Episodes

  • Childhood Toys and Our Connections to the Past
    Jun 10 2022

    Whether it’s an alien-fighting space robot or a cherished family heirloom, we all have a special place in our heart for our favorite childhood toys. In this episode of Refrangible, we take a closer look at that connection, and how it shapes us as adults.

    Thanks to our guests for this episode: Mark Chester, Karla Chester and Nikki Hollander (a.k.a. Grandma Kitschy).

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    25 mins
  • Domestic Classrooms: The Intersection of Home and School
    May 27 2022

    From a practice cottage to a home management house, UW-Madison has a long history of live-in learning experiences. In this episode of Refrangible, we examine the university’s history of domestic education, and the lessons 21st century educators can pull from those experiments.

    Thanks to our guests for this episode (in order of appearance): Barbara Tensfeldt, retired and professional volunteer; and Dr. Elizabeth Hooper-Lane, senior lecturer of art history at UW-Madison and an academic staff member at UW-Oshkosh.

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    23 mins
  • Troubling Objects and the Illusion of Luxury
    May 13 2022

    In this episode, we examine how luxury home goods in southern plantation houses obscured the true ugliness running just under the surface.

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    21 mins
  • Home Sweet Home
    Apr 29 2022

    In this episode, we examine what defines a “home” — and what happens when it’s taken away.

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    31 mins
  • Uncomfortable Objects: Art and Death
    Mar 21 2022

    Think about an object that makes you uncomfortable. Now, ask yourself: Why do you tend to side-eye that particular thing?

    In this episode of Refrangible, we’re talking about objects that may send shivers down our spines.

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    24 mins
  • Commodifying Culture
    Mar 4 2022

    In episode one of this season, we touched briefly on the idea of appropriating – or perhaps, more accurately, commodifying – culture. Who really gets to reap the rewards, financial and otherwise, of a specific culture’s iconography, spirituality and history? In this episode, we’re reexamining the commodification of culture: and what happens when appreciation turns into appropriation.

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    29 mins
  • Clothing and Identity: Revisiting our past, one stitch at a time
    Feb 11 2022

    In our first episode of season two, we posed a question: Who wears what, and why? We wanted to explore why folks dress the way they do, and what happens when a third party uses clothing to either impose an identity or steal someone else’s. As we were planning out that episode, we realized there was more to this discussion than we could possibly fit in a single episode.

    So we decided to break the topic into two segments. So, today, we’re looking at the roots of American clothing and how those roots impact our modern-day relationship with clothes.

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    30 mins
  • Clothing and Identity: Who wears what, and why?
    Jan 28 2022

    How do you choose what to wear each day? Is it a matter of practicality, social expectations, or cultural identity? Or have you just been putting off doing the laundry, and this just happens to be your last clean shirt?

    In episode one of season two of Refrangible, a podcast from the Center for Design and Material Culture, we’re exploring the intersection of clothing, culture and politics. Or, put more simply: Who wears what, and why?

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    39 mins