Working, Then and Now

Radio Diaries

Radio Diaries & Radiotopia

Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2014

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

In the early 1970s, radio host and oral historian Studs Terkel went around the country, tape recorder in hand, interviewing people about their jobs. Studs collected more than 130 interviews, and the result was a book called “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.” And – something unprecedented for an oral history collection – it became a bestseller. In this episode of The Radio Diaries Podcast, we bring you two of the lost interviews that never made it into the book: Helen Moog, a taxi driver and grandmother of five who happened to drive Studs to the Youngstown, OH airport; and Lovin’ Al Pommier, a “car hiker.”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Radiotopia
0:02.5	From PRX
0:05.8	From Radiotopia, this is Radio Diaries.
0:09.0	I'm Joe Richmond.
0:11.8	When I was in high school, I had this amazing history teacher.
0:15.7	One day, he assigned what I thought was the most boring book in the world.
0:20.7	There was no story. There was no story.
0:22.2	It was no writer.
0:23.4	It was just a collection of people, regular ordinary people, talking about what they do all day.
0:29.3	More than any other book I've ever read, that one is now part of my DNA.
0:35.3	Today on the podcast, we're starting a series that we'll return to later in the year.
0:39.4	It's a co-production with our friend Jane Sacks, Project And.
0:42.9	It's called Working Then and Now.
0:47.6	In the early 1970s, radio host and oral historian Studs Terkel went around the country, tape recorder in hand, interviewing
0:55.8	people about their jobs.
0:58.6	I am somewhere as an industrial area.
1:01.5	I'm sitting at the office in a very well-appointed one it is.
1:04.6	Talking to a jockey.
1:06.5	Eddie Arroyo.
1:07.5	Eddie's home here with his family.
1:09.8	I'm seated with Jill Friedman and her. Greenwich Village Studio, she's a photographer and I'm talking to a Steve Hamilton picture. Nick Lindsay, who are you? I'm a carpenter from South Carolina. This is a hospital. Now where are you? Now, what do you mean, where am I? Thank you very much. I can use this. Yeah, I think you can. Yeah, okay, great. Thank you.
1:28.5	Studs collected more than 130 interviews,
	...

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