For this special edition of Human Powered, we are sharing an episode of The People’s Recorder, a podcast series from Spark Media and funded in part with a grant from Wisconsin Humanities.

The People’s Recorder tells stories about the Federal Writers’ Project, which was created by the Federal government as part of the New Deal during the Great Depression to provide jobs to out-of-work writers. The podcast traverses the country to explore the Project’s legacy — what it achieved, where it fell short, and what it means for Americans today.

This episode is called “A Voice for the Land.” It features Nationally influential UW-Madison professor and wildlife expert Aldo Leopold, who brought a new way of thinking about how people engage with nature during the Dust Bowl era. When the Federal Writers’ Project recruited him to write for the WPA Guide to Wisconsin, he described a path toward the modern environmental movement in a section called 'Conservation.' 

In this episode, you’ll hear some clips from the first season of Human Powered, when we spoke with Leopold’s biographer, Curt Meine. Be sure to check out that episode, called “Stories from the Flood,” after you listen!

The People’s Recorder is produced by Spark Media with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Florida Humanities, Virginia Humanities, California Humanities, Humanities Nebraska, and Wisconsin Humanities.