Jen Rubin is the Executive Producer of Love Wisconsin, leads storytelling workshops around Madison, co-produces the Moth StorySlam, and is on the Great Midwest Bagel Quest. Jen is an obsessive maker of mixed tapes, quite possibly the best challah baker in town.

An Engrossing Memoir"  The Progressive
"Compelling Reading" West Side Rag
"Poignant, funny, and very very smart" Reviewer on Amazon

I have been leading storytelling workshops with Odyssey Beyond Bars for years. I am very excited that I got to bring these stories to Wisconsin Humanities Human Powered podcast.  Humanity Unlocked brings you remarkable stories of people inside and outside Wisconsin prisons who are using the humanities to overcome the dehumanization of incarceration. 

I am a New York Jew living in the Midwest just looking for a great bagel.  Follow along with my Midwest Bagel Quest to find the best bagel spots in the Midwest baking NYC style bagels and for the Midwest bagel history and Midwest Jewish history I learn along the way. You can follow along on Instagram or on my substack.  

  

For 15 months of the pandemic I followed three Madison small busineses. I heard time and time again from my dad after our family business was destroyed in the 1977 NYC blackout, that after the headline grabbing disaster is over, no-one stayed to see what happened next. So I decided to follow an independent bookstore, a downtown bar, and a newly opened recording studio to ask them what happened next to their businesses once things started to shut down. Each fared differently with support from banks, access to Covid relief grants, and ability to go virtual. Each survived as of the summer of 2021 and government grants, community support, and hard work are the reasons why.  Check out part one, part two and part three.   ​