Human Powered

Food traditions are core to who we are and how we build community. In this episode, cohosts Jessica Becker and Jen Rubin talk with Qwantese Winters, the founder of A Bowl of Soul. Winter’s has been d…

It is August of 2025 and record rainfall has caused catastrophic flash flooding in Milwaukee. Hosts Jessica Becker and Jen Rubin sit down with Milwaukee journalist and former Human Powered host Jimmy…

Each of us is experiencing a million things on any given day. Alexandria Delcourt believes that how we move from the chaos and overwhelm of life to understand ourselves, and each other, comes down to…

Adam Carr is a Milwaukee alchemist. He is an evangelist for his home and an urban explorer who uses storytelling, city walking tours, radio productions, film, journalism, and art to build connections…

“Stories are told for connection,” says Brendon Panke, who has found ways to use stories to build community, entertain audiences, train medical professionals, and help veterans and people who are inc…

These days the national news is full of stories about deportations and ICE raids, and the latest legislation that will vastly increase the ICE budget. In Wisconsin, studies by the University of Wisco…

BJ Hollars' energy for making connections in sometimes unexpected places is infectious. He is a writer, a professor, a documentary filmmaker, and a proud resident of Eau Claire. His anthology, "Hope …

Wisconsin Humanities is going into hibernation. What does that mean? And what will happen to Human Powered podcast? Jen Rubin and Jessica Becker have been behind the scenes for past seasons of Human …

An important update about Wisconsin Humanities and its programs, including Human Powered podcast and Love Wisconsin digital stories:  

As a result of the defunding of Wisconsin Humanities and all stat…

For this special edition of Human Powered, we are sharing an episode of a series called Uprooted produced by our friends at Wisconsin Life and WPR. 

In 1980, there was an exodus of Cubans who left the…

For this special edition of Human Powered, we are sharing an episode of The People’s Recorder, a podcast series from Spark Media and funded in part with a grant from Wisconsin Humanities.

The People’s…

For this special edition of Human Powered, we are sharing an episode produced by our friends at The Community. 

The Community is a multi-dimensional nonprofit based in Milwaukee. It connects and empow…

The right to vote is a core building block for our democracy. We are taught that our vote matters and that voting is integral to our communities and our country. In this final episode of Humanity Unl…

When James Price first learned how to bead, he was incarcerated at the Stanley Correctional Institution in Wisconsin. He had been told his whole life that he was not patient, but as he is tutored in …

People in prisons are cut off from their families, their communities, and in some cases their own feelings. Making art in prison — even with very few resources — can be a way to affirm your humanity …

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 w…

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 Oak Hill Correctional Facility, where the University of Wisconsin…

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…

Human Powered—the podcast from Wisconsin Humanities—is back for season 2. In these six episodes, we are talking with people who have been impacted by the justice system. With our hosts, Dasha Kelly H…