Hello, and welcome to this podcast introduction today's program, Ken Burns and the Buffalo Documentary.

I was a Jefferson pretender, my first character, and I had the chance to perform around the country for the 250th birthday of Jefferson in 1983.

One of Ken Burns producers was at an event I did at the Opera House in San Francisco, along with a number of other people, including the great Gary Wills of Northwestern.

She encouraged Ken Burns to include me in the Jefferson documentary, which he did. I was a historical advisor. That's why I first met my friend, Joseph Ellis, long time ago in 1996, in 1997.

We've been friends ever since, and never more so than now. So I went to Walpole, where Ken Burns lives and works, and was interviewed. I was a nervous wreck, of course.

I was a big figure in that film, and then I was in the National Parks, and I got to play a really important role in that one.

And then I was in Theodore Roosevelt, and then I was in Benjamin Franklin, and that's the only one I've ever studied for, trained for.

Now in the Buffalo film, and I think in a small way, at least in his film on the American Revolution, which is coming out in 2026.

I've been so fortunate that he's called upon me in this way, and fighting above my weight, because Ken Burns can call it absolutely anybody, and interview them, and that he's allowed me to be in his films.

He's really one of the great, one of the deepest satisfaction of my whole life and career.

I have essentially unlimited respect for Ken Burns, which is obvious. He's America's documentary filmmaker.

Now I'm waiting to see how much I'm in the Bison film, not much I'm thinking, but some people who've seen it have said that I'm a significant talking head in it.

I'm in the 32nd trailer, so that's good news. It means I'm in it somewhere, but you never know until you actually see the film.

So I'll be watching on October 16th and 17th, and eager to see if I am a credit to my life in the humanities, or just to slot A, slot C, slot D.

Anyway, so David Horton, who's a frequent guest host on this program, he's an administrator at Radford University.

He's much interested in the future of pedagogy, but also AI, artificial intelligence.

He is host, and he asked me a whole series of questions about my own interest in the Buffalo.

The best way to see Buffalo in North Dakota is to go out to one of the two units in North or South of

Theodore Roosevelt National Park. In fact, I'm leaving first thing in the morning to go to T.R. National Park, the North

Unit, to spend part of the weekend there. In the air stream, Jane, now I'm still learning my ways with it.

So I'm excited about that, and I know that I'll see Buffalo. They may walk through the campground, which would be typical and kind of wonderful.

They're, they're placid creatures. They're not like grizzly bears where, you know, they might just attack you.

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