Unpacking 1619 - A Heights Libraries Podcast

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Unpacking 1619 features interviews with scholars from around the country in which we unpack topics relating to the 1619 Project and race in America. Hosted by Adult Services Librarian John Piche.

Heights Libraries


    • May 27, 2025 LATEST EPISODE
    • every other week NEW EPISODES
    • 37m AVG DURATION
    • 106 EPISODES


    Search for episodes from Unpacking 1619 - A Heights Libraries Podcast with a specific topic:

    Latest episodes from Unpacking 1619 - A Heights Libraries Podcast

    Episode 83 – Dog Whistles and Coded Speech with Anne Quaranto

    Play Episode Listen Later May 27, 2025


    Anne Quaranto discusses her article, “Dog Whistles, Covertly Coded Speech, and the Practices that Enable Them.” Dog whistles are words or phrases that seem ordinary but send hidden, often derogatory messages. These forms of coded speech are often used by pundits, politicians, and public figures. Why do they use them and what do they mean? […]

    Episode 82 – Hell of a Storm Coming of the Civil War with David S. Brown

    Play Episode Listen Later May 13, 2025


    David S. Brown discusses his new book, “Hell of a Storm: The Battle for Kansas, the End of Compromise, and the Coming of the Civil War.” With chapters on Emerson, Stowe, Thoreau, and Fitzhugh, alongside with a cast of presidents, abolitionists, and black emigrationists, Professor Brown shows how political, cultural, and literary history foreshadow the […]

    Episode 81 – Civil War and Racial Medicine with Leslie Schwalm

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2025


    Leslie Schwalm discusses her book, “Medicine, Science, and Making Race in Civil War America.” Drawing on archives of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, recollections of Civil War doctors and medical, and testimonies from Black Americans, Professor Schwalm exposes the racist ideas the lent authority and prestige to Northern doctor’s and other elites. Leslie Schwalm is a […]

    Episode 80 – Constitutional Sheriffs with Jessica Pishko

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2025 54:48


    Jessica Pishko is a journalist and lawyer who graduated from Harvard Law School and Columbia University's MFA program. Jessica Pishko, journalist and lawyer, discusses her book, “The Highest Law in the Land: How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy,” in which she walks through the long history of the American Sheriff. Since the 1960s, […]

    Episode 79 – Legacy of David Walker’s “Appeal” with Marcy Dinius

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2025


    Marcy Dinius discusses her book, The Textual Effects of David Walker’s “Appeal”: Print-Based Activism Against Slavery, Racism, and Discrimination, 1829-1851. David Walker’s “Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World (1829-1830)” was one of the first antislavery texts published that openly called for slave self-defense and resistance. Professor Dinius explores how Walker used research and […]

    Episode 78 – Black Resistance to White Supremacy with Kellie Carter Jackson

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 18, 2025


    Kellie Carter Jackson, Professor of Africana Studies and the Chair of the Africana Studies Department Wellesley College, discusses her book, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance. Prof. Carter Jackson explains how she sees black resistance to white supremacy falling to several categories — revolution, protection, force, flight and joy. To illustrate how each […]

    Episode 77 – History of School Vouchers with Josh Cowen

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 4, 2025


    Josh Cowen discusses his new book, The Privateers: How Billionaires Created a Culture War and Sold School Vouchers. Prof. Cowen traces voucher history startingvwith the ideological roots as a reaction to the Brown decision to how Christian nationalists use vouchers today to weaken the free exercise clause, As challenges to vouchers continue, the defense and […]

    Episode 76 – Effective Policing with Tracey L. Meares

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 18, 2025


    Tracey L. Meares discusses her article, “The Good Cop: Knowing the Difference Between Lawful or Effective Policing and Rightful Policing — And Why it Matters.” Prof. Meares describes the two traditional roles of policing as they function under the law and in fighting crime. These two roles place the responsibility of policing on the behavior […]

    prof policing tracey l meares
    Episode 75 – Cuyahoga County Bail Reform with Jonathan Witmer-Rich

