13 episodes

History comes alive as we revisit important moments in American culture with interviews from the archives of the inimitable 20th-century broadcaster and oral historian Studs Terkel. Host Eve Ewing guides us through
the Studs Terkel Radio Archive and pairs each piece of archival audio with an interview with a contemporary thinker, intertwining the past and the present. Dust off your soapbox, open your ears, and come down to the Bughouse Square. Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing is produced by the WFMT Radio Network and made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: exploring the human endeavor.

Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing Studs Terkel Radio Archive & WFMT Radio Network

    • History
    • 4.8 • 127 Ratings

History comes alive as we revisit important moments in American culture with interviews from the archives of the inimitable 20th-century broadcaster and oral historian Studs Terkel. Host Eve Ewing guides us through
the Studs Terkel Radio Archive and pairs each piece of archival audio with an interview with a contemporary thinker, intertwining the past and the present. Dust off your soapbox, open your ears, and come down to the Bughouse Square. Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing is produced by the WFMT Radio Network and made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: exploring the human endeavor.

    BONUS: The Language of Your Birth Through a Colonial Lens

    BONUS: The Language of Your Birth Through a Colonial Lens

    Erika L. Sánchez explains what it was like to live in Spain and to feel like she spoke a different language, even though it was still Spanish.

    Find Us Online:


    Hear the full interview with Sandra Cisneros
    Website: http://wfmt.com/bughouse
    Twitter: @StudsArchive
    Eve L. Ewing: @eveewing, https://eveewing.com/
    Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. A poet, essayist, and fiction writer, she is the author of a young adult novel,* I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter* (Knopf Books for Young Readers), a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature, and instant New York Times Bestseller; and the poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion (Graywolf), a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. She is the recipient of Fulbright Fellowship, a “Discovery”/Boston Review Prize and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from The Poetry Foundation. She is a currently a Princeton Arts Fellow.****


    About Us:


    WFMT is Chicago’s classical and fine arts radio station, with a long tradition of award-winning broadcasting since 1951. Through the WFMT Radio Network, the station offers programming to over 650 outlets in the U.S. and around the world
    Studs Terkel Radio Archive, an audio archive managed by THE WFMT Radio Network, based at Studs’ long time radio home, in partnership with the Chicago History Museum, which houses the archive.
    Multitude is a podcast collective and consultancy based in New York City. Their mission is to make, elevate, and market great shows.


    Credits:

    Our producer is Katie Klocksin and our composer is Ayanna Woods. Thank you to Project Manager Heather McDougall, Archivist Allison Schein Holmes, Production and Distribution Manager Stacy Gerard, Multitude Productions, and Erin Glasco, Maria Cooper and Mark Baletto on our transcription team. Archival audio was digitized by the Library of Congress, Division of Recorded Sound.


    Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities - Exploring the Human Endeavor.

    • 5 min
    Sandra Cisneros & Erika L. Sánchez

    Sandra Cisneros & Erika L. Sánchez

    The Rundown: Eve explains how much Sandra Cisneros’ writing means to her and how the stories resonate with her childhood in Chicago. Sandra Cisneros talks to Studs about the tradition of Chicano writers, the wisdom of her mother, and the representation of fierce women in her work. Erika L. Sánchez explains how some readers believe her work is representative of the Latinx experience and how she wrestled with mental health while writing her YA novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. Find Us Online: Hear the full interview with Sandra Cisneros Website: http://wfmt.com/bughouse Twitter: @StudsArchive Eve L. Ewing: @eveewing , https://eveewing.com/ Erika L. Sánchez is the daughter of Mexican immigrants. A poet, essayist, and fiction writer, she is the author of a young adult novel, I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter (Knopf Books for Young Readers), a 2017 finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature , and instant New York Times Bestseller; and the poetry collection, Lessons on Expulsion (Graywolf), a finalist for the PEN America Open Book Award. She is the recipient of Fulbright Fellowship, a “Discovery”/ Boston Review Prize and a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from The Poetry Foundation . She is a currently a Princeton Arts Fellow. About Us: WFMT is Chicago’s classical and fine arts radio station, with a long tradition of award-winning broadcasting since 1951. Through the WFMT Radio Network, the station offers programming to over 650 outlets in the U.S. and around the world Studs Terkel Radio Archive , an audio archive managed by THE WFMT Radio Network, based at Studs’ long time radio home, in partnership with the Chicago History Museum, which houses the archive. Multitude is a podcast collective and consultancy based in New York City. Their mission is to make, elevate, and market great shows. Credits: Our producer is Katie Klocksin and our composer is Ayanna Woods. Thank you to Project Manager Heather McDougall, Archivist Allison Schein Holmes, Production and Distribution Manager Stacy Gerard, Multitude Productions, and Erin Glasco, Maria Cooper and Mark Baletto on our transcription team. Archival audio was digitized by the Library of Congress, Division of Recorded Sound. Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities - Exploring the Human Endeavor.

