Episodes

  • Memories That Heal: How Family Stories and Photos Can Support Healthy Aging with Rick Voight

    Memories That Heal: How Family Stories and Photos Can Support Healthy Aging with Rick Voight
    May 13 2026


    This episode will focus on Memories That Heal: How Family Stories and Photos can support Healthy Aging.

    What if the photographs tucked away in your attic or family albums could actually improve brain health, strengthen relationships, and help people age with greater purpose and connection?

    Today’s guest is Rick Voight, CEO and Co-Founder of Vivid-Pix and publisher of Reunions Magazine. Rick is a lifelong innovator in photography, storytelling, and memory preservation. Raised in Rochester, New York — the historic home of Kodak — Rick developed an early appreciation for the power of photographs and memories. His passion centers on the emotional, social, and health benefits of reminiscing and storytelling — especially for older adults. Research increasingly shows that viewing photographs, sharing family stories, and engaging in family history activities can reduce loneliness, improve communication, strengthen intergenerational bonds, and support cognitive and emotional well-being.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

    You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
    Show More Show Less
    27 mins
  • Freedom in the Age of Slavery: A History of Free People of Color in Virginia with Warren Eugene Milteer Jr.

    Freedom in the Age of Slavery: A History of Free People of Color in Virginia with Warren Eugene Milteer Jr.
    May 6 2026
    Today's episode features a conversation between host Bernice Alexander-Bennett and Dr. Warren Eugene Milteer Jr., an associate professor of history at George Washington University, about his book "Freedom in the Age of Slavery: A History of Free People of Color in Virginia." Dr. Milteer discussed his motivation for writing the book, which filled a gap in the historical record since the last full-length exploration of free people of color in Virginia was written in the early 20th century. He also shares insights about the challenges of researching this topic, including records loss and limited access to the voices of free people of color themselves.

    Milteer recounts in granular detail the discriminatory policies and resulting hardships that free Virginians of color faced, while also documenting the openings they created for themselves and the successes they enjoyed against overwhelming odds. Throughout, he highlights the commonwealth’s significance as the laboratory for legal discrimination throughout the nation, while never losing sight of the ways free people of color seized their opportunities wherever possible and built meaningful lives in the face of massive white resistance.

    Warren Eugene Milteer, Jr. is an associate professor of history at the George Washington University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2014. His publications include four academic books, Out of This Strife Will Come Freedom: Free People of Color and the Fight for Equal Rights in the Civil War Era (UNC Press, 2026), Freedom in the Age of Slavery: A History of Free People of Color in Virginia (UVA Press, 2026), Beyond Slavery’s Shadow: Free People of Color in the South (UNC Press, 2021), and North Carolina’s Free People of Color, 1715-1885 (LSU Press, 2020), the independently published Hertford County, North Carolina’s Free People of Color and Their Descendants (2016), as well as articles in the Journal of Social History and the North Carolina Historical Review. Milteer was the recipient of the Southern Historical Association’s Charles S. Sydnor Award for the best book in Southern history in 2022, the North Carolina Literary and Historical Association’s Ragan Old North State Award for nonfiction in 2022, and the Historical Society of North Carolina’s R. D. W. Connor Award in 2014 and 2016 for the best journal article in the North Carolina Historical Review.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

    You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
    Show More Show Less
    34 mins
  • 1776: The Forgotten Fight for Freedom with Andrew Lawler

    1776: The Forgotten Fight for Freedom with Andrew Lawler
    Apr 22 2026
    This episode featuring author Andrew Lawler will explore a lesser-known chapter of American history where enslaved people aligned with the British crown during the American Revolution.
    At the start of the American Revolution, Black men took up arms to achieve freedom--by fighting for King George III. Hear how the people owned by patriots nearly squelched the Revolution in its cradle.

    Andrew Lawler is a journalist who has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many other publications. His latest book--which the Times calls "absorbing"--is A Perfect Frenzy: A Royal Governor, His Black Allies, and the Crisis that Spurred the American Revolution. For more, see www.andrewlawler.com

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

    You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
    Show More Show Less
    24 mins
  • When Your Ancestors Choose You: Finding Binky with Michael A. Willis

    When Your Ancestors Choose You: Finding Binky with Michael A. Willis
    Apr 15 2026
    When Your Ancestors Choose You- Finding Binky

    This episode will explore what it means to carry the memory of your ancestors, the challenges of researching enslaved families, the emotional weight of the records, and the moment when genealogy becomes more than research, when it becomes a calling.

    Michael A. Willis is an award-winning author, speaker, consultant, blogger, and instructor with more than twenty-five years of experience as a genealogist. He specializes in Louisiana research, particularly in East Baton Rouge, East and West Feliciana, Orleans, and Terrebonne Parishes. In October 2025, Michael received the International Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Book Award for Finding Binkey, a work that documents his search for his fifth great-grandmother through oral history, documentary evidence, and DNA, while also teaching valuable lessons for those researching African American families.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

    You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
    Show More Show Less
    43 mins
  • Celia: Justice After Death with Adriene Holder, Esq., and Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge

    Celia: Justice After Death with Adriene Holder, Esq., and Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge
    Apr 1 2026
    This episode Celia: Justice After Death, explores the life and legacy of Celia, an enslaved, pregnant teenager and mother in pre–Civil War Missouri who resisted sexual exploitation and was executed in 1855 after defending herself against her enslaver. Her case exposes the stark injustice embedded in Missouri’s antebellum legal system—a system that denied enslaved women legal protection from sexual violence while simultaneously holding them fully accountable under the law. Through the voices of Celia’s descendants, this conversation connects Celia’s lived experience to her 2024 gubernatorial pardon and to ongoing family-led efforts through the Celia Newsom Legacy Foundation to advance truth-telling, reconciliation, and awareness of modern human trafficking. Celia’s story is not only history—it is an enduring call to justice.

