A Conversation w/ Ken Burns (#191 Rebroadcast)

The Road to Now

Benjamin Sawyer

Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2023

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ken Burns joins Bob and Ben for a conversation about American history and the themes he sees playing out in the US today. Ken shares his process for selecting subjects for his films and explains how his new 3-part film Hemingway (co-directed w/ Lynn Novick) highlights Ernest Hemingway's individual genius while also revealing the universal aspects of life that we all share. We also discuss how our time and place influence the way we view the past, the importance of acknowledging both the light and dark in American history, and why Ken argues that much of life's meaning comes from the struggle.

Ken Burns' new film Hemingway, which he co-directed with Lynn Novick, premieres April 5-7 on PBS. For more on the series visit https://kenburns.com/hemingway/

UNUM is a new site by Ken Burns and PBS that allows users "a new way to explore American history through select scenes from across our over 40 films" with the goal of "providing historical context for the conversations we are having today." You can visit UNUM at: https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/unum

You can follow Ken Burns on twitter at @KenBurns

This episode is a rebroadcast of RTN #191, which originally aired on February 15, 2021.

This episode was edited by Gary Fletcher.

We're happy to share a clip from our friends at Southern Songs and Stories!

This episode of The Road to Now features a clip from Southern Songs and Stories, a podcast hosted by our friend Joe Kendrick at WNCW. Listen after the credits to hear a portion of "The Shelton Laurel Massacre, Part One: The Past That Would not Die." You can hear the full episode on Apple Music, Spotify, or on any podcast player where you get The Road to Now.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ben Sawyer and this is The Road to Now. Good people, today we are sharing one of the all-time
0:10.5	favorite episodes here on The Road to Now. It is our conversation with the legend, Ken Burns.
0:16.8	So much wisdom from this man. Just a little backstory. Bob and I went to record with him.
0:20.9	We thought we had 30 minutes.
0:22.4	He pushed his schedule back.
0:24.0	We ended up speaking with him for an hour.
0:26.2	And what follows is the core of that conversation.
0:29.4	A few of the earlier references that are kind of dated or cut out.
0:32.3	But we talk about his documentary on Ernest Hemingway, how storytelling works.
0:37.4	And he shares some of that great
0:39.2	gratitude, I think Bob and I have and share with him about just how remarkable it is we get
0:45.0	to live in this American experiment. I hope you guys who haven't heard this, have your minds blown
0:50.1	as much as we did talking to him. If you have heard it before, I'll just say, if you listen to
0:55.0	this, it's going to make your day better. I've listened to it a couple times afterwards. I love
0:59.9	the man. This week, we're also sharing some love with our friend Joe Kendrick over at WNCW. He
1:05.8	produces a podcast called Southern Songs and Stories. He makes a show that I think a lot of our
1:10.4	listeners would really enjoy and in the interest
1:12.9	of trying to put good podcasts in front of our listeners and help out people who are doing
1:17.7	good work at other podcasts.
1:19.2	We're not only giving this shout out here to Joe in the intro.
1:22.5	We're also sharing a direct link to one episode in particular that we think you guys will like. It's right there in the
1:28.8	episode description for this episode. It's on the Shelton Laurel Massacre, a crazy moment in
	...

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