Being Human Podcast Recordings

About the Being Human Podcast.

The Being Human Podcast, hosted by Dan Kubis, started during the University of Pittsburgh’s Year of the Humanities, which took place during the 2015-2016 academic year. Since 2014, the Office of the Provost has promoted the “Year of” initiative, where each academic year is given a theme to inspire and promote new projects within the university. Being Human sprang from this effort to focus on the humanities in the academic sector and beyond. Despite divisions between the humanities and STEM-related fields in the university, Being Human demonstrated that the two are not mutually exclusive. Despite ongoing tensions between universities and their surrounding communities, Being Human showed that there are also fruitful points of contact. The introduction to each episode states that the podcast “is devoted to exploring the humanities, their intersections with other disciplines, and their value in the public world.” The episodes were transcribed and edited by Abby Dzwik during the 2022-2023 academic year.

The host of the Being Human Podcast, Dan Kubis, has been a teaching professor in the Department of English at the University of Pittsburgh since 2020. After receiving his PhD in English from the University in 2013, he worked in Pitt's Office of the Provost. From 2016 to 2020, Kubis served as associate director of the University of Pittsburgh's Humanities Center, where he expanded public programming, hosted the Being Human Podcast, and began the Public Humanities Fellows program.

In the first five seasons, Being Human featured more than 50 conversations with a wide range of scholars and artists who visited Pitt for talks or events on campus. The episodes typically addressed the interviewees’ academic interests and recently published or upcoming materials. Thematically, interviews in the first five seasons addressed topics such as gender and sexuality studies, African American and African studies, including critical theory, music and composition, art, architecture, and the intersections between the humanities and performance.

Season six focused on the ways that humanities faculty at the University of Pittsburgh responded to Covid-19 lockdowns and social turmoil in 2020 in their research, teaching, and lives more broadly. The interviewees’ perspectives in their fields provide an interesting outlook on society during this period. Topics during this season include the intersection of research on the history of public health with the Covid-19 pandemic and the influence of African American history and literature. Interviews during this season were conducted on Zoom, contrasting with the first five seasons when all the interviews were conducted in person.

Season seven once again featured scholars from across the country with newly published research in their fields. Highlights of the final season included contributions to LGBT studies, particularly the intersections of race and queer theory. In the series finale, the 2020-2021 University of Pittsburgh’s Humanities Media Fellow Jacqui Sieber interviewed Being Human’s host Dan Kubis about the show’s seven-year run.

When asked about the value of humanities in the contemporary world, Anthony Bogues, a professor of Africana Studies and director of the Center of the Study of Slavery and Justice at Brown University, stated, “It is important for us to think about the humanities as a way in which we can understand the world as something that we do. That we make. Whether for good or bad, we make it.” He added that the humanities can remind us that we can change the world, but also that we should think carefully about the consequences of our efforts. The Being Human Podcast aims to serve as a similar reminder.