Voices of Our Time: The Original Live Interviews

by Studs Terkel, Various (Performer)

From the 1950s through 1997, Louis “Studs” Terkel, bestselling author of Hard Times, Working, The Great War, Coming of Age, and eight other books, hosted a daily one-hour show on WFMT Radio in Chicago. This nationally syndicated, Peabody Award-winning program was an ideal showcase for his curmudgeonly wit, his maverick opinions, and his genius as an interviewer. The 48 interviews in this collection, span Terkel's five decades on radio and encompass a wide range of entertainers, scientists, writers and thinkers, including Dorothy Parker, Pete Seeger, Bob Woodward, Simone de Beauvoir, and many more.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Audiobook, Memoir, American History, Oral History

8 pages, Audio CD

First published March 28, 1999

About the author

Louis "Studs" Terkel was an American author, historian, actor, and broadcaster. He received the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1985 for "The Good War", and is best remembered for his oral histories of common Americans, and for hosting a long-running radio show in Chicago.

Terkel was acclaimed for his efforts to preserve American oral history. His 1985 book "The Good War: An Oral History of World War Two", which detailed ordinary peoples' accounts of the country's involvement in World War II, won the Pulitzer Prize. For "Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression", Terkel assembled recollections of the Great Depression that spanned the socioeconomic spectrum, from Okies, through prison inmates, to the wealthy. His 1974 book, "Working" also was highly acclaimed. In 1995, he received the Chicago History Museum "Making History Award" for Distinction in Journalism and Communications. In 1997, Terkel was elected a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Two years later, he received the George Polk Career Award in 1999.

Reviews

[The Conspiracy is Capitalism · Rating 3 out of 5]

Daydreams from brief glimpses of US culture…

The Missing:
--This audiobook is a collection of live interviews for each decade from the 1950’s to the 1990’s, featuring influential US cultural figures.
--Now, I try to de-prioritize US culture at this point, as US exceptionalism/mass consumerism/Hollywood are already hegemonic in the Western world. However, the interviewer is considered a “maverick”, and numerous guests are on my extended list where they do not have a book I’ll get to immediately but I’m still eager to learn more about them.
--I really enjoy the audio interview format; it brings another layer of texture to hear the speech, to sense the reactions/interactions... The guest selection is 4-stars worthy (with rare live audio going back to the 1950's), but these interviews are criminally brief (mostly less than 10 minutes). This is much closer to those mind-numbing late-night talk show segments, whereas I’m interested in conversations that dive many layers deep. I’ve been listening to podcasts since its birth for its long-form conservations (these days I've moved on to lectures), before it reached mainstream popularity (same goes with film scores).
...At least I got to listen to all their voices and daydream of deeper conversations...

The Good:
1) A Daydream from a Glimpse of Gould:
--Renowned evolutionary biologist/popular science writer Stephen Jay Gould was the guest that brought me to this collection.
--I'll need to take a step back to explain my daydream: my focus has been critical political economy (thus in the social sciences) to understand global division-of-labour, economic crises, wars, and (increasingly) ecological crises. My approach is to uncover structures beneath surface events, which involves systems thinking (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) and a lot of grappling with the interactions between material conditions (materialism) and social imaginations (idealism); I’m trying to avoid using the jargon “dialectical materialism”. So, I’ve been trying to supplement this by improving my understanding of material conditions with applied sciences, especially as I move more towards ecological crises.
…A major barrier starts with the divide between physical sciences and social sciences/humanities, where it's difficult to get someone with critical depth in both realms:
a) Social science misusing “science”: Marx critiqued utopic idealism that neglected material conditions; Marx spent much time synthesizing numerous scientific fields to better understand material conditions. Today, we can turn to science popularizer/medical doctor Ben Goldacre on how business/politicians/media abuse “science” as an opaque source of authority, see (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) and (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).
b) Science misusing “social sciences”: while Marx was impressed with Darwin’s scientific theories, he was critical of Darwin being influenced by social theorist (!) and apologist-for-elites-while-the-poor-can-go-die Thomas Robert Malthus (to unpack Malthus’ population/poverty theory and its legacy, see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). Given the historical privileges often required to be recognized as a “scientist”, it is no surprise the tendency of upper-class bias towards social sciences (i.e. technocracy), despite the seed of Nullius in verba (“on the word of no one”) within the scientific method.
...In Marx’s time, there was much less divide, as “modern science” was not severed from its “natural philosophy” roots; “economics” did not pretend to be a science, as it was called “political economy” and was not severed from “moral philosophy” (ethics; ex. Adam Smith wrote The Theory of Moral Sentiments before he wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations).
...The power of capitalist profit-seeking (= end goal) uses science as a means, with perverse outcomes: control/mass surveillance of human labour in production, sell consumerist addiction/military merchants of death, etc.:

