Digital Programs
Podcasts, videos, and other online resources.Featured Content
NPR national correspondent Eric Westervelt describes how mega fires, excessive heat and widening drought all underscore how climate change is fueling the routinization of extreme weather, with consequences for all of us.
This presentation was part of our Fall Conference 2021, “This Mazéd World: the Humanities and Climate Change.”
Digital Programs
First Wednesdays Videos
Recorded talks from our free public lecture series, from 2016 through the 2020-2021 season. View talks.
Before Your Time Podcast Series
Exploring Vermont’s history, one object at a time. Produced with the Vermont Historical Society. See list of episodes.
The Portable Humanist Podcast Series
Listen to Vermont Humanities talks and learn when you’re on the go. View list of episodes.
Fall Conference Recorded Sessions
Videos from our free 2021 Fall Conference on the humanities and climate change. View talks.
Recent Digital Posts
Thinking Race, Religion, and Gender: Muslim Women and Islamophobia
UVM professor Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst examines how race, religion, and gender affect the lives of Black Muslim women in the US. Exploring this diverse community helps illuminate how intersectionality functions, but also how one’s identity shapes religious practice and the experience of discrimination.
Sherlock Holmes: The Game’s Afoot
Scholar Barry Deitz looks at the life and times of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. He discusses the inspiration for Holmes and examines what other writers, actors, and directors have done with the character over the past 30 years.
War Reenactors: Who Gets to Tell History?
Artist Ed Gendron shares and discusses images from his photo project about World War II reenactors in the United States. Gendron later produced Playing Soldier, a feature-length documentary on the same topic. “The re-enactors assert that ‘history is a personal thing,’ says Gendron. “And for them, it may be quite true.”
A Life in Art and Activism
Artist, legislator, and former director of the Flynn Center in Burlington, John R. Killacky draws on commentaries from his book Because Art to relate his experiences as dancer in New York in the late 1970s and ’80s, the maelstrom of the culture Wars of the 1990s, and his work advocating for artists with disabilities.
Why We Eat What We Eat at Thanksgiving
How did America’s most iconic food holiday come to include green bean casserole? What did the Wampanoag people and the Pilgrims really eat in 1621? Susan Evans McClure, executive director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, serves up the story of Thanksgiving foods and how they help us understand our American identity.
Vermont Teen Shakespeareans Save the Planet
“The seasons alter, and…the mazéd world now knows not which is which!” In 2020 the Get Thee to the Funnery Shakespeare camp for teenagers studied Merchant of Venice to frame a discussion of prejudice and hate speech. And in 2021, the group discussed global warming and climate justice through Midsummer Night’s Dream. Funnery founder Peter Gould and a panel of informed, passionate, articulate, and wise campers describe their experience.
History in Hot Water: Climate Change and the Shipwrecks of Lake Champlain
Lake Champlain is home to hundreds of well-preserved shipwrecks that help tell the story of our region. But climate change is altering the lake’s underwater cultural heritage. Susan Evans McClure and Christopher Sabick from the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum consider the impact of historical objects changing before our eyes.
NPR’s Eric Westervelt on Bigger Fires, Hotter Days, and Drier Lands
NPR national correspondent Eric Westervelt describes how mega fires, excessive heat and widening drought all underscore how climate change is fueling the routinization of extreme weather, with consequences for all of us.
The Zone is Us: Sacrifice in the Space-Time of Climate Change
Gleaning from classical mythology, UVM professor Adrian Ivakhiv suggests three paths for navigating climate-related trauma: those of Chronos (science), of Aion (arts and humanities), and of Kairos (action without guarantee).
Thinking Through the Future with Bill McKibben
Author Bill McKibben shares how the humanities can help us understand climate change, the greatest crisis we’ve ever found ourselves in. From the biblical book of Job to the latest science fiction, literature gives us clues to how we might shrink ourselves and our society a little.