Podcasts

As part of its mission to support Congress in fulfilling its constitutional duties and to further the progress of knowledge and creativity for the benefit of the American people, the Library of Congress and its staff have created regular and occasional podcast series to highlight the collections, services and staff of the Library of Congress, to be produced and distributed by the Library.

These series are as varied and broad as the Library itself and further its mission to connect diverse communities of users with its collections and services, enabling and inspiring them to engage, learn, and create.

  • Our Constitution Unlock the history and meaning of the Constitution. Tailored for non-lawyers, the official podcast of the Constitution Annotated website from the Library of Congress provides an objective look at Americaā€™s charter and how it has been interpreted over time. The podcast embraces a unique documentary style that uses audio clips, including statements by Supreme Court Justices, to support its authoritative, objective and non-partisan analysis.
  • America Works Features the voices of contemporary workers from throughout the United States talking about their lives, their workplaces, and their on-the-job experiences. Drawn from hundreds of longer oral history interviews collected by fieldworkers for the American Folklife Center's Occupational Folklife Project (OFP), America Works is a testament to the wisdom, wit, knowledge, and dedication of today's working Americans. These engaging oral histories, which have areā€¦
  • Folklife Today Tells stories about the cultural traditions and folklore of diverse communities, combining brand-new interviews and narration with songs, stories, music, and oral history from the collections of the Library of Congress's American Folklife Center.
  • Space on the Page Explores the universe, not via rocket but through ideas. Our guests are authors and scientists: people who think and write about space exploration and the search for life beyond Earth.
  • From the Catbird Seat: Poetry from the Library of Congress Features archived recordings of poets reading and discussing their work at the Library of Congress, and offers behind-the-scenes interviews with special guests.
  • La Biblioteca An exploration of the Library's collections that focus on the cultures of Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and the Hispanic community in the US.
  • African-American Passages: Black Lives in the 19th Century Explores the lives of three African Americans whose passages through the 19th-century are uniquely documented in the Library's manuscripts.
  • National Book Festival Listen to interviews with some of the award-winning authors from the National Book Festival. The 2022 National Book Festival will be held Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022 at the Walter Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.
  • Q&A with LCM: Interviews with Library of Congress Magazine The Library of Congress Magazine features interviews with newsmakers, opinion leaders, expert curators, subject matter experts and members of our hardworking staff. We'll share extensive audio versions of these interviews in this podcast series.
  • Celebration of Mexico In December 2013, the Library of Congress plays host to a two-day conference of speakers, film and exhibitions celebrating the rich heritage of Mexico.
  • Alan Lomax and the Soundscapes of the Upper Midwest The 75th anniversary of Library folklorist Alan Lomax's pioneering song collecting trip to the Upper Midwest in 1938.
  • The Exquisite Corpse Adventure A Very Unusual and Completely Amazing Story Pieced Together Out of So Many Parts That It Is Not Possible To Describe Them All Here So Go Ahead and Just Start Listening. This serialized adventure story features contributions from Jon Scieszka, Katherine Patterson, Lemony Snicket and more.
  • Digital Preservation The mission of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program is to develop a national strategy to collect, preserve and make available digital content for current and future generations. Collaboration and shared ideas are essential to the success of NDIIPP and all digital preservation institutions. These podcasts are conversations with digital preservation leaders with whom the Library is collaborating. A production of theā€¦
  • Voices from the Days of Slavery: Stories, Songs and Memories Oral histories and interviews with African Americans who endured the hardships of slavery. These recordings document the first-person accounts of several individuals whose life experiences spanned the period during and after slavery. The podcasts are drawn from several collections in the American Folklife Center Archives, one of the preeminent audio-visual repositories of national and international folklife, history and cultural expressions.
  • Music and the Brain The Library's Music and the Brain events offer lectures, conversations and symposia about the explosion of new research at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and music. Project chair Kay Redfield Jamison convenes scientists and scholars, composers, performers, theorists, physicians, psychologists, and other experts at the Library for a compelling 2-year series, with generous support from the Dana Foundation.