Almost four years ago, the Bismarck Human Relations Committee launched a podcast to bring Bismarck residents together. Over 80 episodes later, These Are Your Neighbors is one of our most popular programs. In the spirit of being good neighbors, we thought we would introduce you to the hosts behind the podcast and some good news!
The Human Relations Committee is an advisory committee for the city of Bismarck that promotes inclusivity and diversity. Throughout the year, they sponsor events, host Community Conversations, and give out an annual Humanitarian Award. “Now we have three different categories, youth, adult, and organization. People can nominate someone who really is a true humanitarian,” says Sargianna Wutzke, member of the Committee and one of the hosts of These Are Your Neighbors.
Sargianna joined the committee in 2020. She joked that the first year shouldn’t count due to the Covid-19 event restrictions. She joined to be more involved in the community, a similar reason as her co-host, Thea Jorgensen. “The mission of the HRC really just spoke to me.” When the idea of a podcast was brought up, they both jumped for a chance to host. It had actually been a bucket list item for both of them. Sargianna said, “I think we would have duked anyone out. So we both agreed that we could co host it, and I think that’s the best thing, because we bring way different things.”
And so the podcast began! Like anything, it took a while for them to get their footing. “Don’t listen to our first podcast,” Thea told me. The two laughed while telling me about having hand signals and sticking to a rigged script. “We are more comfortable kind of going off the cuff now.”
The show has introduced listeners to dozens of influential people from Bismarck. I asked who their most surprising guests have been and they couldn’t even narrow it down to a couple of names “my favorite type of guest are ones that come in that were like either like, like, oh, this is gonna be boring, because we don’t really know anything, but just ones where we learn things along the way.” And there have been many; Carl Young, Commissioner Risch, Dana Henry, Megan Carranza, and Dan Eastgate to name a few. “One of my favorite guests, and I think Thea really was thrown off by him, too, is Robert Fuller. He’s a teacher at Wachter and he does power lifting, like professionally. And I’m like, I’m not going to like this. Oh, exact opposite. He’s all about being the leader and leadership and how he’s impacted kids is amazing.”
Who would they still love to have on the show? “We would both really love to have Governor Armstrong on.”
"I think people are drawn to the program because we have amazing people in Bismarck that are doing amazing things. I mean, this recent fire is a great example of like watching your community come together. " - Thea Jorgensen
And we are happy to share that Thea and Sargianna are bringing the show to your TVs as well! You will soon be able to watch These Are Your Neighbors on our community channel.
Before I let them leave, I had to throw their own question back at them. What makes a good neighbor?
Thea’s answer referred back to a conversation we had at the beginning of our talk. “The first year, what was the saying that so many people said? The one from that show. And I’m like, what is happening? Yeah. Is there an inside joke??” She recalled a short while later, “It is a whole Whitman quote, but it made famous by Ted Lasso.” The quote that everyone and Thea answered was “Be curious, not judgmental.”
Sargianna kept it simple, giving me just two words, kindness and grace.
New episodes of These Are Your Neighbors air on Radio Access every other Tuesday at 10am. Listen anytime online and stay tuned for airtimes of the first video episode!