Sidedoor

America has a long history of clustering heavy industry and toxic facilities in communities where people of color live. But in the 1980s, a series of events sparked a movement to fight back against these environmental injustices. We trace the history of the environmental justice movement from the farmlands of North Carolina to a watershed moment in the nation's capital. 

Guests: 

Vernice Miller Travis, environmental justice pioneer; Executive Vice President, Metro Group 

Rachel Seidman, curator at the Smithsonian's Anacostia Community Museum 

Charles Lee, a founder of the environmental justice movement; senior policy advisor, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights 

In 1948, Moses Asch set out with an ambitious project: to document the world’s sounds! 75 years later, that project has grown into one of the world’s most eclectic, iconic and LARGEST repositories of recorded sound… from American folk music, to sounds of everyday life, and even a serenade for turkeys. Folkways Recordings —as it's now known— lives on within the Smithsonian, connecting the past, present and future… through sounds.

Guests:

Michael Asch, anthropologist and son of Moses Asch 

Jake Blount, musician and scholar of Black American music 

Maureen Loughran, director and curator of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Jeff Place, curator and senior archivist at Smithsonian Folkways Recordings 

Anthony Seeger, curator and director emeritus of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

Women have long fueled America's greatest scientific achievements. But when you go searching for information about these women scientists, you'll likely come up short. Only 19% of articles on Wikipedia are about women. In the field of science, this difference is even more pronounced. But now, a team at the Smithsonian is using artificial intelligence and good old fashioned research skills to scour the archives for lost women of science and publish their stories … before it’s too late.

Guests:

Liz Harmon, digital curator, Smithsonian Libraries and Archives

Kelly Doyle, open knowledge coordinator, Smithsonian American Women's History Museum

Rebecca Dikow, research data scientist, Smithsonian Data Science Lab

Tiana Curry, former intern, Smithsonian Data Science Lab

Nowhere in the world are lawns as revered as they are in the United States. The picture-perfect patch of grass is so deeply rooted in the American psyche it feels more like a default setting than a choice. Americans spend countless hours every year seeding, watering, mowing, and fertilizing patches of grass that don't make much sense, economically or ecologically. But why? In this episode, we dig into the history of our lawnly love to learn where the concept came from...and how we grew so obsessed.

Guests:

Cindy Brown, manager of collections, education, and access at Smithsonian Gardens

As a kid, Bill Nye spent whole days wandering the halls of Smithsonian museums. Now the Science Guy is back… to find his own blue lab coat and periodic table bowtie on display at the National Museum of American History. We sit down with Bill Nye to get schooled on science education, comedy, and the 1990s hit TV show that turned him into an entire generation’s favorite science teacher.

Guests:

This episode was produced in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Their exhibition, Entertainment Nation, shows the power of American entertainment to captivate, inspire, and transform. Through the objects and their stories, the ongoing exhibition will explore how, for over 150 years, entertainment has provided a forum for important national conversations about who we are, and who we want to be.

Until the 1970s, women were barred from competing in U.S. marathons because of the belief that the "violent movements" would wreak havoc on their reproductive system, "thus defeating a woman’s true purpose in life, i.e., the bringing forth of strong children." Through a series of steps, stumbles —and one epic tackle— running pioneers like Roberta "Bobbi" Gibb and Kathrine Switzer blazed the trail for women marathoners who followed, including Sunita Williams — the first person to run the Boston Marathon IN SPACE!

Guests:

Sunita Williams, astronaut

Jennifer Levasseur, curator, Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum

Peter Sagal, marathoner; host of NPR's Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!

Bobbi Gibb, first woman to run the Boston Marathon

Kathrine Switzer, first women to officially run the Boston Marathon

We think of paintings as art, but can they also be a source of data? 300 years ago, a young prince inherited the throne in Udaipur, India, and brought with him some newfangled ideas about art. His court artists created massive paintings that flew in the face of convention, documenting real life events, times, places and even emotions —especially during the annual monsoon season. These paintings are so detailed that - centuries later - they can serve as archival records to help understand our own changing climate.

Guests:

Debra Diamond, Elizabeth Moynihan Curator for South Asian and Southeast Asian Art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art

Dipti Khera, associate professor, Department of Art History and Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

Mark Giordano, professor of geography and vice dean for undergraduate affairs at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service

This episode was produced in collaboration with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art’s exhibition: A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the museum’s founding and the 75th anniversary of Indian independence.

The exhibition is on view through May 14, 2023.

Most people in North America can't see the Milky Way. The reason? We're ensconced in a luminous fog of artificial lighting 24/7. The evolution of lighting technology over the last century has made it possible to live, work, and play at any hour - day or night. But light pollution affects all life on earth, from humans to plants and insects. So, how did we find ourselves surrounded by a glowing shroud of electricity... and can we have the dark, without giving up the light?

Guests: 

Hal Wallace, curator of electricity collections at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History 

This episode was produced in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History's exhibition: Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky. Through over 100 photographs, nearly 250 objects, interactive experiences, tactile models, and a theater program, discover why dark nights matter, rekindle your connection with the night sky, and consider how much light at night is enough—for whom, for what purpose, and who gets to decide?

Lights Out: Recovering Our Night Sky is open March 23, 2023 - TBA. 

When Sidedoor listener Cliff Hall bought a used violin, he found a tattered note tucked alongside the century-old instrument. Obsessed with this cryptic piece of paper, Cliff’s quest to find the owner of the violin unlocked a tale of subterfuge, scandal, and the Smithsonian’s first donation of rare instruments.

Guests:

Cliff Hall, violin teacher and freelance journalist

Kenneth Slowik, curator of the musical instrument collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History; artistic director of the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society