The People's Recorder

08/25/2026

Retro Report is an independent, nonprofit newsroom creating trusted documentary videos and classroom resources.

08/10/2026

Continuing the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Roots, our friend and podcast host Chris Haley just appeared on the Standing Tall with Gloria Johnson show!

This is such a great conversation about the importance of Roots and why the story still matters just as much 50 years later.

Check it out wherever you get your podcasts or at the link below:

Returning to Our Roots – Celebrating 50 Years of Roots with Bill & ...

08/03/2026

The People’s Recorder host and one of our favorite people Chris Haley appeared on the The Genealogy Gems Podcast with Lisa Louise Cooke to discuss the 50th anniversary of Roots and how that seminal work continues to be relevant today.

As the nephew of Alex Haley (and an award-winning archivist himself), Chris describes how the book impacted his own family and his work.

This is such an insightful conversation, and we definitely think you should you check it out!

You can find Genealogy Gems wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Pl6MKevUTkY

Alex Haley’s book Roots: The Saga of an American Family was publish...

07/03/2026

Here is an amazing initiative truly worthy of America’s 250th birthday!

Earlier this week, Rep. Ted Lieu and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández introduced legislation to create the 21st Century Federal Writers’ Project, to be administered by the National Endowment for the Arts. If passed, the bill will establish “a coordinated national effort to chronicle the full breadth of American life across all 56 states and territories…and support writers in documenting the histories, communities, customs, and everyday experiences that define the country today.’

At The People’s Recorder podcast, we’ve been telling the story of the original Writers’ Project during the Great Depression and its efforts to hold up a mirror to America through guidebooks and oral histories. The Project was a remarkable achievement and still so relevant today. We firmly believe that the country really needs another Writers’ Project.

Learn more about the bill at:
https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-lieu-and-leger-fernandez-re-introduce-21st-century-federal-0

Image credit: https://www.21stcenturyfederalwritersproject.org/

06/19/2026

Today we commemorate Juneteenth. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and that the enslaved people in Texas were free.

Seven decades later, the Federal Writers’ Project set out to interview the survivors of slavery and preserve their firsthand accounts. Thousands of stories and photographs are preserved today at The Library of Congress, protecting a history that otherwise could have been forgotten.

In The People’s Recorder, we followed the story of one Writers’ Project unit in Virginia, led by a Hampton University professor named Roscoe Lewis, which documented the stories of formerly enslaved people living in Petersburg, Virginia. Lewis and his team even recorded the group (that amazing audio is also preserved at the Library of Congress!).

This story is told in Episode 2 “A New Kind of History” and Episode 3 “A Lost Cause?”

Listen now wherever you get your podcasts or at the direct links below:

Episode 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsAt73ozuak
Episode 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxAK-FaqijU

These episodes were produced with support from National Endowment for the Humanities and Virginia Humanities.

06/02/2026

The host of The People’s Recorder, the amazing Chris Haley, will be joining the “ABC’s Podcast” today at 7:00pm ET via TikTok. Find it here: !

Chris, who is also the Director of the Study of the Legacy of Slavery at the Maryland State Archives, will be discussing the continuing legacy of Roots. This is an important and timely discussion, and we hope you tune in!

06/01/2026

We just heard about this amazing program coming from the Authentic Opera Company and the Face Off Theatre Company. Tangled Roots is a “one-act opera rooted in memory, ancestry, and the presence of those who came before us.” The opera takes its inspiration from oral histories with the survivors of slavery conducted by the Federal Writers’ Project between 1936 and 1938.

This is such an amazing way to make history come alive for a modern audience. With support from the Kalamazoo College Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership, Authentic and Face Off will perform the opera at the Festival Playhouse of Kalamazoo College on June 19 at 7pm to commemorate Juneteenth. It’s free and open to the public! To all our friends near Kalamazoo, check it out! Learn more at https://www.authenticoperacompany.com/tangledroots

The People’s Recorder also tells the stories of these interviews, especially those done in Virginia, in episodes 2 and 3. Find them wherever you get your podcasts or at the YouTube links below.

Episode 2 – A New Kind of History https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsAt73ozuak
Episode 3 – A Lost Cause? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxAK-FaqijU

Those episodes were produced with support from Virginia Humanities and National Endowment for the Humanities.

05/19/2026

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

It’s a good time to highlight the important story of Japanese American artist Miné Okubo. Okubo was a gifted artist who was working with Diego Rivera on murals for the WPA when she was forced into an incarceration camp for Japanese American citizens during World War 2. Okubo used her skills as an artist to depict the injustice in her landmark book Citizen 13660.

Her work helped give us a profound new lens on the American identity. It was an honor to speak with her nieces and share her story in The People’s Recorder.

Listen to Episode 9: “Is This Land Your Land?” wherever you get your podcasts or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUX0-EKrOi8

That episode was produced with support from California Humanities and National Endowment for the Humanities

05/11/2026

Today we celebrate the birthday of acclaimed author Mari Sandoz!

Sandoz was one of the key consultants on the Nebraska Writers’ Project. Her advice was crucial as the Project office came together with a commitment to get Nebraska history and culture right for the WPA Guidebooks.

To nurture the literary community forming within the Writers’ Project, Sandoz would often invite the staff to her apartment for get-togethers where they would discuss writing and listen to music.

We have some wonderful and rare archival audio from Sandoz in Episode 10: A Creative Incubator, available now wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DWRzsBikbk

That episode was produced with support from Humanities Nebraska and National Endowment for the Humanities.

Mari Sandoz Mari Sandoz Heritage Society Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center Prairie Schooner

04/30/2026

You can now listen to our interview with expert folklorist Dr. Peggy Bulger!

Dr. Peggy Bulger led the American Folklife Center at the The Library of Congress for a dozen years. Before that, she served as Florida’s first state folklorist. But even before that, when she was doing her graduate research, Dr. Bulger had the foresight to interview Florida legend Stetson Kennedy about his work gathering Florida’s stories and songs. So, when we sat down with Dr. Bulger for The People’s Recorder, we knew she would bring a treasure trove of stories.

You can hear a lot of this conversation for free on your favorite podcast platform or on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zSE2tgC2jI

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To hear the full interview, consider joining our Patreon Community at www.patreon.com/PeoplesRecorder