present… Stories from the b-side of history. Lost recordings, hidden worlds, people possessed by a sound, a vision, a mission. Deeply layered stories, lush with interviews, field recordings and music. From powerhouse NPR producers The Kitchen Sisters (The Keepers, Hidden Kitchens, The Hidden World of Girls, The Sonic Memorial Project, Lost & Found Sound, and Fugitive Waves). "The Kitchen Sisters have done some of best radio stories ever broadcast" —Ira Glass. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced in by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) in collaboration with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell and mixed by Jim McKee. A proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.

Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.

The Kitchen Sisters Present… Stories from the b-side of history. Lost recordings, hidden worlds, people possessed by a sound, a vision, a mission. Deeply layered stories, lush with interviews, field recordings and music. From powerhouse NPR producers The Kitchen Sisters (The Keepers, Hidden Kitchens, The Hidden World of Girls, The Sonic Memorial Project, Lost & Found Sound, and Fugitive Waves). "The Kitchen Sisters have done some of best radio stories ever broadcast" —Ira Glass. The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced in by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) in collaboration with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell and mixed by Jim McKee. A proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX. Learn more at radiotopia.fm.

Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.
112hr 58min
Thumbnail for "223 - Losing Lincoln  ".
After struggling through the pandemic and a ransomware attack, students and faculty at a rural predominantly Black college were faced with a sudden turn of events—the loss of their school.
Thumbnail for "Tupperware".
Tupperware, which gave generations of women a chance to make their own money outside the home, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in September. We revisit a story from the early years of The Kitchen Sisters about the iconic plasticware brand.
Thumbnail for "Manny's: A Civic Gathering Place".
Thumbnail for "Oprah, Kamala, and The New Orleans Four".
The story of the 6-year-old girls who first integrated the New Orleans public schools in 1960 and the US Deputy Marshalls who protected them.
Thumbnail for "Burning Man: Archiving the Ephemeral".
A deep dive into the legendary Burning Man Archives. How do you archive an event when one of its driving principles is "leave no trace"?
Thumbnail for "Henri Langlois and the Cinémathèque Française".
Henri Langlois, the controversial, eccentric, founder of one of the world’s great film archives, the Cinémathèque Française.
Thumbnail for "Linda Ronstadt Day".
Celebrating Linda Ronstadt — her iconic catalog of work, her commitment to social justice and her 78th birthday.
Thumbnail for "Traveling Route 66 — The Mother Road".
The first continuously paved highway linking east and west, Route 66, "The Main Street of America," came to represent America’s mobility and freedom, inspiring countless stories, songs, and even a TV show.
Thumbnail for "Laying the Groundwork: Women in American Architecture, Spring 1977".
The 1977 transformational exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum focusing on the under-told stories of American women architects, which laid the groundwork for social change, scholarship, and recognition of women working in architecture.
Thumbnail for "A Floating City Vision - Mirabeau Water Garden, New Orleans".
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the Sisters of St. Joseph convent in New Orleans was under eight feet of water. A year later, on a clear blue day, the building was struck by lightning. The Sisters prayed for a sign, and in walked David Waggonner with a vision.
Thumbnail for "Dissident Kitchens".
Thumbnail for "Eleanor Coppola: Notes on a Life".
Thumbnail for "Cool Hair, Great Smile: Remembering Knox Phillips".
A tribute to music producer Knox Phillips, Memphis Music Ambassador, son of Sam Phillips creator of Sun Records, and Keeper of his Family's legacy. During more than 50 years in the industry, Knox produced records by Jerry Lee Lewis, Willie Nelson and John Prine and many more.
Thumbnail for "The Romance and Sex Life of the Date".
In 1898, the United States Department of Agriculture created a special department of men, called “Agriculture Explorers” to travel the globe in search of new food crops to bring back and grow in the U.S.
Thumbnail for "Parsi New Year—First Day of Spring   ".
Niloufer Ichaporia King—a kitchen botanist, a one-of-a-kind cook, a Parsi from Bombay living in San Francisco, and author of "My Bombay Kitchen," prepares an elaborate ceremonial meal for Parsi New Year, the first day of spring.
Thumbnail for "Buildings Speak: Stories of Pioneering Women Architects hosted by Frances McDormand".
Trailblazers, codebreakers, skyscraper visionaries. Julia Morgan, Natalie de Blois, Amaza Lee Meredith—women who changed the skyline and the built environment that surrounds us today.
Thumbnail for "Black Chef, White House—African American Chefs in the President's Kitchen".
Cooking for the founding fathers—the story of Hercules and Hemings, the enslaved chefs of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. And an interview with Zephyr Wright, President Lyndon Johnson's cook who worked for the family for 27 years.
Thumbnail for "The Mardi Gras Indians—Stories from New Orleans".
A collection of stories in honor of the Black Mardi Gras Indian tradition, its rituals and deep-rooted significance to New Orleans culture, featuring Jelly Roll Morton, Tootie Montana and more.
Thumbnail for "230 - Architecture, Family Style – Sarah Harkness & Jean Fletcher ".
The lives and work of architects Sarah Harkness and Jean Bodman Fletcher and the post WWII utopian vision of the Architects Collaborative (TAC).
Thumbnail for "229 - The Pancake Years - For Lenny on Christmas Eve".
For five years Davia's father, Lenny Nelson, asked her to go to Rattlesden, England, to visit the Air Force base where he was stationed during WWII and to find an old photograph hanging in the town pub honoring his 8th Air Force squadron.
Thumbnail for "Emily Dickinson's Hidden Kitchen—Black Cake".
In honor of her 193rd birthday, we revisit the secret, steamy myth laden world of Emily Dickinson through her kitchen.
Thumbnail for "227 - Lou Reed's Tai Chi".
Lou Reed, musician, rock icon, poet, leader of the legendary Velvet Underground, was obsessed with tai chi — the practice, the community, the health and spiritual benefits — and had been writing a book about this ancient martial art that was unfinished when he died in 2013. Lou’s wife, the artist and musician Laurie Anderson, turned to three of Lou's friends to help her finish the project. By the time the book, The Art of the Straight Line: My Tai Chi by Lou Reed, hit the stands in the spring of 2023, they had spoken with nearly 100 people and created a riveting portrait of Lou’s spiritual, medical and musical life, beckoning readers to enter the world of tai chi.
Thumbnail for "226 - Kimchi Diplomacy—Hidden Kitchens: War & Peace and Food".
In this season of Kimchi making, stories of South Korea’s ancient food tradition and the country’s work to foster connections between nations through “gastrodiplomacy.”
Thumbnail for "Architect Anna Wagner Keichline: The Legacy of Invention".
Architect, industrial designer, suffragette, Anna Wagner Keichline made breakthroughs in housing and kitchen design and held 7 patents for her inventions.
Thumbnail for "224 - Make Coffee Black Again".
We hear from Bartholomew Jones, co-founder of CxffeeBlack, a "multimedia coffee educational company" based in Memphis, Tennessee
Thumbnail for "222 - Filmmaker Wim Wenders—The Entire Caboddle".
Wim Venders, who premiered two beautiful new films at Cannes Film Festival this year, talks about his life and inspirations in this a piece produced for The Keepers series.
Thumbnail for "221 - Lena Richard - America's Unknown Celebrity Chef".
The almost forgotten story of Lena Richard, an African American Creole chef, cookbook writer, TV host, catering business owner, frozen food entrepreneur, cooking school teacher — a "force of nature" in New Orleans and across the food industry of the 1930s and 40s.
