1888: The How, The Why

Jimmie C. Gardner was a rising professional baseball player when he was wrongly incarcerated in 1990. While in prison, Gardner continued to pursue his education, earning three Associates Degrees and numerous certificates. He taught himself the law and worked tirelessly to secure his freedom, while serving as a representative for other prisoners during legal proceedings. He spent 27 years in jail before being exonerated.  Since his release, Gardner has become an advocate for other wrongfully imprisoned and over-incarcerated peoples. He is married to US District Court Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner, and is the brother-in-law of Stacy Abrams.Learn more about Jimmie at jcgardnerspeaks.com.Listen to Jimmie's lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part podcast series of informed and enriching dialogues to help us better understand our world – how we got here, who we are, and where we are going as a society. This series engages in conversations

Jane P. Perry is a retired Researcher Teacher from UC Berkeley's Child Study Center. Since sheltering in place, Jane has interviewed with Paula Whitacre, appeared in Hidden Timber Books Small Press Author Reading Series, and has published in Persimmon Tree, McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, Women Writers, Women's Books and The Oaklandside.White Snake Diary: Exploring Self-InscribersAtmosphere Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Heidi Turner is a writer and musician from Maui, Hawaii who writes in the in-between space of grace and disaster. She earned an MA in English from Azusa Pacific University and is now pursuing an MFA in Fiction from the University of New Hampshire.The Sacred Art of Trespassing BarefootHeritage Future, 2019A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Larry Oda was born in a Justice Department Internment Camp in Crystal City, Texas during World War II and lives in Monterey, California.  He was educated in Monterey City Schools and earned his Bachelor’s and Master's degrees from California State University, Fresno.Larry is Chair Emeritus of the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation and served two terms as the National President of the Japanese American Citizens League. He has served on the Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) National Board, and President of the BCA Coast District Council, and is currently a Trustee of the Big Sur Land Trust. He is the author of The Seapride Canning Company and the Oda Family HistoryLarry retired as the Maintenance Superintendent and Administrative Hearing Officer after 27 years with the City of Salinas, California.  His interests include US-Japan Relations, Auto Restoration, and Golf.Tim Thomas is a fisheries historian and author who has researched the fisheries and cultural history of Monterey for over thirty years

Stephanie Harper is the author of Wesley Yorstead Goes Outside (Propertius Press, 2020), as well as a poetry collection entitled Sermon Series (Finishing Line Press, 2017). She writes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.Wesley Yorstead Goes OutsidePropertius Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Nick Olson is an author and editor from Chicagoland now living in North Carolina. He was a finalist for Glimmer Train’s Very Short Fiction Award, and he’s been published in SmokeLong Quarterly, Hobart, decomP, and other fine places. His debut novel, Here’s Waldo, is available now.Here's WaldoAtmosphere Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Ivan Forde works across printmaking, sound, and installation. Ivan's training in English literature and epic poetry guides the themes he explores in his visual art practice such as migration and memory. Awards, and Fellowships include the 2020 Emerging Artist Award Baxter Street Camera Club, Civitella Ranieri Fellowship 2019, The Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans class of 2017, ACRE Projects, Vermont Studio Center, Pioneer Works, and the Lower East Side Printshop. Group exhibitions and performances include Visitor Welcome Center, MICA, The Jewish Museum, SCAD, MCA Chicago, The Whitney Museum, Studio Museum Harlem Postcards, the International Print Center, Lagos Photo Festival 17, and a 2018 solo exhibition at The Baxter Street Camera Club of New York. Ivan graduated with an MFA in Printmaking from Columbia University.  Learn more about Ivan at ivanforde.com.Listen to Ivan's lecture at chapman.edu/wilkinson.Engaging the World: Leading the Conversation on the Significance of Race is a ten-part p

Philip Brunetti has been writing fiction and poetry since his early 20s. His innovative work has been published in various literary journals including Cobalt, The Boiler, The Wax Paper, and Identity Theory. He lives in Brooklyn and currently works as a librarian. Newer Testaments is his first published novel.Newer TestamentsAtmosphere Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Susannah Rodríguez Drissi is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, translator, and scholar. Her work has appeared in Publisher’s Weekly, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Miami Herald, Nuevo Herald, Literal Magazine, and elsewhere. She is the author of The Latin Poet’s Guide to the Cosmos (Floricanto Press, 2019) and the award-winning plays Houses Without Walls, Rey y Atenea, and Hola, Soledad. Her novel Until We’re Fish published in October, 2020.Until We’re FishPropertius Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Eddy Boudel Tan is the author of two novels, After Elias (Fall 2020) and The Rebellious Tide (Summer 2021). His work depicts a world much like our own — the heroes are flawed, truth is distorted, and there is as much hope as there is heartbreak. ​After EliasDundurn, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Janet Stilson lives in 2 worlds. On one hand, she is a journalist. On the other, she writes scripts, novels and short stories that largely fall in the grounded sci-fi and fantasy genres and illuminate the human condition in provocative ways. She lives in New York with her husband and two opinionated cats.The JuiceDragon Moon Press, 2021A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Angelica J. Allen is an Assistant Professor and Co-director of Africana Studies at Chapman University. She received her Ph.D. in African and African Diaspora Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and holds an MA in Africana Studies from New York University. Her book project is titled, “Afro-Amerasians: Blackness in the Philippine Imaginary,” which explores a community in the Philippines known as the Black Amerasians, a population born from the union of African American military men and Filipina women. As both a member of the Black Amerasian community and a scholar of that community’s experiences, Angelica’s goal is to develop a research project dedicated to advancing social justice by granting more visibility to Black Amerasian perspectives. She is a visual artist and has been awarded fellowships from the Ford Foundation, and the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies.Charissa Threat is an Associate Professor of History at Chapman University where she teaches courses in

