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New York Times
24-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
5 Podcasts That Revisit the Past Through Oral Histories
When the term oral history first came into use, the oral aspect referred to the way information was collected — a historian or researcher would conduct interviews with people with firsthand knowledge of a particular event, then collate those accounts, usually into a written form. Such was the case with 'Division Street: America,' a landmark 1967 book by Studs Terkel, which explored the lives of some 70 Chicago residents as a microcosm of a divided country. More than 50 years on, that oral history has been updated in audio form. Here's a primer on 'Division Street: Revisited,' along with four other podcasts in a similar format. 'Division Street Revisited' For Melissa Harris, a former Chicago Tribune journalist, returning to the stories that Terkel told in 'Division Street' has been a passion project 15 years in the making. When she discovered that Terkel's archived tape recordings had been digitized, podcasting was on the rise, and the format was an obvious fit. The result is 'Division Street Revisited,' which continues the stories of seven of the book's Chicagoans through interviews with family members and friends (since the subjects themselves were no longer alive). In the spirit of Terkel's original work, Harris and Mary Schmich, her fellow executive producer, focused on people whose stories speak to larger cultural issues. One episode spotlights a gay actor who lived in fear of his family finding out about his sexuality; another, a Native American who moved to Chicago from the reservation and became a pioneer for Native culture in the city. Starter episode: 'Myra Alexander: Never Too Old to Be Free' 'Fiasco: Iran-Contra' This historical series is a spiritual successor to the long-running Slate podcast 'Slow Burn,' chronicling pivotal moments in American history through interviews with people who witnessed it. The host, Leon Neyfakh, who worked on the first two seasons of 'Slow Burn' before departing to start 'Fiasco,' has said that his guiding principle is to approach broad political history through emotionally rich personal stories. In this way, each season of Fiasco reframes a seemingly well-known chapter of history through the recollections of dozens of key players, beginning with the early years of the AIDS epidemic in its first season. The most recent installment explores the Iran-contra scandal, when senior officials in the Reagan administration violated an arms embargo for Iran with the intention of financing anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua. Through deftly woven interviews, this complex and multifaceted saga becomes not just easy to follow, but also impossible to stop listening to. Starter episode: 'Get Me Kevin Kattke' 'Making Gay History' The decade-old nonprofit Making Gay History — founded to remedy a lack of substantive LGBTQ+ history in classrooms and mainstream discourse — and the podcast of the same name are offshoots of the celebrated 1992 book, 'Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990,' by the journalist Eric Marcus. Drawing inspiration from Terkel's work, Marcus chronicled the lives of key figures in the queer civil rights movement, conducting interviews with people like the playwright Larry Kramer, the transgender activist Marsha P. Johnson and the National Football League player David Kopay, among the first professional athletes to come out as gay. Across more than 150 episodes, the 'Making Gay History' podcast features digitized excerpts from these alongside equally compelling interviews with lesser-known figures. Marcus occasionally shifts from host to subject, as in the ninth season, in which he talks about coming of age at the dawn of the AIDS epidemic. Starter episode: 'Sylvia Rivera — Part 1' 'Witness History' This podcast from the BBC World Service delivers on a simple premise — 'history told by the people who were there' — but does so in a snappy, bite-size format that sets it apart from most lengthy oral histories. Each episode is just 10 minutes, and unspools a single archival eyewitness account of a memorable chapter in 20th and 21st century history. Many episodes focus on tragic or dramatic incidents like the final days of Hitler before he killed himself in 1945, as told by his secretary, and the 1972 Andes plane crash as told by a survivor. Others explore cultural turning points like the 1995 launch of Windows 95, or the publication of a