Tales from the Reuther Library at 100 Episodes

The Walter P. Reuther Library is proud to announce the 100th episode of its podcast, Tales from the Reuther Library. The podcast reached this landmark anniversary after seven years of bringing listeners insightful conversations around the archive’s three collecting areas: Detroit, the labor movement, and Wayne State University. “Feels good,” says Dan Golodner, host and co-producer of the show, “I mean, it's amazing that it has gone this far.” In each episode, Dan, the Reuther’s American Federation of Teachers Archivist, sits down with a special guest to discuss a different historical topic. The centennial episode features a conversation with Dr. Fabian Witt, discussing archival research for his book, The Radical Fund: How a Band of Visionaries and a Million Dollars Upended America.

Like many special initiatives at the Reuther Library, the initial concept came from archivists brainstorming ideas over lunch. “We were sitting around the breakroom, and I said, ‘what's a good way to get our collections out there more?’ And one of us said ‘podcast!’” An archives creating its own professional-sounding show was an ambitious undertaking, especially back in 2018. Undaunted, Dan with co-producer and Society of Women Engineers Archivist Troy Eller English started researching how to record and share interviews with researchers and collection donors. Fellow Reuther archivist and musician Bart Bealmer crafted the snappy theme song that kicks off every episode.

Tales from the Reuther Library features experts, as most episodes are an interview with someone who did extensive archival research on a topic. Other entries feature conversations with the individuals who donated their papers to the archives, sharing their firsthand experiences with history. The result has been 100 episodes featuring informed conversations as unique as the one-of-a-kind archival collections housed at the Reuther Library. Since 2018, Tales from the Reuther Library has covered everything from Wayne State’s Olympic athletes to interviews with union presidents guiding the American labor movement. For Troy, it’s the fun back-and-forth she and Dan share that stands out. “I think my favorite moments are probably the ones that will never be heard as we're chatting before and after and all the things that go into the outtakes and things that I can't put in the outtakes.”
According to Dan, the podcast has been one of the archive’s most effective tools for raising awareness of the Reuther Library’s rich historical collections and the essential stories documented in them. “I have people come into the reading room and take a pause and look at me and say, ‘are you Dan Golodner…from the podcast?’ So, it's a good reception knowing that our researchers are listening to us.” In fact, so far, the show has been downloaded over 29,000 times, and listened to in 96 countries.

Tales from the Reuther Library is available through most major podcast services, including iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, Stitcher, Overcast, Blubrry, as well as the Reuther Library’s website at https://reuther.wayne.edu/podcasts.

Gavin Strassel is the UAW Archivist at the Walter P. Reuther Library.