The Keepers—With Host Frances McDormand

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 December 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Keepers, from The Kitchen Sisters and PRX with host, Academy Award-winning actress Frances McDormand. Stories of activist archivists, rogue librarians, curators, collectors and historians. Guardians of history, large and small. Protectors of the free flow of information and ideas. Keepers of the culture and the culture and collections they keep.

In this hour Henri Langlois’ legendary Cinémathéque in Paris, The Keeper of the National Archives, Nancy Pearl: the first librarian action figure, The Dark Side of the Dewey Decimal System and stories of Prince’s epic vault in Minneapolis and the Lenny Bruce Archive.

Transcript

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0:00.0	RadioTopia. Welcome to the Kitchen Sisters present.
0:04.0	From PRX. We're The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson, and Nikki Silva.
0:09.0	This is Nikki of the Kitchen Sisters, and it's the Radiotopia Fall fundraiser, the network that makes the stories we produce possible.
0:19.0	The Kitchen Sisters tagline mantra has always been
0:22.9	building community through storytelling. And it seems more meaningful and urgent than ever before right now.
0:29.4	We need models and inspiration and hope. And the stories that all of the Radiotopia producers
0:35.7	produce help move us in that positive direction.
0:39.5	We've seen attacks on journalism and attacks on public media and art and museums and libraries,
0:45.2	all the things we care for, all the things that have supported us throughout the years.
0:50.5	Through thick and thin, Radiotopia and our community have supported our work.
0:56.0	So today we're asking you to contribute to Radiotopia.
0:59.3	It's a tax-deductible contribution because they're non-profit.
1:03.2	They're focused on putting revenue back into the hands of creators,
1:07.4	like the kitchen sisters, like the memory palace.
1:10.5	Everything is alive, ear hustle,
1:12.9	hang up, the heart, home cooking. There are so many of them. Go check it out at
1:17.7	Radiotopia.fm. By making a donation to Radiotopia, you're lifting all of us.
1:23.5	Donate today at Radiotopia.fm slash donate. Thanks so much. Your contribution goes very, very far.
1:36.5	Today, the Kitchen Sisters present stories from the Keepers, hosted by Francis McDormann.
1:44.0	Prince's epic vault in Minneapolis.
1:46.0	A plan was to make a proper vault in the basement of Paisley Park Studios.
1:51.0	And we did. That was the baby vault.
	...

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