WRCT: a radio station

This week on Forbes Avenue, we aired an interview with Samuel Lemley, Director of CMU’s Posner Center For Special Collections, in which he introduced us to the Center’s new location, discussed upcoming exhibitions and events, and explained the significance of the collection.

We toured the Posner Center’s current exhibition, Rare Books & Ancestral Machines, and discovered an Enigma cipher device from World War II; an excerpt from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, originally titled Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, that mocked 18th Century fascination with technology; a 17th Century Japanese guide to using an abacus; and other fascinating rare books and devices that are precursors to contemporary ideas and devices.

We also learned that working with original books, publications, objects, papers, and artwork can lead a student or a researcher to make fascinating discoveries about the work and the time the work was originally published.

Finally, Lemley reminded us that the UK Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, is coming to the Posner Center at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28, to give a lecture on Shakespearean sonnets and language and their effect on contemporary poetry. CMU’s copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays (1623) will be on display at the event.

Listen to the interview: Samuel Lemley

Credits:
Abriana Bensch, interviewer, researcher
Richard Gordon, interviewer, researcher, audio engineer, audio editor
Recorded: April 8, 2026
WRCT debut: April 14, 2026

This week on Forbes Avenue, we visited the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse. The Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse is a nonprofit that operates a store that accepts donations of used art and craft supplies, and sells them so that they can have a second life.

Executive Director Cammie Brady and Creative Manager Lia Kowalski took us on a tour through the shop floor and the warehouse to see what the Center for Creative Reuse has to offer. We also discussed their community outreach and art programs, as well as the joy of using unconventional art materials. Tune in to hear a conversation that will spark your creativity!

Listen to us tour the Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse here.

Riona Duncan, host, researcher, audio engineer, audio editor
Abriana Bensch, host, researcher

This week on Forbes Avenue, we aired a March 4 interview with Matt Jordan, Lead Community Organizer at Casa San José, an agency that supports Pittsburgh’s Latino community.

We talked about some of the issues immigrants face when confronted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Jordan compared ICE activities in Pittsburgh with their activities in other cities, and he discussed at length what Casa San José staff members do to help people at risk and what Casa San José volunteers do to help. We also discussed, in a non-lawerly way, how ICE activities may or may not be legal and how ICE activities are sometimes aimed at intimidating whole neighborhoods.

In the course of the conversation, Jordan mentioned several agencies or initiatives that can help people with Immigration issues:

• Jewish Family And Community Services
• The Islamic Center Of Pittsburgh
• PA Immigrant Family Unity Project (PAIFUP)
• Pennsylvania Immigration Resource Center (PIRC)
• Casa San José immigration hotline: (412) 736-7167.

Listen to the interview: Matt Jordan, Casa San Jose

Credits:
Abriana Bensch, interviewer, researcher
Richard Gordon, interviewer, researcher, audio engineer, audio editor
Recorded: March 4, 2026
WRCT Debut: March 24, 2026