Tag Archives: Marge Bruchac

Podcast

Writers Voice: David Silverman, THIS LAND IS THEIR LAND & Native American scholar Marge Bruchac

We talk with historian David Silverman about his book This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving.

Then, we continue our Thanksgiving week tradition of hearing Native American storyteller and ethnohistorian Marge Bruchac talk about Thanksgiving from the Native point of view — and her re-telling of the Story of Corn.

Please make sure to like us on Facebook at Writers Voice with Francesca Rheannon or find us on twitter at WritersVoice. And if you are listening to our podcast, give us some love on iTunes or whatever podcast app you use.

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Podcast

Rita Dove, COLLECTED POEMS & Thanksgiving on WV

Poet Rita Dove talks about her Collected Poems 1974-2004, published by W.W. Norton. Then, we honor our Thanksgiving tradition of airing Marge Bruchac’s true story of Thanksgiving and a reading of Francesca’s story, The Food Philosophe. Continue reading

Podcast

Katherine Harvey, Bare Bones Broth Cookbook, The True Story of Thanksgiving & “The Food Philosophe” (story)

Katherine Harvey talks about the book she co-authored, The Bare Bones Broth Cookbook. Francesca reads her story The Food Philosophe. And finally we continue our Thanksgiving tradition with native American scholar Marge Bruchac telling us the real story behind the holiday.

Also, a teaser from our interview with Nancy Altman of Social Security Works about her article for Huffington Post, “Medicare Will Be Gone By Next Thanksgiving If Republicans Have Their Way.” Continue reading

Podcast

David Gessner on Writing And Fighting For the American West

We talk with environmental writer David Gessner about his new book about two of the greatest writers — and champions — of the Western wilds, All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West. We also re-air a clip from a previous interview with Gessner about his last book, My Green Manifesto.

And finally, we continue our Thanksgiving tradition: Marge Bruchac’s telling of the true story of the holiday. Continue reading

Podcast

The True Story of Thanksgiving – Plus, Tips on Eating & Studs Terkel

In this Thanksgiving Day special, we reach back into our archives for three treats: we air our 2005 interview with the late great Studs Terkel talking about his last book, And They All Sang. Then food psychologist Brian Wansink gives us tips on how not to overeat in this excerpt from our 2006 interview about his book Mindless Eating. Finally, Native American storyteller and historian Marge Bruchac tells us the real story of Thanksgiving.

Studs Terkel

Studs Terkel
Studs Terkel

Late great radio man and chronicler of 20th century life, Studs Terkel was long a hero to Francesca. She leaped at the chance to interview him when, at the age of 92, he came out with his last book, And They All Sang: Adventures of An Eclectic Disc Jockey.

A homage to the power of music to bring out the best in humanity, the book features conversations Terkel had with some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century — like Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie and Mahalia Jackson — on his famed daily radio show on WFMT in Chicago. And They All Sang was his 14th book.

Brian Wansink

CORRECTION! In September 2018, Brian Wansink resigned from the Cornell Food Lab after accusations of falsified research came out. Among the papers that were found to be faulty (and were retracted by their publishers) were some featured on this interview.

Mindless EatingThere are many drivers of the obesity epidemic. Food is everywhere and portions tend to be supersized. How can we resist the temptations that lures us from all sides?

Food psychologist Brian Wansink has the answer. Back in 2006, WV spoke with him about his book, MIndless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. Today we play an abridged version of that interview.

Wansink is the director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab.

Marge Bruchac

Bruchac1_t-150x150
Marge Bruchac

When Thanksgiving rolls around, Native American storyteller Marge Bruchac gets a lot of requests to talk about the first Thanksgiving, when the English settlers got together with the Wampanoag natives of Massachusettsfor a feast. The year was 1621. Bruchac co-authored the book, 1621: A New Look At Thanksgiving.

Marge Bruchac is an anthropologist, historian, and museum consultant. She’s also a performer of Algonkian Indian music and oral traditions. In addition to 1621, she’s the author of other books, including the children’s book, Malian’s Song.

