The Memory Generation

This conversation is with educator Shaunta Scroggins who has spent more than 20 years mentoring teens and adults along their leadership journeys. Her doctoral research was completed at Dallas Baptist University in her home state of Texas and focused on the study of toxic leadership, transformational leadership, and effective mentoring. We talk about all of that through the lens of faith and the ideas passed from one generation to the next. Shaunta is now a lecturer and Assistant Director of the Lead Forward Fellowship at Purdue University. She also hosts the podcast, Leaders Lead, Leaders Read.  For more from Rachael and Along The Seam, visit the website and sign up for the Along The Seam newsletter.If you'd like more from Rachael Cerrotti: subscribe to the Along The Seam newsletterFind all the episodes at: www.alongtheseam.com

This conversation with Marina Cantacuzino takes on the topic of forgiveness.Marina is an author, broadcaster and an award-winning journalist who has been widely published in British media. In 2003, in response to the invasion of Iraq, she embarked on a personal storytelling project collecting stories of people who had lived through trauma and injustice, and yet sought forgiveness rather than revenge. As a result, Marina founded The Forgiveness Project. She has published multiple books about Forgiveness, a podcast called ‘The F Word' and she speaks widely on the topic. For more from Rachael and Along The  Seam, visit the website and sign up for the Along The Seam newsletter.

This conversation with Freddy Mutanguha is all about peace education and what it takes for neighbors to heal from generations of violence, discrimination and weaponized rhetoric. Freddy is CEO of the Aegis Trust and Director of the Kigali Genocide Memorial. Freddy led the development of Aegis' peace education programme in Rwanda and is now leading Aegis' work to take this model beyond the borders of Rwanda to areas at risk, including the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Kenya. He is also a survivor of the Genocide Against the Tutsis. He was a teenager in 1994 when his parents and most of his siblings were killed. He has dedicated his life to teaching about the impact of the Genocide and the importance of forgiveness as way of post-conflict reconstruction.For more about Barak Sella and to read the episode transcript, visit: https://alongtheseam.com/freddy-mutanguhaFor more from Rachael and Along The  Seam, sign up for the Along The Seam newsletter.

Barak Sella is an educator, activist, writer, researcher, and one of the leading Israeli experts on US-Israel relations and World Jewry. Born in Texas, Barak moved to Israel in 1994, exactly one year before the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli Prime Minister who was most dedicated to making peace with the Palestinians. This event deeply affected him and became an inseparable part of his socialization in Israeli society.  Ten years later, as a soldier in the Israeli Defense Forces, Barak was part of the disengagement from Gaza and in the unit that evacuated the very last Jewish settlers from the region. We talk about all of this in this episode and how those formative events have impacted the way Barak understands his family's past, the world presently, and his hopes for the future. Throughout his career, Barak has focused on building bridges within communities in Israel and worldwide. He was formerly the Executive Director of the Reut Institute, one of Israel's foremost think tanks on strategy and leadership. During his years at the institute, Barak worked with leading actors in the Israeli government and with NGOs from Israel and the US on various issues: Israel delegitimization, antisemitism, Jewish Peoplehood, and Israel-US relations. Barak recently graduated from the Harvard Kennedy School for Government and is currently a Middle East Initiative fellow at the Harvard Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. For more about Barak Sella and to read the episode transcript, visit: https://alongtheseam.com/barak-sellaFor more from Rachael and Along The  Seam, sign up for the Along The Seam newsletter.

Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen is a pastor, a theologian, a singer, a gifted storyteller and someone whose life is full of intercultural and interfaith dialogue and relationship. Derrick has his phD in homiletics which is the art of preaching as well as in the New Testament. His work is very much rooted in the belief that preaching is persuasive speech and that the way we communicate our stories is just as important, if not more, than what the story is about. In this conversation (recorded on February 15, 2024), Derrick shines light on the need for community, the power of ritual and tradition, and the importance of dreaming - not dreaming while you're asleep dreaming - but daydreaming,  the hopes and desires we all have for what the world could be. For more about Rev. Dr. Derrick McQueen and to read the episode transcript, visit: https://alongtheseam.com/derrick-mcqueenFor more from Rachael and Along The  Seam, sign up for the Along The Seam newsletter.