Thumbnail for "220 - Archiving the Underground — Hip Hop at Harvard & Cornell ".
In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop we visit the Hip Hop Archive and Research Center at Harvard and Hip Hop Collection at Cornell University
Thumbnail for "219 - Edith Warner's Atomic Tea Room ".
A little known hidden kitchen in the desert mountains of Los Alamos where Edith Warner and her Tea Room provided respite for the men and women creating the world's first weapons of mass destruction.
Thumbnail for " 218 - Remembering "The Day After Trinity - J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb"".
In a rare 1981 interview, filmmaker Jon Else talks with The Kitchen Sisters about the making of his Academy Award nominated documentary about J. Robert Oppenheimer and the making of the atomic bomb.
Thumbnail for "217 - International Congress of Youth Voices—Youth on Fire".
Young people from around the globe gather together at the International Congress of Youth Voices to share ideas and change the world.
Thumbnail for "216 - Amaza Lee Meredith, African American Architect: Love & Home".
Amaza Lee Meredith designed a subdivision and vacation destination for African Americans in Sag Harbor in 1947. She lived with her life-long partner, in an openly gay relationship, in the house she designed on the Virginia State University Campus where both women taught.
Thumbnail for "215—Prince and the Technician".
The story of Prince and his sound technician, Susan Rogers, who engineered some of his best known works in the early 1980s including Purple Rain and Sign o' the Times.
Thumbnail for "214 - The Passion of Chris Strachwitz 1931-2023 —Arhoolie Records".
A tribute to Chris Strachwitz—founder of Arhoolie Records, producer, ethnomusicologist, song catcher— who passed on May 5, 2003.
Thumbnail for "213 - Ada Louise Huxtable, Architecture Critic: The Art We Must Live With".
Ada Louise Huxtable, architectural critic for the New York Times and later the Wall Street Journal, set out to separate the dull from the great. A few architects tried to argue with her. They never won.
Thumbnail for "212 - Tony Schwartz Centennial- 30,000 Recordings Later".
In celebration of the life and work of Tony Schwartz, one of the great audio pioneers, sound recordists and collectors of the 20th Century.
Thumbnail for "211 - House/Full of Black Women".
Performances, pop-up processions, rituals, all-night song circles, in the storefronts, galleries, warehouses, and streets of Oakland. For almost a decade House/Full of Black Women have been creatively addressing and combating issues of eviction, gentrification, sex trafficking of Black women and girls that are plaguing their community.
Thumbnail for "210-Ray Eames—Industrial Designer & Artist:  Beauty in the Everyday".
Visionary industrial designer and artist Ray Eames worked together with her husband, Charles Eames, making significant and ground breaking contributions to modern architecture, furniture, and design..
Thumbnail for "209 - Black Reconstruction in America - W.E.B. Du Bois' 1935 Groundbreaking / Myth-Busting Book".
W.E.B. DuBois' "Black Reconstruction in America" challenges the dominant historical and racist interpretation of the Civil War and Reconstruction Era that was (and in many cases still is) prevalent in both popular and academic circles.
Thumbnail for "208 - Never a Man Spake Like This Man: The Black Preacher As Performing Artist".
A breakthrough radio documentary created in the 1980s by Judi Moore Smith featuring interviews with Black ministers across the country, recordings of their creative preaching styles, and an exploration of the interplay of church, ritual and theater.
Thumbnail for "207 - The Golden Arches in Black America".
Dr. Marcia Chatelain talks about her Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” and the history of the complicated relationship between fast food and the Black community.
Thumbnail for "206 - Curtis "Wall Street" Carroll - The Stock Market Wizard of San Quentin is Released! ".
After serving 27 years of a 54 years to life sentence in prison, Curtis Carroll, aka Wall Street, "The Stock Wizard of San Quentin," has been released on parole. We hear his story and talk to him about what’s next.
Thumbnail for "205-Silent Echoes: Sound Artist Bill Fontana —The Bells of Notre Dame".
San Francisco sound artist Bill Fontana creates a new work giving voice to the silenced bells of Notre Dame.
Thumbnail for "204 - Library of Congress Acquires Kitchen Sisters' Audio Collection - KQED Forum Interview ".
The Kitchen Sisters talk to Alexis Madrigal of KQED's Forum about their 40 audio archive that has recently been acquired by The Library of Congress.
Thumbnail for "203 - A San Quentin Wedding".
Edmond Richardson is marrying the love of his life in an unlikely place: San Quentin State Prison. And you are invited to the wedding..
Thumbnail for "202 — Harvesting Wild Rice—White Earth Ojibwe Land Recovery Project ".
We journey to White Earth Reservation, out onto Big Rice Lake in a canoe, to see how one tribe is supporting itself and changing the diet of its people through community kitchen projects. And we talk with the founder of White Earth Land Recovery Project, Ojibwe leader, Winona LaDuke.
Thumbnail for "201- From Nashville to Nairobi: A History of Country Western Music in Kenya".
A look at the impact of country music in Kenya, dating back to the 1920s and 30s when locals first heard Jimmie Rodgers on early country western 78 records.
Thumbnail for "200 - Manny’s: A Civic Gathering Place".
Manny Yekutiel has created a gathering space in San Francisco for people to watch presidential debates, meet people working on the front lines of social change, and discuss issues with policy makers in person. From community forums debating the new trash can designs in San Francisco to political candidates for the Senate and the presidency, Manny’s is a community meeting and learning place in the heart of San Francisco.
Thumbnail for "199 - Linda Ronstadt: Feels Like Home - A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands".
The legendary Linda Ronstadt has a new book out. Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands — a historical, musical, edible memoir that spans the story of five generations of Linda’s Mexican American German family, from the Sonoran desert in Mexico to the Ronstadt family hardware store in Tucson to the road that led Linda to LA and musical stardom. Intimate and epic, "this is little Linda, Mexican Linda, cowgirl Linda, desert Linda."
Thumbnail for "198 - The Real Ambassadors: Dave Brubeck, Iola Brubeck, and Louis Armstrong ".
In the late 1950s, Dave and Iola Brubeck wrote a jazz musical for Louis Armstrong—a rallying cry for integration, cultural exchange and social justice.
Thumbnail for "197 - What Fire Reveals: Stories from the Amah Mutsun, Big Basin and the Lightning Fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains".
Amah Mutsun Tribal leaders, Big State Parks historians, and mountain residents who lost their homes, share their stories and perspectives about what was lost and what has been revealed in the devastating 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fires in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Thumbnail for "196 -  Afghan Women Refugees in America (Rebroadcast)".
The stories of young Afghan women journalists, musicians and activists, now living in the US, who fled their country in fear for their lives when the Taliban took over their nation in August 2021.
Thumbnail for "195 - Sheikh Imam: Egypt's Voice of Dissent".
A blind oud player from humble beginnings, Sheikh Imam’s destiny changed drastically when he met a dissident poet called Ahmed Fouad Negm, and they formed a duo. Together, they would go on start a new era in Egyptian popular music. Their songs would shake regimes, travel the world on cassette tapes, and transcend their own time to become part of the soundtrack to Egypt’s revolution decades later.
Thumbnail for "194 - From Pinoy to Punk — The Rise of the Mabuhay Gardens ".
The story of a small Filipino nightclub in San Francisco that transformed into one the most influential punk venues attracting bands like The Avengers, The GoGos, Patti Smith and so many others—pushing punk rock out onto the global stage.
Thumbnail for "193 - Afghan Women Refugees in America ".
