Podcast: “Listen in, Michigan”

  1. Episode 46: Scents and sensibilities, featuring Michelle Krell Kydd

    Humans don’t give our sense of smell enough respect, says Ann Arbor’s ‘professional nose’ Michelle Krell Kydd. Listen in, as Krell Kydd describes her favorite scentscapes in Ann Arbor and reveals how smell can enhance experiential education, cultural awareness, and more.

  2. Episode 45: Wisdom and whimsy, featuring David Zinn

    When local treasure David Zinn spots his imaginary friends – Sluggo, Nadine, and Philomena the Flying Pig – he draws them into life amid the cracks and flaws on our local sidewalks. But this man is no mere ‘Artist.’ He is Mr. Rogers, the Wizard of Oz, and a Buddha with a box of chalk. Listen in, as Zinn inspires us to look beyond what the eye can see.

  3. Episode 44: The (commencement) song remains the same

    Mark Twain is credited with saying, ‘History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.’ The same could be said for commencement speeches. Listen in, as we revisit the most inspiring lines from past University of Michigan commencement speakers like Lawrence Kasdan, Joyce Carol Oates, Ken Burns, and more.

  4. Episode 43: Art’s tangible effect, featuring Wendell Pierce

    You may know him as Bunk from ‘The Wire’ or Antoine from ‘Treme,’ but University Musical Society audiences know him as a ‘digital residency artist.’ Actor Wendell Pierce stars in the stage play ‘Some Old Black Man,’ produced and filmed under quarantine in Detroit. Listen in, as he describes making live art under incredibly weird circumstances.

  5. Episode 42: The Interior Life of Albert Kahn, featuring Claire Zimmerman

    Experts tend to dismiss the architect behind U-M’s most iconic buildings as ‘generic’ or ‘mediocre.’ They miss the point, says Claire Zimmerman, University of Michigan historian of art and architecture. To Albert Kahn, space was not a material to be sculpted but something to be occupied. Listen in, as she recounts Kahn’s impact on campus.

  6. Episode 41: The conquering heroines of Title IX, featuring Sara Fitzgerald, BA ’73

    Sara Fitzgerald was the first female editor-in-chief at the ‘Michigan Daily’ covering a pivotal time in the women’s movement. Listen in, as we talk about her new book, which celebrates the activists who fought sex bias at the University of Michigan and paved the way for breakthrough legislation.

  7. Episode 40: Ann Arbor’s ‘Music Man,’ featuring Ken Fischer, MA ’70/HDFA ’19

    Since taking the helm at the University Musical Society at U-M in 1987, this gregarious French horn player has hosted everyone from the Royal Shakespeare Company and Cecilia Bartoli to Leonard Bernstein and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Listen in, as Fischer chronicles his 30-year run at UMS in the book ‘Everybody In, Nobody Out.’

  8. Episode 39: Going /aut/ with Keith Orr and Martin Contreras

    From the day /aut/BAR opened in 1995, its owners have served up far more than cocktails. Ann Arbor’s first gay-owned gay bar and its surrounding Braun Court quickly became a safe haven for the LGBTQ community. Now retired, Orr and Contreras reflect on the club’s legacy in this episode of Listen in, Michigan.

  9. Episode 38: Coffee, COVID, and a course correction, featuring Lisa Bee, BA ’90

    In the days before coronavirus canceled everything, we talked to Lisa Bee, BA ’90, co-founder of Ann Arbor-based Sweetwaters Coffee & Tea. Her favorite part of the gig? Socializing. We checked back in, post-shutdown. Things certainly have changed.