While simple co-operation leaves the mode of working by the individual for the most part unchanged, manufacture thoroughly revolutionises it, and seizes labour-power by its very roots. It converts the labourer into a crippled monstrosity, by forcing his detail dexterity at the expense of a world of productive capabilities and instincts; just as in the States of La Plata they butcher a whole beast for the sake of his hide or his tallow. Not only is the detail work distributed to the different individuals, but the individual himself is made the automatic motor of a fractional operation, and the absurd fable of Menenius Agrippa, which makes man a mere fragment of his own body, becomes realised. If, at first, the workman sells his labour-power to capital, because the material means of producing a commodity fail him, now his very labour-power refuses its services unless it has been sold to capital. Its functions can be exercised only in an environment that exists in the workshop of the capitalist after the sale. By nature unfitted to make anything independently, the manufacturing labourer develops productive activity as a mere appendage of the capitalist’s workshop. As the chosen people bore in their features the sign manual of Jehovah, so division of labour brands the manufacturing workman as the property of capital. [Capital Vol.1, Ch.14 section 5]

…Marx would not accept such a divide:

A critical history of technology would show how little any of the inventions of the eighteenth century are the work of a single individual. As yet such a book does not exist. Darwin has directed attention to the history of natural technology, i.e. the formation of the organs of plants and animals, which serve as the instruments of production for sustaining their life. Does not the history of the productive organs of man in society, of organs that are the material basis of every particular organization of society, deserve equal attention? And would not such a history be easier to compile, since, as Vico says, human history differs from natural history in that we have made the former, but not the latter? Technology reveals the active relation of man to nature, the direct process of the production of his life, and thereby it also lays bare the process of the production of the social relations of his life, and of the mental conceptions that flow from those relations. Even a history of religion that is written in abstraction from this material basis is uncritical. It is, in reality, much easier to discover by analysis the earthly kernel of the misty creations of religion than to do the opposite, i.e. to develop from the actual, given relations of life the forms in which these have been apotheosized. The latter method is the only materialist, and therefore the only scientific one. The weaknesses of the abstract materialism of natural science, a materialism which excludes the historical process, are immediately evident from the abstract and ideological conceptions expressed by its spokesmen whenever they venture beyond the bounds of their own speciality. [Marx, Capital Vol.1, Ch.15 footnote 4, emphases added]

--So, clearly I was mostly daydreaming. Back to Gould, the reason I've wanted to read him is because he is a renowned scientist who is also renowned for his social commentary.
--The Gould interview was mostly about the misinterpretation of Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” (more accurately: success in reproduction), where:
a) The mainstream interpretation made this synonymous with ruthless, individualist competition (convenient for capitalists who want the freedom and legitimization to dispossess and then exploit the dispossessed, while terrified of the dispossessed masses organizing! Gould directly refers to 19th century British colonialism, good man!)...
b) While the other option, cooperation, is omitted by the mainstream interpretation.
...Gould reminds us that Russian theorists like Pyotr Kropotkin countered the elitist “social Darwinism” misuse of Darwin with “mutual aid” cooperation, although Gould takes a middle-ground position regarding nature’s evolution. You can see why I appreciate how Gould, as a scientist, does not just accept status quo social assumptions, but considers critical social sciences (most famously: The Mismeasure of Man), much needed!
--Now, bridging the divide is complicated by Gould’s “Non-overlapping magisterial” proposing a separation between science vs. religion (morality). I have yet to recover from my exhaustion of this topic, as one of the early stars in my self-explorations of social issues (Christopher Hitchens) devolved to focusing on attacking religion (ex. God is Not Great). The “New Atheists” became useful idiots in the context of the post-911 War on Terror, with Hitchens frothing at the mouth (“bomb them back into the Stone Age”) and flipping from his leftist condemnation of imperialists (ex. The Trial of Henry Kissinger) to cheerleading them (i.e. Paul Wolfowitz, lead architect of the Iraq invasion).
...Another early favourite, war journalist/Presbyterian minister Chris Hedges, condemned both the imperialism (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) and the vulgar atheism (I Don't Believe in Atheists); keep in mind Hedges is well-aware of the abuses of religion: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, but understood the greater scale of imperialist divide-and-rule sponsoring terror.
--The anti-imperialism is easy. Personal religion is not my interest or business, while approaching mass religion from critical social sciences is tricky. We can add Marx’s take:

The foundation of irreligious criticism is: Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.