Kenny Andejeski is curiously committed to better understanding everything that unites, divides and compels us to participate in this social experiment called life. He sees the world through an entrepreneurial lens that is focused on connecting people with ideas, resources, places, and one another to foster the community required to effectively address the inequities, challenges and opportunities of our time. Kenny currently runs why [here] matters, a social enterprise that supports clients in building community to foster social cohesion, belonging and civic health towards the practice of everyday democracy at a national, regional and local scale.Born and raised in the Midwest, Kenny has visited all 50 states and 35+ countries across six continents, but currently resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where most of his place-based work is focused on ecosystem & capacity building throughout the Southeast and Appalachia. In his free time, he plays ultimate frisbee, deepens his relationship with nature, and dances through museum exhibits and public art installations.In this conversation recorded on November 13, 2023 in Portland, Maine, Kenny shares the challenges he has faced in not knowing much about where his family comes from, and how the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves can make it hard to grow and progress. This short conversation is deeply rooted in the power of having a connection to a place.For more about Kenny Andejeski and to read the episode transcript, visit: https://alongtheseam.com/kenny-andejeskiFor more from Rachael and Along The  Seam, sign up for the Along The Seam newsletter.

Micaela Blei, PHD has been teaching, studying and performing true, personal storytelling worldwide since 2012. She is a two-time Moth GrandSLAM winner and former founding Director of Education at The Moth. Her storytelling has been called “heartbreaking and hilarious” and can be heard on The Moth Radio Hour and podcast, Family Ghosts, Risk! and many others. Her memoir, “You Will Not Recognize Your Life,” will be released in late 2024 as an Audible Original. Micaela is a senior story editor and writer for the podcast network Wondery. And, currently she's the visiting professor of Storytelling at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies here in Portland, Maine. She also works as story editor and story coach. In this conversation recorded on January 5, 2024 on Zoom, Micaela shares with Rachael how she accidentally found herself on stage at The Moth and basically redirected her professional path as a result. She talks about mining our own lives for stories, why we don't need to make our personal experiences universal and how sharing the small moments in life can lead to the deepest connections. She also shares stories of her grandmother who she fondly referred to as “a dish” and "a real flirt." For more about Micaela Blei and to read the episode transcript, visit: www.alongtheseam.com/micaela-bleiFor more from Rachael and Along The  Seam, sign up for the Along The Seam newsletter.

“I'm sorry, sir. I don't understand exactly. Maybe I'm not smart enough. I don't know what you mean when you say ‘the whole world' or ‘generations before him.' I thought there was only us. I thought there was only now.” “There's much more. There's all that goes beyond – all that is Elsewhere – and all that goes back, and back, and back. I received all of those, when I was selected. And here in this room, all alone, I re-experience them again and again. It's how wisdom comes. And how we shape our future.” - The Giver Lois Lowry is a beloved American author. She has written more than 50 books throughout her career and has twice been awarded the Newbery Medals for “the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children."  She won for her books Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994. Lois' books vary in content and style yet deal with many of the same general themes including the importance of human connections. They tell stories about the effects of loss on a family and the role that we humans play in the lives of our fellow beings.This unedited conversation was recorded on March 4, 2022 in Lois' home in Falmouth, Maine. Lois shares stories about her life as the daughter of a career military officer in the midst of World War II, the experience of losing her son at a young age, and the profound impact her stories have had on people from around the world. Grief as a place of deep connection, including in the classroom, is present in this episode. An edited version of this conversation was originally published as the first episode of the first season, but is being shared now in its unedited form to kick off the second season of this podcast. To read how this conversation has grown in relevance for Rachael over the two years since it was recorded, you can find an essay published on the Along The Seam newsletter.For more about Lois Lowry and to read the transcript, visit: www.alongtheseam.com/lois-lowry