The story of an astonishing group of young Afghan women journalists, musicians and activists, now living in the US, who fled their country in fear for their lives when the Taliban took over their nation in August 2021..
Thumbnail for "192 - Monterey Pop Festival Revisited".
For three days in June, 1967, the sleepy fairgrounds in Monterey, CA rocked with Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, Ravi Shankar, Otis Redding, Hugh Masekela and so many other legendary greats at the first Monterey Pop Festival — a watershed event in the history of rock and roll.
Thumbnail for "191—The Egg Wars and the Farallon Islands".
A hidden Gold Rush kitchen—when food was scarce and men died for eggs. We travel out to the forbidding Farallon Islands, 27 miles outside San Francisco’s Golden Gate, home to the largest seabird colony in the United States, where during the 1850s Gold Rush egg hunters gathered over 3 million eggs, nearly stripping the island bare.
Thumbnail for "190 - Florence Knoll: Total Design".
Pioneering architect Florence Knoll revolutionized office design bringing modernist design to office interiors. She was the force behind the seamless integration of furniture, space, textile, art, and graphic design into a perfect brand concept: Total Design.
Thumbnail for "189 - Hillary and Huma ".
Hillary Rodham Clinton and her former close aide Huma Abedin talk about their recent books and more in an interview with Davia Nelson of The Kitchen Sisters.
Thumbnail for "188 - Fast Food and Radical Rooflines: Helen Fong Shapes Los Angeles Coffee Shops ".
Helen Fong, one of the few women practicing architecture in the US in the 1950s, is best known for her “Googie” California coffee shop architectural style—Pann’s Coffee Shop, Denny's, Bob's Big Boy— those bold, iconic, futuristic restaurants of the 1950s and 60s created to catch the eye of America’s fast growing car culture.
Thumbnail for "187 - Norma Sklarek: An Extremely Bold Hand ".
Often called the Rosa Parks of Architecture, Norma Sklarek was one of the first African American women architects in the US, and the first Black woman to establish and manage an architectural firm.
Thumbnail for "186 - Coal + Ice: Visualizing the Climate Crisis".
The story behind the powerful global exhibition of photographs, videos, and immersive imagery focusing on the climate crisis and what actions can be taken now on display in Washington DC through April 22, 2022.
Thumbnail for "185 - Natalie de Blois — To Tell the Truth".
Natalie de Blois (1921–2013), a pioneering woman architect, contributed to some of the most iconic modernist works for corporate America, all while raising four children. She was one of the leaders in the Chicago Women in Architecture advocacy group.
Thumbnail for "184 - The Road Ranger—My Business Is Trouble".
“I go on the road looking for trouble and whenever I find some, I stop. I suppose that’s why they call me “The Bloodhound of Breakdown.  But then, my business is trouble." We go out on patrol with The Road Ranger, "The Scourge of the Tow Hook and the Long Delay," in one of the first stories produced by The Kitchen Sisters.
Thumbnail for "183 - That Cheap, Delicious, Rotisserie Chicken".
Why is that cheap rotisserie chicken, sold everywhere in markets and grocery outlets, so cheap? The Kitchen Sisters Present the first episode of What You’re Eating, a brand new podcast from FoodPrint.org.
Thumbnail for "182 - "The porters were fed up." C.L. Dellums and the rise of America's first Black union".
The story of America's first Black union, The Brotherhood of the Sleeping Car Porters, how it laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s, and C.L. Dellums' impact on challenging racial discrimination throughout California.
Thumbnail for "181 - The Accidental Archivist—Keeping the Wooster Group".
The Wooster Group in downtown NYC has been at the forefront of experimental theater for some 40 years. Clay Hapaz, the Group's official archivist has the job of chronicling and preserving a collection devoted to process, improvisation, the dense layering of ideas and texts and sound and image. How do you catalog something in a constant state of flux? Voices you’ll hear include Clay Hapaz, Kate Valk, Frances McDormand, Hilton Als, Peter Sellars, Spalding Gray and Elizabeth LeCompte.
Thumbnail for "180 - The Great Amish Pandemic Sewing Frolic ".
When we saw the Cleveland Clinic's full page ad reading "HELP" we thought it was time to reprise this story about the Amish community collaborating with the outside world to combat Covid-19 and keep people safe.
Thumbnail for "179 - The Nights of Edith Piaf".
She rose every day at dusk and rehearsed, performed, ate and drank until dawn. Then slept all day, woke up and began to create and unravel again as the sun went down. With stories from some of France’s great musicians —Charles Aznavour, Francis Lai, Georges Moustaki, Henri Contet.
Thumbnail for "178- Hidden Kitchens - With Host Frances McDormand".
Stories of secret, underground, below the radar cooking — how people come together through food — from the duPont Columbia and James Beard Award winning NPR series, Hidden Kitchens.
Thumbnail for "177 - The Pardoning of Homer Plessy".
One hundred twenty five years after he was convicted for sitting down in a whites-only train car, Homer Plessy may be pardoned. In 1896, his landmark case, Plessy v. Ferguson, went before the Supreme Court which ruled to uphold "separate but equal" segregation which remained in effect until 1954. Homer Plessy's pardon is being instigated by one of his descendants and the great-great granddaughter of the convicting Judge Ferguson. The two have teamed up to form the Plessy AND Ferguson Foundation fighting for justice and social change.
Thumbnail for "176-Arctic Ice, Extreme Weather—Activist Photographer Camille Seaman".
Arctic Ice, Extreme Weather, the Reckoning at Standing Rock —a journey into the deep, rich world of photographer, Camille Seaman.  
Thumbnail for "175 - Finding Julia Morgan".
The almost forgotten story of Julia Morgan, the first woman architect to be licensed in California and the architect of more than 700 buildings including the famed Hearst Castle in San Simeon.
Thumbnail for "174 - The Braveheart Grandmothers and Yankton Sioux Coming of Age Ceremony ".
The Braveheart Women’s Society, a group of Yankton Sioux grandmothers and tribal elders, have re-established an almost forgotten coming of age ritual for young girls—the Isnati, a four day traditional ceremony on the banks of the Missouri River in South Dakota.
Thumbnail for "173 - Betty Reid Soskin, Celebrating the 100th Birthday of the Oldest Park Ranger in America ".
Betty Reid Soskin, the nation's oldest serving Park Ranger, works at the Rosie the Riveter Home Front World War II National Historical Park in Richmond, CA. As a Black woman who worked in the segregated war effort, her perspective helps reveal a fuller, richer understanding of the World War II years on the Homefront as experienced by women and people of color.
Thumbnail for "172 - The Sonic Memorial—The 20th Anniversary of 9/11m], Narrated by Paul Auster ".
The Peabody Award winning Sonic Memorial —an intimate and historic documentary commemorating the life and history of the World Trade Center and its neighborhood through audio artifacts, rare recordings, voicemail messages and interviews—narrated by author Paul Auster.
Thumbnail for "171—What Fire Reveals: Stories from the CZU August Lightning Fires in The Santa Cruz Mountains".
In the aftermath of the devastating 2020 CZU August Lightning Complex fires in the Santa Cruz Mountains, The Kitchen Sisters turned their microphones on the region, looking for what was lost and what has been found since lightning struck.
Thumbnail for "170—Route 66—The Mother Road".
We travel the history of Route 66 from its beginnings as “The Main Street of America,” through the “Road of Flight” in the 1930s, to the “Ghost Road” of the 1980s, as the interstates bypass the businesses and road side attractions of another era. Stories of the first continuously paved highway linking east and west, the hit song "Get Your Kicks on Route 66," the TV show, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and so much more.