The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness. To call on them to give up their illusions about their condition is to call on them to give up a condition that requires illusions. The criticism of religion is, therefore, in embryo, the criticism of that vale of tears of which religion is the halo. [bold emphases added]

2) Other Fleeting Glimpses:
i) John Kenneth Galbraith: the one political economy giant here. Quite something to listen to a mentor of one of my mentors (Yanis Varoufakis). An actual real-world economist rather than the horde of well-paid ivory-tower propagandists/useful idiots, JKG literally led a team (Office of Price Administration) to set prices for US’s WWII war economy! His thoughts on FDR’s New Deal (to try and crawl out of the Great Depression), capitalists blaming government deficits rather than Wall Street stock market speculative crash, all the while requiring government bailouts… so timeless and priceless (pun intended)!
ii) Bertrand Russell: we all have weird assumptions we cannot fully explain. There’s something about the pose of Russell in pictures that make me think he is ancient, so it was surreal hearing him talk about the existential dangers of the Cold War nuclear arms race. Sadly, today’s conditions may be even worse since the nuclear threat has not abetted while the only alternative to the threat (mass protest) has been neutralized (as the public thinks it’s all been resolved with the end of the Cold War). Do not be that person.
iii) Daniel Ellsberg: …and the best way to stop being that person is read legendary Pentagon Papers whistleblower’s less-known revelations: The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner!
iv) Gore Vidal: when Julian Assange was arrested for publishing US imperialist war crimes, he was carrying Gore Vidal: History of The National Security State, an interview conducted by one of my favorite interviewees Paul Jay: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS...
v) Margaret Mead: interesting to hear a well-known anthropologist consider changes in post-WWII US culture due to the Civil Rights movement/Vietnam War/television; looking forward to Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century.
vi) Bob Woodward: whoa, this is the same author who recently wrote those books on Trump. I mostly avoided the Trump circus (besides from: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). The interview was about Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA 1981-1987, another book to add to the collection:
-Washington Bullets
-The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World
-The Management of Savagery: How America's National Security State Fueled the Rise of Al Qaeda, ISIS, and Donald Trump
-Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions Since World War II
vii) Oliver Sacks: I enjoy having some popular science books on the side, the most serious being Ben Goldacre’s I Think You'll Find It's a Bit More Complicated Than That, which I've been reading every year (8 times and counting). Eventually I’ll get to Sacks.
viii) Barry Lopez: on the relationship between humans and wolves, the use of the Catholic Church dualism and racist use reminds me of Racism as Zoological Witchcraft: A Guide to Getting Out and the fabulous Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation!
ix) James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Isabel Allende: alas, fiction is at the bottom of my list, so I’m glad to at least hear them speak. I’ll probably get to biographies/essays first.
x) Simone de Beauvoir: apparently didn’t experience "women issues" until age 40, upper middle class indeed.
xi) R. Buckminster Fuller: rather technocratic?

[Christine Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the 1950s through 1997, Louis Studs Terkel, bestselling author of Hard Times, Working, The Great War, Coming of Age, and eight other books, hosted a daily one-hour show on WFMT Radio in Chicago. This nationally syndicated, Peabody Award-winning program was an ideal showcase for his curmudgeonly wit, his maverick opinions, and his genius as an interviewer. The 48 interviews in this collection, span Terkel s five decades on radio and encompass a wide range of entertainers, scientists, writers and thinkers, including Dorothy Parker, Pete Seeger, Bob Woodward, Simone de Beauvoir, and many more.



