Past Forward

Jenn Shapland is a writer and archivist living in New Mexico. Her first book, My Autobiography of Carson McCullers, was a finalist for the 2020 National Book Award and won the Lambda Literary award. She has a PhD in English from the University of Texas at Austin and is currently working on a collection of essays about the entanglement of toxicity, capitalism, and heteropatriarchy called Thin Skin.Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Jenn Shapland selected Silent Spring by Rachel Carson for her episode of Without These Books.

Marilyn Peterson Haus learned to read and write in a one-room school set in the midst of a sea of corn, and then rode a rickety yellow school bus seven miles to the nearest town (population 700) for middle and high school. Everything was oriented around the railroad that sliced through the tallgrass prairie, heading west. Marilyn’s own journey took her in the opposite direction, and after attending Augsburg College (now Augsburg University) in Minneapolis, she and her husband moved east and settled in western Massachusetts, where she raised three children, earned an MBA and launched a successful business career. After retiring from her day job, Marilyn followed her dream to become a writer, began attending a weekly writer’s workshop, and over the course of ten years, wrote and completed Half a Whole – her first book. When she isn’t writing, Marilyn can be found shoveling compost around the coneflowers, hostas, and day lilies that overflow her many flower gardens.Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Marilyn Peterson Haus selected I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb for her episode of Without These Books.

Philip J. Kowalski has taught courses in critical thinking and American literature at Wake Forest University and the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. He lives on the North Shore of Massachusetts.Canine in the Promised LandAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Mary Dixie Carter’s debut novel The Photographer will be published in May 2021 by Minotaur Books - St. Martin’s Publishing Group in the US and by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK.Mary Dixie’s writing has appeared in TIME, The Economist, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The New York Sun, The New York Observer and other print and online publications. She worked at The Observer for five years, where she served as the publishing director. In addition to writing, she also has a background as a professional actor. Mary Dixie graduated from Harvard College with an honors degree in English Literature and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. She is the daughter of Dixie Carter and step-daughter of Hal Holbrook. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two young children. The Photographer is her first novel.Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Mary Dixie Carter selected The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton for her episode of Without These Books.

Elizabeth Gauffreau writes fiction and poetry with a strong connection to family and place. She holds a B.A. in English from Old Dominion University and an M.A. in English/Fiction Writing from the University of New Hampshire. She is currently the Assistant Dean of Curriculum & Assessment for Champlain College Online, where she is an Associate Professor. Her fiction and poetry have been published in literary magazines and several themed anthologies. Her debut novel, Telling Sonny, was published by Adelaide Books in 2018. Liz lives in Nottingham, New Hampshire with her husband.Telling SonnyAdelaide Books, 2018A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Keith Madsen is a retired minister who is using his retirement to pursue a lifelong interest in writing fiction. Keith has published short stories in Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Talking River, Short Story America and Adelaide. He is a member of the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Association. Keith lives in East Wenatchee, Washington with his wife Cathy, where he enjoys teaching chess to grade school children.The Sons and Daughters of ToussaintAdelaide Books, 2018A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Courtney Zoffness’s debut, Spilt Milk (McSweeney’s, 2021), received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and BookPage, and was named “most anticipated” or “must-read” book by Good Morning America, LitHub, Refinery29, The Millions, Publishers Weekly, and others. Zoffness won the 2018 Sunday Times Short Story Award, the largest international prize for short fiction, amid entries from 38 countries. Other honors include fellowships from the Center for Fiction and MacDowell, and the Arts & Letters Creative Nonfiction Prize. Her writing has appeared in several outlets, including the New York Times, the Paris Review Daily, and Guernica, and she had essays listed as “notable” in Best American Essays 2018 and 2019. She directs the Creative Writing Program at Drew University, where she’s an Assistant Professor of English, and lives with her family in Brooklyn, New York.Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Courtney Zoffness selected Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill for her episode of Without These Books.

Donna Koros Stramella is a writer from Maryland whose fiction and nonfiction pieces have been published in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Scarlet Leaf Review, Columbia Magazine, and the Baltimore Sun. She is a previous award-winning journalist and video writer-producer. A graduate of the University of Tampa MFA in Creative Writing, she authored Coffee Killed My Mother and is currently working on a second novel.Coffee Killed My MotherAdelaide Books, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Khalisa Rae is a poet and journalist in Durham, NC that speaks with furious rebellion. She is the author of Ghost in a Black Girl's Throat (Red Hen Press 2021). Her essays are featured in Autostraddle, Catapult, LitHub, as well as articles in B*tch Media, NBC-BLK, and others. Her poetry appears in Frontier Poetry, Florida Review, Rust & Moth, PANK, Hellebore, Sundog Lit, HOBART,among countless others. She is the winner of the Bright Wings Poetry contest, the Furious Flower Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize, and the White Stag Publishing Contest, among other prizes. Currently, she serves as Assistant Editor for Glass Poetry and founder of Think in Ink and Women Speak. Her second collection Unlearning Eden is forthcoming from White Stag Publishing January 2022.Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Khalisa Rae selected Citizen: An American Lyricby Claudia Rankine for her episode of Without These Books.