Thumbnail for "169—Cry Me A River".
The dramatic stories of three pioneering river activists and archivists—Ken Sleight, Katie Lee, and Mark Dubois and the damming of wild rivers in the west. Ken Sleight's archive at Pack Creek Ranch in Utah chronicling over a half century of river guiding and environmental activism was consumed by fire in early June.
Thumbnail for "169-Gert McMullin—Sewing on the Frontline—From the AIDS Quilt to COVID-19 PPE".
The story of Gert McMullin "Mother" of The AIDS Memorial Quilt; the history of the Gay Rights Movement in San Francisco; and Gert's continued work sewing on the frontline— creating PPE for Covid-19 healthcare workers with fabric gathered for the AIDS quilt.
Thumbnail for "168-Soul to Soul at 50 — A Homecoming Festival in Ghana for African American Artists, 1971".
Fifty years ago, a group of some of the top musicians from the United States - Ike and Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, the Staple Singers, Santana and more -– boarded a plane bound for Ghana to perform in a musical celebration planned in part for the annual celebration of Ghana’s independence. It was also an invitation to a “homecoming” for many of these noted African-American artists to return to Africa.
Thumbnail for "166—Danni Washington and The Genius Generation".
A look at The Genius Generation, a new podcast featuring innovative kids, tweens and teens who are using their smarts and ingenuity to invent the change they want to see. And an interview with host Danni Washington, a young science communicator, dedicated to inspiring and educating youth about all things science.
Thumbnail for "166-Dave Brubeck & The Ambassadors of Jazz ".
In 1955, the US government sent Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington overseas to promote democracy. Also, an interview with Dave Brubeck's sons Dan and Chris.
Thumbnail for "165—Spotlight on Black-Owned Pet Business Entrepreneurs".
Lick You Silly Dog Treats, Trill Paws ID tags, The Dog Father of Harlem's Doggie Day Care Spa — a journey into the creative and growing world of Black-Owned Pet Businesses.
Thumbnail for "164 - Francis Coppola and North Beach Citizens—A Neighborhood Vision".
Francis Ford Coppola talks about homelessness, life, friendship, neighborhoods, and his ideas about the future as he tells the remarkable story of North Beach Citizens, the volunteer organization he spearheaded twenty years ago to help grapple with the lives and needs of homeless and unhoused people living in his neighborhood in San Francisco.
Thumbnail for "163—Tales from Vietnamese Nail Shops in America".
The voices and stories of Vietnamese manicurists working in salons in the US. In honor of Women's History Month and of Asian American women wherever they live, whatever their work. And in memory of the women who lost their lives in Atlanta.
Thumbnail for "162—The Osaka Ramones: The All-Girl Punk Band - Shonen Knife".
The impact of Shonen Knife, the 1980s all-girl punk band from Osaka—a story of cultural exchange through the cassette tape and how it led to the group opening for Nirvana, one of the biggest musical acts of the 90s.
Thumbnail for "Lawrence Ferlinghetti".
In this lushly produced soundscape, Lawrence talks about his youth, reads his poetry, and muses with his friend Erik Bauersfeld about life, death and art. Produced in collaboration with sound designer Jim McKee who recorded Lawrence and chronicled his life and work for over 20 years.
Thumbnail for "160—Can Do: Black Visionaries, Seekers, and Entrepreneurs-with Host Alfre Woodard".
Hosted by Alfre Woodard—stories of Black pioneers, seekers and entrepreneurs - self-made men and self-taught women, neighborhood heroes and visionaries. People who said "yes we can" and then did. A compilation of stories produced by The Kitchen Sisters.
Thumbnail for "159 — Nomadland with Frances McDormand".
Academy Award winning Frances McDormand talks about her latest film Nomadland coming to Hulu and select theaters and drive ins starting February 19, 2020. A story about people uprooted from their old jobs and neighborhoods now living in DIY customized vans, migrating for work with the seasons.
Thumbnail for "158 — A Plea for Peace:  Leonard Bernstein, Richard Nixon, and the Music of the 1973 Inauguration".
In January 1973, following the Christmas bombing of Vietnam, conductor Leonard Bernstein gathered an impromptu orchestra and choir to perform an "anti-inaugural concert" protesting Richard Nixon's official inaugural concert and his escalation of the Vietnam War.
Thumbnail for "157 — Chido Govera—The Mushroom Queen of Zimbabwe".
A mushroom farmer, food activist, business entrepreneur, foster mother to more than a dozen girls— Chido Govera is a kitchen visionary in Zimbabwe—a pioneer in the cultivation of mushrooms throughout Africa and the world.
Thumbnail for "156 — The Amish Pandemic Sewing Frolic".
It was April 2020. The pandemic was really starting to roar. PPE was scarce and supply chains were already breaking down. Every hospital was scrambling to find enough masks, gowns and face shields. It was already every state, every institution for itself. A headline caught our eye: “Abe Make a Sewing Frolic” — In Ohio The Amish Take on the Coronavirus. This isolated, centuries-old, self-reliant community was rising to the occasion and collaborating with the world outside to fill the PPE needs of the Cleveland Clinic and beyond. In the attempt to record this story in Amish country in the midst of social distancing and the ever deepening pandemic, a new collaboration was born — artist Laurie Anderson, Ohio-born designer Stacy Hoover and producer Evan Jacoby all joined with The Kitchen Sisters to bring these voices to air.
Thumbnail for "155 - Frances McDormand in Nomadland".
Frances McDormand talks about the making of her extraordinary new film Nomadland directed by Chole Zhao and based on the non fiction book by Jessica Bruder about and her experiences in the van-dwelling community. With clips from author Jessica Bruder, director Chloe Zhao, van-dwelling guru Bob Wells, and clips from the film.
Thumbnail for "154 — Hunting & Gathering with Angelo Garro".
Angelo Garro – a Sicilian blacksmith living in a forge in San Francisco with a passion for hunting, foraging, opera, cooking, pickling, curing salamis, making wine and generously tending and feeding his friends and community. A Thanksgiving gift.
Thumbnail for "153 — The Vietnam Tapes of Lance Corporal Michael A. Baronowski".
In 1966, a young Marine, Michael A. Baronowski, took a reel-to-reel tape recorder with him into the Vietnam War recording his life in foxholes, in combat and sending these audio letters home to his family. Then he was killed in action. Thirty-four years later Baronowski’s friend shared those tapes with producer Jay Allison as part of the Peabody award winning Lost & Found Sound series on NPR.
Thumbnail for "152 — Winona LaDuke—First Born Daughter".
Winona LaDuke is a force to be reckoned with and she’s in it for the long haul. Ojibwe leader, two-time Vice Presidential candidate for the Green Party, food activist, rural development economist, hemp farmer, Harvard graduate, first born daughter—she's a visionary and a fighter.
Thumbnail for "151 - Pearl Jam: It's a Rock Band, Not The Smithsonian".
Sometimes we find the story, sometimes the story finds us. Such is the case with this tale of two Keepers from the Pacific Northwest, the official/unofficial archivists for Pearl Jam. Caroline Losneck, a radio producer in Maine heard our Keepers series about activist archivists and rogue librarians and said to herself, “Hey wait a minute, what about that mythic vault in Seattle I’ve been hearing about for years filled to the brim with 30 years of Pearl Jam, who's keeping that?”
Thumbnail for "150 — Floating City - The Mirabeau Water Garden, New Orleans".
