The BG Ideas Podcast features the Director of the Study of Culture and Society (ICS) at Bowling Green State University and other guest speakers as they talks with academics, artists, activists, and other professionals about the amazing interdisciplinary work being done in and around the university to help address social problems for the public good.

You can listen to every episode of BG Ideas from seasons 1–12 on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and we’ve just launched Season 13.

The new season opened on February 4th, 2026 in this episode of BG Ideas, Dr. Rachel Walsh, Associate Teaching Professor of English and International Studies at Bowling Green State University and ICS Faculty Fellow in the fall of 2025, discusses Pat Heartly and Dick Fontaine's recently restored documentary on James Baldwin, I Heard It Through the Grapevine (1982) and how it foreshadows the current backlash to diversity, equity and inclusion. In I Heard It Through the Grapevine, James Baldwin visits the settings of the 1960's civil rights struggle in the south. Join us, as Dr. Walsh explores the power of multiethnic US literature from James Baldwin to Ocean Vuong to resist disenfranchising. Listen to how Dr. Walsh talks about the struggles with traditional literature and the growth of Artificial Intelligence (Al) in literature. 

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