Hey there, it's Stephen Dubner, but this is not an episode of Freakonomics Radio.

It is a special bonus episode of People I Mostly Admire, a show hosted by Steve Levin,

my Freakonomics friend and co-author.

People I mostly admire is one of several shows we now make within the Freakonomics Radio

Network and this episode was so fascinating and important that I didn't want you to miss it.

Levin speaks with all kinds of people on his show, economists and other academics like himself,

but also technologists and athletes, entrepreneurs and explorers.

This conversation is with the documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.

When you're done, you can find more episodes of People I Mostly Admire in your podcast app.

Thanks for listening.

My guest today is the renowned documentary filmmaker Ken Burns.

His epic 11-hour mini-series to Civil War is the most watched show in the history of public

television. He's covered baseball, jazz, the National Park's country music in the Vietnam war,

just to name a few. But I have to say, as much as I enjoyed his earlier work,

nothing he's done has affected me as deeply as his most recent film on the Holocaust.

The film is basically asking at elemental levels, what did we know, what didn't we know,

what should we have known, what did we do, what did we not do, what should we have done.

Welcome to People I Mostly Admire with Steve Levin.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how people learn, and I've become increasingly convinced

that film is the most powerful teaching tool we have. So I'm really looking forward to talking

today with Ken Burns, who has probably taught Americans more about history than anyone else.

Hey Ken, thank you so much for being here. It's an incredible pleasure to talk to you today,

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