We go to New Orleans for a kind of biblical reckoning. A story of science and prayer, with a cast of improbable partners—environmental architects and nuns—coming together to create a vision of "living with water" in New Orleans. Mirabeau Water Garden, one of the largest urban wetlands in the country designed to inspire, educate and save its neighborhood from flooding.
Thumbnail for "149 - The Sonic Memorial—Remembering 9/11 with host Paul Auster".
The Peabody Award winning, intimate and historic documentary commemorating the life and history of the World Trade Center and its surrounding neighborhood, through audio artifacts, rare recordings, voicemail messages and interviews.
Thumbnail for "148 - Youth on Fire—The International Congress of Youth Voices ".
Picture this: 131 youth activists and visionaries, 13 to 26 years old, from 37 countries—students, writers, poets, marchers, community leaders all gathered in San Juan, Puerto Rico in August 2019 to plan and ignite change in the world.
Thumbnail for "147 - Kamal Mouzawak—A Lebanese Kitchen Vision ".
In homage to the people of Lebanon The Kitchen Sisters Present a journey through the hidden kitchens of Lebanon with kitchen activist and restaurateur Kamal Mouzawak, a man with a vision of re-building and uniting this war-ravaged nation through its traditions, its culture and its food. We visit farmer’s markets, restaurants and guest houses known as Souk el Tayeb that he and his kitchen community have created.
Thumbnail for "146 — French Manicure—Tales from Vietnamese Shops in America".
In honor of the many people who work in nail salons across the country who are struggling to keep their businesses from going under during these long closures, The Kitchen Sisters Present French Manicure —Tales from Vietnamese Nail Shops in America.
Thumbnail for "145 - Louis Jones, Field Archivist, Detroit".
Louis Jones, Field Archivist at Ruether Library, Wayne State University—the largest labor archive in North America—takes us through the collection with stories of the UAW, Cesar Chavez, Utah Phillips, A. Philip Randolph and the Civil Rights Movement, the 1967 Detroit uprising, and how archivists are examining and re-imagining their roles in the midst of Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Thumbnail for "144 - 95,000 Names—Gert McMullin, Sewing the Frontline".
Gert McMullin, The "Mother of the AIDS Memorial Quilt" memorializing those who died in the AIDS pandemic, is now sewing masks for nurses and health care workers made from fabric left over from the making of the AIDS Quilt. The Story of Gert, the Quilt, activist Cleve Jones, Harvey Milk, The White Night Riots and the Gay Rights Movement in San Francisco.
Thumbnail for "143 - The McDonogh Three—First Day of School ".
November 14, 1960, New Orleans. Three six-year-old girls, flanked by Federal Marshals, walked through screaming crowds and policemen on horseback as they approached their new school for the first time—McDonogh No. 19. Leona Tate thought it must be Mardi Gras. Gail thought they were going to kill her. The story of integrating the New Orleans Public schools in 1960, four years after Brown v. Board of Education was passed.
Thumbnail for "142—From King Henry the VIII to the Rolling Stones on Eel Pie Island".
Eel Pie Island, a tiny bit of land in the River Thames with a flamboyant history involving King Henry the VIII, Charles Dickens, The Rolling Stones, Pete Townshend, Rod Stewart, Anjelica Huston, Trad Jazz, Rock and Roll, and eel pie—a disappearing London delicacy.
Thumbnail for "141—Pati Jinich's Mexican Jewish Table".
An intimate, inspiring conversation with Mexican chef and cookbook author, Pati Jinich, host of the James Beard Award winning PBS series Pati's Mexican Table and resident chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington D.C.
Thumbnail for "140 -The Climate Underground with Al Gore and Alice Waters".
Al Gore is back and he’s got a new slide show. Al Gore, Alice Waters, farmers, chefs, scientists, entrepreneurs, policy makers —a riveting series of conversations and discussions from Al Gore's 2019 Climate Summit about the role food and regenerative agriculture can play in solving the climate crisis.
Thumbnail for "139 - Waiting for Joe DiMaggio ".
April 1993: A small village in Sicily makes lavish preparations for the first visit of baseball legend Joe DiMaggio to the town where his parents were born and raised. But he never comes.
Thumbnail for "138 - The Keepers - Archive Fever, with host Frances McDormand".
Prince's epic Vault in Minneapolis, Henri Langlois' legendary Cinémathéque in Paris, The Dark Side of the Dewey Decimal System and more stories from The Keepers - Part Two - a special episode hosted by Frances McDormand.
Thumbnail for "137- The Keepers - Archiving the Underground, with Host Frances McDormand".
The Hiphop Archive at Harvard, the Pack Horse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky, the Lenny Bruce Archive—these stories and more in this special episode of The Keepers with host Frances McDormand.
Thumbnail for "136 - The Lou Reed Archive with Laurie Anderson".
Lou Reed—music icon, poet, photographer, Tai Chi master, vital force in the cultural life and underworld of New York City. The story of his archive and how it came to the New York Public Library — from his days with The Velvet Underground, through his solo career and last recordings. With Laurie Anderson, archivists Don Fleming and Jonathan Hiam, producers Tony Visconti and Hal Willner, drone wizard Stewart Hurwood, rare archival recordings and more.
Thumbnail for "135 - Deep Fried Fuel - A Biodiesel Kitchen Vision - Celebrating Over the Road ".
In celebration of truckers everywhere and of Radiotopia’s new show Over the Road, The Kitchen Sisters visit some of their favorite Texas pitstops: Carl's Corner Truck Stop in Carl's Corner, Texas where Willie Nelson introduced BioWillie in 2004; Fuel City, downtown Dallas, with its long horn cattle, oil well, bikini clad "pool models and famous Texas tacos; and Willie Nelson, Kinky Friedman, Joe Nick Potaski, truckers, chefs and more.
Thumbnail for "133 - WHER - 1000 Beautiful Watts, The First All-Girl Radio Station in the Nation".
When Sam Phillips sold Elvis’ contract in 1955 he used the money to start an all-girl radio station in Memphis, TN. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, the women's movement, Vietnam and the death of Martin Luther King, the story of WHER follows the women who pioneered in broadcasting as they head into one of the most volatile and dramatic times in the nation's history.
Thumbnail for "133 - Theaster Gates — Keeping the South Side ".
Theaster Gates, Keeper of Greater Grand Crossing his neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, resurrects old dilapidated neighborhood buildings, transforming them into living archives, institutes of music, culture, film and gathering, preserving and renewing neighborhoods that have been ignored, overlooked and underserved.
Thumbnail for "132 - The Pancake Years".
For five years Davia's father, Lenny Nelson, asked her to go to Rattlesden, England, to visit the Air Force base where he was stationed during WWII and to find an old photograph hanging in the town pub honoring his 8th Air Force squadron.
Thumbnail for "131 - Night of the Living Intern: First Stories from Kitchen Sisters Interns  ".
The Queen's Beekeeper, The Internet Archive's Free Range Archivist Jason Scott, Israeli Artist/archivist Hadassa Goldvicht, The Other F Word and more first stories from Kitchen Sisters Interns — a deep rich offering from emerging audio producers.
Thumbnail for "130 - Lipstick Traces — Dreaming in Public  ".
The Kitchen Sisters "Dreaming in Public" about starting Lipstick Traces, a sound and story themed line of lipstick to raise money for public media storytelling.
Thumbnail for "129 - Martin Scorsese — Try Anything".