Podcast

Episode Four of THE RIVER RUNS THROUGH US: The Palimpsest of Time

Brian Kitely
Brian Kitely
Tim Brennan
Tim Brennan

In this fourth episode of our Writers Voice special series, The River Runs Through Us, Brian Kitely talks about THE RIVER GODS, his novel-in-vignettes of Northampton, Massachusetts from its founding to today; Native American scholar Marge Bruchac tells us about the original inhabitants of the Valley, and Pioneer Valley Planning Commission director Tim Brennan discusses the history and future of the Connecticut River in Massachusetts.

Our thanks to Mass Humanities for their support for this series.

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Podcast

Christian Parenti, TROPIC OF CANCER & Marge Bruchac, 1621

Christian Parenti
Marge Bruchac

Christian Parenti talks about his book, TROPIC OF CHAOS: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. And Native American storyteller and scholar, Marge Bruchac tells us what really happened at the first Thanksgiving.

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Podcast

A Place Called Paradise: Brian Kitely, Marge Bruchac, Kerry Buckley

Brian Kitely
Marge Bruchac

Brian Kitely talks about his fascinating novel about Northampton, Massachusetts THE RIVER GODS. Historian Kerry Buckley talks about A PLACE CALLED PARADISE, the collection of essays about Northampton he edited. And Abenaki storyteller and researcher, Marge Bruchac gives a tour of “native Northampton.”

Brian Kitely
In the local parlance of western Massachusetts, the phrase “The River Gods” refers to the group of powerful men who held sway over the business and political life of the towns of the Connecticut River Valley region from the 17th and into the 18th century. Northampton was one of those towns and it’s the setting for my guest Brian Kitely’s novel, THE RIVER GODS.

Written in a series of short vignettes, the novel shifts back and forth in time to reveal glimpses of the town’s history, as well as the personal history of the author himself — often seen through his child’s eye. The reader meets the fiery preacher Jonathan Edwards, the husband of accused witch Goody Parsons, Sojourner Truth and other notable and unknown individuals from Northampton’s history.

One reviewer called it “a luminous, perfectly sculpted novel whose sentences flow as easily through the mind of a nine-year old boy in 1960s America as they do that of an 18th century Puritan divine.”

Brian Kitely teaches creative writing at the University of Denver. In addition to THE RIVER GODS, he is the author of two other novels, STILL LIFE WITH INSECTS and I KNOW MANY SONGS, BUT I CANNOT SING, as well as two books of writing exercises.

Read an excerpt from THE RIVER GODS

Marge Bruchac
A few years ago in the dead of winter, Abenaki storyteller and scholar Marge Bruchac took Francesca on a fascinating tour of what might be termed “native Northampton”: the places and traces where the native Algonquian tribes of the region made their home at the great bend of the Connecticut River where later the English colonists founded Northampton. The Indians called it, variously, Nonotuck or Norwottuck.

They first went to Fort Hill, the very place Brian Kitely lived as a child and that figures in his novel, THE RIVER GODS. Then they headed for Hospital Hill, where the state mental hospital used to be — and some of its imposing structures still stand — and where the Indians planted their fields of corn. Bruchac explains that the traces of native American life are to be found in the Yankee culture that succeeded it.

Marge Bruchac is the co-author of the book 1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving, published in 2001. She also contributed a chapter to a marvelous collection of historical essays about Northampton that were gathered into the book edited by the following guest, Kerry Buckley.

Kerry Buckley
A PLACE CALLED PARADISE came out in 2004, the year the town celebrated its 350th anniversary. I spoke that year with the book’s editor, Kerry Buckley. He’s the executive director of Historic Northampton, a museum of regional history and culture from the contact period to the present. It’s a collection of essays about the history of Northampton, MA, from the time of native peoples lived here and called it Norwottuck to the 20th century.

Website of Historic Northampton

Podcast

H.G. Adler’s THE JOURNEY, Eating Tips for the Holidays, and a Thanksgiving story

Brian Wansink
Brian Wansink
Peter Filkins
Peter Filkins

Award-winning translator Peter Filkins talks about THE JOURNEY, a lost masterpiece of Holocaust literature by acclaimed author and survivor H. G. Adler which Filkins translated. Food psychologist Brian Wansink gives us tips on how to keep the pounds off during the Holiday season; and Native American storyteller Marge Bruchac tells us what really happened during the first Thanksgiving.
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