The Kitchen Sisters

05/19/2026

Today we’re celebrating Faith Spotted Eagle, an Ihanktonwan Oyate elder who has just received an honorary doctorate from South Dakota State University. We first met Faith in 2009 when we were working on our NPR Hidden World of Girls series — stories about rituals and rites of passage, of women who crossed a line, broke a trail, forged a path. That certainly describes Faith.

When we opened up a phone line for the series and asked people to tell us their stories, Faith’s daughter Brook Spotted Eagle called in and left this message.

Hi. My name is Brook Spotted Eagle. I belong to a women’s society on my reservation in South Dakota. The Brave Heart Women’s Society. My mother is one of the founding grandmother’s who has brought it back to life. Over the last 100 years we’ve lost a lot of our ceremonies. I’ll have to check with the elders, but when I saw the Hidden World of Girls I thought it would be amazing to share with other Native women the Isnati coming of age ceremony for our girls.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kitchen-sisters-present/id814067846?i=1000768563828

05/15/2026

Happy birthday to Brian Eno!

Awhile back we got the opportunity to record Eno reading an essay about his weekly a capella singing group for NPR's This I Believe....

I believe in singing. I believe in singing together.

A few years ago a friend and I realized that we both loved singing but didn't do much of it. So we started a weekly a capella group with just four members. After a year we started inviting other people to join. We didn't insist on musical experience — in fact some of our members had never sung before. Now the group has ballooned to around 15 or 20 people.

I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure, a stable temperament, increased intelligence, new friends, super self-confidence, heightened sexual attractiveness and a better sense of humor. A recent long-term study conducted in Scandinavia sought to discover which activities related to a healthy and happy later life. Three stood out: camping, dancing and singing.

Listen to the story and see his singing group's song list here: npr.org/2008/11/23/97320958/singing-the-key-to-a-long-life

05/15/2026

Happy birthday, Wavy Gravy!

He’s emceed Woodstock, lived with Bob Dylan, clowned for the Grateful Dead, co-founded a summer camp and saved the eyesight of millions.

05/10/2026

In honor of Mother's Day, The Kitchen Sisters linger in the kitchen — the room in the house that counts the most, that smells the best, where families gather and children are fed, where all good parties begin and end. The room where the best stories are told.

kitchensisters.org/hidden-kitchen-mama/

04/29/2026

On Saturday, May 2, the amazing Maira Kalman is opening a pop-up exhibition called Shaker Outpost: Design, Commerce and Culture, featuring a curated selection of her favorite pieces from the vast Shaker Museum Chatham collection. Go see it at 4 Depot Square in downtown Chatham, New York. It runs through Sunday, July 5.

Along with the exhibit Maira and the Museum will open a General Store drawing on the historic tradition of Shakers’ public-facing stores where Shaker communities shared their goods for purchase with “the world.” Handmade crafts, food in the Shaker style, potholders, honey, ginger snaps, Swedish fish, sardines, marmalade made by TART, notebooks, textiles and items made by local artisans will all be on sale.

Maira is also featured on the latest episode of our podcast, Come Life, Shaker Life: From the Cradle to the Cradle. Listen at kitchensisters.org or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.

04/28/2026

The Shakers. An offshoot sect of The Quakers, born in England in 1747. In worship they were known to break into states of ecstatic trembling. Trembling Quakers. Shaking Quakers. The Shakers. They came to America in 1774 with a utopian vision, egalitarian ideals, a belief in the equality of the sexes, a philosophy of communal, celibate, simple living. Known for their purposeful communities, their pacifism and legendary craftsmanship.

At their peak in the mid-nineteenth century there were some 6,000 Shakers worldwide. As of 2024 there were but two Shakers left in America, so it made headlines in 2025 when Sister April Baxter entered the fold.

Four-time Academy Award winner Frances McDormand and artist Suzanne Bocanegra were inspired by the communal Shaker philosophy and aesthetic and were invited by The Shaker Museum in Chatham, New York to create a pop-up exhibit curated from the museum’s archive of Shaker furniture, textiles and goods. They called their installation “Cradled.”