Born and raised in the Bay Area, Steven Armstrong is an award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, and author. He spent several years in the nonprofit world of maternal health, becoming inspired by countless stories of resilience, while working as an editor and staff writer reviewing films. Steven holds a BA in Creative Arts from San Jose State University and an MFA in Writing and Consciousness from the California Institute of Integral Studies. His work has appeared in the Samizdat Literary Journal.Dragon DaughterAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Rebecca Handler is a writer who lives and works in San Francisco. Rebecca’s stories have been published and awarded in several anthologies, and she blogs regularly at www.onewomanparty.com. Edie Richter is Not Alone is her debut novel, and in a Starred Review, Booklist writes, "Handler's Edie has joined the ranks of unforgettably eccentric, intelligent women protagonists.” Kirkus Starred Review says, "A tragicomic exploration of the collateral damage of Alzheimer's disease... Handler gets it right from the title on out. Edie is definitely not alone.”Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Rebecca Handler selected When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Bookby Naja Marie Aidt for her episode of Without These Books.

Jennifer Acker is founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World, a fiction honoree for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her memoir “Fatigue” is a #1 Amazon bestseller, and her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, Guernica, The Yale Review,and Ploughshares, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband. Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Jennifer Acker selected The Transit Of Venusby Shirley Hazzard for her episode of Without These Books.

Ty Seidule is the Chamberlain Fellow at Hamilton College, a New America Fellow, and was recently named to the Confederate Base Naming Commission. In 2015, his five-minute video lecture, “Was the Civil War About Slavery?” became a social media sensation with more than 30 million views. He served in the U.S. Army for thirty-six years, retiring as a brigadier general in 2020, after teaching at West Point for two decades.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations with scholars, artists, filmmakers, and activists to investigate racial inequality, systemic racism, racial terrorism, and racial justice and reconciliation. Through education, art, and storytelling, we can all learn to be allies and engage the world to help evolve to a place of compassion and social equity.Guest: Ty SeiduleHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Joshua M. Greene is a popular lecturer on Holocaust history and an author whose biographies have sold more than a half-million copies worldwide. Greene’s groundbreaking book on the Dachau war crimes trials, Justice at Dachau: The Trials of an American Prosecutor, was deemed “riveting—history writing at its best” by Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian for CNN. His renowned work on survivor testimony, Witness: Voices from the Holocaust, was the basis of a feature documentary for national PBS and chosen as “One of the Best Holocaust Films” by Facets Media. A former instructor at Hofstra and Fordham Universities, Greene is the recipient of numerous awards for his books and films. He sits on the board of Yale University Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies and has served as director of strategic planning for the United Nations Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders. He is the author, most recently, of the forthcoming,“Unstoppable: Siggi B. Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor to Wall Street Legend.” Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Joshua M. Greene selected The Bhagavad Gita by Anonymous for his episode of Without These Books.

Joshua M. Greene is a popular lecturer on Holocaust history and an author whose biographies have sold more than a half-million copies worldwide. A former instructor at Hofstra and Fordham Universities, Greene is the recipient of numerous awards for his books and films. He sits on the board of Yale University Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies and has served as director of strategic planning for the United Nations Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders.Unstoppable: Siggi B. Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor to Wall Street LegendInsight Editions, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

S. Kirk Walsh is a writer living in Austin, Texas. Her work has been widely published in The New York Times Book Review, Longreads, StoryQuarterly, and Electric Literature, among other publications. Over the years, she has been a resident at Ucross, Yaddo, Ragdale, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Walsh is the founder of Austin Bat Cave, a writing and tutoring center that provides free writing workshops for young writers throughout Austin. The Elephant of Belfast is her first novel. Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.S. Kirk Walsh selected Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones for her episode of Without These Books.

Annabelle Gurwitch is an actress, activist, and author of five books including The New York Times bestseller and Thurber Prize finalist I See You Made an Effort. She’s written for The New Yorker, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, LA Magazine and Hadassahamongst other publications. Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Annabelle Gurwitch selected Bright-Sided by Barbara Ehrenreich for her episode of Without These Books.