Enjoy the first episode of Rachael Cerrotti's first podcast - We Share The Same Sky. This is a 7-episode narrative series that takes you into Rachael's decade long journey to retrace her grandmother's wartime history. The show was listed as one of the best podcasts of 2019 by HuffPost, received a literary award from The Missouri Review, was a reader's choice for Vulture Magazine and listed as a "Show We Love" by Apple Podcasts. You can listen to the whole series by searching "WE SHARE THE SAME SKY" wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more at: www.sharethesamesky.com

On the final episode of this first season of The Memory Generation, host Rachael Cerrotti is joined by her cousin Elana Israel to talk about their grandmother, Hana Dubova. Hana was the matriarch of their family. She was a joyful, fun, spirited grandmother who also was the sole Holocaust survivor in their family. Rachael spent more than a decade researching and retracing Hana's survival story and turned it into an award-winning documentary podcast and a book. This is the first public conversation she has had with any extended family member about this work. (This project is titled We Share The Same Sky. Learn more at: www.sharethesamesky.com). Elana is a psychologist and a relationship coach and lives outside of Philadelphia with her son. In this conversation, Elana shares her experience living with Hana in the final months of her life and struggling with addiction in the years after. Rachael and Elana dig into their process making amends when Elana became sober and how addiction affects grief. They also share memories and reflections about Hana and what it felt like to have a grandmother who carried such a heavy life experience.Elana and Rachael recorded this conversation on October 29, 2022. Elana was at home near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Rachael was in Portland, Maine.

We are nearing the end of our first season with just one more episode of The Memory Generation to go. So for this episode, we are bringing you a short narrative piece that is all about the power of sharing our stories with strangers and highlights how we never know how our everyday conversations can have a ripple effect in other people's lives. In the case of this story – it all starts with an Uber ride.Featured in this episode is Juan Zambrano who shares about his family's history migrating to America from Mexico and Holocaust survivor Morris Price. Both men live in Los Angeles, California.

Phuc is an award-winning author, high school Latin teacher and tattoo artist based in Portland, Maine. His memoir Sigh, Gone was published in 2020 and is a coming-of-age story that explores growing up in rural Pennsylvania as a punk rock Vietnamese refugee. In this conversation, we talk about his realities being the only Vietnamese family in an all-white town, family abuse, sensitivities around retelling stories of trauma, and about tattoos and how they can be the manifestation of memories. Rachael and Phuc recorded this conversation on November 21, 2022 in Portland, Maine.

Mira Ptacin is a writer, educator and activist who lives on an island in Maine with her husband, two children and a whole bunch of rescue animals. She teaches creative writing at Colby College, leads memoir workshops to incarcerated women at the Maine Correctional Center, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. She has written two books - The In-Betweens: The Spiritualists, Mediums, and Legends of Camp Etna as well as the award-winning memoir Poor Your Soul.  She describes herself as writing about ‘the uterus and the American Dream' and has written extensively about grief, motherhood and family storytelling. In this conversation, we dig into her 2016 memoir Poor Your Soul. The book weaves together the story of the loss of her brother when she was just a teenager and then the loss of an unborn child when she was in her twenties. Mira & Rachael recorded this conversation on October 9, 2022 in Portland, Maine. More here: www.memorygenerationpodcast.com/15-mira-ptacin

In this episode of The Memory Generation  we explore memory through a contemporary queer experience. Dubbs Weinblatt is the founder of Thank You For Coming Out which is an improv show, podcast and soon-to-be book that aims to create a space of belonging for the queer community by uplifting and celebrating stories of coming out and coming into oneself. During this conversation, we talk about Dubbs wrestling with their Jewish identity, the closing off of oneself to family history during times of pain and how loved ones may struggle with witnessing the growth that happens during self discovery.We recorded this conversation on October 3rd, 2022 through Zoom. Rachael was in Portland, Maine and Dubbs was at their home in Brooklyn, New York.

