Along The Seam

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

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On this episode of Along The Seam, Rachael is joined by National Geographic photographer Pete Muller. Pete is an award-winner photographer, filmmaker and artist who has covered topics of war, uprisings, gender constructs, and social movements around the world.  In this conversation, they dig into Pete's recent project for the magazine -- a multicultural exploration of the concept of 'solastalgia'. Solastalgia is a newly-developed word that speaks to the emotional and existential distress caused by environmental change. Pete spent more than 2 years traveling around the world to document communities whose home environments have significantly changed. 
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• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

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On this episode of Along The Seam, Rachael is joined by Cliff Sebastian who is a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut  – one of the oldest Native Tribes in the New England area. Cliff shares his experiences growing up on a reservation, his reflections of being at Standing Rock with fellow water protectors and insight into community conversations about their history. Through the revitalization of the Pequot language, Cliff tells us how modern generations are finding new words to describe old wounds.
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• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

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In this special two-part episode, we will hear stories from two documentarians from different periods of history who shed light on the repercussions of generations-long denial and silence in Armenia. The first part of the episode is a short narrative piece about the life and legacy of Armin Wegner, a German humanitarian who was witness to the genocide of the Armenians during the First World War and then stood up to Hitler about the persecution of the Jews in 1933.  That piece is narrated by Stephen D. Smith (from episode #3). The second part of the episode is a conversation with Armenian filmmaker Naré Mkrtchyan whose grandparents survived the Armenian Genocide. She sits down with host Rachael Cerrotti to discuss how coming from a family history that is weighed down by denial has impacted her identity and the stories she has chosen to explore in her work. Her film, The Other Side of Home, was the first film about the Armenian Genocide to have been shortlisted for an Oscar.
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• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

Rabbi Dr. Ariel Burger is the author of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom. He is a writer, an artist, and teacher whose work integrates education, spirituality, the arts and strategies for social change. He was a lifelong student of Elie Wiesel, the esteemed Nobel Peace Prize Winner who most famously authored the memoir Night. In this conversation, Ariel and Rachael talk about the integration of creativity into stories from the past, about memory as an educational tool, and the difference of engaging in our world as a witness versus a spectator.  You can read the transcript of our conversation here.

• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

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In this episode, Rachael is joined by Aziza Hasan to talk about navigating difficult conversations, specifically in context to Israel and Palestine. Aziza grew up in Amman, Jordan to a Palestinian father and an American mother. She is an experienced mediator and conflict transformation practitioner and is the executive director of NewGround, a community-building organization based in Los Angeles that creates, connects and empowers Jewish and Muslim Change-makers in America. She was named an influencer by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, earned the “President’s Volunteer Service Award” in 2006 under President George W. Bush and served on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.


Aziza in The Along The Seam Newsletter:
• A Reflection for Yesterday

• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

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Michael Coppage is a Cincinnati-based conceptual artist who has recently gained national attention with his recent project "BLACK BOX” : a community impact project aimed at demystifying black men and women and creating authentic experiences that replaces bias and preconceived notions related to the term “Black.” In this episode, he sits down with Rachael for a conversation about creating artwork that is aimed at bringing the audience in for an authentic conversation about the role of racism in America and what it means to be a free person in a society that is increasingly sensitive about the role of language and the perception of identity.
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• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

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Rachael Cerrotti sits down with oral historian Stephen D. Smith for a conversation about testimony and the retelling of war-torn memories. For 12 years, Stephen served as the Finci-Viterbi Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation, the archive founded by Steven Spielberg to document the Holocaust and genocide. He recently left  that role to be the Executive Chairman and co-founder of StoryFile, the world’s first AI conversational video platform that brings video alive. In addition, Stephen founded the UK Holocaust Centre in England, cofounded the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide and was the project director responsible for the creation of the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda. He is a theologian by training, has authored several books, produced several documentary films and was the inaugural UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education.

Rachael & Stephen recorded this conversation on February 24, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. You can read the transcript of our conversation here.
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Stephen in The Along The Seam Newsletter

• What Does It Mean To These Young People?

• What Was Isn't What Is

• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

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Julie Lindahl is a multi-national author, educator, and democracy activist living in Sweden. Following a six-year journey in Europe and Latin America in which she discovered her grandparents' role in the Third Reich, she wrote her memoir, The Pendulum: A Granddaughter’s Search for Her Family’s Forbidden Nazi Past.  Her work demonstrates how facing dark historical truths and taking responsibility for them, whether at a family or national level, can lead to a brighter future.

Over the years, Julie and Rachael have collaborated many times on storytelling projects. Their most well known project was produced by Boston's NPR Station in 2017 and was titled Beyond Sides of History.
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Julie in The Along The Seam Newsletter:

• What Does It Mean To These Young People?

• A Reflection For Yesterday

• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

*To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.*

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Lois Lowry is a beloved American author. She has written more than 50 books throughout her career and has twice been awarded the Newbery Medals for “the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children."  She won for her books Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994. Lois’ books vary in content and style yet deal with many of the same general themes including the importance of human connections. They tell stories about the effects of loss on a family and the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.

This conversation was recorded on March 4, 2022 in Lois' home in Falmouth, Maine. Lois shares stories about her life as the daughter of a career military officer in the midst of World War II, the experience of losing her son at a young age, and the profound impact her stories have had on people from around the world. Grief as a place of deep connection is present in this episode.

An unedited version of conversation was released in 2024 as the lead up to the second season. To read how this conversation has grown in relevance for Rachael over the two years since it was recorded, you can find an essay published on the Along The Seam newsletter.
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Lois in The Along The Seam Newsletter:

• I Thought There Was Only Us, I Thought There Was Only Now

• Tree. Table. Book.

• If you’d like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletter
• Find all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

**To Note: ALONG THE SEAM was formerly named The Memory Generation. In this first season, you will hear Rachael use that title in the intro and outro.**

Along The Seam (originally The Memory Generation) is a new podcast that hosts conversations about the inheritance of memory and intergenerational storytelling. It is hosted by author and documentary storyteller Rachael Cerrotti and produced in partnership with USC Shoah Foundation. 

This show is a follow-up to Rachael's first podcast titled We Share The Same Sky. We Share The Same Sky is a 7-part narrative show that tells the story of Rachael's decade-long journey to retrace her grandmother's war story. 

Learn more at: www.alongtheseam.com