Month: December 2023

What do Tulsa, Santa Fe, and New Orleans have in common? When viewed from the perspective of Indigenous arts and culture, the answer is quite a bit. In Urban Homelands: Writing the Native City from Oklahoma (U Nebraska, 2023), Oklahoma State University professor of English Lindsey Claire Smith draws connections between Indigenous art, particularly writing, and these two cities to the east and west. By focusing on mobility between urban Native spaces, Smith shows how the vibrant arts scene in Tulsa has influenced artists in Indigenous homelands far removed from Oklahoma. By telling stories through fiction, visual art, and other media, Native artists claim these cities as urban homelands, linking together disparate places through the shared link of Indigeneity. 

Dr. Stephen R. Hausmann is an assistant professor of history at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota and is the Assistant Director of the American Society for Environmental History.

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What if racism shared an origin with opposition to racism? What if the condemnation of injustice gave rise both to an early form of anti-racism and to the racial hierarchies that haunt the modern era? Rolena Adornol, David Orique, María Cristina Ríos Espinosa tell the story of how Bartolomé de las Casas, a Dominican missionary to New Spain, came to racial consciousness in the presence of slavery. His intellectual rebellion spurred slavery’s apologists to more strident and sinister modes of defense – but also laid a lasting Christian groundwork for the fight against racial injustice.

Researcher, writer, and episode producer: Terence Sweeney, Assistant Teaching Professor, Honors College, Villanova University

Featured Scholars: 

Rolena Adorno, Sterling Professor Emerita of Spanish, Yale University

María Cristina Ríos Espinosa, Professor of Arts, Humanities, and Culture, University of Sor Juana’s Cloister, Mexico City

David Orique, Professor of History, Providence College

Special thanks: Chiyuma Eliott, Michael Sawyer

For transcript, teaching aids, and other resources, click here.

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This week, host June Thomas talks to Val McDermid, a prolific crime novelist whose books have sold millions of copies worldwide. Val has even been dubbed the “Quine of Crime,” a Scottish alternative to the title “Queen of Crime,” which the Agatha Christie estate objected to. In the interview, Val explains where her ideas come from and how she decides which of her on-going series to pick up next. She also talks about incorporating Scottish slang into her books, including her latest one, Past Lying: A Karen Pirie Novel. 

After the interview, June and co-host TK Dutes talk about the problem of having too many creative ideas. 

In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Val discusses some of her side gigs. Then she talks about the practice of incorporating real-life events into her novels. 

Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-9675.

Podcast production by Cameron Drews.

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