Human Powered

A podcast from Wisconsin Humanities, because being human is a shared experience, and we are here to explore it together. In season three, we are celebrating the people who make Wisconsin home. For ten years, our Love Wisconsin producers have been excavating beneath the surface of our state by talking with people and sharing what we learn, one story at a time. In this series, Love Wisconsin producer Jen Rubin reconnects with some of these people who generously shared their stories to offer nuance, delight, and complexity to our understanding of what it means to be a Wisconsinite.

In our first season, we went out to communities around the state to learn more about how our neighborhoods and lives are impacted by small but meaningful local projects — like getting hands dirty at community gardens in Green Bay, revitalizing history around a cooking fire on the Red Cliff Reservation, and collecting stories in small towns impacted by historic floods. Hosted by Jimmy Gutierrez and produced by Field Noise Soundworks.

Humanity Unlocked, the second season of Human Powered, is a series of six episodes about the power of the humanities in Wisconsin prisons. From a storytelling workshop at Oak Hill Correctional Facility to a poetry workshop with people who were formerly incarcerated to a conversation with writers and editors of prison newspapers, we explored the importance of finding tools for deeper understanding. Hosted by Dasha Kelly Hamilton and Adam Carr; produced by Field Noise Soundworks.

Contributors

Co-host

Adam Carr

Adam Carr is a storyteller, artist, filmmaker, radio producer, urban explorer, community organizer and historian. He is also a lifelong Milwaukeean and works at the intersection of community and communication. He helped organize events to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of the open housing marches in Milwaukee and is the author of “Explore MKE: Your Neighborhood, Our City,” a children’s book made in collaboration with third graders. He works for the Milwaukee Parks Foundation as the Director of Strategic Partnerships.

Co-host

Dasha Kelly Hamilton

Dasha is a Creative Change Agent based in Milwaukee and Anchorage, Alaska. She tours the country with Makin' Cake, a stage production and film she wrote and performs about American history, race, class, and equity. When she was Wisconsin Poet Laureate (2021-22), she started an inclusive poetry exchange called A Line Meant. The website explains that "[o]ne line of poetry can work like a spell, conjuring a memory for one person and pulling gospel from someone else." With single lines from published poems, she prompted people around the state to write new poems and, in the process, to connect with strangers. To make sure that everyone felt welcome to participate, there were options for people who didn't or couldn't use computers, including people in Wisconsin's prisons.