We’re always learning at the Iowa Black History Research Collective, and one of the ways we enjoy learning is through podcasts. Please click on the header to view the expanded list and links. Each episode links to the creator’s website when possible. We invite you to check out some of our favorites on your preferred podcast platform.

Note to visitors using screen readers or other accessibility tools: the screen reader will begin reading the expanded list without clicking on the header.

GirlTrek Black History Bootcamp

GirlTrek, the largest public health nonprofit for African-American women and girls in the United States. With nearly 100,000 neighborhood walkers, GirlTrek encourages women to use walking as a practical first step to inspire healthy living, families, and communities.

Here are some of our favorite episodes from GirlTrek Black History Bootcamp

Foremothers | Day 9 | Zora Neale Hurston

Foremothers | Day 21 | Octavia Butler

Resistance | Day 4 | Roots – The Blackest Movie of All Time

Resistance | Day 7 | Nat Turner’s Rebellion

Resistance | Day 9 | Mary Church Terrell

Resistance | Day 18 | The Harlem Hellfighters

Prayer Edition | Day 3 | Anita Hill

Inside Black Iowa

Inside Black Iowa is produced by Dana James, founder of Black Iowa News. Here are some of our favorite episodes from Inside Black Iowa podcast

Being Heard: 2 Black Women, Coffee & Conversations — Episode 12: Iowa’s school vouchers: ‘I view it as theft — I view it as racism’

The Inside Black Iowa podcast: Episode 1 with LaNisha Cassell, African American Museum of Iowa

Iowa Civil Rights History

Iowa Civil Rights History is a documentary/interview style podcast showcasing civil rights history in Iowa. Here are some of our favorite episodes of Iowa Civil Rights History podcast (links to to Apple Podcasts)

JB Morris – (William S. Morris)

Sioux City Ghosts – (Jim Tillman)

Buxton, Iowa – Black Utopia (Rachelle Chase)

NPR Codeswitch

Here are some of our favorites from NPR Codeswitch:

100 years of immigration policies working to keep out immigrants

Why the trope of the ‘outside agitator’ persists

Real self-care takes real systemic change

Our Dirty Laundry: Stories of white women making a mess of things & how we need to clean up our act

Join two longtime white lady friends as they reckon with the history of white women with humor and rage, figuring out what it means for their obligations today. Here are some of our favorites from Our Dirty Laundry

Goldilocks: WTF

The Haters: Eugenic Feminists

The Haters, Slavery Part 6—Daughters of the Confederacy

Tilling the Soil: A Whitney Plantation Podcast

Whitney Plantation is a 200 acre former sugar plantation turned historic site dedicated to telling the history of slavery in the United States from the perspective of the enslaved Africans, African-Americans, and Creoles of Color who built America’s wealth. 

Here are some of our episodes favorites from The Whitney Plantation’s Tilling the Soil podcast (links go to Apple Podcasts):

Maroon Geographies with Dr. Brent Morris

River of Black Gold with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade Part 1

Ancestors at the Table with Chef Toya Boudy

Vulgar History – Scandalous Stories of Historical Women

Vulgar History Podcast takes listeners on a wild ride through intersection of women, history, and pop culture, especially the lives and stories of figures both well-known and half-forgotten.

Here are some of our favorite episodes from Vulgar History Podcast:

Hatshepsut (with Gina Berry)

Matoaka aka Pocahontas (with Lauren DeLeary)

Las Soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution (with Cristina Lumague)

The Public Universal Friend (with Kit Heyam)

Sally Hemmings Part 1

Sally Hemmings Part 2