landmark novel like 'Lord of the Flies.' No matter the subject, the firsthand accounts always make for compelling listening. Starter episode: 'Oklahoma City Bombing' 'Cold War Conversations' A treasure trove of personal narratives that flesh out what life was really like on either side of the Iron Curtain power this richly detailed series. Ian Sanders, the host and producer, has evident passion for his subject, and began the series in 2018 as a way to gather and preserve as many human stories from the Cold War as possible. Over more than 400 episodes, he's interviewed a vast array of soldiers, spies, defectors and everyday civilians who had to navigate life in the Eastern Bloc. Listening to even one episode of 'Cold War Conversations' will make this sprawling, potentially intimidating period of history feel vivid and compelling. Starter episode: 'Gillian — A US Student Visiting Cold War East Germany'
Forbes
07-05-2025
- General
- Forbes
The Good War: Why V-E Day Mustn't Be Forgotten
There's a civic duty to share the memory of great national achievements like V-E Day. (Photo by ... More European/FPG/) Getty Images May 8 marks the 80th anniversary of 'V-E Day'; when the Nazi forces surrendered to the Allies and brought the European portion of World War II to a close. It is a critical date in American - and world - history. Yet with the passage of both time, and of 'The Greatest Generation' which fought the war, its memory is fading in public awareness and gratitude. And that's a shame. For V-E Day represents the ultimate triumph of good versus evil. A fractious yet dedicated collection of nations allied to defeat perhaps the greatest manifestation of state-sponsored iniquity in history. It came with great cost, and followed with great change. Some among us may have a rudimentary awareness of the fight ('We were the good guys; they were the really bad guys.'). But as a recent The Washington Post opinion notes, many lack awareness of the ultimate significance of what Studs Terkel labeled 'The Good War': A Global Conflict : For almost six years, the battle encompassed virtually half the globe; from the ice of Archangel harbor to the warm waters of the South Atlantic; from the skies over London to the steppes of western Russia. While the security of the American mainland was never breached, the normalcy of its culture was most certainly so. From the Ashes : The Allied effort included forces from several countries that had been conquered by the Nazis; e.g., France, Belgium, Holland, Greece and Poland. Britain itself was nearly brought to its knees in the early part of the war. A Close Call : Although the war began in September 1939, the Allies' turning point didn't arrive until 1943 in North Africa, and victory was not assured until the December 1944 Battle of the Bulge. The Cold War : The grand alliance quickly dissipated after victory, as the Soviet Union converted eastern Europe behind what Churchill described in 1946 as an 'Iron Curtain.' Old Enemies, New Friends : Germany and Italy rebuilt, with help from the Marshall Plan; converted from authoritarian to democratic rule; joined NATO and became for many years staunch allies and trading partners of the United States. Incomparable Leadership : The victory was achieved in part by the efforts of an historically exceptional quintet of leaders: Churchill, Roosevelt, Eisenhower, Marshall and, yes, Stalin. A Virtuous Cause : It was a war fought not for territorial gain but rather to eradicate evil. Supreme Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower described it as a 'Great Crusade' — 'the free men of the world marching together in a great and noble undertaking.' The original V-E Day prompted an incredible release of national emotion; a joyous sense of closure to an extraordinary threat to America. Harry Truman described it as 'a solemn and a glorious hour'. It was a remarkable moment in time; celebrated by people who longed for peace; by soldiers who longed to live; by the oppressed, who longed for freedom; and for nations, which longed for hope. Our national heritage is diminished should the date's significance fade with time. In his Farewell Address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan warned of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. 'If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are.' But those who lived through, and taught us about V-E Day - our fathers, our uncles, our grandfathers, our neighbors - are no longer around to help teach others. That's now up to us, and it's important that we do so.