LISTEN: https://kitchensisters.org/podcast/come-life-shaker-life/

04/21/2026

The Kitchen Sisters and Hearing Voices present: Requiem for Larry Massett

https://kitchensisters.org/podcast/requiem-for-larry-massett/

Larry Massett, who died a year ago, was a masterful radio artist. A producer’s producer, who led listeners into unexpected worlds and influenced so many in public radio and beyond. The Kitchen Sisters were fortunate to work with him on our NPR series Lost & Found Sound and Soundprint. He was a friend and colleague.

We learned of Larry’s passing last spring on Transom.org, the premiere site for producers to come together, share their work, and access the latest tools and advice.

It was there that we found a “Requiem for Larry Massett” created by Barrett Golding of Hearing Voices. We asked Barrett if he’d help produce an audio piece and bring it to air. He said yes. Transom said yes. And all of the producers who offered their memories said yes. And so, yes!

Featuring excerpts from some of Larry Massett’s iconic radio works including: Listen Up: Piano Down the Stairs, A Trip to the Dentist, Helium Filled Astronaut, Death in Venice, The Road, Solidad, Apache Elder and more.

With remembrances from Larry’s friends and colleagues: Jay Allison, Art Silverman, Bob Boilen, Rob Rosenthal, Joe Frank, Jesse Boggs, Katie Davis, Erica Heilman, Susan Stamberg, Keith Talbot, Robin Wise.

Special thanks to Transom, Hearing Voices, NPR, Soundprint, Jake Fleming, The Shed Studio. And thanks to: Corporation for Public Broadcasting, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities.

04/07/2026

The Kitchen Sisters Present... Lutah Maria Riggs Designs the American Riviera

Stucco arches, red tile floors, exposed beams — the look and feel of the houses in the oceanfront towns of Santa Barbara and Montecito can be attributed to a woman architect known by one name: Lutah.

The Ohio-born and California-bred architect Lutah Maria Riggs was on track to be a teacher, one of few professions to welcome women in the early 20th century, when she won a scholarship to Berkeley by selling newspapers. Like architect Julia Morgan before her, she gained entry to the university’s Beaux Arts influenced architecture program – one of only four women in her class. Also like Morgan, she was talented enough to capture the interest and mentorship of the head of the program, John Galen Howard, and a series of other older male architects who helped her launch her career and chaperoned her travel to Mexico, Spain, and other countries whose architecture was highly influential in California in the 1920s.

Riggs’s most famous public project, the Lobero Theater in downtown Santa Barbara, was directly influenced by a serendipitous stop in Spain. Traveling on her own, Riggs took advantage of the network of women’s hotels and clubs available in those days. She was always up for a dance, and was even friends with Martha Graham when the modern dance pioneer spent time in Santa Barbara.

Her work has helped define the indoor-outdoor, casual, one-story style that is most identified with southern California today. That has made her houses highly prized for their luxurious materials, swoon-worthy views, and easy living. Unlike many architects who focused on public commissions, many of her houses are still extant, and the real estate agents know what they’ve got. Zoe Saldana lives in a Lutah today, and architecture enthusiast Ellen DeGeneres has in the past. Riggs – who lived until the 1980s – continues to be one of Santa Barbara’s most celebrated architects.

Produced by Brandi Howell for the New Angle Voice Podcast presented by the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (BWAF).

LISTEN: https://kitchensisters.org/podcast/lutah-maria-riggs/

03/24/2026

Here's another story for from our NPR series The Hidden World of Girls.

"The Hidden World of Traveller Girls"

Travellers, known in Ireland as "the people of walking." Mistrusted for the most part, their traditions and lifestyle are not well understood within the larger culture. Historically, they were nomads who moved in caravans and lived in encampments on the side of the road. Their tradition as "tinkers" or tinsmiths, and as the breeders and traders of some of Ireland's best horses, goes back hundreds of years.

As times change in Ireland and the notions of private and public space change and contract, the culture no longer accepts the Travellers on public and private lands and has begun to create "halts" where they can settle.

https://www.npr.org/2010/04/29/125907642/for-traveller-women-in-ireland-life-is-changing