A conversation with master filmmaker Martin Scorcese about his extraordinary documentary film work. An onstage interview with Rachel Rosen, Director of Programming for the San Francisco Film Society.
Thumbnail for "128 - First Day of School—1960, New Orleans".
November 14, 1960 — Four six-year-old girls, flanked by Federal Marshals, walked through screaming crowds and policemen on horseback as they approached their new schools for the first time. Leona Tate thought it must be Mardi Gras. Gail thought they were going to kill her. The story of integrating the New Orleans Public schools in 1960, four years after Brown v Board of Education.
Thumbnail for "127 - Robert Krulwich—Talking Story, The First Third Coast".
Award-winning radio and television producer Robert Krulwich talks about storytelling techniques and his early career in media as part of Talking Story, a panel hosted by The Kitchen Sisters at the very first Third Coast International Audio Festival in Chicago in 2001.
Thumbnail for "126 - Lawrence Weschler—Archivist of the Odd, the Marvelous, the Passionate and Slightly Askew ".
Lawrence Weschler, writer and archivist of "the odd, the marvelous, the passionate and slightly askew," talks about pronged ants, horned humans, cabinets of wonder, frozen archives, archives of misery, the history of museums, obsessive collectors and more.
Thumbnail for "125 - The Passion of Chris Strachwitz—Arhoolie Records".
Chris Strachwitz, the founder of Arhoolie Records, is a man possessed — by music, by radio, by recording the vernacular music of America, his adopted home after his family left German in 1947 in the wake of WWII. Chris Strachwitz is a keeper of culture. A cantankerous keeper. He has been awarded the most prestigious honors in music and culture in the US — including a Grammy and the National Medal of Honor … and that doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Thumbnail for "124 - The Brothers Burns — A Conversation with Filmmakers Ken & Ric Burns".
A conversation with documentary filmmakers Ken and Ric Burns, who both have new films coming to PBS this year. "Country Music" from Ken and "Oliver Sacks: His Own Life" from Ric. Recorded at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival.
Thumbnail for "123- San Francisco—Stories from the Model City, Part Three".
An enormous, almost forgotten scale model of San Francisco, hand crafted and painted by WPA artists in 1938, leads us on a journey through the streets and neighborhoods of San Francisco—contemplating the past and envisioning the future of the City with poets, artists, planners, historians and local citizens.
Thumbnail for "122 - Burning Man — Archiving the Ephemeral".
A deep dive into the legendary Burning Man Archives. How do you archive an event when one of it's driving principles is "leave no trace."
Thumbnail for "121 - San Francisco—Stories from the Model City, Part Two".
An enormous, almost forgotten scale model of San Francisco, hand crafted and painted by WPA artists in 1938, leads us on a journey through the streets and neighborhoods of San Francisco—contemplating the past and envisioning the future of the City with poets, artists, planners, historians and local citizens.
Thumbnail for "120 - San Francisco—Stories from the Model City, Part One".
An enormous, almost forgotten scale model of San Francisco, hand crafted and painted by WPA artists in 1938, leads us on a journey through the streets and neighborhoods of San Francisco—contemplating the past and envisioning the future of the City with poets, artists, planners, historians and local citizens.
Thumbnail for "119 -  Nancy Pearl—Librarian Action Figure  ".
Nancy Pearl. She’s been called “one of the 10 coolest librarians alive.” She’s the bestselling author of “Book Lust: Recommended Reading for Every Mood, Moment and Reason,” and a regular commentator about books on NPR’s Morning Edition. And then, of course, there’s the Nancy Pearl Librarian Action Figure with amazing push button shushing action.
Thumbnail for "118 - The Nation's 10th Keeper—David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States".
David Ferriero, the Archivist of the United States, talks about the history of the National Archives, the adventures of early "Keepers" of our Nation's records, transparency and freedom of information, the Map Thief, Annie Oakley, Fidel Castro and more.
Thumbnail for "117 - Dieter Kosslick’s Last Red Carpet Ride  ".
Dieter Koslick, Director of the Berlin International Film Festival for eighteen years, is is one of the film world’s most gregarious, hilarious and controversial Film Festival Directors. He’s put his stamp on this legendary festival and kicked up a lot of dust in the process. A portrait of Dieter, who celebrated his last Festival in 2019, and the Berlinale's dramatic history.
Thumbnail for "116 - The Bob Dylan Archive - A Curveball Comes To Tulsa".
Bob Dylan kept just about everything—a massive private archive filled with thousands and thousands of artifacts. The story of how this secret personal archive found its way to its new permanent, public home...in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Thumbnail for "115 - You Too Can Barbecue - Stubb's Blues Cookbook Cassette & More".
In celebration of National Barbecue Month, which is every month in our book, stories from C.B. "Stubb" Stubblefield, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Nick Patoski, Bee Spears and more.
Thumbnail for "114 - Chamelecon—Below the Border in Honduras with Scott Carrier".
Producer Scott Carrier, under the protection of a hip hop artist, takes us to the outskirts of San Pedro Sula in Honduras, a city known in 2014 as the Murder Capital of the World.
Thumbnail for "113 - Filmmaker Agnés Varda — A Conversation".
A conversation with filmmaker Agnés Varda, part of the French New Wave of the 1960s and creator of the Academy Award nominated documentary "Faces Places" with photographer JR. Agnes Varda died on March 29, 2019 at home at age 90.
Thumbnail for "112 - Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Celebrating 100 years  ".
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, the famed poet of North Beach San Francisco, creator of City Lights Bookstore, publisher of the beat poets of the 1950s and 60s, champion of free speech and First Amendment rights. Lawrence is turning 100 this year, and we’re celebrating.
Thumbnail for "111 - Palaces for the People—Author Eric Klinenberg from The Librarian Is In".
As part of our Keepers series we’re featuring an episode of the New York Public Library’s podcast The Librarian Is In. Host Gwen Glazer and Frank Collerius interview Eric Klinenberg, author of Palaces for the People about the power and promise of the public library and its critical role in our democratic society.
Thumbnail for "110 - Filmmaker Wim Wenders - The Entire Caboodle".
Filmmaker Wim Wenders, creator of "Paris, Texas," "Wings of Desire," "Buena Vista Social Club," "Pope Francis: A Man of His Word," "Pina" and many more talks about his early influences — Cinémathèque Française, Henri Langlois, Lotte Eisner — and tells stories of Werner Herzog and the films that have impacted his work.
Thumbnail for "109 - Linda Spalding - A Reckoning".
Bestselling author Linda Spalding talks about how discovering her family's dark history as slave holders inspired her novels A Reckoning and The Purchase.
Thumbnail for "108 - The Dark Side of the Dewey Decimal System".
Melvil Dewey, the father of library science and the inventor of the most popular library classification system in the world, was a known racist and serial sexual harasser. Forced out of the American Library Association, which he co-founded, his 19th century world view and biases are reflected in the classification system that libraries around the world have inherited.
Thumbnail for "107 - William Ferris—Keeper of Southern Folklife".
Folklorist and Professor William Ferris, a 2018 Grammy nominee for his "Voices of Mississippi" 3 CD Box set, has committed his life to documenting and expanding the study of the American South. His recordings, photos and films of preachers, quilt makers, blues musicians and more are now online as part of the Southern Folklife Collection at the University of North Carolina.
Thumbnail for "106 - 21 Collections—Every Object has a Story".
Paper airplanes, photographs of men in rows, birds nests, gay bar matchbooks, dolls hats —an untraditional take on what warrants our attention. We wander through a curated collection of collections at the Los Angeles Central Library examining the role collections play in telling our stories.