Scott O’Connor is the author of A Perfect Universe: Ten Stories, the novels Zero Zone, Untouchable, and Half World and the novella Among Wolves. He has been awarded the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award, and his stories have been shortlisted for the Sunday Times/EFG Story Prize and cited as Distinguished in Best American Short Stories. Additional work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Paris Review, Zyzzyva, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. He teaches creative writing at Cal State Channel Islands and in workshops around Los Angeles.Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Scott O'Connor selected Libra by Don Delillo for his episode of Without These Books.

Peter Friedrichs is a pastor of a religiously liberal and socially progressive church. He lives in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania with his wife and biggest supporter, Irene. They are the proud parents of two adult daughters and grandparents of three elementary-aged boys.And the Stars Kept WatchAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Jacqueline T. Johnson is an avid reader, who dared to fulfill a dream with her debut novel Test of Time. "Writing is an expression of who I am. It's where my emotions, thoughts, and dreams come alive."Test of TimeCreatespace, 2013A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Seth Greenland is the author of five novels. He is a playwright, screenwriter, essayist, and one of the original hosts of the Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour. His first memoir, A Kingdom of Tender Colors, was published in 2020. Greenland’s play, Jungle Rot, won the Kennedy Center/American Express Fund For New American Plays Award and the American Theater Critics Association Award. Television credits include a two-year stint as a writer-producer on the Emmy-nominated HBO series Big Love. His essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Le Monde, Le Figaro, Quillette, the Jewish Journal, and the French literary journal America. Greenland lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the author Susan Kaiser Greenland. He is currently at work on a new novel.Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Seth Greenland selected Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth for his episode of Without These Books.

Bella Masala is a creator of art of all sorts. She recently quit her job to pursue her passion in writing, which she crafts with love. She currently lives in Silver Spring, MD.The Ghost QueenAtmosphere Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Dani Putney is a queer, non-binary, mixed-race Filipinx, & neurodivergent writer originally from Sacramento, California. Their poems appear in outlets such as Empty Mirror, Ghost City Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Juke Joint Magazine, & trampset, while their personal essays can be found in journals such as Cold Mountain Review & Glassworks Magazine, among others. They received their MFA in Creative Writing from Mississippi University for Women & are presently an English PhD student at Oklahoma State University. While not always (physically) there, they permanently reside in the middle of the Nevada desert.Salamat Sa IntersectionalityOkay Donkey Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Christy Leskovar was born in Butte, Montana, and grew up in Kennewick, Washington. She graduated from Seattle University with degrees in mechanical engineering and French and then joined Bechtel in Gaithersburg, Maryland, where she worked on the design of nuclear power plants. After stints in Kansas, Barcelona, and San Francisco, she transferred to an assignment in Las Vegas. It was during a visit to her hometown that she learned the shocking news about her great-grandmother having been arrested for murder (in 1913). She left her engineering career to find out what happened and write a book about it.East of the East SideFarcountry Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

J.D. Jahn, a native of Iowa, studied British literature in college and graduate school. He published scholarly articles on English Renaissance poetry as an assistant professor of English, before moving on to serve as a writer, editor, and director of communications and marketing for six higher education foundations. Now retired, he lives in St. Augustine, Florida, with his wife, who's also a devoted Anglophile.The Crone’s Tales: Fables for New TimesAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Ryan Gattis is the author of Safe, Kung Fu High School, The System, and All Involved, which won the American Library Association’s Alex Award and the Lire Award for Noir of the Year (France). He lives and writes in South Los Angeles, where he is a member of art collective UGLARworks, a founding board member of arts non-profit Heritage Future, and a PEN America Prison Writing Mentor. Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Ryan Gattis selected Ask the Dust by John Fante for his episode of Without These Books.

Aminah Mae Safi is a Muslim-American writer who explores art, fiction, feminism, and film. She's the winner of the We Need Diverse Books short story contest. She lives in Los Angeles, California, with her partner and two cats. She is the author of Not the Girls You're Looking For(Feiwel and Friends), Tell Me How You Really Feel(Feiwel and Friends), This Is All Your Fault (Feiwel and Friends, October 2020) and the forthcoming Reclaimed Classics Robin Hood (Winter 2022).Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Aminah Mae Safi selected From the Mixed-up files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg for her episode of Without These Books.

Susan Jane Gilman is the author of five books: The novels “Donna Has Left the Building” and “The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street,” plus the memoirs “Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven,” “Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress” and “Kiss My Tiara.” She has been a commentator for NPR and written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Ms. magazine, among others. Though she lives in Geneva, Switzerland, she remains, eternally, a child of New York.”Without These Books is a thank-you-inspired Video/Podcast. Each episode celebrates authors, books, and characters that changed us as writers, readers, and as people. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast. Watch on our YouTube channel or at pastforward.org.Susan Jane Gilman selected The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck for her episode of Without These Books.