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 4, 2025


    Jonathan Witmer-Rich discusses his work on the ”Cuyahoga County Bail Task Force: Report and Recommendations.” Professor Witmer-Rich explains the bail situation in Cuyahoga County. Looking at cash bail as a means to secure future appearances and reduce risk, courts are actually preemptively incarcerating and punishing citizens who are presumed innocent. We talk about how the […]

    Episode 74 – Gift Giving in Uncle Tom’s Cabin with Alexandra Urakova

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2025


    Alexandra Urakova discusses her article, “”I do not want her, I am sure”: Commodities, Gifts, and Poisonous Gifts in Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Professor Urakova sees gift giving in Uncle Tom’s Cabin as a disruption within the sentimental context of the narrative. Topsy and Orphelia, Eva and Tom, and Shelby and St. Clare are all complicated […]

    Episode 73 – Genetics and Alzheimer’s Disease with Jonathan Haines

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 7, 2025


    Jonathan Haines is a researcher and educator with experience in all aspects of genetic epidemiology, with a particular focus on illuminating the genetic architecture of complex diseases. We discussed his research into the genetic origins of Alzheimer’s and dementia. His work seeks to include diverse and minority populations to expand the scope of what factors […]

    Episode 72 – Teaching Black Internationalism with Jonneke Koomen

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 24, 2024


    Jonneke Koomen discusses her two articles, “International Relations/Black Internationalism” and “Madness in the Classroom: Thomas Sankara's Disobedient International Relations.” Professor Koomen shows how introducing W.E.B. du Bois' essays and speeches by Thomas Sankara places teaching about international relations into conversation with its critics. Colonialism, white supremacy, and race based economic systems served as the foundations […]

    Episode 71 – Deputization and White Violence with Ekow Yankah

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2024


    Ekow Yankah discusses his forthcoming Stanford Law Review article, “Deputization and Privileged White Violence.” Prof. Yankah unpacks how the development of social and physical control of slaves necessitated laws and norms that allowed any white person the ability to police a person of color. This white privilege continues today in the self-deputization and citizen ‘s […]

    Episode 70 – Proving Pregnancy with Felicity Turner

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 26, 2024


    Felicity Turner, Associate Professor in the Department of History at Georgia Southern University, discusses her book Proving Pregnancy: Gender, Law, and Medical Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century America. Professor Turner explores the intersection of law and the emerging medical professionalization in cases of infanticide in the United States. By examining the legal documents, she is able to […]

    Episode 69 – History of Controlling Pregnancy with Kathleen Crowther

    Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2024


    Kathleen M. Crowther discusses her book, Policing Pregnant Bodies: From Ancient Greece to Post-Roe America. She explores the deeply rooted medical and philosophical ideas that continue to reverberate in the politics of women’s health and reproductive autonomy. From the idea that a detectable heartbeat is the voice of the unborn to why maternal mortality rates […]

    Episode 68 – Teaching White Supremacy with Donald Yacovone

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2024


    Donald Yacovone, lifetime associate at Harvard University's Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, discusses his book, “Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity.” He talks about the evidence of white supremacy's deep-seeded roots in our nation's educational system by looking at nearly 100 years of school textbooks. […]

    Episode 67 – Book Learning and Slave Education with Christopher Span

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 15, 2024


    Christopher Span, Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, discusses his work, “Sam's Cottonfield Blues” and “Quest for Book Learning: African American Education in Slavery and Freedom.” He discusses why literacy was so feared by white enslavers and crucial to slaves. Detailing how slaves subverted the rules to learn to […]

    Episode 66 – Texas: Race, War, Colonialism with Gerald Horne

    Play Episode Listen Later Oct 1, 2024


    Professor Gerald Horne discusses his book, The Counter-revolution of 1836: Texas Slavery & Jim Crow and the Roots of American Fascism. Prof. Horne explains his thesis that Texas was a goldmine for Euro-Americans since it provided the dual economics of land speculation and the expansion of slavery, praxis for settler colonialism, and a built in […]