Thumbnail for "Bonus Episode - The Free-Range Archivist: Jason Scott".
We've got something extra for you today as part of the Radiotopia fundraiser that is happening now. You can join the Radiotopia community and support The Kitchen Sisters Present... and all of your favorite shows in this beautiful network at radiotopia.fm. And while you're doing that, here's a little gift from us. A special Radiotopia "Hear the World Differently" bonus feature from our series, The Keepers: The Free-Range Archivist: Jason Scott.
Thumbnail for "105 - The Keepers: The Unrelenting Oral Histories of Eddie McCoy".
After a devastating car accident that made his work as a janitor impossible, civil rights activist Eddie McCoy, picked up a scavenged tape recorder and began taping anyone and everyone in his town—from the oldest person on down—piecing together the little known history of the African American community in Oxford, North Carolina, hidden stories of slavery times, sharecropping, the civil rights era and more.
Thumbnail for "104 - The Keepers: Emily Dickinson's Hidden Kitchen".
Deep in the hidden archives of Harvard’s Houghton Library are the butter stained recipes and chocolate wrappers of Emily Dickinson's Hidden Kitchen—a world of black cake, gingerbread, slant rhyme, secret loves, family scandals and poems composed on the backs of coconut cake recipes.
Thumbnail for "103 - The Keepers: The Lenny Bruce Collection".
Thumbnail for "102 - Archive Fever: Henri Langlois and the Cinémathèque Française".
Keepers: people possessed with a passion for preservation, individuals afflicted with a bad case of Archive Fever. The Keepers continues with the story of one such man, Henri Langlois, founder and curator of one of the world’s great film archives, the Cinémathèque Française.
Thumbnail for "101 - The Keepers: The Pack Horse Librarians of Eastern Kentucky".
During the Depression, as part of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Kentucky WPA hired pack horse librarians, mostly women, to carry books to isolated cabins, rural school houses and homebound coalminers in the poverty stricken Appalachian Mountains.
Thumbnail for "100 - The Keepers: Archiving the Underground—The Hip Hop Archive  ".
The first story in our new The Keepers— Archiving the Underground, delves into The Hip Hop Archive at Harvard University and the Cornell Hip Hop Collection with stories from DJs, scholars, students, and hip hop pioneers.
Thumbnail for "99 - Lovers of Lost Fans".
A visit to the Museum of the Antique Fan Collectors Association where passionate collectors can tell the make, model and year of a fan by its whir. And the AT&T Archive—how this one-time monopoly chronicled its own history and sold itself to America.
Thumbnail for "98 - Lost & Found Sound and Voices of The Dust Bowl".
Fish mongers recorded on the streets of Harlem in the 1930s; an 8-year-old girl’s impromptu news cast made on a toy recorder in a San Diego store; Voices of the Dust Bowl gathered on a 50-pound Presto recorder in the migrant labor camps of the 1930s, and more.
Thumbnail for "97 - Pan American Blues: The Birth of The Grand Ole Opry & "Harmonica Wizard" Deford Bailey ".
97 - Pan American Blues: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry & "Harmonica Wizard" DeFord Bailey, the show's first African American performer.
Thumbnail for "96 - Cry Me a River — Keepers of the Environment".
The dramatic stories of three pioneering activists, protectors and Keepers of the environment—Ken Sleight, Katie Lee, and Mark Dubois—who fought the damming of wild rivers in the West.
Thumbnail for "95 - Give Space A Chance: Gastrodiplomacy in Orbit".
Food not bombs—looking beyond the militarization of space. An American astronaut and Russian Cosmonaut share nightly meals during their six months together on the Space Station. South Korea’s first astronaut practices Kimchi Diplomacy in space feeding the food of home to her Russian comrades in orbit.
Thumbnail for "94 - Tequila Chamber of Commerce & The Birth of the Frozen Margarita".
The Agave Goddess with 200 breasts; jimadors stripping lethal thorny leaves off agaves; farmers battling cambio climatico (climate change); distillers contemplating mono culture production and the environmental impact of tequila; generations-old tequila makers versus globalization. Stories of tequila from the Tequila Region in Mexico and beyond.
Thumbnail for "93 - Prince and the Technician".
In 1983 Prince hired LA sound technician, Susan Rogers, one of the few women in the industry, to move to Minneapolis and help upgrade his home recording studio as he began work on the album and the movie Purple Rain. Susan, a trained technician with no sound engineering experience became the engineer of Purple Rain, Parade, Sign o’ the Times, and all that Prince recorded for the next four years. For those four years, and almost every year after, Prince recorded at least a song a day and they worked together for 24 hours, 36 hours, 96 hours at a stretch, layering and perfecting his music and his hot funky sound. We interviewed Susan, who is now a Professor at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, for our upcoming NPR series, The Keepers — about activist archivists, rogue librarians, collectors, curators and historians. It was Susan who started Prince’s massive archive during her time with the legendary artist.
Thumbnail for "92 - The Working Tapes of Studs Terkel".
In the early 1970’s, radio producer and author Studs Terkel wrote a book called Working. He went around the country with a reel-to-reel tape recorder interviewing people about their jobs. The book became a bestseller and even inspired a Broadway musical. Our colleagues at Radio Diaries were given exclusive access to these recordings and produced this story. As The Kitchen Sisters warm up for our new series “The Keepers,” stories of activist archivists, rogue librarians, historians, collectors, curators —keepers of the culture—we share these stories gathered by the ultimate Keeper —Studs Terkel.
Thumbnail for "91 - Mimi Chakarova: Love, Art and Anger ".
Mimi Chakarova is a filmmaker, photographer, activist, immigrant and single mother. We talk with Mimi about her films Men a Love Story, The Price of Sex, about women throughout Eastern Europe who are pushed into prostitution, and her latest project Still I Rise, premiering online in April 2018.
Thumbnail for "90 - Jorge Amado: The Ballad of Bahia".
Jorge Amado, the beloved Brazilian author of Gabriella, Clove and Cinnamon, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Tent of Miracles – wrote over 30 books in his lifetime. This documentary features interviews with Jorge Amado, composer Dorival Caymmi, activist Harry Belafonte, along with music and dramatizations of the author's work.
Thumbnail for "89 - Poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti — Celebrating 99 Years".
San Francisco beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti turns 99 years old this year. We celebrate with poetry, interviews, and overheard conversations between Ferlinghetti and his close friend Erik Bauersfeld (the voice of Star Wars' Admiral Ackbar) about life, San Francisco beat culture in the 1950s, his fight for First Amendment rights publishing Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," and more.
Thumbnail for "88 - Frances McDormand Hosts Hidden Kitchens".
Two-time Academy Award winning actress Frances McDormand hosts Hidden Kitchens—secret, underground, below the radar cooking—how communities come together through food. Stories of NASCAR cooking, Hunting and Gathering with Sicilian blacksmith Angelo Garro, and more.
Thumbnail for "87—Guillermo Cabrera Infante: Memories of an Invented City  ".
A sound portrait of Guillermo Cabrera Infante, the award winning Cuban novelist, screenwriter and critic, a one time leader in the Cuban cultural revolution who fell from favor and was later exiled.
Thumbnail for "86 - The Mardi Gras Indians—Stories from New Orleans ".
In honor of the Mardi Gras Indian tradition in New Orleans, a collection of stories and interviews featuring Jelly Roll Morton, Bo Dollis of The Wild Magnolias, Tootie Montana and more,
Thumbnail for "House of Night - The Lost Creation Songs of the Mojave People".