Chad-Michael Simon was born in Toledo, Ohio and has been an illustrator at Root, Inc. for twenty years. He lives in Michigan with his wife, children, and pets. Yellowstone: The Bears of Caldera is his first novel.Yellowstone: The Bears of CalderaHyphenatedPress, 2019A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Jennifer D. Keene, Ph.D. is a professor of history and dean of the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University. She is a specialist in war and society studies, and has written extensively on World War I, especially on race relations and African American soldiers’ experiences. A past-president of the Society for Military History, Dr. Keene is also the lead author for an American history textbook, Visions of America: A History of the United States that uses a visual approach to teaching students U.S. history.Stephanie Takaragawa is Associate Dean of the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, and Associate Professor of Sociology at Chapman University. She is a cultural anthropologist and her research areas examine race, visual media and American culture broadly, with an emphasis on Asian American and Japanese-American identity issues. She was the co-directorof the Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Race series.Prexy Nesbitt holds the position of Presidential Fellow in Peace Studies at Chapman University. Born on Chicago’s West Side, “Prexy” (Rozell W.) Nesbitt has spent more than five decades as an educator, activist, and speaker on Africa, foreign policy, and racism. Prexy has had the honor of knowing and working for the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Eduardo Mondlane, Samora Machel and Mayor Harold Washington. Additionally, he has worked closely with Amilcar Cabral, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, and Graca Machel.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations with scholars, artists, filmmakers, and activists to investigate racial inequality, systemic racism, racial terrorism, and racial justice and reconciliation. Through education, art, and storytelling, we can all learn to be allies and engage the world to help evolve to a place of compassion and social equity.Guest: Jennifer D. Keene, Stephanie Takaragawa, and Prexy NesbittHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Will Johnson is a musician and songwriter who has played in the bands Centro-matic, South San Gabriel, Marie/Lepanto, Overseas, New Multitudes, and Monsters of Folk. He also releases records under his own name, and makes paintings centering on the subject of baseball and its history. His work has appeared in American Short Fiction. He was born in Kennett, Missouri, and currently lives in Austin, Texas. If or When I Call is his first novel.If or When I CallGoliad Media Group, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Lucy May Lennox is a connoisseur of novels featuring men with physical disabilities. After growing frustrated with all the cliches, ignorance and stereotypes, she decided to write her own positive take on disability. She also loves immersing herself in earlier historical periods and imagining the lives of people who don't usually make it into the history books. She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest USA with her husband and children.Flowers by NightLucy May Lennox, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Dr. Monique Charles’ research combines her interests in music, spirituality, sociology and the African Diaspora. Other research interests include popular culture, music/musicology, sound studies, embodiment, spirituality, cultural studies, class, gender and race. She primarily explores the lives, experiences and cultural productions of the African Diaspora generally and Britain specifically. Monique will be joining the Chapman sociology faculty in 2021.Listen to Monique Charles' lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations with scholars, artists, filmmakers, and activists to investigate racial inequality, systemic racism, racial terrorism, and racial justice and reconciliation. Through education, art, and storytelling, we can all learn to be allies and engage the world to help evolve to a place of compassion and social equity.Guest: Monique CharlesHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Formerly a violinist at the Metropolitan Opera, Erica Miner is now a full-time award-winning writer, screenwriter, lecturer and journalist. She regularly contributes to major arts websites and presents her opera lectures on both coasts. Her "Opera Mystery" novel series, based on her own experience as a longtime violinist at the Met, allows a candid glimpse at this eccentric art form's inner world.Staged for MurderTwilight Times Books, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Joyce Yarrow is a Pushcart Prize Nominee with short stories and essays that have appeared in Inkwell Journal, Whistling Shade, Descant, Arabesques, and Weber: The Contemporary West and the Los Angeles Review of Books. Yarrow is a member of the Sisters in Crime organization and has presented workshops on “The Place of Place in Mystery Writing” at conferences in the US and India.Zahara and the Lost Books of LightAdelaide Books, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Barbara McHugh, PhD, is a Buddhist practitioner with a degree in Religion and Literature from the Graduate Theological Union and UC Berkeley. She is a published poet and writing coach. Her research for this book includes exhaustive study of Pali texts in translation and extensive travel in India.Bride of the BuddhaMonkfish, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Damien M. Sojoyner is an Urban Anthropologist with a diasporic framework at the University of California, Irvine. He teaches graduate courses in Black Political Theory, Prisons in the United States, and Black Ethnography in the Anthropological Imagination. He teaches undergraduate courses on Prisons and Public Education and Urban Ethnography in the United States. He has published one book entitled First Strike: Educational Enclosures of Black Los Angeles (University of Minnesota Press, 2016), and numerous journal articles for publications including the Berkeley Review of Education, Black California Dreamin', Transforming Anthropology, and Race, Ethnicity and Education.Dr. Sabina Vaught is a Professor and Inaugural Chair of the new Department of Teaching, Learning, and Leading. Dr. Vaught was most recently at The Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington, where she was a scholar-in-residence working on two major book projects. Prior, she was chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Oklahoma’s (OU) Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education, where she collaborated to establish