Speaker 1: One of the reasons I feel sorry for young people today,
Speaker 1: aside from the fact that they're anxious and aren't allowed
Speaker 1: to light candles in their dorm rooms, is it they
Speaker 1: have no idea who Eve Arden is? And I get
Speaker 1: it when my sister Gretchen and I found our mom's
Speaker 1: naked Fanny Bryce doll in an old trunk and asked,
Speaker 1: Who's he? Our mother couldn't believe what she was hearing.
Speaker 1: How could her own children not know who this massive
Speaker 1: star was. Eve Arden was a comic actress, most often
Speaker 1: the wise cracking sidekick and any number of American movies
Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties, forties, and fifties. I knew her
Speaker 1: mainly from her radio show, though Our Miss Brooks. It
Speaker 1: ran from nineteen forty eight to nineteen fifty seven and
Speaker 1: was rebroadcast on WRL, an AM station in Raleigh, North Carolina,
Speaker 1: where I grew up. My first episode when I was thirteen.
Speaker 1: It was instantly hooked, not just on Eve Arden, but
Speaker 1: on audio. I couldn't just sit in a chair and listen,
Speaker 1: so I began timing my baths for seven point thirty,
Speaker 1: which was when the program came on. When they started
Speaker 1: airing other classic radio shows. After our Miss Brooks, I
Speaker 1: took up drawing just something to do with my hands
Speaker 1: as I listened to Fibermaghee and Molly or Suspense from
Speaker 1: thirteen on. If I had a choice between listening to
Speaker 1: music or listening to people talk, I'd most often go
Speaker 1: with the latter. Even call in shows would do so
Speaker 1: that's a Tarborough accent, I'd think as someone named Myron
Speaker 1: or t W phoned in. It wasn't about agreeing with
Speaker 1: any particular person or point of view. It was about
Speaker 1: the speaker's ability to hold my attention. How did they
Speaker 1: do it? Not just professionals like Jack Benny, but some
Speaker 1: guy from Apex, North Carolina suggesting that we castrate Draft Dodgers.
Speaker 1: I listened to church services for the same reason. Not
Speaker 1: a big God fan, but you have to respect a
Speaker 1: charismatic preacher, even if he's conflating homosexuality with pedophilia and
Speaker 1: calling for you to burn in hell for an eternity.
Speaker 1: I remember when I discovered MPR and when they serialized
Speaker 1: Star Wars, a movie I had prided myself on not watching.
Speaker 1: Listening though, who could resist it? A Prairie Home companion
Speaker 1: Ken Nordine's word jazz, strange short plays written by the
Speaker 1: great Joe Frank. I got so much work done while
Speaker 1: listening to these people, went from drawing to painting to
Speaker 1: wood carving, anything to keep my hands occupied. This was
Speaker 1: long before podcasts, before you could hear whatever you wanted
Speaker 1: and whenever it was most convenient for you. You had
Speaker 1: to be right there in front of the radio or
Speaker 1: else you'd miss out. And so I was in front
Speaker 1: of my radio, essentially tethered to that spot. As for
Speaker 1: audio books, I started listening back when they were mainly
Speaker 1: made for the blind. The narrators weren't great back then,
Speaker 1: but I learned to get beyond them and concentrate on
Speaker 1: the story. Then there were scratchy recordings hard to find,
Speaker 1: but they existed. Of say, Flannery O'Connor reading A Good
Speaker 1: Man is hard to find. Of Frank O'Hara and Robert
Speaker 1: Lowell reciting their poetry. I'd hear them and think, really,
Speaker 1: that's what you sounded like. I'd expected such authority in
Speaker 1: their voices. Now it seems that most new books are
Speaker 1: available on audio, some spectacularly so. Tom Hanks reading Ann
Speaker 1: Patches The Dutch House Donna Tart reading True Grit, George
Speaker 1: Saunders reading George Saunders, My artistic love hit a wall.
Speaker 1: At around the same time, portable cassette players became popular.
Speaker 1: So now instead of painting or sculpting, I walked while
Speaker 1: listening to books on tape. Then came iPods and podcasts,
Speaker 1: then phones, meaning you could access whatever you want, whether
Speaker 1: in the tub or off by the side of some
Speaker 1: two lane road. A play on BBC Radio four, a
Speaker 1: podcast about mental illness, Raymond Carver reading what we talk
Speaker 1: about when we talk about love? Call in shows for
Speaker 1: Reptile Owners and White Nationalists, or any of the programs.
Speaker 1: The stories and this collection first aired on Narrowing Your
Speaker 1: Choices is I suppose what makes you you. The way
Speaker 1: to grow, though, is to occasionally step outside of yourself.
Speaker 1: We've gotten so used to being our own curators. I
Speaker 1: think we've forgotten the pleasure of having something foisted upon us.
Speaker 1: If you'd asked me if I was interested, did in
Speaker 1: say Rose Bushes, or more accurate still rose Bushes vis
Speaker 1: a vis God, I'd probably have said, that's okay, I'm
Speaker 1: happy listening to these Alan Bennett diaries. That, though, would
Speaker 1: have meant missing out on Armand's Garden, one of the
Speaker 1: many diamonds thoughtfully selected for this collection. The same is
Speaker 1: true of ear Hustle's Last Memory, though if you'd asked,
Speaker 1: are you interested in stories about life in prison or
Speaker 1: the lives people led before being incarcerated, I'd have said yes,
Speaker 1: of course, with hopes this anthology will broaden your idea
Speaker 1: of what interests you, or just deepen your appreciation for
Speaker 1: all these people, many you've likely never heard of, who
Speaker 1: are so very deserving of our attention. The collection was
Speaker 1: curated by the executive editor of Pushkin Industries, Julia Barton,
Speaker 1: and it's her voice he will hear next.