Driveway moments aren’t just for driveways anymore. Louisville Public Media’s podcasts go wherever you want to listen. And our podcast incubator puts community voices and stories in your pocket.
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LPM Podcasts
Our podcasts have a little something for everyone. Check them out, and follow your favorites!
Words for the People

Each episode features an established writer and an emerging writer, sharing their wisdom to help you free your own story. “Words for the People” is hosted by Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate.
“How does being a Kentuckian inform your writing?”
That’s the first question Kentucky Poet Laureate Crystal Wilkinson asks former Poet Laureate Frank X Walker, and he counters with, “how does it not?”
His grandparents were farmers, but Walker describes growing up feeling removed from the land itself. “I was raised in a housing project,” he says, “but we coveted other people’s land, and we got a kind of way about us when we had a chance to be outdoors and in the wild, or on a farm, like my grandparents’ space.”
Walker says every word he writes deals with family, place and identity. “I don’t know how to take that out.”

Where Y’all Really From

What’s the one universal question Asian Americans are asked at least once (but more like a million times) in their lives? “Where are you from?” “No, but where are you really from?” Where Y’all Really From focuses on the tens of thousands of folks whose answer is, “Kentucky!” Hosts Charlene Buckles & Dan Wu chat with and share the diverse stories and perspectives of Asian American and Pacific Islanders living, learning, and loving in the bluegrass state.
Sure, our season’s over… but we miss you already! So in this bonus mini episode, our hosts Dan Wu and Charlene Buckles reflect on season one, which ran the gamut from interpersonal decolonization to Doritos and buttermilk. We’re gonna go work on season two now, so let us know what you want to hear more about at wyrf@louisvillepublicmedia.org or at whereyallreallyfrom.org. Thank you so much for being part of our inaugural season!

Butter Pecan

A podcast about race, food, and racist food. Join Kelly Nusz and Darryl Goodner in discussing the wild and ridiculous racist tropes in the food you know, and probably love. While also dismantling those tropes and creating something new.
How do you take your coffee? Cream? Sugar? Or do you drink it Black? As the world’s second most traded commodity (next to oil) it’s hard to have your morning fix without coming to terms with the origins of your favorite drink. It’ll probably come as no surprise that coffee as a long history of slavery. We discuss our own relationship with coffee as we tell of its origins and early history.

Dig

Louisville, Ky. once made ambitious promises to transform its police department and mend its relationship with the Black community. Five years later, Louisville police killed Breonna Taylor in her home, kicking off a protest movement unlike anything the city had seen in decades.
In a joint KyCIR/Newsy investigation, insiders and documents reveal the systemic barriers and choices made by city leaders and the Louisville Metro Police Department that led to its failure to meaningfully change. How did Louisville go from a national leader in policing to an epicenter of the movement for racial justice in the United States? Find out on Dig Season 2: The Model City.
So much has changed since Louisville first proclaimed itself a model city for policing reform: the police chief was fired. The city was upended by protests and grief over Breonna Taylor, and David McAtee. But some things are the same: The anger. The frustration. The disconnect between the police and the community. In our season finale, city leadership makes a very familiar set of promises. Could 21st Century Policing work this time? Is it too late?

Earth and Spirit

The Earth and Spirit Podcast fosters engaging conversations with change-makers working at the intersection of meditative spiritual practice, social healing, and ecology. It is a production of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center (www.earthandspiritcenter.org), a nonprofit, interfaith spirituality center located in Louisville, Kentucky.
Sr. Caroljean Willie, who goes by CJ, is a Sister of Charity of Cincinnati. With a doctorate in multicultural education, she has worked in 48 countries as an environmental educator, teacher-trainer, and cultural diversity consultant. She has also served as an NGO representative at the United Nations, working on social development, education, environmental sustainability, human trafficking, interfaith dialogue and poverty eradication. In this podcast, Sr. Caroljean shares her insights about how we might lean into interconnection and step out into what she calls our grace margin, where we can truly learn from and care about those whose lives are very different from our own.
RESOURCES:
Earth & Spirit Center website: www.earthandspiritcenter.org
EarthConnection, a ministry of the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati and run by Sr. Caroljean, is a center for learning and reflection about living lightly on Earth: https://www.scearthconnection.org/
Sr. Caroljean’s June 24-26 2022 retreat at the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth retreat center: “Called to Hope: Catholic Social Teaching and the Environment” https://nazarethretreatcenterky.org/retreat/called-to-hope/
Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati: https://www.srcharitycinti.org/
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals
United Nations Millennium Development Goals: https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
Microfinancing Partners in Africa: https://microfinancingafrica.org/who-we-are/

Five Things

How do the objects we love define us? What can we learn from the things we treasure? And how can we discover a life story through those objects? Five Things, from 89.3 WFPL and Louisville Public Media, explores those questions and more. +
Clarence Bucaro is a singer-songwriter and a one-time stay-at-home dad. He’s been making albums since 2000, with some twists and turns along the way. He’s also in a two-person book club with his mom. #goals +

Great Podversations

Great Podversations features nationally-recognized writers in conversation. These candid discussions invite the listener to learn about literature, politics, history, economics, science, and culture through the voices of compelling authors and experts. NPR’s Robert Siegel introduces each pair of fascinating guests. Great Podversations is produced by the University of Louisville Kentucky Author Forum, and distributed by Louisville Public Media. For more information, please visit kentuckyauthorforum.com.
Author Anna Quindlen and writer Amy Bloom discuss Quindlen’s book “Write for Your Life.”
Anna Quindlen is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, novelist, and opinion columnist. She is the best-selling author of nine novels, including “Every Last One,” and “Still Life with Bread Crumbs.” Her memoir “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake”, published in 2012, was a #1 New York Times bestseller.
Quindlen’s book “A Short Guide to a Happy Life” has sold more than a million copies. While a columnist at The New York Times, Quindlen won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary.
Amy Bloom is the author of four novels and three collections of short stories. Her first book of nonfiction, “Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes,” is a staple of university sociology and biology courses. Her most recent book is the widely acclaimed New York Times best-selling memoir, “In Love”.
Bloom has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle, The Atlantic Monthly, Slate, and Salon, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing at Wesleyan University.

Here Today

This is a pivotal moment for west Louisville. There’s a track & field complex planned, a new YMCA in the works, and the renovation of Beecher Terrace. But as property values rise, so do property taxes, and that can be a hardship for the people already living there. Is this revitalization? Or gentrification? Here Today will track the changes in Louisville’s West End, and tell the stories of the people who call it home.
Earlier this year, we set out to take a deep look at why Louisville’s West End is changing — and how. In this last episode of Here Today, we address the uncertainty that lies ahead, and how that could affect the people who live west of Ninth Street.
Here Today is a listener-supported project. You make it possible for us to hold the people in power accountable for the promises they make. Click here to chip in: wfpl.org/supportheretoday