    • 48 min
    Double Consciousness

    Double Consciousness

    Min Jin Lee explains the racism she experienced as a Korean-American living in Japan, and how that pulled at both her Korean and American selves. Look out for Episode 5 on February 1st, 2018!

    • 3 min
    Younghill Kang & Min Jin Lee

    Younghill Kang & Min Jin Lee

    The Rundown:


    Eve lays out Younghill Kang’s autobiographical immigrant stories and the looming ideological presence of the Japanese occupation of Korea.
    Younghill Kang talks to Studs about the growth of himself as an artist and writer and how it intertwines with the passage of history in Korea and the United States
    Min Jin Lee breaks down the compulsion she had to write about the Japanese occupation of Korea and how integral it is to fully understand Korean culture.


    Find Us Online:


    Hear the full interview with Younghill Kang.
    Website: http://wfmt.com/bughouse
    Twitter: @StudsArchive
    Eve L. Ewing: @eveewing, https://eveewing.com/


    Min Jin Lee is a recipient of fellowships in Fiction from the Guggenheim Foundation (2018) and the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study at Harvard (2018-2019). Her novel Pachinko (2017) was a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction, a runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the Medici Book Club Prize, and a New York Times 10 Best Books of 2017. In 2018, Lee was named as an Adweek Creative 100 for being one of the “10 Writers and Editors Who are Changing the National Conversation” and a Frederick Douglass 200. She received an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from Monmouth College. She will be a Writer-in-Residence at Amherst College from 2019-2022.

    About Us:


    WFMT is Chicago’s classical and fine arts radio station, with a long tradition of award-winning broadcasting since 1951. Through the WFMT Radio Network, the station offers programming to over 650 outlets in the U.S. and around the world
    Studs Terkel Radio Archive, an audio archive managed by THE WFMT Radio Network, based at Studs’ long time radio home, in partnership with the Chicago History Museum, which houses the archive.
    Multitude is a podcast collective and consultancy based in New York City. Their mission is to make, elevate, and market great shows.


    Credits:

    Our producer is Katie Klocksin and our composer is Ayanna Woods. Thank you to Project Manager Heather McDougall, Archivist Allison Schein Holmes, Production and Distribution Manager Stacy Gerard, Multitude Productions, and Erin Glasco, Maria Cooper and Mark Baletto on our transcription team. Archival audio was digitized by the Library of Congress, Division of Recorded Sound.


    Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities - Exploring the Human Endeavor.

    • 49 min
    Lorraine, James and Nina

    Lorraine, James and Nina

    We have more from our interview with Imani Perry! She describes the intimate friendships that Lorraine Hansberry had with James Baldwin and Nina Simone.

    Look out for Episode 4 on January 4th, 2018!

    Find Us Online:


    Hear the full interview with Lorraine Hansberry.
    Website: http://wfmt.com/bughouse
    Twitter: @StudsArchive
    Eve L. Ewing: @eveewing, https://eveewing.com/
    Dr. Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a faculty associate in the Programs in Law and Public Affairs, Gender and Sexuality Studies and The University Center for Human Values. She is the author of five books, including Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, and numerous articles in the fields of African American Studies, legal history, cultural studies, and American literature. She lives in the Philadelphia area with her two sons.@ImaniPerry


    About Us:


    WFMT is Chicago’s classical and fine arts radio station, with a long tradition of award-winning broadcasting since 1951. Through the WFMT Radio Network, the station offers programming to over 650 outlets in the U.S. and around the world
    Studs Terkel Radio Archive, an audio archive managed by THE WFMT Radio Network, based at Studs’ long time radio home, in partnership with the Chicago History Museum, which houses the archive.
    Multitude is a production collective of independent audio professionals based in New York City. Their mission is to make, elevate, and market great shows.