On this episode of The Memory Generation, we are exploring memory loss through the lens of Alzheimer's  and Dementia. What happens when a family member loses their memory – and with it, their ability to relate with their community and their sense of self? We are joined by Gina Martin. Gina has been a force in the photography world for decades and spent 21 years working for National Geographic representing photographer's work worldwide.  Her mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's at the age of 65 and years later in 2016, after her mother passed away, Gina started the Bob & Diane Fund which annually grants $5000 to a photographer documenting Dementia. In this conversation she shares her experience watching her mother suffer from the disease, her father's role as the caregiver and how the experience changed the course of her life.This conversation was recorded  on October 6, 2022. Gina lives in Washington D.C, but was visiting California at the time and Rachael was in Portland, Maine. 

In this episode of The Memory Generation, Rachael Cerrotti talks with author Elizabeth Rosner about her book Survivor Cafe: The Legacy of Trauma and the Labyrinth of Memory. Both of Elizabeth's parents were Holocaust survivors and she has carried their stories from the day she was born.  Some stories she was told and others she learned through the silences that threaded their way through her childhood. She began writing about her family history from a young age through poetry and fiction and now explores the topics of inherited trauma and epigenetics through non fiction. Her books teach us that it is our sensitivities that will save us and highlights how we are all connected through very intrinsic human experiences. Rachael and Elizabeth recorded this conversation on October 10, 2022. Elizabeth was at her home in Berkeley, California and Rachael was in Portland, Maine. 

In this episode of The Memory Generation, we have a story that starts with two girls – best friends who grew up in Berlin in the 1930s. Together, they experienced rising antisemitism and in 1939, each of their families fled. At just 9-years-old, they said a tearful goodbye to each other and promised to keep in touch, but neither knew where the other one went or if they even survived. One of these girls, a woman named Betty Grebenschikoff, who is now in her 90s, never stopped looking for her best friend. And amazingly 82 years later, thanks to the testimony Betty gave to USC Shoah Foundation in 1997, the two women were reunited.  In this conversation, Rachael and Betty discuss how memories of our past can change as life unfolds. 

In this episode of The Memory Generation, Rachael is joined by actress Alina Zevakova who is originally from Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine but now lives in Kyiv. Since Russia invaded Ukraine this past February, Alina has been using theater as an act of resistance and as a way to help others process their trauma and wartime experiences. Alina (who speaks 7 languages) shares with us her experiences during this period of war -- everything from the first day of the invasion, her choice not to leave, love during wartime and her hopes for the future. She also shares her experience collecting testimony from her fellow Ukrainians and working as a fixer with foreign journalists. She talks about bearing witness to the war while struggling to survive herself and about how she insists on sharing what she's seen, even when her own family doesn't believe her.

In this episode of The Memory Generation, Rachael sits down with National Geographic photographer Pete Muller. Pete is an award-winner photographer, filmmaker and artist who has covered topics of war, uprisings, gender constructs, and social movements around the world.  In this conversation, they dig into Pete's recent project for the magazine -- a multicultural exploration of the concept of 'solastalgia'. Solastalgia is a newly-developed word that speaks to the emotional and existential distress caused by environmental change. Pete spent more than 2 years traveling around the world to document  communities whose home environments have significantly changed. 

On this episode of The Memory Generation, Rachael sits down with Cliff Sebastian who is a member of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation in Connecticut  – one of the oldest Native Tribes in the New England area. In this conversation, Cliff shares his experiences growing up on a reservation, his reflections of being at Standing Rock and insight into conversations his community is engaged in about their history. Through the revitalization of the Pequot language, Cliff tells us how modern generations are finding new words to describe old wounds. 

In this special two-part episode, we will hear stories from documentarians from two different periods of history who shed light on the repercussions of generations-long denial and silence. The first part of the episode is a short narrative piece about the life and legacy of Armin Wegner, a German humanitarian who was witness to the genocide of the Armenians during the First World War and then stood up to Hitler about the persecution of the Jews in 1933.  That piece is narrated by Stephen Smith (from episode 3). The second part of the episode is a conversation with Armenian filmmaker Naré Mkrtchyan whose grandparents survived the Armenian Genocide. She sits down with host Rachael Cerrotti to discuss how coming from a family history that is narrated by denial and debate has impacted her identity and the stories she has chosen to explore in her work. Her film, The Other Side of Home, was the first film about the Armenian Genocide to have been shortlisted for an Oscar.

