Context Podcast Digital Collection

About Context

On June 2, 2020, the Idaho Humanities Council debuted a new program called Connected Conversations. The purpose of this program was to bring Idahoans together virtually to explore humanities topics with scholars around the state and the nation while it was unsafe to gather in person because of the COVID virus.

Humanities scholars would make a presentation on their research and then take questions from the audience. Originally, Connected Conversations were live events, but over time, the IHC realized that this content could be accessed by a wider audience in a podcast form without live participation. Over time, people were also suffering from Zoom fatigue and live virtual events became less popular.

In 2022, IHC shifted the format and renamed this program to Context. The stated goal of the podcast was to connect Idahoans to experts, scholars, and ideas. “Our goal is to help provide context on topics, both fun and serious, which shape the world we live in. We hope to strike the spark on your sense of exploration and discovery as you listen.”

Idaho Humanities Council

“The Idaho Humanities Council (IHC) is a non-profit organization serving as the state-based partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). [They] are one of 56 state and jurisdictional humanities councils funded in part by the federal government through NEH’s Federal/State Partnership Office.

The IHC is dedicated to serving Idaho citizens by promoting greater public awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the humanities. The Council accomplishes its mission by awarding grants to organizations statewide, and by working with organizations as partners to develop local humanities projects and programs, and by sponsoring its own Council-conducted programs, such as summer institutes in the humanities for K-12 teachers, library reading/discussion programs in small communities, traveling exhibitions from the Smithsonian Institution, a Humanities Speakers Bureau, Distinguished Humanities Lectures, and other projects and programs limited only by the imagination.

IHC guiding principles:

• [They] believe that the humanities should be open, accessible, and welcoming to all Idahoans.
• [They] believe that every story contributes to a deeper understanding of being human.
• [They] believe that respectful communication provides opportunities to learn new perspectives.
• [They] believe that curiosity about the variety of expressions of the human spirit teaches us the value of our differences.

For fifty years, the Idaho Humanities Council’s mission has been to provide opportunities to deepen public understanding of human experience by connecting people with ideas. The Council has met its mission by awarding grants to organizations statewide to develop humanities projects and programs on the local level. In addition, the Council has sponsored programs of its own to enhance awareness, appreciation, and understanding of the humanities.

The vision of the IHC is that the humanities inspire a more literate, tolerant and intellectually inquisitive Idaho citizenry, better able to embrace life’s possibilities.”

About the Collection

The items in this collection span from the first episode of the Connected Conversations program, recorded on June 2, 2020, to the final episode—aired on June 1, 2024—by which time the program had been renamed Context.

The collection features the work of over 100 humanities scholars and what they were researching, writing about, and thinking about during the COVID 19 pandemic. Topics range across ethics and philosophy, history, literature, language, political science, public humanities, sociology, and jurisprudence.

Doug Exton, a program officer at the IHC, coordinated the program during its first two years. During the third year of the podcast, program officer Johanna Bringhurst joined the team. As director of programs, Johanna Bringhurst produced the podcast in its final year.