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IT'S NOT JUST A VOTE

In this episode, we talk about a core building block of our democracy — the right to vote. Roughly 45,000 people ‘on papers’ in Wisconsin do not have the right to vote, even though they are no longer in prison. Jerome Dillard, Executive Director of EXPO (Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing), calls this being “locked up on the outside.” Dillard and his colleague Tamra Oman learned first-hand that civic health and community health depend on knowing that you belong after serving prison sentences. We explore the larger implications of disenfranchising individuals who have been incarcerated.

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BEAD BY BEAD

In this episode, we learn about a humanities college program that integrates currently and formerly incarcerated students with college students on campus in Milwaukee to create blended classrooms where everyone has the chance to see themselves as an intellectual. We talk with James Price, a formerly incarcerated student, and program co-founders Teresa Tobin and Rob Smith. As Prof. Smith tells us, exploring the human condition — the work of the humanities — is critical in today’s conversation about mass incarceration.

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ART AGAINST THE ODDS

Making art in prison can be a way to affirm your humanity in a place that is so often dehumanizing. When the organizers of an exhibit of Wisconsin prison art put out a call for submissions, they were flooded with responses from incarcerated artists working without support, formal programs, or materials. In this episode, we meet Joshua Gresl, John Tyson, and Sarah Demerath, three of the more than sixty artists whose work is part of an exhibition called “Art Against the Odds.” We also talk with Debra Brehmer, the co-curator of the exhibit.

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THREE CONVICTS, TWENTY DOLLARS, AND A NEWSPAPER

Started in 1887 by three well-known convicts, The Prison Mirror is often considered the best prison newspaper in the United States. But it is just one of many. In the 1980s, Robert Taliaferro was a writer and editor for The Mirror, as it was called in those days. Shannon Ross is a writer who started The Community in 2014 when he was in prison. The newsletter, which he still edits today, reaches half of Wisconsin's prison population. With hosts Adam Carr and Dasha Kelly Hamilton, Robert and Shannon come together to talk shop. We hear from them about why their work centers human-interest stories from people who are incarcerated and what we can learn from those who have an inside perspective.

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A MIC AND FIVE MINUTES

Some would say that storytelling is what makes us human. In this episode, we are going to hear some great stories.  We are heading to Oakhill Correctional Facility, where the University of Wisconsin Odyssey Beyond Bars Project offers storytelling workshops each semester for incarcerated students who are in the English 100 course. This is UW-Madison’s first face-to-face credit-bearing course inside any Wisconsin state prison since 1917. We will hear from Peter Moreno, the founder and Director of the program, Kevin Mullen, who designed the curriculum and teaches the course, and Mark Español, a former student. And, we get to hear the story Mark told at the English 100 graduation inside Oakhill!

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DEATH-DEFYING FEATS

In the first episode of Human Powered 'Humanity Unlocked,' we are stepping out with the remarkable and singular Dasha Kelly Hamilton. Dasha wields words to make magic happen, whether on stage herself, in writing sessions like Prose & Cons, or while chatting with co-host and public historian Adam Carr. We'll drop into one of her workshops and talk with Josh and Fontaine, both students and writers who have responded to Dasha's challenge to find courage in their own unique relationship with words. The result is poetry like you've never heard before. Dasha says that most of the people who meet her didn't know what they were getting into, so get ready. This is going to be good!

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Find all of season 1 in any podcast listening app and on the EPISODE PAGES ➔

THE POWER OF BEING SEEN (WITH TRACEY ROBERTSON) LISTEN & EPISODE EXTRAS ➔

THE POWER OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE (WITH MARVIN DEFOE) LISTEN & EPISODE EXTRAS ➔

THE POWER OF PLANTING SEEDS (WITH MARGARET FRANCHINO) LISTEN & EPISODE EXTRAS ➔

THE POWER OF UNTOLD STORIES (WITH RACHEL MONACO-WILCOX) LISTEN & EPISODE EXTRAS ➔

THE POWER OF EXPERIENCE (WITH CAROLINE GOTTSCHALK DRUSCHKE) LISTEN & EPISODE EXTRAS ➔

THE POWER OF LISTENING (WITH ARIJIT SEN) LISTEN & EPISODE EXTRAS ➔