1888: The How, The Why

Janice Munemitsu is a third-generation Japanese American Sansei. A native of Orange County, California, Janice was raised on the family farm and worked there from age 5 through high school. She is a graduate of the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and Biola University Institute for Spiritual Formation. Her family name, Munemitsu, 宗 光, means source of light in kanji. The Kindness of Color is her first book. Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Ethnic Studies is a series of discussions about race, ethnicity, indigeneity, and the strategies used in historical movements for social transformation, resistance, and liberation.Guest: Janice MunemitsuHost: Jon-Barrett IngelsProduced by Past Forward in partnership with Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at Chapman University.

Jerry Almendarez is the Superintendent of the Santa Ana Unified School District. Almendarez has a master’s degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Redlands, and a bachelor’s degree in business/finance from Cal State San Bernardino. Almendarez’ career in education spans 27 years, and includes experience as a classroom teacher, an assistant principal and a principal. He has also taught as an adjunct professor at Azusa Pacific University and the University of Redlands, and in March was named a 2019 Ted-Ed Innovative Educator.Linn Lee is the History and Social Science Curriculum Specialist for Santa Ana Unified School District. Lee has a a master of education degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor’s degree in history from UC Santa Cruz.The Santa Ana Unified School District is the 12th largest school district in the state of California. In June 2020, the Santa Ana Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously to adopt a resolution creating a new graduatio

Gerald Clarke is an enrolled member of the Cahuilla Band of Indians and lives on the Cahuilla Indian Reservation. When not creating artwork or serving as Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Riverside, Gerald oversees the Clarke family cattle ranch and remains heavily involved in Cahuilla culture. As a visual artist, Gerald has exhibited his work extensively and in numerous exhibitions as well as in major museum collections.In 2007, Gerald was awarded an Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship for Native American Fine Art and served as an Artist-in-Residence at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2015. Earlier this year, Gerald received a Harpo Foundation Native American Fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on Ethnic Studies is a series of discussions about race, ethnicity, indigeneity, and the strategies used in historical movements for social transformation, resistance, and liberation.Guest: Gerald ClarkeHost: Jon-Barre

Evette Davis is the author of 48 States and Woman King and Dark Horse, the first two installments of TheDark Horse Trilogy. When she’s not writing novels, Davis dispenses advice to some of the country’s largest corporations, non-profits, and institutions as a consultant and co-owner of BergDavis Public Affairs, an award-winning San Francisco-based public affairs firm. Before establishing her firm, Davis worked in Washington as a press secretary for a member of Congress and as a reporter for daily newspapers in the San Francisco Bay Area.  48 StatesFlesh & Bone Publishing, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a public podcast service and book initiative. As a nonprofit organization, our creative media is designed to amplify the voices of community

As a science writer and medical publisher, Stuart Chapman has written hundreds of articles and created medical journals for physicians on a wide array of clinical and medico-legal topics. During the 1970s, he founded a weekly newspaper in Northern California. A certified Master Gardener, he grows vegetables in Florida with his wife, Vivian.The OCD Chronicles: Fear and Loathing on the Psychiatrist's CouchAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a public podcast service and book initiative. As a nonprofit organization, our creative media is designed to amplify the voices of community leaders by providing a platform to share stories about civic engagement and cultural enrichment. For further learning, our Re-Mind initiative focuses on educa

Jocelyn Holst Bolster lives in Colorado where she sleeps under a couple cats; plays the singing saw with her band, 2 Star Hotel; explores the world with her drummer; and loves, above all, reading with her two children every night.Spindrift LoveAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a public podcast service and book initiative. As a nonprofit organization, our creative media is designed to amplify the voices of community leaders by providing a platform to share stories about civic engagement and cultural enrichment. For further learning, our Re-Mind initiative focuses on educational accessibility. We collaborate with experts and curate book collections inspired by topics from our podcast. This program creates a path for curiosity and pr

Tom David was born and raised in the Detroit area. He worked for a number of years in automotive and medical data analysis before turning to fiction.DeliveryAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a public podcast service and book initiative. As a nonprofit organization, our creative media is designed to amplify the voices of community leaders by providing a platform to share stories about civic engagement and cultural enrichment. For further learning, our Re-Mind initiative focuses on educational accessibility. We collaborate with experts and curate book collections inspired by topics from our podcast. This program creates a path for curiosity and provides access to millions of books at a discount price.