The Guardian
09-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Is This Working? by Charlie Colenutt review – labours of love in unexpected places
A little over 50 years ago, the American broadcaster Studs Terkel published an oral history based on interviews with 133 workers across the US. This was a time of automation and global competition, a new era of enormous change, and Terkel wanted to discover how the world of work might offer ordinary people a sense of purpose; of what he described as 'daily meaning as well as daily bread'. What he discovered is that there were people doing 'good' jobs, sometimes performed with grace and beauty – the piano tuner, for example, the stone mason, the firefighter – but that most workers were trying merely to survive the day. As one of his interviewees told him: 'Most of us… have jobs that are too small for our spirit.' Terkel's book – whose full title is Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do – later spawned a Broadway musical, a graphic novel and then a Netflix series presented by Barack Obama. Now it has inspired an examination of the world of work in the UK in the 2020s; one that is again based upon extensive interviews, across a landscape that has largely been deindustrialised. This too is published at a time when the workplace is being revolutionised, this time by artificial intelligence. In his book, Charlie Colenutt aims, like Terkel, to discover the ways in which our employment can nourish us, or leave us drained. As in the US half a century ago, many people seem to suffer the latter. A panel beater says he aches all the time and has too little time for his children; a chef says most of his colleagues are alcoholics or drug addicts; an accountant laments the loneliness of working from home during lockdown: 'I know everyone's on LinkedIn posting a picture of their coffee with their dog at their feet, sun shining through the kitchen window. It looks like you're having a nice morning but what are you like at 6pm when it's gloomy and you haven't spoken to anyone all day?' Even a derivatives trader, paid a vast fortune in the City while still in his 20s, endures existential disquiet: 'I struggle to see the point of my job. I think it doesn't really need to be done. It basically serves only to make myself and my company's shareholders richer. I'm totally checked-out, to be honest.' While Terkel heard frequently how gruelling manual labour could be – 'strictly muscle work', as one steel mill employee put it – most of Colenutt's 68 interviewees work in the service economy, and he encounters many complaints about mushrooming bureaucracy. A midwife says that whenever she gives an expectant mother a back massage, she must fill in a form. A childminder has three filing cabinets in her kitchen – 'and that's before you go to my attic'. A construction site manager has 1,600 unread emails in his inbox. A church minister in Northern Ireland says he has less and less time to study his Bible, as 'an awful lot of ministry today is like being an administrator'. In this way, occupations that looked very different a generation ago are now coming to resemble one another. They also entail similarly increased workloads. A lawyer usually sends her last email at 2.30am. A primary school teacher, who was previously a soldier, says: 'There were some tough times in the army, but I've never felt under more pressure. I've probably cried in front of my headteacher more than anyone else in my life. It was far less stressful in Afghanistan.' Colenutt believes that the mountains of paperwork are being generated by organisations' fears of failure: of being sued or publicly criticised by a regulator. As a consequence, workers are doing less of their actual work, instead spending their time inputting data, writing reports and ticking boxes. Morale is sapped and staff turnover rises. But he finds too that the joy and pride of work can be found in unexpected places. A food delivery rider says he is often exhausted and occasionally very wet, but that he loves cycling around London. 'It's a chance to see the sights. I've crossed Tower Bridge a hundred times. You feel a freedom on the bike. You are not strapped to a desk. That's the best thing.' A cleaner knows she is making a difference in her clients' lives and says: 'I get a real sense of fulfilment when I look back at a room I've cleaned. I think, oh yeah, lovely.' Perhaps one of the most satisfied workers in Colenutt's book is a joiner, who employs one apprentice and who finds that the work he delivers, and the training he gives, results in a life of deep contentment. 'I don't want a fleet of 10 vans,' he says. 'I don't want to be on a million pounds a year. I don't want to be any higher than I am. I'm happy. Everything's balanced nicely, work, social life, family, gym, and still time for other things. 'I know that what balances can easily topple over, but if that happens, I'll deal with it.' Ian Cobain is the author of Anatomy of a Killing (Granta, £10.99) Is This Working?: The Jobs We Do, Told by the People Who Do Them by Charlie Colenutt is published by Picador (£20). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at Delivery charges may apply
Boston Globe
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
COVID broke our hearts, and revealed a broken country. Can we build something better?
