meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Radio Diaries

The Working Tapes of Studs Terkel (Hour Special)

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2017

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For Labor Day, we’re bringing you a special, one hour episode of our series The Working Tapes of Studs Terkel.

In 1974, oral historian Studs Terkel published a book with an unwieldy title: “Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do.” This collective portrait of America was based on more than a hundred interviews Studs did around the country. And after “Working” came out, something surprising happened. It became a bestseller. It even inspired a Broadway musical. Something about ordinary people talking about their daily lives, struck a cord. Studs recorded all of his interviews on a reel-to-reel tape recorder, but after the book came out the tapes were packed away in boxes and few have ever been heard. On this episode of the podcast, we’re bringing you eleven stories from the book. There’s the telephone switchboard operator, the Chicago police officer, the private eye, the hotel piano player and many more.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

You're listening to Radio Diaries. This is Joe.

0:03.0

And this is Elisa.

0:05.0

And we want to thank everybody who has donated to Radio Topia's annual fundraiser so far.

0:09.0

We are coming to the end of the road, but we still have yet to reach our goal of a thousand donors.

0:15.3

So we want to let you know some of the things that your donation supports here at Radio Diaries.

0:21.5

We just finished our big series, The Unmarched Graveyard, and there's some expenses that you might expect, you know, paying for our producers, paying for research, paying for some gear, and there's some unexpected things.

0:34.0

Elisa, is there anything that was kind of unexpected?

0:37.0

For sure, like with the first story that I worked on, I interviewed a woman named Susan

0:41.2

Harlebert, whose son had died and was buried on Hard Island.

0:45.4

And after I interviewed her, I realized that she had actually never visited her son's grave.

0:50.1

So we decided to set that up.

0:52.0

You know, I went to pick her up a couple hours north of the city that cost us some gas money.

0:56.4

We put her up in a hotel and I bought a bunch of pizza and bagels to power us through the weekend

1:01.6

and it was a really beautiful and

1:04.0

carb-filled couple days.

1:07.0

We hope that gives you a glimpse at some of the things that your donation helps

1:10.0

to support here at Radio Diaries

1:12.0

and we hope that you'll support us and the rest of the shows in the Radio Topia family.

1:17.0

You can donate today at radiotopia.F.M. slash donate. That'siotopia. F.M.

1:23.0

Donate. And thank you so much for your support. Radio Topia from PRX's Radiotopia this is radio diaries I'm Joe Richmond

1:39.5

if you're a long time listener to this show, you may remember a few of these voices.

1:44.0

See, when you dial the operator, that's what you get.

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Radio Diaries & Radiotopia, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Radio Diaries & Radiotopia and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.