the Indigenous Education focus, found the Carceral Studies Consortium, and build the Women and Girls Across Gender Initiative. Before her time at OU, Dr. Vaught was a faculty member at Tufts University, where she served as Director of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Africana Studies, and Educational Studies, and Chair of the Department of Education. She was also Co-Chair of the board for a nine-university consortium housed at MIT: the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Gender, Culture, Women, and Sexuality.Dr. Vaught’s research considers carcerality and liberatory knowledge movements broadly and the race-gender labor and conquest relationships among schools, prisons, and insurgent communities specifically. In her scholarly work, Dr. Vaught draws on a constellation of knowledge traditions that help make sense of insurgent and counterinsurgent movements: feminisms, the Black radical tradition, Indigenous studies, and legal studies/Critical Race Theory.Listen to Damien M. Sojoyner and Dr. Sabina Vaught's lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations with scholars, artists, filmmakers, and activists to investigate racial inequality, systemic racism, racial terrorism, and racial justice and reconciliation. Through education, art, and storytelling, we can all learn to be allies and engage the world to help evolve to a place of compassion and social equity.Guest: Damien M. Sojoyner and Dr. Sabina VaughtHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Jeffrey Lo is a Filipino-American playwright and director based in the Bay Area. He is the recipient of the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, the Emerging Artist Laureate by Arts Council Silicon Valley and Theatre Bay Area Director's TITAN Award. Selected directing credits include The Language Archive and The Santaland Diaries at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Vietgone at Capital Stage, A Doll’s House, Part 2 and Eurydice at Palo Alto Players (TBA Awards finalist for Best Direction), Peter and the Starcatcher and Noises Off at Hillbarn Theatre, The Grapes of Wrath, The Crucible and Yellow Face at Los Altos Stage Company and Uncle Vanya at the Pear Theatre (BATCC award for Best Production). As a playwright, his plays have been produced and workshopped at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, The BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theatre Company and Custom Made Theatre Company. Jeffrey has also worked with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and The Asian American International Film Festival. In addition to his work in theatre he works as an educator and advocate for issues of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and has served as a grant panelist for the Zellerbach Family Foundation, Silicon Valley Creates and Theatre Bay Area. He is the Director Community Partnerships and Casting Director at the Tony Award Winning TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.Jeanne Sakata’s solo play HOLD THESE TRUTHS has won accolades in over twenty productions across the country, most recently at the Cultch Theatre in Vancouver, Barrington Stage Company, Arena Stage, San Diego Repertory, the Guthrie Theatre, Pasadena Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, and ACT Seattle (Drama Desk nomination, Outstanding Solo Performance; Theatre Bay Awards for Outstanding Lead Performance, Direction and Production). Jeanne just finished a new radio play, FOR US ALL, commissioned by LA TheatreWorks, which will premiere in winter 2021. She has also enjoyed recent recurring/guest star TV and film roles in the internationally acclaimed indie film ADVANTAGEOUS, STATION 19, HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL: THE MUSICAL: THE SERIES, NCIS LOS ANGELES, BIG HERO 6, and DR. KEN, and has performed onstage at such theaters as the Vineyard Theatre, McCarter Theatre, Kennedy Center, Public Theatre, Mark Taper Forum, La Jolla Playhouse, Berkeley Rep and East West Players (Theatre LA Ovation Award, Outstanding Lead Actress, RED by Chay Yew), and many more. Mikiko Suzuki MacAdams is a freelancing set designer based in NYC. Her design work has been seen Off Broadway at the Primary Stages, Working Theater, Epic Theater Ensemble, INTAR, EST, and National Asian American Theatre Company. Regional theatres at Guthrie Theatre, Arena Stage, Barkley Repertory Theatre, the Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare festival, Long Wharf Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Playmakers Repertory Company, ACT Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera, the Shed among others. In Japan her work has been seen at the Umeda Arts Theatre, Nissay Theatre, Nissay Opera, Nikikai Opera, Suntory Hall, Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, Kanagawa Prefectural Hall and Biwako Hall. As an associate scenic designer, Broadway credits include My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof and The King and I. Currently, she is a teaching at Yale School of Drama.is a freelancing set designer based in NYC. Her design work has been seen Off Broadway at the Primary Stages, Working Theater, Epic Theater Ensemble, INTAR, EST, and National Asian American Theatre Company. Regional theatres at Guthrie Theatre, Arena Stage, Barkley Repertory Theatre, the Old Globe, Oregon Shakespeare festival, Long Wharf Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Playmakers Repertory Company, ACT Theatre, Yale Repertory Theatre, Boston Lyric Opera, the Shed among others. In Japan her work has been seen at the Umeda Arts Theatre, Nissay Theatre, Nissay Opera, Nikikai Opera, Suntory Hall, Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, Kanagawa Prefectural Hall and Biwako Hall. As an associate scenic designer, Broadway credits include My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof and The King and I. Currently, she is a teaching at Yale School of Drama.Learn more about the TheatreWorks Silicon Valley at theatreworks.org.Chapters is a multi-part series concerning the history and the lessons of civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices carried out against communities or populations—including civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices that are perpetrated on the basis of an individual’s race, national origin, immigration status, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.This project was made possible with support from Chapman University and The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, a state-funded grant project of the California State Library.Guests: Jeffrey Lo, Jeanne Sakata, and Mikiko Suzuki MacAdamsHosts: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Jonelle StricklandProduced by: Public Podcasting

