Material Memory

What did we learn? What can we do? In the season 2 finale, host Nicole Kang Ferraiolo and producer Lizzi Albert share their biggest takeaways, from climate change's unequal impacts to the importance of finding your role.

Anthropologist Dr. Blessing Nonye Onyima discusses the effects of colonialism and climate change on Nigeria's cultural heritage, from the changing migration patterns of Fulani nomads to the looting of African antiquities.

Where do we house our memories? What does it mean to lose our records? Drawing on her experience as an archivist and as a hurricane evacuee, Itza Carbajal speaks about the impacts of the climate crisis on our recorded memory.

Intangible or "living" cultural heritage includes folk arts, food, and other traditions. Host Nicole Kang Ferraiolo talks to media scholar Saiful Alam Chowdhury about how climate change affects living heritage in Bangladesh and how to protect it.

Victoria Herrmann, president of the Arctic Institute, discusses climate displacement in the United States, the risks it poses to communities and traditions, and how cultural memory builds resilience.

Anthropologist and emergency management specialist Dr. Crystal Felima speaks about her work on climate hazards, disaster narratives in Haiti and Puerto Rico, and the role of libraries.

Archivists Eira Tansey and Ben Goldman discuss their research on the impact of climate change on U.S. archives. They share their approaches to climate activism and the superpowers librarians can bring to the fight for environmental justice, both within and outside of their employer institutions.

Climate change is the biggest challenge facing humanity—but how does cultural heritage fit in? Hear from all seven of this season's guests as they weigh in on why culture matters, what's at stake, and where we'll be headed in the coming episodes.

In this episode of Material Memory, we return to the Autry Museum of the American West in southern California, where a project is underway to preserve audiovisual materials documenting Native American voice and song.

We'll learn about the vital process of community-building and the relationships forged along the way.

In this episode of Material Memory, we talk with a staff member at the University of Oklahoma who has been working to preserve the recordings of the Indians for Indians Radio Hour program, a long-running broadcast that started in the 1940s at the university's WNAD station.

We'll hear about the show's founder, the complications of dealing with a well-used collection of many different Native voices, and the process of providing access to this important historical resource about tribal life.