photo: Mary Donohue

NEW BRITAIN, Conn., June 9, 2025 — Connecticut Explored magazine’s award-winning podcast Grating the Nutmeg, the podcast of Connecticut history, has been awarded a $2,450 Connecticut Humanities Quick Grant to support production and promotion of a three-episode podcast series that will uncover significant stories from Connecticut’s LGBTQ+ history. Co-sponsored by Connecticut Explored and Preservation Connecticut, the series, “Connecticut’s LGBTQ+ Icons and Landmarks,” will be released over the summer and fall of 2025 and available to stream on major podcast platforms, including Apple, Spotify, and iHeart. Grating the Nutmeg is hosted and produced by Connecticut historian Mary M. Donohue.

“The Connecticut Humanities Quick Grant enables us to advertise the podcast in venues for which we might not otherwise have the budget. We can expand our audiences this way and make LGBTQ+ history in Connecticut more accessible to more people. It’s exciting to talk about the LGBTQ+ people and places that have had such a huge impact in our communities in ways listeners may never have expected,” said Dr. Kathy Hermes, publisher of Connecticut Explored.

Bloodroot in Bridgeport

Dr. Alan Hart

Podcast topics include Bloodroot, a feminist bookstore, collective, and vegetarian restaurant in Bridgeport; children’s author Maurice Sendak of Ridgefield; and Dr. Alan L. Hart, a physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher, and transgender pioneer of West Hartford.

Jane Montanaro, executive director of Preservation Connecticut, said, “Preservation Connecticut is pleased to sponsor the Grating the Nutmeg ‘LGBTQ+ Icons and Landmarks’ podcast series. Acknowledging and celebrating the contributions and history of this community is important to Preservation Connecticut. Combining our support with that of CT Humanities, an influential statewide partner, ensures that these Connecticut histories are widely shared, discussed, and understood.”

The series will explore new research published by nationally recognized historians and examine the lives of LGBTQ+ community members who have made a difference in Connecticut’s history.

About Connecticut Explored

Connecticut Explored and Grating the Nutmeg are sources of fascinating, often untold, stories of our state’s people, places, and events. We partner with Connecticut’s premier history, arts, and educational organizations to create content and collaborative programming to discuss and debate the whole of Connecticut history, with the aim of revealing connections between our past, present, and future. For more information, visit ctexplored.org.

About Preservation Connecticut

Preservation Connecticut is the statewide nonprofit for historic preservation. It is celebrating 50 years of working to preserve, protect, and promote the buildings, sites, and landscapes that contribute to the heritage and vitality of Connecticut communities. For more information, visit preservationct.org.

About Connecticut Humanities

Connecticut Humanities is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It connects people to the humanities through grants, partnerships, and collaborative programs. Its projects, administration, and program development are supported by state and federal matching funds, community foundations, and gifts from private sources.

For more information, visit cthumanities.org.