history

The student-produced podcast The Green Tunnel just achieved a major milestone

Shayla Brown — Wed, 23 Aug 2023 16:43:05 +0000

The student-produced podcast The Green Tunnel just achieved a major milestone Shayla Brown Wed, 08/23/2023 - 12:43

The Green Tunnel podcast, hosted by ��ӽ紫ý professor Mills Kelly, has recently reached 100,000 downloads, a milestone that puts the show in the top 3% of podcasts nationwide.

“We've achieved a lot, and we're so proud of it. We have some really devoted listeners; if we drop any new content, a thousand people download almost immediately,” said Kelly.

From left to right: Hayley Madl, Ashley Palazzo, Mills Kelly, Eleanor Magness, and Bridget Bukovich at the Appalachian Trail Conservancy. Photo provided.

The podcast is produced through Mason’s Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (RRCHNM) and focuses on the history of the Appalachian Trail (AT), a prominent long-distance hiking trail along the East Coast that goes through 14 states from Georgia to Maine.

The project was initiated after the RRCHNM received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to fund R2 Studios, as well as conduct more fundraising and community outreach. The first episode of The Green Tunnel podcast was released on October 6, 2021, and the grant will fund the effort for another year.

“This show has given both graduate students and one amazing undergrad the opportunity to work on a professionally produced podcast,” said Kelly, who just completed a four-year term as the director of RRCHNM. "The students are the producers so they [choose] the topics and figure out who should be interviewed.”

Students who join the podcast can earn internship credit for Mason’s applied history program.

“Something unique about this podcast as far as student work goes is that it's very interdisciplinary. I think that's important considering that it's a history podcast,” said Bridget Bukovich, community engagement coordinator at RRCHNM, who started on the podcast as a Mason graduate intern.

Eleanor Magness has been hiking for most of her life. “I come from a long line of park rangers on my mom's side,” said the junior public history major.

Magness’ love of the trail led her to join the podcast as a freshman intern in 2021 where she wrote, researched, and edited entire podcast episodes, including Leave Only Footprints, Craving Community, and her personal favorite, Gear Up.

“I had full creative control, but Mills was always available to help me and answer any questions I had,” said Magness, who is also in the Honors College.

From left to right: Eleanor Magness, Bridget Bukovich, Mills Kelly, Ashley Palazzo, and Hayley Madl at the Manassas Gap Shelter. Photo provided.

Hayley Madl is a third-year PhD history student who specializes in community-engaged indigenous history. Madl produced the Native Persistence episode, which featured Mason associate history professor Gabrielle Tayac, a member of the Piscataway Indian Nation.

“It was a great opportunity for me to do community-engaged work in indigenous history and talk to native communities,” said Madl.

Madl is from western Pennsylvania, and her favorite hiking location is Allegheny National Forest in Marienville, Pennsylvania. Two of her brothers have completed AT thru-hikes, and Madl also hopes to complete one.

"The AT is one giant community,” said Madl. “That’s where a lot of our interviews primarily come from.”

Madl said that the podcast provides the opportunity to talk about many issues such as ensuring equal trail access for all hikers, and how native communities are affected by the trail.

Each season of The Green Tunnel contains around 15 episodes—eight full-length episodes and seven short “iconic locations” episodes. The third season, which launches in mid-October, will focus on the natural history of the trail going back a hundred million years, says Mills.

The Green Tunnel has done cross-promotions with other podcasts such as Virginia Outdoor Adventures, the Jester Section Hiker, and the Orange Blaze Florida Trail. Kelly was interviewed on all three shows.

Every episode of The Green Tunnel includes a transcript, show notes, suggested readings, and images that relate to the episode topic for listeners who are interested in learning more about the AT.

Listen to the Podcast

Learn about the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Topics

College of Humanities and Social Science

Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media

Mason team brings to life untold narratives of anti-lynching heroes

Mariam Aburdeineh — Wed, 12 May 2021 17:05:54 +0000

Mason team brings to life untold narratives of anti-lynching heroes Mariam Aburdeineh Wed, 05/12/2021 - 13:05

In This Story

Charles Chavis

Charles Chavis. Photo by: Ron Aira

Students and researchers at ��ӽ紫ý’s John Mitchell, Jr. Program (JMJP) are working hard to create a digital museum that sheds light on civil rights pioneers with largely untold stories.

