I think the whole American question is where do you want to live in Bedford Falls or Pottersville?

You know, in Frank Capra's wonderful movie with Jimmy Stewart, it's a wonderful life.

And for me, the choice has been simple my entire life since I saw that

film. I want to live in Bedford Falls. I don't want to live in Pottersville.

Hi there, everyone. Welcome to the Best People podcast. The Best People podcast is about people like

this week's guest, where being a best person doesn't begin to capture what he

really is to the country, to me, to our daily broadcast, to our understanding of who we are

as Americans and as humans. I think that I will muck this up if I go on much further. So without

any further ado, this is the best people, and this is Ken Burns. Thank you so

much for being here. Thank you. The feeling is mutual best person. I don't ever feel like I've

climbed a mountain worth pounding my chest about, but when I first

had access to your email address, I did feel like I had arrived.

No.

Well, I mean, I think that what you create is anthropological, is historical, but is above everything else, just the electricity of the human

experience. And I wonder if you see it that way, if you set out to do that, and why you think

that matters now more than ever? Well, I'm happy that you said anthropological. I'm the son of an

anthropologist, and I thought I was

diverting pretty far away from what I thought would be my chosen field. My father put no pressure on me.

I've understood pretty early that history was a powerful teacher, and the problem was saying

teacher is that it sounds then pedagogic and didactic and there's a test on

Tuesday but history is mostly made up of the word story and so I'm happy to say that I decided to

become a storyteller in film but I at one point I remember typing a letter and that I wrote that I

...