    Episode 65 – Black Homicide Victims with Gian Maria Campedelli

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2024


    Gian Maria Campedelli, research scientist at Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Italy, discusses his research article, “Homicides Involving Black Victims are less likely to be Cleared in the United States.” Drawing upon three databases the FBI's national incident-based reporting system (NIBRS) and the Murder Accountability Project (MAP), which combines data from the FBI's uniform crime reporting […]

    Episode 64 – White Christian Nationalism and the Church with Jim Wallis

    Play Episode Listen Later Sep 3, 2024


    Jim Wallis, the founding Director of the Georgetown University Center on Faith and Justice, discusses his book, The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy. He argues that the civic promotion of fear, hate, and violence as the trajectory of our politics under a banner of Christian Nationalism, should be […]

    Episode 63 – Why You Might End Up In Prison with Justin Brooks

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2024


    Professor Justin Brooks, director of the LLM Program in U.S. Law in Spanish at the University of San Diego, discusses his book, You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You’re Innocent. Prof. Brooks explains how bad lawyering, bad science, and inadequate investigations, lead to wrongful conviction. We look into how police interrogations and juries all […]

    Episode 62 – Police Violence and Pregnant People with Jaquelyn Jahn

    Play Episode Listen Later Aug 6, 2024


    Jaquelyn Jahn, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at Drexel University, discusses her articles “Neighborhood Proactive Policing and Racial Inequities in Preterm Birth in New Orleans, 2018‒2019” and “Gestational Exposure to Fatal Police Violence and Pregnancy Loss in U.S. Core Based Statistical Areas, 2013-2015.” Professor Jahn discusses how police violence and over-policing disproportionately affects Black, Native American, […]

    Episode 61 – Land and Identity in Africa with Kevin C. Dunn

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 23, 2024


    Kevin C. Dunn, the Donald R. Harter '39 Professor of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Hobart and William Smith Colleges talks about his book, Politics of Origin in Africa: Autochthony Citizenship, and Conflict. Prof. Dunn discusses how concepts of origins and land help define African politics, both consolidating and excluding ethnic groups from State rights […]

    Episode 60 – War on the Klan with Fergus Bordewich

    Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2024


    Fergus Bordewich discusses his newest book, Klan War: Ulysses S. Grant and the Battle to Save Reconstruction. Mr. Bordewich explains how the Klu Klux Klan was America’s first terrorist organization intent on counterrevolution after the Civil War. How President Grant mobilized the Federal government to challenge and ultimately dismantle the Klan is the subject of […]

    Episode 59 – Judges and White Supremacy with Vida Johnson

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 25, 2024


    Vida Johnson, professor at law at Georgetown law, discusses her article “White Supremacy and the Bench.” In which she describes how judges maintain and enforce structural racism. Judges benefit from a cultural cache of authority, prestige and as unbiased arbiters of fairness, but they often sustain and amplify racism through jokes, decisions, and rulings that […]

    Episode 58: How Parents Talked To Their Children About BLM with Onnie Rogers

    Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2024


    Leoandra Onnie Rogers, Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University, discusses her article, “Exploring Whether and How Black and White Parents Talk with Their Children about Race: M(ai)cro Race Conversations About Black Lives Matter.” which presents the results of an online survey conducted in 2020-2021. Professor Rogers details the ways in which white and Black parents […]

    Episode 57 – Slavery Origins of Gynecology with Deirdre Cooper Owens

    Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2024


    Professor Deirdre Cooper Owens discusses her book, Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology, which traces the origins of American reproductive health to slave hospitals. As white doctors expanded their practices onto plantations, quickly pregnancy and birth became the focus of their practices. Dr. James Marion Sims with other nineteenth-century gynecologists performed […]

    american gender origins slavery gynecology deirdre cooper owens american gynecology
    Episode 56 – Auburn Prison and the Murder that Shocked America with Robin Bernstein

    Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2024


    Professor Robin Bernstein discusses her book, Freeman's Challenge: The Murder that Shook America's Original Prison For Profit. Auburn Prison in Upstate New York was designed to be a factory prison, incorporating the area's major industry into its walls. Through harsh conditions, solitary and silent confinement, and constant violence, the inmates' lives were desolate ones of […]

    Episode 56 – Auburn Prison and the Murder that Shocked America with Robin Bernstein

    Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2024


    Professor Robin Bernstein discusses her book, Freeman's Challenge: The Murder that Shook America's Original Prison For Profit. Auburn Prison in Upstate New York was designed […]

    Episode 55 – Radical Acts of Justice with Jocelyn Simonson

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2024


    Professor Jocelyn Simonson talks about her book, Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Mass Incarceration. Beginning with a close look at the ideological meaning behind calling the prosecution, “The People,” Prof. Simonson points out how the criminal justice systems defines “community.” By looking at several ways activists and volunteers engage in organized […]

    Episode 55 – Radical Acts of Justice with Jocelyn Simonson

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2024


    Professor Jocelyn Simonson talks about her book, Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Mass Incarceration. Beginning with a close look at the […]

    Episode 54 – Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum with Antonia Hylton

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2024


    Antonia Hylton discusses her book, Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum. Ms. Hylton’s extensive research into Crownsville Hospital in Maryland, a segregated […]

    Episode 54 – Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum with Antonia Hylton

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 16, 2024


    Antonia Hylton discusses her book, Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum. Ms. Hylton’s extensive research into Crownsville Hospital in Maryland, a segregated asylum that was both hospital and prison, serves as physical example of racist systems and black resistance. Tracing the history of Crownsville was difficult since so many of the official […]

    Episode 53 – Slave Hospitals with Stephen Kenny

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2024


    Professor Stephen Kenny discusses his article, “A Dictate of Both Interest and Mercy”: Slave Hospitals in the Antebellum South.” Beginning on the shores of West Africa, White doctors began to systematize racialized medicine in the service of slavery. Establishing institutions of idealized models of slave care, the story of slave hospitals became a self-serving lie […]

    Episode 53 – Slave Hospitals with Stephen Kenny

    Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2024


    Professor Stephen Kenny discusses his article, “A Dictate of Both Interest and Mercy”: Slave Hospitals in the Antebellum South.” Beginning on the shores of West […]

    Episode 52 – All Lives Matter Racism with Professor Sang Hea Kil

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2024


    Professor Sang Kil talks about how “all lives matter” (ALM) has advanced Whiteness in the news. Using critical race theory's critique of neoliberalism's use of race-neutral racism, Professor Kil, discusses how “All Lives Matter” works to undermine the civil rights meaning of Black Lives Matter by denying its central critique. Blue Lives Matter, an offshoot […]

    Episode 52 – All Lives Matter Racism with Professor Sang Hea Kil

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 19, 2024


    Professor Sang Kil talks about how “all lives matter” (ALM) has advanced Whiteness in the news. Using critical race theory's critique of neoliberalism's use of […]

    Episode 51 – Irish Identity in America with Diane Negra

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024


    Professor Diane Negra discusses her most recent scholarship which investigates Irish identity in the United States. She begins with the election of John F. Kennedy […]

    Episode 51 – Irish Identity in America with Diane Negra

    Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2024


    Professor Diane Negra discusses her most recent scholarship which investigates Irish identity in the United States. She begins with the election of John F. Kennedy with a sense of hopefulness which progressed through the 1980s and 1990s with an explosion of interest in all things Irish. But beginning in the 2000s, Professor Negra locates a […]