    Adriene Holder is the third great-granddaughter of Celia and Robert Newsom and a Board Member of the Celia Newsom Legacy Foundation, where she co-chairs the Family Heritage Committee and helps lead descendant-driven efforts to preserve Celia’s legacy through genealogy, oral history, and historical documentation. Through her legal advocacy and descendant leadership, Adriene is committed to advancing justice, preserving historical truth, and ensuring that Celia’s legacy continues to inform efforts to confront inequity and uphold human dignity today.

    Pamela Westbrooks-Hodge is the second great-granddaughter of Celia and Robert Newsom and the founding President of the Celia Newsom Legacy Foundation. She leads descendant-driven efforts to preserve Celia’s legacy and advance education, reconciliation, and justice. Pamela is deeply committed to connecting historical truth with present-day systems change, ensuring that stories like Celia’s inform a more just and equitable future.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

    You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • DNA, Genealogy, and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with Lisa Fanning

    DNA, Genealogy, and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with Lisa Fanning
    Mar 25 2026

    In today’s episode, titled DNA, Genealogy, and the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, we will discuss how DNA and historical research are helping identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre — one of the most devastating acts of racial violence in American history. Through genealogy, genetic testing, and community participation, families and researchers are working together to restore names and identities to individuals whose stories were never fully told. This work reminds us that genealogy is not only about building family trees — it is also about justice, memory, and recognition.

    Lisa Fanning, an Indiana native who is a genealogist, genetic genealogist, and family historian. For more than 30 years, she has traced her own family’s roots across the American South and Midwest, developing a deep passion for reconstructing complex family histories. Lisa has contributed to major projects such as the DNA Doe Project and the Tulsa Race Massacre DNA Identification Project. She serves on the Board of the National Genealogical Society and on the leadership team of MAAGI, the Midwestern African American Genealogy Institute. She has presented nationally and internationally, including for PBS and the United Nations. Today she joins us to talk about her work helping identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and how DNA is helping restore identities more than one hundred years later.

    - Check out information on the burials/surnames/and locations on the City of Tulsa’s webpage at www.cityoftulsa.org/1921Graves
    - Tell us their family story about the Tulsa Race Massacre at www.tulsa1921DNA.org

    If you have experience in African American genealogy research and are interested in volunteering some of your time to the project, please email us at idteam@tulsa1921dna.org

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

    You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
    Show More Show Less
    41 mins
  • Our Claiborne Parish: Family History Project of Communal Kinship with Regina Califa Calloway

    Our Claiborne Parish: Family History Project of Communal Kinship with Regina Califa Calloway
    Mar 4 2026
    "Our Claiborne Parish: A Family History Research Project of Communal Kinship” traces the evolution of a family-led inquiry into a community-centered preservation model.Tracing six generations in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, her work has become a living portal of kinship—where paternal lines like Calloway, Bennett, Bugg(s) and Robinson converge with maternal families including Walston, Taylor, and Levingston. Across generations of forced displacement, this convergence reveals documented milestones that shaped American history. At its core, this work is a call to steward descendancy itself—affirming each generation’s responsibility to amplify ancestral voices and safeguard the integrity of their stories. Stewarded by Regina "Califa" Calloway Project Motto: "Steward Your History"

    A visionary Woman of Faith, Ms. Regina “Califa” Calloway hails from Oakland, California, Louisiana reared and African rooted.Transcending three decades of leadership in Arts, Heritage, and Cultural Pedagogy, Ms. Calloway is the Founder and Creative Director of nzoCALIFA Presents LLC, Heritage-based Educational Consulting Agency grounded in kinship, cultural memory, and collective repair. nzoCALIFAncestry is the agency’s genealogical platform, expanding access to family history research while empowering communal stewardship, ushering ancestral memory to incite healing and transformation.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

    You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
    Show More Show Less
    50 mins
  • Gather at the Table Revisited with Sharon Morgan and Thomas Norman Dewolf

    Gather at the Table Revisited with Sharon Morgan and Thomas Norman Dewolf
    Mar 1 2026
    Gather at the Table: The Healing Journey of a Daughter of Slavery and a Son of the Slave Trade is the chronicle of a shared journey toward racial reconciliation. Informed by genealogy, it deals with race, social justice and healing from the traumatic wounds of slavery. Over a three year period, the authors traveled through 27 states, visiting ancestral towns, courthouses, cemeteries, plantations, antebellum mansions, and historic sites.

    Bernice Alexander Bennett welcomes Sharon Leslie Morgan and Thomas Norman Dewolf to share this compelling journey with us. Sharon Morgan is a marketing communications consultant and a nationally recognized pioneer in multicultural marketing. An avid genealogist, she is the webmaster for OurBlackAncestry.com and is a founder of the Black Public Relations Society. Thomas Norman DeWolf, author of Inheriting the Trade, is featured in the Emmy-nominated documentary film Traces of the Trade, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and on the acclaimed PBS series POV. DeWolf speaks regularly about healing from the legacy of slavery and racism at conferences and colleges throughout the United States.

    Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ancestor-s-footprints-with-bernice-alexander-bennett--6436157/support.

    You can find Ancestor’s Footprints on Spreaker.com, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music, and many other platforms. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 3 mins