Subjects

Oral history

Interviews

United States -- Intellectual life -- 20th century




Disc 1. Introduction and interviews from the 1950's. Pete Seeger (folk singer, 1955) ; Dorothy Parker (author, poet & critic, 1959) ; Alan Lomax (folk musicologist, 1959) ; Dr. Mortimer J. Adler (historian of philosophy, 1959) -- Introduction and interviews from the 1960's. James Baldwin (author, 1961) ; Gore Vidal (author, 1961) ; Aaron Copland (composer, 1961) ; Mahalia Jackson (gospel singer, 1963) ; Tennessee Williams (playwright, taped in his suite at the Blackstone Hotel, Chicago, 1961) -- Isaac Bashevis Singer (author, 1964) -- Disc 2. R. Buckminster Fuller (architect, designer, inventor & philosopher, 1965) ; Margaret Mead (anthropologist, circa 1965) -- Introduction, three funny men. Woody Allen (filmmaker, taped backstage at Mr. Kelly's, Chicago, 1965) ; Zero Mostel (actor, 1961) ; Mel Brooks (filmmaker, 1968) -- Introduction and interviews from the 1970's. Toni Morrison (author, 1974) ; John Henry Faulk (humorist & storyteller, 1971) ; Andres Segovia (classical guitarist, 1978) ; Daniel Ellsberg (peace activist, 1972).
Disc 3. Dame Margot Fonteyn (prima ballerina, 1979) ; Norman Maclean (author, woodsman & teacher, 1976) ; Wole Soyinka (playwright, 1979) ; Maya Angelou (author & poet, 1970) ; Barry Lopez (environmental author, 1979) -- Introduction, voices recorded in other places. Jacob Bronowski (scientist, taped in London, 1962) ; Simone de Beauvoir (author, taped in her apartment in Paris, 1960) ; Kenneth Tynan (critic, taped at his home in London, 1962) ; Bertrand Russell (mathematician & philosopher, taped in North Wales at the age of 90 during the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962) -- Disc 4. Nadine Gordimer (author, taped in Johannesburg, 1963) -- Introduction & interviews from the 1980's. Leonard Bernstein (conductor & composer, 1985) ; Garry Wills (historian, 1984) ; John Cage (composer, 1982) ; Eudora Welty (with Jane Reid Petty; author with actress, 1989) ; John Kenneth Galbraith (economist, 1987) ; Dr. Oliver Sacks (neurologist, 1986) ; Arthur Miller (playwright, 1987).
Disc 5. Laurie Anderson (performance artist, 1982) ; Bob Woodward (journalist, 1987) ; David Hockney (visual artist, 1984) ; Betty Carter (jazz singer, 1989) -- Introduction & interviews from the 1990's. Stephen Jay Gould (evolutionary biologist, 1991) ; Bill Moyers (filmmaker & journalist, 1993) ; Isabel Allende (author, 1991) -- Disc 6. Garrison Keillor (humorist & author, 1997) ; Robert Hughes (art historian & critic, 1993) ; Robert Altman (director, 1992) ; Ralph Ellison (author, 1992) ; Calvin Trillin (humorist & author, 1990).

Notes: "48 of Studs' most important interviews from the 1950s to the 1990s"--Container.
Compact discs.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One word, incredible. Studs Terkel talking to people, it shouldn't be so powerful but it is. Must listen to this sometime.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting hearing voices of the past. The interviews are portions, apparently, of much longer sessions, and they ranged from dull to inspiring depending on the interviewee. Terkel liked the arts. Many of the early sessions seemed to focus on a downturn of imagination and production by younger lights and to bemoan the future (which thankfully proved false).

[Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of interviews spanning almost 50 years of broadcasting.

[Bug]

The tradition set forth by this excellent interviewer continues today in such journalists as Terry Gross

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are a number of clips from Studs Terkel's interviews on radio station WFMT (the program ran from 1952 to 1997). All sorts of interesting people are interviewed, including writers, composers and jazz singers.

For me, the most interesting topics mentioned in the CDs were the discussions about racial relations, the Watergate scandal and the Reagan administration, and a HUAC (The House Un-American activities Committee) member trying to cut a deal with Arthur Miller to cancel his appointment in front of HUAC if this Congressman could pose with Miller's wife (Marilyn Monroe).

[Rachel N. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of radio interviews Studs Terkel conducted from the 1950's through the 1990's. I found most of the interviews to be interesting though I did tune out on a few of them. I also feel rather uncultured since I hadn't heard of at least half the people he interviewed before listening to this. I found the interview with Bill Moyers and his discussion of death and wounded healers to be very touching.

[Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Studs sings with Pete Seeger, talks with Buckie Fuller, Mahalia Jackson and Stephen Jay Gould. And there are 'round about 5 hours of interviews just as good, if not better. There is just so much here. So much.

[Joy H.]

Added 12/30/12 (audio-version)
In his autobiography, Roger Ebert describes Studs Terkel as an interesting personality. This made me curious about Terkel. So I'd like to learn more about him and his interviews.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I own books of his that I need to read....I was unaware that he was a radio guy...and when I saw this on my library's shelf I had to check it out! It was great......especially Woody Allen...at the beginning of his career!

[Scottsdale Public Library]

My ideal library collection would contain obscure treasures to discover, along with the multiple copies of best sellers. Unfortunately, with budget cuts and shelf space demands, this is not the reality for many public libraries today. So, imagine my delight when I ran across this hidden gem! I recently watched “The House of Tomorrow,” and learned of R. Buckminster Fuller. This in turn lead me to search for anything the library had on Fuller and in the process found this audio collection. I love learning new things, and here I learned of author, historian, actor, and radio personality Studs Terkel. These CDs contain conversations from his show with such notable figures as James Baldwin, Dorothy Parker, and of course Fuller. The conversations were a great listen, ranging on topics from the arts to the evolution of human intellect. And my commute to work was all the better!—Sara Z.