Advertisement The individual stories Jones recounts in the book are bolstered by the voices of authors and thinkers past and present, from journalists like Studs Terkel to fiction writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, all of whose work questions American capitalism and its effects on human beings. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Well before COVID in this country, we'd already become accustomed to a certain level of preventable illness and death,' Jones says. 'COVID just brought that reality briefly to the fore.' Even as our political moment may cause fear or anger, Jones says, doom is not helpful. 'I have to remain hopeful because what's the alternative? Do you just give up on the country, give up on [solving] poverty, give up on working-class people?' 'The way our political economy works now is not the way that it has to work in the future,' Jones says, adding that she hopes the book will encourage readers 'to think about more humane possibilities. I want people to think more seriously about issues like single-payer health care and why we don't have that in the United States, but so many of our peer countries [do],' she says. 'Things could look different.' Sarah Jones will read at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 26, at . Advertisement And now for a few recommendations … Christina Rivera Garza won the Pulitzer for 'Liliana's Invincible Summer,' her memoir about the quest to bring justice, or at least remembrance, to her sister who had been killed by an abusive former partner. In ' On a lighter note, a new romance from Linda Holmes is always a pleasure. In ' Andrea Barrett has won all the prizes for her fiction, and deservedly so. In her new book, ' Another work of nonfiction from a fiction writer is Omar El Akkad's ' Kate Tuttle, a freelance writer and critic, can be reached at
Chicago Tribune
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Laura Washington: Studs Terkel had a quality today's Democrats so sorely need
Studs Terkel. It's a big name with a huge past. Terkel left us in 2008 at the age of 96 but left behind accolades that abide today. The latest Terkel homage is a podcast series launched last month by former Tribune journalists Mary Schmich and Melissa Harris. (Harris now is CEO of a Chicago-based marketing agency, M. Harris and Co.) The project expands on 'Division Street: America,' Terkel's oral history that chronicled the Chicago of the 1960s. In the seven-part series, 'Division Street Revisited,' Pulitzer Prize winner Schmich examines the lives of seven everyday people Terkel interviewed for the book, which is named after the Chicago thoroughfare. It is an apt and timely effort. No one has emerged to succeed him as the quintessential Chicago media icon, but his legacy remains. Terkel was born a New Yorker in 1912, but his family changed towns and landed in Chicago when he was 10 years old. He grew up in a Near North Side rooming house and evolved into many things: writer, historian, broadcaster, political analyst, labor commentator and all-around one-of-a-kind character. The prolific author told the stories of the working class in his 1974 classic, 'Working,' interviewing workers of all types and stripes. He won the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for his epic World War II oral history, 'The Good War.' Terkel's tales were as colorful as the ubiquitous red socks he sported. His life and stories offer lessons at a time when the nation's Democrats have lost voters and lost the presidential election. Terkel could have warned them. He had the quality today's Democrats so sorely need. He spoke authentically in the language that the working classes of America understood and embraced. When you heard from Studs, you always wanted more. He spoke to those at the grassroots who mattered. In telling their stories, he did not patronize them; rather, he elevated them. He toiled in the American tradition of supporting the underdogs who never have the resources or connections to smooth out the rough patches of life. He never put blue-collar workers on pedestals like so many on the political left. Terkel reached out to them, listened to them and shared their stories, warts and all. His cigar-filtered, crackling voice was singular, in his decades of interviews that were broadcast on WFMT-FM 98.7. He was the unofficial spokesperson for Chicago, 'the City of the Big Shoulders.' He was a national star but never left those roots. His credentials were his conversations with people famed and regular. He had his ear to the ground. Journalists followed him tirelessly. Terkel was a go-to for me and countless others here and around the world. If you wrote about Chicago, you had to check in with him to get the lowdown on our people and history, through his quirkily wise insights. I was fortunate to know and spend time with him. Whenever we talked, he would reflect on the importance of learning from history. We have forgotten our history, he would say. Americans, he would declare, suffer from 'national Alzheimer's disease.' In Terkel's heyday, working in Chicago was a different place than the industrial powerhouse that dominated the dawn of his life. Chicago poet Carl Sandburg once wrote, was the 'Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler; Stormy, husky, brawling, City of the Big Shoulders.' That was Terkel's milieu. He was always harking back to these chapters of Chicago history, nostalgic for a simpler, bygone era. Upton Sinclair's tale of the old Chicago stockyards, 'The Jungle,' had been in circulation for six years by the time Terkel was born. Sandburg's poem 'Chicago' was published two years after Terkel came into the world. Chicagoans are working today, but their livelihoods have changed. A city that was once Black and white now enjoys an intensely varied ethnic mix. When you tell the story of this city, you tell it through our outstanding storytellers, who are much more likely to be Black or Latino or Asian. Chicago is now a much more fractured place, split between so many lines that fail to capture diversity and the drama. Nailing the ethos and ecosystem of a big city is no easy feat. Terkel did, yet he was an eternal optimist. Finding an open window in the psyche of a challenged Chicago is tricky. The 'Division Street' series, Schmich said, aims to explore how the lives of Terkel's ordinary people 'can give us perspective on our lives today.'