Today we are talking with Ariel Burger – author of the book Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel's Classroom. Ariel is a writer, an artist, and teacher whose work integrates education, spirituality, the arts and strategies for social change. He was a lifelong student of Elie Wiesel, the esteemed Nobel Peace Prize Winner who most famously authored the memoir Night. In this conversation, Ariel and Rachael talk about the integration of creativity into stories from the past, about memory as an educational tool, and the difference of engaging in our world as a witness versus a spectator.

In this episode of The Memory Generation, Rachael sits down with Aziza Hasan to talk about how to navigate  difficult conversations, specifically in context to Israel and Palestine. Aziza grew up in Amman, Jordan to a Palestinian father and an American mother. She is an experienced mediator and conflict transformation practitioner and is the executive director of NewGround, a community-building organization based in Los Angeles that creates, connects and empowers Jewish and Muslim Change-makers in America. She was named an influencer by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, earned the “President's Volunteer Service Award” in 2006 under President George W. Bush and served on President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. 

Michael Coppage is a Cincinnati-based conceptual artist who has recently gained national attention with his recent project "BLACK BOX” : a community impact project aimed at demystifying black men and women and creating authentic experiences that replaces bias and preconceived notions related to the term “Black.” In this episode of The Memory Generation, he sits down with Rachael Cerrotti for a conversation about creating artwork that is aimed at bringing the audience in for an authentic conversation about the role of racism in America and what it means to be a free person in a society that is increasingly sensitive about the role of language and the perception of identity. 

Rachael Cerrotti sits down in Los Angeles with oral historian Stephen D. Smith who co-created The Memory Generation for a conversation about testimony and the retelling of war-torn memories. For 12 years, Stephen served as the Finci-Viterbi Executive Director of USC Shoah Foundation, the archive founded by Steven Spielberg to document the Holocaust and genocide. He recently left  that role to be the Executive Chairman and co-founder of StoryFile, the world's first AI conversational video platform that brings video alive. In addition, Stephen founded the UK Holocaust Centre in England, cofounded the Aegis Trust for the prevention of crimes against humanity and genocide and was the project director responsible for the creation of the Kigali Genocide Memorial Centre in Rwanda. He is a theologian by training, has authored several books, produced several documentary films and was the inaugural UNESCO Chair on Genocide Education. 

Join Rachael Cerrotti in conversation with Julie Lindahl. Julie is a multi-national author, educator, and democracy activist living in Sweden. Following a six-year journey in Europe and Latin America in which she discovered her grandparents' role in the Third Reich, she wrote her memoir, The Pendulum: A Granddaughter's Search for Her Family's Forbidden Nazi Past.  Her work demonstrates how facing dark historical truths and taking responsibility for them, whether at a family or national level, can lead to a brighter future. 

On the first episode of The Memory Generation, Rachael Cerrotti sits with Lois Lowry in her home in Falmouth, Maine to discuss writing about memory and keeping close relationships with those we have lost. Lois Lowry is a beloved American author. She has written more than 50 books throughout her career and has twice been awarded the Newbery Medals which is a literary award for “the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children". She won for her books Number the Stars in 1990 and The Giver in 1994.  She discusses both books on this episode of The Memory Generation.

The Memory Generation is a new podcast that hosts conversations about the inheritance of memory and intergenerational storytelling. It is hosted by author and documentary storyteller Rachael Cerrotti and produced in partnership with USC Shoah Foundation. This show is a follow-up to Rachael's first podcast titled We Share The Same Sky. We Share The Same Sky is a 7-part narrative show that tells the story of Rachael's decade-long journey to retrace her grandmother's war story. Learn more at: www.memorygenerationpodcast.com