Thanks to an $8,000 grant from Virginia Humanities, the team is building a digital exhibit on the life of anti-lynching advocate John Mitchell, Jr., and his colleagues Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells. The grant is part of $181,500 in funding awarded to 25 nonprofits.

“As a conflict resolution school, we believe there’s so much power in history and understanding leaders like Mitchell, as we look to deal with and engage with the modern-day issues we’re facing around race,” said Carter School professor Charles Chavis.

Mitchell, among other leaders, laid the foundation for the transformational work in the 1950s and ‘60s around civil rights, Chavis said. The Mitchell Program’s namesake was a prominent anti-lynching advocate, journalist, newspaper owner, and teacher.

Laura Brannan. Photo provided.

“Our main charge with the Mitchell Program is to complicate historical narrative,” Chavis said. “As leaders are oftentimes overlooked—or their words are only understood as speaking to historical issues—this exhibit sheds light on how we can learn so much, not only from the rhetoric, but from the lives of these individuals who risked their lives to fight for human rights.”

The exhibit also highlights international impact, said Carter School PhD student Ajanet Rountree, as these leaders extended their anti-lynching advocacy abroad.

The grant will allow the team, which also includes Mason PhD student Laura Brannan, who is studying history, and American University master’s student Jack Del Nunzio, to consult with leading historians on the exhibit, and gather oral narratives from living descendants of Mitchell. The exhibit will go live on the JMJP website in Fall 2021, and they have partnered with TheirStory to produce 50 oral histories.

“These are strategically silenced narratives, so the source materials we’re relying on are seeking to dismantle some of the silences,” Del Nunzio said, adding that in addition to oral histories, they’re sourcing political cartoons, Black newspapers, written correspondences, and more.

“I’m incredibly humbled to help support this initiative,” said Kimberly Wilson, the great-great niece of Mitchell and chief human resource officer for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Ajanet Rountree. Photo provided.

“I hope people take away that [Mitchell] was a man who gave everything to people, and really wanted to make a difference for everyone,” she said. “I’m hoping it will inspire conversation about his work and how it applies today, and that [JMJP] will help students learn how to use their voice to be advocates and allies, but also to set policies.”

Brannan, who is helping upload and contextualize exhibit materials, said connecting history to the present is of critical importance for inspiring change. The exhibit will also serve as a powerful tool for educators across the country.

“This work honors those who were doing peacebuilding because they were trying to survive and because they believed in the American Dream in spite of it,” Chavis said. “Their sacrifice has to be honored and studied.”

Topics

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

Carter School Faculty

John Mitchell Jr Program for History Justice and Race

Podcast - EP14: 60 seconds to nuclear war

Kristin Heydt — Fri, 29 Jan 2021 17:02:07 +0000

Podcast - EP14: 60 seconds to nuclear war Kristin Heydt Fri, 01/29/2021 - 12:02

Professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Martin J. Sherwin discusses his new book about the Cuban Missile Crisis and tells a terrifying, and not well-known, story of how close we came to nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

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Podcast - The U.S.’s approach to immigration is like ‘policy formaldehyde’

Charles Andrew Nicholson — Fri, 16 Oct 2020 12:48:14 +0000

Podcast - The U.S.’s approach to immigration is like ‘policy formaldehyde’ Charles Andrew… Fri, 10/16/2020 - 08:48

Mason's Justin Gest, an expert on immigration and the politics of demographic change, explains why the U.S., from the outside looking in, appears to be a "closed angry giant."

Topics

Access to Excellence podcast

Podcast - Is the U.S. experiencing a third Reconstruction?

Charles Andrew Nicholson — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 20:25:45 +0000

Podcast - Is the U.S. experiencing a third Reconstruction? Charles Andrew… Thu, 10/15/2020 - 16:25

In This Story

Charles Chavis

In a conversation with John Hollis, Mason's Charles Chavis, a historian of the early civil right movement, puts the current protests for racial justice in historical context.