    Credits:

    Our producer is Katie Klocksin and our composer is Ayanna Woods. Thank you to Project Manager Heather McDougall, Archivist Allison Schein Holmes, Production and Distribution Manager Stacy Gerard, Multitude Productions, and Erin Glasco, Maria Cooper and Mark Baletto on our transcription team. Archival audio was digitized by the Library of Congress, Division of Recorded Sound.


    Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities - Exploring the Human Endeavor.

    • 2 min
    Lorraine Hansberry & Imani Perry

    Lorraine Hansberry & Imani Perry

    The Rundown:


    Eve explains why unearthing an interview with Lorraine Hansberry is so exciting and how restrictive covenants segregated cities across the country.
    Lorraine Hansberry talks to Studs about how critics praised *A Raisin in a Sun *as “not a typical Black play” and how she writes an affirmative hero.
    Dr. Imani Perry explores the life of Lorraine Hansberry to see how her background, experiences and beliefs informed her work.


    Find Us Online:


    Hear the full interview with Lorraine Hansberry.
    Website: http://wfmt.com/bughouse
    Twitter: @StudsArchive
    Eve L. Ewing: @eveewing, https://eveewing.com/
    Dr. Imani Perry is the Hughes-Rogers Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a faculty associate in the Programs in Law and Public Affairs, Gender and Sexuality Studies and The University Center for Human Values. She is the author of five books, including Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry, and numerous articles in the fields of African American Studies, legal history, cultural studies, and American literature. She lives in the Philadelphia area with her two sons. @ImaniPerry


    About Us:


    WFMT is Chicago’s classical and fine arts radio station, with a long tradition of award-winning broadcasting since 1951. Through the WFMT Radio Network, the station offers programming to over 650 outlets in the U.S. and around the world
    Studs Terkel Radio Archive, an audio archive managed by THE WFMT Radio Network, based at Studs’ long time radio home, in partnership with the Chicago History Museum, which houses the archive.
    Multitude is a podcast collective and consultancy based in New York City. Their mission is to make, elevate, and market great shows.


    Credits:

    Our producer is Katie Klocksin and our composer is Ayanna Woods. Thank you to Project Manager Heather McDougall, Archivist Allison Schein Holmes, Production and Distribution Manager Stacy Gerard, Multitude Productions, and Erin Glasco, Maria Cooper and Mark Baletto on our transcription team. Archival audio was digitized by the Library of Congress, Division of Recorded Sound.


    Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing is made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities - Exploring the Human Endeavor.

    • 56 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
127 Ratings

127 Ratings

let's all listen better, okay ,

The Title Says It All

I think the criticisms about the show/interviews being interrupted (ruined) by the host, Eve Ewing, are unfair. Full disclosure, I love Eve Ewing’s work. This is no exception, as I think she does an amazing job here. And even if you don’t, her part as the host is important to the show. The title of the podcast is “Bughouse Square with Eve Ewing.” Y’all! Her name is half of the title. Of course she will be a prominent voice on the podcast. The other half of the title is explained in the beginning episode & in various descriptions online, & it refers to a free speech park where Studs Terkel once “encountered the kind of lively public debate that inspired his oral history books and radio work.” So the show is one part revisiting what Studs Terkel & his guests discussed & one part connecting those discussions to the present day & the contemporary guests Ewing interviews. Ewing gives context to & connects the former & the current guests’ work. She does it well too! For those looking for uninterrupted Studs Terkel recordings, those exist, just not here (there’s links in the episode details to the full interviews with transcripts). That’s not the point of this podcast.

spiridion t ,

instant classic

So amazing! Can't wait for more episodes. Love the pairing of the older Studs Terkel interviews with a contemporary voice. A real pleasure to listen to.

"Cowlick" ,

Gilding the lily

I found it somewhat tedious / disorienting to switch between the original interview and the commentary. Would greatly prefer the unabridged interviews

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