JP Swenson

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Finding family in France

Dec 2, 2024 | rotary.org | JP Swenson

Athena Trentin had a boring childhood — at least, according to her. She grew up in Escanaba, Michigan, a port city in the Upper Peninsula with a population of 14,000 at the time. “Most people were expected to grow up and graduate from high school, work for the paper mill, work in the skilled trades,” Trentin says.
Rotarian helps vaccinate his homeland of Ethiopia

Sep 30, 2024 | rotary.org | JP Swenson

In 1997, Ezra Teshome traveled from his home in Seattle to a Rotary peace conference in Ethiopia, where he was born and raised. Rotarians there were organizing National Immunization Days. In one village, Teshome met a man and his 8-year-old daughter, who had polio. The man thought the visitors were there to cure her. He asked Teshome for help.
Maggie Sivit

May 11, 2024 | wbez.org | Justin Bull |JP Swenson |Joe DeCeault |Adriana Cardona-Maguigad

Maggie is Curious City’s digital and engagement producer. As the show’s digital producer, she works closely with Curious City’s editor and reporters to oversee web production from start to finish: from adapting podcast scripts into original web articles to contributing additional reporting to editing text to creating or sourcing visuals.
Peace Fellow transforms academic theory into practical application

Jan 31, 2024 | rotary.org | JP Swenson

Gethen is in the midst of an ice age. It’s a bitterly cold planet where even the warmest summer day is frigid. This is where Florence Maher spent her childhood. Figuratively speaking, of course. Gethen exists only in the tales of Ursula K. Le Guin, predominantly in her 1969 novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, one of many speculative works of fiction that Maher grew up reading. “A lot of science fiction looks at social issues, but in a different context,” Maher says.
What’s the history of drag performance in Chicago?

Mar 30, 2023 | wbez.org | JP Swenson |Marie Mendoza

More about our question-asker Uptown resident Bizzy Stephenson moved to Chicago last year. She’s the lead singer of a five-piece disco and funk band called Superfloss (whose cover of “You Should Be Dancing” by the Bee Gees is featured in the podcast episode linked at the top of this story!). Bizzy first got swept up in disco’s renaissance listening to Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” during the early days of the pandemic.