Hear about the Watertown Police Chief’s unusual childhood, the library director’s career in books and libraries, and about a dancer/scientist in their conversations with Watertown podcast host Matt Hanna.
In “Little Local Conversations,” discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. Hanna has conversations with various businesses owners, community leaders, creatives, and other interesting folks in Watertown to learn about what they do and get to know a bit about the people behind the work.
Justin Hanrahan
Meet Justin Hanrahan! He’s the Police Chief here in Watertown. In our conversation we get into his unconventional childhood and how the Watertown community was important in getting him through it, his early experiences in policing from protecting “boothies” to a career defining moment that instilled in him that policing is much more than just catching criminals, his rise through the ranks in Watertown and the shift in culture he’s been a part of, his impact in teaching and training departments all over the state, the changes he’s enacted in his time as chief and the programs and initiatives he’s looking forward to in the future.
Listen to the episode by clicking here: https://www.littlelocalconversations.com/episodes/episode-41-justin-hanrahan-watertown-police-chief
Kim Hewitt
Meet Kim Hewitt! She’s the Director of the Watertown Free Public Library. In this conversation we chat about her early experiences with books and libraries, her career journey from leading oral history projects to helping people search for unique news stories from the late 1800s, some behind the scenes on how the library processes materials and thinks about larger values such as access to information, privacy, and censorship, then we finish with some updates such as what’s going on with the cafe, One Book One Watertown, and the patron survey that’s wrapping up at the end of January.
Listen to the episode by clicking here: https://www.littlelocalconversations.com/episodes/episode-42-kim-hewitt-director-of-the-watertown-free-public-library
Swati Biswas
Meet Swati Biswas! She’s a scientist, dancer, and arts advocate here in Watertown. We chat about her origins with the arts, what led her to seek out supporting artists in India while bringing their skills to folks here to learn (and the challenges of working with people on the other side of the world), we scratch the surface of the innovative natural methods of art creation in traditional Indian art forms (burned your rice? make it into black pigment!), the story of the women artists her advocacy is helping, and we wrap up with her connections to the Watertown community.
Listen to the episode by clicking here: https://www.littlelocalconversations.com/episodes/episode-43-swati-biswas-artsy-way-of-life
Creative Chats
Don’t miss the first Creative Chats, a new series from Hanna and featured Watertown’s Public Arts and Culture Planner Liz Helfer, who is also a sculptor.
Creative Chats was recorded at the Mosesian Center for the Arts. Listen to learn more and hear the conversation with Liz on the topic of where the boundary between art as lifestyle and art as business lives by clicking here: https://www.littlelocalconversations.com/episodes/creative-chats-with-guest-liz-helfer
Find out more about Little Local Conversations and listen to prior episodes at: https://www.littlelocalconversations.com/