Mimi Nicklin is a keynote speaker and empathetic leader. She's the author of a new book about empathetic influence, Softening the Edge: How Humanity's Oldest Leadership Trait Is Changing Our World. She has been featured on NBC, Forbes, and TechRepublic.Softening the EdgeThe DreamWork Collection, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Jacqueline Olive is an independent filmmaker and immersive media producer with more than fifteen years of experience in journalism and film. Her debut feature documentary, Always in Season, premiered in competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was awarded the Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency. Always in Season has received nominations for Best Writing from IDA Documentary Awards 2019 and the Spotlight Award from Cinema Eye Honors 2019, and the film will broadcast on the Emmy Award-winning PBS series, Independent Lens in February 2020. Jackie also co-directed and co-produced the award-winning hour-long thesis film, Black to Our Roots, which broadcast on PBS WORLD in 2009. Jackie has received artist grants and industry funding from Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Independent Television Service (ITVS), Ford Foundation, Firelight Media, Chicken & Egg Pictures, International Documentary Association, Kendeda Fund, Catapult Film Fund, Southern Documentary Fund, Alternate ROOTS, and more.

Lainey Cameron is a recovering tech industry executive. Her award-winning novel, The Exit Strategy, a #1 Amazon Best Seller, was inspired by a decade of being the only woman in the corporate boardroom. It's been called a "rallying call for women to believe in themselves and join together”.The Exit StrategyThe Wild Rose Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Suman Mallick's debut novel, The Black-Marketer's Daughter, was shortlisted for the Disquiet Open Borders Book Prize. Mallick serves as Assistant Managing Editor of the literary magazine, Under the Gum Tree. He received his MFA from Portland State University. He lives in Texas with his beloved daughter and dog.The Black-Marketer's DaughterAtmosphere Press, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Joost Douma studied classical Latin and Greek in high school and history and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam. He is the founder of the Dutch National Science Center, NeMo, in Amsterdam. His extensive research for Betrayal of a Republic was conducted over a nine-year period, at relevant sites including Spain, Italy, and Turkey.Betrayal of a Republic: Memoirs of a Roman MatronaHistria Books, 2020A World Without Books was created to help writers connect with readers during the pandemic. This Micro-Podcast provides authors a platform to share stories about writing, discuss current projects, and consider life without books. Listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you podcast.Without Books®, a division of Heritage Future, is an author-centric book initiative. Our resources support authors. We also provide access to millions of books.

Stephanie Nitahara is the Executive Director of Kizuna, a Nikkei youth organization with the mission of building a community for the next generation of leaders through education, empowerment and engagement. She was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs and following her passion for Nikkei community programming moved to Los Angeles in 2012 to work for the Japanese American Citizens League. She worked in the Pacific Southwest regional office for over five years and through her work built deep roots in the Little Tokyo community. Stephanie believes in inclusive community building and currently serves on the Little Tokyo Community Council’s board of directors as well as an organizing committee member of Okaeri: A Nikkei LGBTQ Gathering.Daniel Yaguchi is the Marketing Assistant for Kizuna. From a young age, the Japanese American community had always been a significant part of his life. Daniel’s first experience with Kizuna had opened up many opportunities for him and gave him a stronger passion for being involved

Wisa Uemura is the Executive Director with San Jose Taiko. In her 22 years with San Jose Taiko, Wisa has served as Performer, Artistic Staff, General Manager and in July 2011 Wisa succeeded its founder to lead the organization as Executive Director. Recognized as a leader within her field, Wisa has presented on taiko, succession planning, organizational culture and communications, nonprofit fundraising and women’s empowerment at the North American Taiko Conference, World Taiko Gathering, Alliance of Artists Communities National Conference, the National Consortium of Creative Placemaking Pacific Summit, and the inaugural National Endowment for the Arts Folk & Traditional Arts Convening. She has served on peer review grant panels for the Knight Foundation Arts and NEA Folk & Traditional Arts programs. Wisa is a senior fellow of the American Leadership Forum Silicon Valley and has completed executive management trainings with BoardSource, FMA, CompassPoint, the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa

David Read is the Executive Director of Yuba Sutter Arts & Culture in Marysville, California. A long-time champion for the arts and well-known community leader, David has brought his experience in marketing, finance and program management to the organization.  He has been actively involved for nine years as a volunteer, board member and President before being hired to serve as Executive Director in 2016.  David is an active member of Rotary, Veridian Symphony Orchestra and Friends of the Yuba County Library. He has successfully written grants and then managed the funded programs for Veterans Arts Projects, the Jump StArts grant in collaboration with the Yuba County Office of Education for at-risk and system engaged youth and many others. Most recently, YSAC received two grants from the California State Library Civil Liberties program in collaboration with the Japanese American Citizens League to help preserve their local history during WWII. Abbie Cesena is the Managing Director of Yuba Sutter Arts &