The story of an aging pile of forgotten reel-to-reel tapes discovered on the shelf of a tribal elder on the Fort Mojave Reservation. These tapes of the last Creation Song singer of the tribe recount the legends and origin of the Mojave people. Songs like these are oral maps of the desert region that were instrumental in helping to save the Ward Valley from becoming a nuclear waste dump site.
Thumbnail for "84 - Levee Stream Live from New Orleans".
Levee Stream— a live neighborhood pop-up, Cadillac radio station installation in New Orleans. Presented by Otabenga Jones & Associates and The Kitchen Sisters as part of the exhibit Prospect4 New Orleans. Part block party, part soap box with live music, DJs, conversations with artists, activists, civil rights leaders, neighborhood entrepreneurs and visionaries. All taking place in the back seat of a cut-in-half 1959 pink Cadillac Coup de Ville with giant speakers in the trunk on Bayou Road, one of the oldest roads in the city.
Thumbnail for "83 - Chicken Pills - A Hidden World of Girls Story from Jamaica".
Every culture has its idealized woman, its standard of beauty that is valorized. Everywhere women are altering themselves in small and major ways to achieve the look that is celebrated. In the 1990s, some women in Jamaica, longing to be large, started taking “Chicken Pills,” hormones sold to plump up the breasts and thighs of chickens.
Thumbnail for "82 - First Day of School—1960, New Orleans".
November 14, 1960 — Four six-year-old girls, flanked by Federal Marshals, walked through screaming crowds and policemen on horseback as they approached their new schools for the first time. Leona Tate thought it must be Mardi Gras. Gail thought they were going to kill her. The story of integrating the New Orleans Public schools in 1960, four years after Brown v Board of Education.
Thumbnail for "81 - Sonic Prayer Flags - New Orleans".
A string of sonic prayer flags —voices and sounds from New Orleans and Bayou Road, the oldest street in the city. Local visionaries, neighborhood entrepreneurs, artists, skate boarders, civil rights activists, musicians, teachers, and more. Listening to the sounds and moods of the New Orleans.
Thumbnail for "80 – Thad Vogler: A Short History of Spirits".
Thad Vogler, creator of San Francisco's Bar Agricole and Trou Normand, travels the world in search of hand made spirits — rum, scotch, cognac, mescal — and the hidden stories of the people and places behind these spirits.
Thumbnail for "79 – Pati’s Mexican Jewish Table".
A walk through Oaxaca's Ethnobotanical Garden with chef and cookbook author Pati Jinich, host of the Emmy and James Beard nominated PBS series Pati's Mexican Table and resident chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington DC.
Thumbnail for "78 – The Galveston Hurricane of 1900: No Tongue Can Tell".
The Great Galveston Hurricane arrived on a Saturday, September 8, 1900 — almost without warning. Galveston, the grand dame of Texas, a vibrant port city sitting haughtily on a sand bar facing the Gulf, was reduced to a splintered wasteland. Some 6,
Thumbnail for "New Orleans Visions – King’s Candy & Living with Water".
Robert King Wilkerson was imprisoned at Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for 31 years, twenty-nine of those years in solitary confinement. During that time he created a clandestine kitchen in his 6×9 cell where he made pralines.
Thumbnail for "Liberace and the Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band".
In 1967, the Esso Trinidad Tripoli Steel Band performed at the Montreal World's Fair and caught the ear of one of the most popular entertainers of the day: Liberace. The flamboyant pianist was so taken by this new,
Thumbnail for "75 – The Making Of a Karaoke Ice Cream Truck and More Stories".
Stories of creativity and invention— the making of a jar of jam, the making of a fashionable 3-D printed covering for an artificial limb, Muttville-a foster care rescue center for senior dogs, a Karaoke Ice Cream Truck— and more stories from The Making...
Thumbnail for "74 – What Is It About Men and Meat and Midnight and a Pit?".
Barbecue, burgoo, mopping the mutton, the fellowship of stirring. Stories of conflict, competition and resolution in the backyards and fire pits of our nation.
Thumbnail for "73 – Basque Sheepherders Ball".
In the 1930s and 40s, hundreds of Basques were brought to the western United States to do the desolate work that no one else would do—herding sheep. Alone for months at a time with hundreds of sheep the Basque's improvised songs,
Thumbnail for "72 – Warriors vs Warriors".
For the last five years The Golden State Warriors have been going inside San Quentin, the legendary maximum security California State prison, to take on The San Quentin Warriors, the prison’s notorious basketball team.
Thumbnail for "71 – Hidden Kitchen Gaza: A Palestinian Culinary Journey".
Author and journalist, Laila El-Haddad takes us into the hidden world of Gaza through the kitchen. Interweaving history, personal experiences and stories of food, family and recipes, El Haddad paints a vivid picture stories of food,
Thumbnail for "70 – The Egg Wars".
A hidden Gold Rush kitchen when food was scarce and men died for eggs… We travel out to the forbidding Farallon Islands, 27 miles outside San Francisco’s Golden Gate, home to the largest seabird colony in the United States,
Thumbnail for "69 – The Romance and Sex Life of the Date".
In 1898, the United States Department of Agriculture created a special department of men, called “Agriculture Explorers,” to travel the globe searching for new food crops to bring back for farmers to grow in the U.S.
Thumbnail for "68 – Tony Schwartz: 30,000 Recordings Later".
Cab drivers, children's jump rope rhymes, folk songs, dialects, controversial TV ads, interviews with blacklisted artists and writers during the McCarthy Era—Tony Schwartz, one of the great sound recordists and collectors of the 20th Century.
Thumbnail for "67 – The Hidden World of Girls with Tina Fey".
Stories from The Hidden World of Girls with host Tina Fey: Nigerian writer Chris Abani tells about his English-born mother enlisting him at age 8 to be her translator in Nigeria as she travels door to door through the villages teaching women the Billin...
Thumbnail for "66 – Sugar in the Milk: A Parsi Hidden Kitchen".
Niloufer Ichaporia King—a kitchen botanist, a one-of-a-kind cook, a Parsi from Bombay living in San Francisco, and author of "My Bombay Kitchen," prepares an elaborate ceremonial meal for Parsi New Year, the first day of spring.
Thumbnail for "65 – Sam Phillips, Sun Records, and the Acoustics of Life".
Sam Phillips — the father of Sun Records, the man who discovered Howlin’ Wolf, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash…, the creator of WHER, The First All Girl Radio Station in the World — talks about his journey,
Thumbnail for "64 – Kimchi Diplomacy:  Hidden Kitchens – War and Peace and Food".
Kimchi in space. The Kimchi Bus. Korean government-sponsored chefs and restaurants spreading the word of Kimchi around the globe. A story of “Gastrodiplomacy” — the use of food as a diplomatic tool in helping nations resolve conflict and foster connect...
Thumbnail for "63 – War and Food and Manga".
Manga, the ubiquitous Japanese comic books written on just about every subject—sports, music, sex, shooting pool—represent about 40% of all books published in Japan. In recent decades ‘food manga’ has exploded.
Thumbnail for "62 - Black Cake: Emily Dickinson’s Hidden Kitchen".
We enter the secret, steamy, myth-laden world of Emily Dickinson through her kitchen.
Thumbnail for "61 – Rattlesden".
For five years Davia's father, Lenny Nelson, asked her to go to Rattlesden, England, to visit the Air Force base where he was stationed during WWII and to find an old photograph hanging in the town pub honoring his 8th Air Force squadron.