Kelechi (Kay Kay) Uchendu is the founder and CEO of Kay Kay’s World, LLC. Kay Kay’s World, LLC includes Kay Kay’s Fashion (a fashion brand that has been featured in British Vogue and other media outlets) and her website Kay Kay’s Way, www.kaykaysway.com. Kay Kay graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Political Science Pre-Law and a specialization in Environmental Studies in 2013. She then graduated from Vermont Law School with her JD in 2016 and her LLM in 2018. Kay Kay also has a Master’s degree in Business of Fashion from LIM College. A cool fact about Kay Kay is that before the age of 22, she had been to every continent (including Antarctica).Bully FriendsEmerald Publishers, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Susan Jane Gilman is the author of five books: The novels “Donna Has Left the Building” and “The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street,” plus the memoirs “Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven,” “Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress” and “Kiss My Tiara.” She has been a commentator for NPR and written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and Ms. magazine, among others. Though she lives in Geneva, Switzerland, she remains, eternally, a child of New York.”Donna Has Left the BuildingGrand Central Publishing/Hachette Book Group, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Natalie Nascenzi is a copywriter, poet, and author from Rhode Island. Now residing in New York City, you can find her every morning on the East River capturing the sun peeping over the horizon. The rest of her day is spent wandering the city, chasing the sun, and writing wherever she can. Writing is both her career and passion. Her love for the art of word play and rhyming has led her to a career in marketing and in her life as a poet. She has made an impression on New York City's open mic community with her infectious personality and a unique writing style. From 'Out of Chaos' to now, Natalie has spread her message of hope and transformation; and is excited to continue the journey with readers through "The Aftermath of Unrest."The Aftermath of UnrestNatalie Nascenzi, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Jerry Van Leeuwen is a native Californian. He was born in Artesia. His father, an immigrant from Holland, was a dairy farmer and Jerry’s first real employment was milking cows for his dad in Chino, CA at the age of 15. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California in 1972 and a Masters of Administration from the University of California, Riverside in 1975. Jerry began a career in local government by working for the City of Chino Police Department as a guidance counselor moving into a management position in 1978. He left the City of Chino to accept the position of Assistant Director of Community Services in Escondido in January 1987. He retired from the City of Escondido in December 2012. In June 2013 Jerry accepted the position of Executive Director for the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. In that role he oversees the Center’s operations that include 3 theaters, a visual arts museum, art education programs and a full service conference center.Beth Solomon Marino is proud to serve as the Associate Director of Museum and Visual Arts at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Design with an emphasis in Furniture Design & Construction in 1999 from San Diego State University. In 2007, she earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in Exhibition Design and a Certificate in Museum Studies from California State University, Fullerton. Beth strongly believes that exposure to art and exhibitions, of all types, can stimulate the imagination and foster creativity. Displaying engaging collections that are shared by a broad community encourages people to discover and learn together; opening a door that helps us to communicate our feelings, perspectives and values. Insight into cultures other than our own provides us with knowledge and helps us understand our global community and ourselves more deeply.Mikee Ferran began working in museums as a program assistant for the Smithsonian Museum on Main Street program at Utah Humanities in 2016. This experience (and an internship at a contemporary folk art museum) provided invaluable hands-on training in the museum field. She currently works as the Museum Exhibition and Visual Arts Supervisor at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido. Mikee is passionate about advocating for museums and the work that supports these institutions. Accessibility, transparency, and opportunity are the foundations of her personal work philosophy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Westminster College in History and a Master’s degree from the University of Utah in American History. She currently serves on the board of San Diego Emerging Museum Professionals as the Programming Co-Chair. Learn more about the California Center for the Arts Escondido at artcenter.org.Chapters is a multi-part series concerning the history and the lessons of civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices carried out against communities or populations—including civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices that are perpetrated on the basis of an individual’s race, national origin, immigration status, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.This project was made possible with support from Chapman University and The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, a state-funded grant project of the California State Library.Guests: Jerry Van Leeuwen, Beth Solomon Marino, and Mikee FerranHosts: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Jonelle StricklandProduced by: Public Podcasting

