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Hello and welcome back to the Americana Show. My name is Freddie Gray. I am the deputy editor of the

spectator and the US editor. And I'm pleased to tell you that this is the 10th year of the

Americano podcast. And I think it's fair to say it's been a fairly fascinating time in American politics, life and culture.

And that's what we talk about every episode on this podcast. So please keep listening and provide

as much feedback as you like. Hello and welcome to the Americano Show. Today we are going to be talking about the Kennedy Centre,

or the Trump Kennedy Centre, as it has apparently been renamed. The Centre, which is a

centre for cultural development and arts, is currently closed at the moment amid a very controversial overhaul in Washington.

Donald Trump's administration, all the people within it, say that all the objections to what they're doing come from far-left radicals and so on,

who just don't like anything that isn't woke and highly progressive.

But I'm delighted to be joined today by someone who comes at it from a rather different perspective,

and that's Joseph Palermo, who up until March this year, March the 26th, I believe it was,

was the visual curator, the first curator of the visual arts for the Kennedy

Centre. And Joseph, just for our British listeners, I thought I'd ask you to begin with, to say

exactly what the role of the Kennedy Centre is in American life and why it's such an important

cultural institution.

Absolutely. So thank you for having me. The Kennedy Center, the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center

...