    Episode 50 – History of White People with Nell Irvin Painter

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2024


    Professor Painter discusses her book, THE HISTORY OF WHITE PEOPLE. Prof. Painter begins with discussing just what it means to be “white” and how ideas […]

    Episode 50 – History of White People with Nell Irvin Painter

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2024


    Professor Painter discusses her book, THE HISTORY OF WHITE PEOPLE. Prof. Painter begins with discussing just what it means to be “white” and how ideas of whiteness developed using Ancient Greek and Roman sources. Ralph Waldo Emerson’s influence is explored before delving into eugenics, anti-Semitism, and Irish Immigration. Nell Irvin Painter is the award-winning author […]

    Episode 49 – Microaggressions with Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2024


    Dr. Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo discusses her article, “How Microaggressions Reinforce and Perpetuate Systemic Racism in the United States.” She defines what microaggressions are and how they support White superiority. Through subtle and slight processes microaggressions protect and reinforce the “othering” of people of color with environmental exclusions, treating people of color as second class, and promoting […]

    Episode 49 – Microaggressions with Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo

    Play Episode Listen Later Feb 6, 2024


    Dr. Allison Skinner-Dorkenoo discusses her article, “How Microaggressions Reinforce and Perpetuate Systemic Racism in the United States.” She defines what microaggressions are and how they […]

    Episode 48 – Two Face Racism with Leslie Picca

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2024 26:24


    Professor Leslie Picca discusses her work, Two-Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage, which examines the racial attitudes and behaviors exhibited by whites in private versus public settings. Prof. Picca explains how simple racial jokes work to maintain dominant racism while offering up an easy out for racists. The creation of these white safe […]

    Episode 48 – Two Face Racism with Leslie Picca

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2024 26:24


    Professor Leslie Picca discusses her work, Two-Faced Racism: Whites in the Backstage and Frontstage, which examines the racial attitudes and behaviors exhibited by whites in […]

    Episode 47 – Shaker Heights’ History of Integration with Laura Meckler

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2024 27:18


    Journalist Laura Meckler of the Washington Post discusses her book, Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity. Beginning with a historical overview of the Cleveland suburb and its uncanny ability to propel itself into the national spotlight, Ms. Meckler discusses how the suburb fought segregation and racial covenants to become one of […]

    Episode 47 – Shaker Heights’ History of Integration with Laura Meckler

    Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2024 27:18


    Journalist Laura Meckler of the Washington Post discusses her book, Dream Town: Shaker Heights and the Quest for Racial Equity. Beginning with a historical overview […]

    Episode 46 – Black Trans Feminism Liberation with Marquis Bey

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 27, 2023 40:49


    Professor Marquis Bey discusses their book, BLACK TRANS FEMINISM in which they argue that how we define, label, and identify ourselves can be a way to embrace freedom and the liberated possible. First looking at how we are captured by systems and stereotypes when we see ourselves as defined by our race, gender, or sexuality, […]

    Episode 46 – Black Trans Feminism Liberation with Marquis Bey

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 27, 2023 40:49


    Professor Marquis Bey discusses their book, BLACK TRANS FEMINISM in which they argue that how we define, label, and identify ourselves can be a way […]

    Episode 45 – Hemings, Baartman and Complicated Fame with Samantha Pinto

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2023 45:55


    Professor Samantha Pinto discusses her book, Infamous Bodies: Early Black Women's Celebrity and the Afterlives of Rights. Using the idea of “vulnerability” as a touchstone to explain the celebrity of Sally Hemings and Sarah “the Hottentot Venus” Baartman, Prof. Pinto describes how each woman’s agency is complicated by dominant systems of coercion and violence. Sally […]

    Episode 45 – Hemings, Baartman and Complicated Fame with Samantha Pinto

    Play Episode Listen Later Dec 13, 2023 45:55


    Professor Samantha Pinto discusses her book, Infamous Bodies: Early Black Women's Celebrity and the Afterlives of Rights. Using the idea of “vulnerability” as a touchstone […]

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