4.5 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2023
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
When it was completed in 1931, the Empire State Building became the tallest building in the world. While it has long been surpassed, it is still one of the most recognised skyscrapers on the planet, synonymous with the city in which it stands. Its imposing but elegant art deco design, a tribute to the roaring ’20s from which it came. Carol Willis, author of Form Follows Finance: The Empire State Building, tells Don how it became a monument to the golden age of the skyscraper.
Produced by Benjie Guy. Mixed by Joseph Knight. Senior Producer: Charlotte Long.
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0:00.0 | Greetings all. All. Welcome to another episode of American History Hit. |
0:14.0 | Actually, I'm pleased to say today marks our 50th episode, which in the broader business of |
0:20.6 | podcasting isn't saying all that much. |
0:23.0 | There's How to Feed Your Feline Podcasts, |
0:25.7 | with numbers we'll never touch. |
0:27.8 | But it's a real milestone for us. |
0:29.8 | You might be surprised what a strenuous effort |
0:31.9 | this is to make happen. We're a transatlantic pod, producers |
0:36.1 | and editors over there in London, and me here in New York. Selecting history subjects we hope |
0:41.5 | you'll find compelling, |
0:43.1 | booking guests who tell good stories, |
0:45.4 | all of it quick as a dickens, |
0:46.7 | turning around episodes in about a week |
0:48.9 | and sometimes a matter of days. |
0:50.8 | Results, I must say, have been great. |
0:53.5 | Our audience grows every week, every month. |
0:56.4 | It's really been astonishing. |
0:58.0 | Humbling, even. |
0:59.7 | I've said it many times on this podcast, on television, in print. I am not an historian. I can't even |
1:06.3 | pretend. An historian practices a studied craft, researching subject matter and primary source materials, gathering data in dusty archives, |
1:16.4 | understanding context, footnoting, me I do none of that. |
1:21.2 | I'm intended to be the eyes and ears of an every man and woman audience. |
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