Robin Rivers, an international award-winning former journalist, now helps young writers learn the craft as the CEO of Quill Academy of Creative Writing. Combining her quick and direct journalistic writing with a thriller tone and pace, Rivers crafts a story celebrating the romance and beauty of the historical feminine.Woman On The WallThe Sibylline Chronicles, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a public podcast service and book initiative. As a nonprofit organization, our creative media is designed to amplify the voices of community leaders by providing a platform to share stories about civic engagement and cultural enrichment. For further learning, our Re-Mind initiative focuses on educational accessibility. We collaborate with experts and curate b

Jeffrey Marshall is a writer and former journalist and the author of five books, including three novels, of which Squeeze Plays is the latest. He spent most of his career as a business and financial writer and editor, much of that in New York, and was editor-in-chief of two national business magazines. As a freelance writer, his work has appeared in publications as varied as The New York Times, High Country News, Nonprofit Times, and Tail Fly Fishing Magazine. Marshall has degrees from Princeton and Northwestern. He lives in Scottsdale, AZ, with his wife, Judy, and dogs Maggie and Blaze.Squeeze PlaysAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a public podcast service and book initiative. As a nonprofit organization, our creative media is de

Howchi Kilburn is a long-term practitioner of meditation, Tai-Chi, yoga, psychotherapy, immersion in nature, and playing with his grandkids. A Northern California denizen, inspired by the non-fiction writings of Marija Gimbutas, The Living Goddess, and Riane Eisler, Sacred Pleasure, he has been writing stories based on their descriptions of human life in ancient times. He is the author of Monking Around and Another Butterfly.Another ButterflyAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a public podcast service and book initiative. As a nonprofit organization, our creative media is designed to amplify the voices of community leaders by providing a platform to share stories about civic engagement and cultural enrichment. For further learning,

Lesley Wheeler, Poetry Editor of Shenandoah, is the author of five poetry collections, including The State She's In; The Receptionist and Other Tales, finalist for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award; and Heterotopia, winner of the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize. Unbecoming, her first novel, appeared in 2020, and her most recent scholarly book is Voicing American Poetry: Sound and Performance from the 1920s to the Present. Her work has received support from the Fulbright Foundation, Bread Loaf, Sewanee Writers Workshop, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Wheeler's poems and essays appear in Kenyon Review Online, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Guernica, and other journals.Poetry's Possible WorldsTinderbox Editions, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past For

A student of ancient Hebrew language and culture, Siegfried Johnson in 1990 earned a graduate degree in biblical Hebrew from the University of Michigan, after which he left Ann Arbor to enter ministry in the United Methodist Church, currently serving as Senior Pastor at Christ of the Hills in beautiful Hot Springs Village, Arkansas. He has continued to nurture his love for Hebrew studies by leading over thirty tours to the Holy Land and throughout the Mediterranean world, since 2010 serving as a Director of Travel Ministries for Educational Opportunities Tours, a faith-based travel company headquartered in Lakeland, Florida.Dancing with DavidAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a public podcast service and book initiative. As a nonpr

Estela González, author of Arribada (2022), holds an MFA in creative writing and a PhD in Latin American literature. As a binational and bilingual writer, she tells stories in English and Spanish about race, class, gender, and environmental justice. Growing up in Mexico, Estela regularly visited her family in Mazatlán, where decades-long intensive development has led to the demise of beaches and sea turtle colonies. Her research and support of fishermen protecting sea turtles in the Sea of Cortés deepen her reflections on environmental justice, race relations, and sexuality.Her work is featured in the Barcelona Review, the Cobalt Review, Connotation Press, Cronopio, Flash Frontier, Flyway Magazine, Kudzu House, Label Me Latina, La Colmena, Luvina, the Fem, and the Revista Mexicana de Literatura Contemporánea, as well as in outstanding collections such as Best of Solstice Literary Magazine, Feminine Rising (Cynren Press, 2019), and Under the Volcano. Arribada was a 2017 finalist for the Feminist Press’s Louise

Richard Paik lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts. A Thing or Two About the Game is his debut novel. Five seasons coaching girls’ softball served as inspiration, while providing insight into the tribulations and rewards of this benign activity. He is currently at work on his next book, a collection of linked stories, none of which are about softball.A Thing or Two About the GameAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a nonprofit organization dedicated to community building. As a public podcast service and distributor, our creative media is designed to amplify the voices of community leaders by providing a platform to share stories about civic engagement and cultural enrichment. For further learning, our book initiative provides access to