Richard L. Rose is a Richmond writer and composer, whose eighth opera, Monte & Pinky, was performed at the Black History Museum of Virginia in April 2018. Rose is also the author of Frameshifts, a book of stories and poems in two volumes (2011).PushBackAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Nathan Dean Talamantez is a Bay Area transplant from Texas, Air Force veteran, and current student pursuant of his MFA from California Institute of Integral Studies. Dean received his undergraduate in cultural anthropology in 2013 from Texas State University. His writing tends toward the examination of complex social issues from unfamiliar and often surreal angles.Sacred FoolAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Martha Ackroyd Curtis is an Australian writer, and artist. She works in the realms of video, installation and multi- mediums. Her work consists of large-scale installation art, which is formulated through cohesive conceptual design. She has exhibited extensively in Australia and overseas, and participated in various art festivals.Hello TittyBusy Bird Publishing, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Natasha Mynhier is a director, editor, and cinematographer based in Los Angeles. As a director, Natasha's accolades include winning Gold at the 2020 Young Directors Awards for her film In A Beat, and being featured at the 2017 Voice of a Women Festival: Cannes and the 2018 Utah Dance Film Festival for her dance films.She began writing In a Beat two years ago when she was inspired by a close friend's story of resilience. But her interest in the arts began during her time as a professional dancer. At age 17, she founded 37 Laines, LLC, an entertainment production company, through which she created a variety of content, including a sold-out full length dance play.During her senior year, at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, she garnered her first major promotional series through a contest where her script earned her the opportunity to write and produce commercials for MD Anderson Cancer Center in collaboration with AT&T and IBM Watson. After graduating, she relocated to LA where she joined forces with cinematographer Jeff Hammerton to run 37 Laines. Together they create content for brands like Netflix, Marvel, ESPN, and Vogue. Through this process they have built out a team of over twenty diverse filmmakers who collaborate on their projects from pre-production to post.In 2019, after years of prepping with practice short films and scene studies, they took on their first narrative, In A Beat. They look forward to making many more projects that bring together their passions for entertainment and social awareness.Chloe Arnold is an Emmy Nominated Choreographer, and international tap star. A leading lady of tap, Chloe has performed on stages on staged around the globe and her choreography has been featured in over 50 episodes of The Late Late Show With James Corden.Chloe is the Artistic director and founder of The Syncopated Ladies, a Female Tap Dance Band based in Los Angeles, CA. Their fierce footwork and feminine style have attracted audiences around the globe with their cutting edge viral video.Chloe is a female entrepreneur that holds a degree from Columbia University. She and her sister co-founded Chloe and Maud Productions and the DC Tap festival and Co-produced the award-winning documentary Tap World. Chloe’s work can be seen on countless television shows and film. Listen to Natasha and Chloe's lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations with scholars, artists, filmmakers, and activists to investigate racial inequality, systemic racism, racial terrorism, and racial justice and reconciliation. Through education, art, and storytelling, we can all learn to be allies and engage the world to help evolve to a place of compassion and social equity.Guest: Natasha Mynhier and Chloe ArnoldHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Daniel Hagedorn lives in Seattle, Washington, where he was born and raised, with his wife and elderly dog. An alum of Pacific Lutheran University, he now splits his time between writing and helping various businesses and entities do what they do. The Lodestar is his first published novel.The LodestarAtmosphere Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Cheryl I. Harris is the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at UCLA School of Law where she teaches Constitutional Law, Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination, Critical Race Theory and Race Conscious Remedies.A graduate of Wellesley College and Northwestern School of Law, Professor Harris began her teaching career in 1990 at Chicago- Kent College of Law after working for one of Chicago’s leading criminal defense firms and later serving as a senior legal advisor in the City Attorney’s office as part of the reform administration of Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago. The interconnections between racial theory, civil rights practice, politics, and human rights have been important to her work. She was a key organizer of several major conferences that helped establish a dialogue between U.S. legal scholars and South African lawyers during the development of South Africa’s first democratic constitution. Since joining the UCLA Law faculty in 1998, Professor Harris has continued to produce groundbreaking scholarship in the field of