Lives of the Great Depression (2020)

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NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.7 • 15K Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2021

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Great Depression was a revolutionary spark for all kinds of things — health insurance, social safety nets, big government — all of which were in response to a national crisis. Through the personal accounts of four people who lived during the Great Depression, we look back at what life was like back then and what those stories can teach us about the last time the U.S. went through a national economic cataclysm. This is the second episode of our summer series "Movies for Your Mind." Summer movies like you've never heard before.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is DoLine from NPR. I'm Ramteen Adablui.
0:03.3	And I'm Randa Nipata.
0:05.0	This week in our series, Movies for Your Mind,
0:08.2	Lives of the Great Depression.
0:10.4	The episode tells the story of the collapse of the US economy in the 1930s
0:14.6	through the eyes of the people who survived it.
0:17.2	It is almost completely non-narrated and contains original interviews and writings from that time
0:22.7	reenacted by members of the DoLine team.
0:25.2	And if that's not enough, this episode is really special because it's scored by
0:29.7	the amazing composer, Hania Rani.
0:32.6	So with that, here is Lives of the Great Depression.
0:42.2	I'm sitting in the city-free employment bureau. It's the women's section.
1:04.4	We've been sitting here now for four hours.
1:06.7	We sit here every day waiting for a job.
1:13.2	There are no jobs.
1:17.3	Most of us have had no breakfast.
1:19.8	Some have had scant rations for over a year.
1:23.6	Hunger makes a human being laps into a state of lethargy, especially city hunger.
1:29.6	Is there any place else in the world where a human being is supposed to go hungry,
1:33.2	amidst plenty, without an outcry, without protest?
1:37.3	We're only the boldest steel or kill for bread,
1:40.8	and the timid crawl the streets.
	...

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