Iwanna Twainbee attended St. Petersburg Missouri Community College where she mainly smoked cigars and got drunk with her friends. Mark Twain appeared during her seances, and, fortunately, he became her guru.She is a heavy reader of literature and usually buys her books from brick and mortar independent bookstores. To sort the good from the bad she sticks to authors whose names provoke a tickle of recognition, and she focuses on novels still on the shelves fifty years after first publication.She is gender fluid, moment-by-moment, but in connection with this book she has been and is all female.Eternal Questions: A Maybe Interesting List: A Maybe Interesting ListAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a nonprofit organization dedicated to

Natasha Nelson is a single mother of two beloved children, living in the desert wilds of the Southwest. She grew up on Whidbey Island in Washington, a small Island in the Puget Sound most people have never even heard of. The ocean has always been a treasured part of her life, every adventure on its shores scattered throughout her memory like bits of sea glass winking from the beach. It is the one place she feels most at home, where she is free to be both wild and peaceful at once.Winter & George: A Path Across the SeaAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a nonprofit organization dedicated to community building. As a public podcast service and distributor, our creative media is designed to amplify the voices of community leaders by

Growing up in Minnesota, Steve A. Erickson enjoyed playing baseball and drawing. When I realized that not being able to hit a curveball would probably keep me out of the major leagues, I followed my creative inclination and enrolled at Drake University. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, I worked more than forty years in the advertising industry, first as an art director and then as a creative director.Recently retired, I now live near my three sons in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with my dog Alex. As a boy, I was always intrigued by what might really be happening behind a closed refrigerator door. So, I decided to combine my creative talents and youthful curiosity by writing and illustrating “A Very Chilling Mystery” for my six grandchildren. I hope this book will inspire young readers to open the door to the possibilities of their own imagination.A Very Chilling MysteryAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcas

Leah Thomas is an eco-communicator, aka an environmentalist with a love for writing + creativity, based in Ventura, CA. She’s passionate about advocating for and exploring the relationship between social justice and environmentalism. You could say she’s tryna make the world a little more equal for everyone and a little nicer to our home planet.She is the founder of eco-lifestyle blog @greengirlleah and The Intersectional Environmentalist Platform, which is a resource + media hub that aims to advocate for environmental justice + inclusivity within environmental education + movements.Her articles on this topic have appeared in Vogue, Elle, The Good Trade, and Youth to the People and she has been featured in Harper’s Bazaar, W Magazine, Domino, GOOP and numerous podcasts. She has a B.S. in Environmental Science and Policy from Chapman University and worked for the National Park Service and Patagonia headquarters before pursuing environmentalism full time. Learn more about Leah and her mission in this BuzzFeed vi

Jackson (Kanahashi) Bliss is the winner of the 2020 Noemi Book Prize in Prose and the mixed-race/hapa author of COUNTERFACTUAL LOVE STORIES & OTHER EXPERIMENTS (Noemi Press, 2021), AMNESIA OF JUNE BUGS (7.13 Books, 2022), DREAM POP ORIGAMI (Unsolicited Press, 2022), the digital novella, DUKKHA, MY LOVE, & the newsletter, MIXTAPE. Born & raised in Traverse City, Michigan until the age of fourteen, he spent his adult life in SoCal, the Pacific Northwest, & the Midwest with stints in Argentina & Burkina Faso. Jackson has a BA in comp lit from Oberlin College, a MFA from the University of Notre Dame where he was the Fiction Fellow & the Sparks Prize winner, a MA in English, & a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing from USC where he worked with Aimee Bender, Viet Thanh Nguyen, & TC Boyle. His stories & essays have appeared in the New York Times, Tin House, Ploughshares, Columbia Journal, Guernica, Longreads, Antioch Review, TriQuarterly, Fiction, Witness, Boston Review, Ken

Kathy Weyer is an author, artist, and animal lover. She was awarded first prize by the Palm Springs Writers Guild for both the fiction and memoir contests, and she has been published in several magazines. Kathy is on the board of directors for the Friends of the Palm Springs Library and the Palm Springs Writers Guild. Kathy lives in Palm Springs with her husband of 40 years and their rescued pets. She is the author of Stitches and its sequels, Canvas and Pages of the Heritage Art Park series. Through her fiction, Kathy shines a light on women’s issues, the foster/child welfare system, domestic violence, grief, and bereavement.PagesAtmosphere Press, 2022A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Past Forward is a nonprofit organization dedicated to community building. As a publ