Critical Race Theory, particularly engaging the issue of how racial frames shape our understanding and interpretation of significant events like Hurricane Katrina—(“Whitewashing Race”, in California Law Review), admissions policies (“The New Racial Preferences” in California Law Review)(with Carbado) and anti-discrimination law (“Reading Ricci: Whitening Discrimination, Race-ing Test Fairness” in UCLA Law Review) (with West-Faulcon).She has also lectured widely on issues of race and equality at leading institutions here and abroad, including in Europe, South Africa, and Australia, and has been a frequent contributor to various media outlets on current events and cases involving race and equality.Listen to Dr. McCoy's lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations with scholars, artists, filmmakers, and activists to investigate racial inequality, systemic racism, racial terrorism, and racial justice and reconciliation. Through education, art, and storytelling, we can all learn to be allies and engage the world to help evolve to a place of compassion and social equity.Guest: Cheryl I. HarrisHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Award-winning journalist Kenji G. Taguma is the founding president of the Nichi Bei Foundation. As the Nichi Bei Times was closing in the summer of 2009, he led the movement to launch the first nonprofit ethnic community newspaper of its kind in the country. Currently, Kenji serves as the President of the Foundation, the Editor-in-Chief of the Nichi Bei Weekly, and Executive Producer of Films of Remembrance, a showcase of films related to the Japanese American incarceration during WWII.In 1998, Kenji received the distinguished Alumni Honors Award from California State University, Sacramento. In 1999 the then-English section editor of the Nichi Bei Times received the Community Service Award from New California Media for an article that documented the struggle for redress by Japanese Americans during WWII. In 2013, he was awarded a Consul General Award from the Consul General of Japan in San Francisco. In 2014 he helped launch the Nikkei Angel Island Pilgrimage to recognize the community's legacy at the Immigration Station. In 2017, he led the first pilgrimage to the site of the Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Farm Colony, the first sizable settlement of Japanese in America.Jon Osaki is an award-winning filmmaker who has directed and produced promotional, educational, narrative, and documentary films. His initial interest in film grew from his desire to share the stories of the Japanese Community Youth Council, where he has served as Executive Director since 1996. Over the past few years, he has had films screened at film festivals and community events across the country. As a filmmaker, Jon views this genre as the next step in his lifelong pursuit of social justice and equity. Learn more about Nichi Bei at nichibei.org and Jon Osaki at alternativefacts9066.com.Chapters is a multi-part series concerning the history and the lessons of civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices carried out against communities or populations—including civil rights violations or civil liberties injustices that are perpetrated on the basis of an individual’s race, national origin, immigration status, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.This project was made possible with support from Chapman University and The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program, a state-funded grant project of the California State Library.Guests: Kenji G. Taguma and Jon OsakiHosts: Jon-Barrett Ingels and Jonelle StricklandProduced by: Public Podcasting

Dr. Cameron McCoy is a native of Washington, D.C. and is currently an assistant professor of U.S. Diplomatic and Military history at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). His focus of research is 20th and 21st century military and diplomatic history as well as the race relations the American military. Before arriving at USAFA the fall of 2019, Dr. McCoy was an assistant professor of U.S. History at Brigham Young University (BYU) from 2017 to 2019. Before that, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the United States Military Academy at West Point during the 2016–2017 academic year. He earned his doctorate in U.S. history at the University of Texas at Austin after receiving a masters in military history at Texas A&M University, and his bachelors in International & Area Studies at BYU. In addition to being a professor at USAFA and teaching courses on the Great Wars, U.S. Foreign Policy, modern warfare studies, Dr. McCoy also serves in the Marine Corps Reserves as an infantry officer. He has held several positions of command while serving multiple combat tours and deployments to various countries in support of Operations IRAQI and ENDURING FREEDOM.Listen to Dr. McCoy's lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations with scholars, artists, filmmakers, and activists to investigate racial inequality, systemic racism, racial terrorism, and racial justice and reconciliation. Through education, art, and storytelling, we can all learn to be allies and engage the world to help evolve to a place of compassion and social equity.Guest: Dr. Cameron McCoyHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by Public Podcasting in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.