Switchyard at Mayfest: Lost Promise and Resilience in Rural America
Release Date: 10/11/2024
The Truth of What Happened: In Conversation with Ted Conover
Switchyard
In this episode, Switchyard magazine editor Ted Genoways speaks with award-winning journalist Ted Conover about his book Cheap Land Colorado, set among the rural poor in the San Luis Valley, and his style of investigative reporitng, known as "immersion." By spending months or even years with the people he is writing about—working alongside them, living with them—Conover comes to understand his subjects as few journalists do. That style, however, also raises thorny questions of objectivity and truth-telling, especially when Conover is writing about people who are suspicious of the...
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Switchyard at Mayfest: A Journey into the Heart of America
Switchyard
In this episode, Switchyard magazine editor Ted Genoways brings together author Jeff Sharlet and political organizer Jane Kleeb for a conversation about the nation’s political divide and a path toward a positive future. Ranging from the deep-rooted divisions fueling hate and violence to the beacon of hope emanating from rural America, this dynamic conversation promises to spark your imagination and ignite your spirit. Sharlet and Kleeb delve into the heart of America’s complex political landscape and explore the power of community as we navigate through uncertain times together. ...
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Switchyard at Mayfest: Exposing the Ku Klux Klan in America
Switchyard
In this riveting episode, Timothy Egan, author of New York Times bestseller A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them, and Kevin Willmott, the brilliant director and Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman, join Switchyard magazine editor Ted Genoways for a conversation about the role of the Ku Klux Klan in America’s past and present.
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Switchyard at Mayfest: Lost Promise and Resilience in Rural America
Switchyard
In this episode, three contributors to the Rural Americas issue of Switchyard magazine—Monica Potts, the New York Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Girls; Dean Bakopoulos, whose third novel Summerlong is now in development as a television series; and Michael Croley, author of the collection of short stories Any Other Place—join editor, Ted Genoways, for a conversation about the hardships facing rural America and hope for the future.
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Switchyard at Mayfest: Climate Forward
Switchyard
In this episode, world-renowned climate activist Bill McKibben and singer-songwriter Andrea von Kampen join Switchyard magazine editor Ted Genoways for a lively and soul-searching conversation about how we can embrace our fear and grief in the face of pending climate disaster and use those feelings as motivation to take action to address the crisis. The conversation is interlaced with acoustic performances by von Kampen from her new album Sister Moon, a cycle of songs about climate change.
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Worlds Unseen: In Conversation with Sterlin Harjo
Switchyard
In this episode, Ted Genoways speaks with Sterlin Harjo, the co-creator of the groundbreaking TV series Reservation Dogs. They discuss the show's unique blend of humor and heartbreak and how Harjo combines elements of traditional Native storytelling, parodies of Hollywood classics, urban myths, pop music, and zany side quests to create a rich and recognizable portrait of a complex and vital community. Harjo also describes his early years in Holdenville, Oklahoma; his film Mekko (2015); his new series for FX called The Sensitive Kind, starring Ethan Hawke; and what it means to be "a...
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Live Audience: At the Church Studio with Carl Phillips and Casii Stephan
Switchyard
This very special episode of the Switchyard Podcast was recorded live in the “big room” of Leon Russell’s historic Church Studio in Tulsa. The program leads off with a performance by Casii Stephan of “These Hard Days,” her song about working through the challenges of Covid lockdown but it is also about the big themes of loneliness and how we weather difficult times. Next, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Carl Phillips reads a few shorter poems and then delivers the entirety of his essay, "The Fog Lifted," from the special Food Issue of Switchyard magazine. It's also a...
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Live at the Church Studio: In Conversation with Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb
Switchyard
In this episode, Switchyard editor Ted Genoways talks with writers Jori Lewis and Siddhartha Deb whose stories were published in the new Switchyard magazine special food issue (Winter 2024) in partnership with the Food and Environment Reporting Network. Lewis and Deb joined us in Tulsa on November 30, 2023, for the Switchyard Food Fest, and we recorded this conversation with a live studio audience at The Church Studio. Jori Lewis is the author of Slaves for Peanuts: A Story of Conquest, Liberation, and a Crop That Changed History (New Press, 2022), winner of a...
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On Native Land: In Conversation with Sean Sherman
Switchyard
For the Winter 2024 food issue of Switchyard magazine, we teamed up with the Food & Environment Reporting Network (FERN). In this episode, guest host Theodore Ross, Editor-In-Chief of FERN, speaks with Chef Sean Sherman. Sherman's Minneapolis restuarant Owamni won the 2022 James Beard Foundation Award for Best New Restaurant. It’s a whole menu made from ingredients used by Indigenous Peoples in North America, before the arrival of white settlers. Sherman, who is Lakota and bills himself as the Sioux Chef, calls this decolonizing the kitchen.
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Around the Table: In Conversation with Tom Colicchio
Switchyard
In this episode, we speak with Tom Colicchio, chef, activist, and contributor to Switchyard magazine's special Winter 2024 issue on food. Colicchio is arguably the best known chef on the planet. He is a five-time James Beard Foundation Award winner, including the award for Outstanding Chef. For twenty-one seasons, he has been the lead judge of the Emmy Award-winning TV show, Top Chef. He is also the author of three books, including the James Beard Foundation Book Award-winning classic Think Like a Chef. He spoke with host Ted Genoways in New York City in the midst of a torrential downpour...
info_outlineIn this episode, three contributors to the Rural Americas issue of Switchyard magazine—Monica Potts, the New York Times bestselling author of The Forgotten Girls; Dean Bakopoulos, whose third novel Summerlong is now in development as a television series; and Michael Croley, author of the collection of short stories Any Other Place—join editor, Ted Genoways, for a conversation about the hardships facing rural America and hope for the future.