WEBVTT - Foreword by David Sedaris 0:00:03.400 --> 0:00:06.320 One of the reasons I feel sorry for young people today, 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:09.840 aside from the fact that they're anxious and aren't allowed 0:00:09.880 --> 0:00:13.080 to light candles in their dorm rooms, is it they 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.599 have no idea who Eve Arden is? And I get 0:00:16.640 --> 0:00:19.560 it when my sister Gretchen and I found our mom's 0:00:19.680 --> 0:00:23.520 naked Fanny Bryce doll in an old trunk and asked, 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:27.240 Who's he? Our mother couldn't believe what she was hearing. 0:00:27.520 --> 0:00:31.160 How could her own children not know who this massive 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:36.080 star was. Eve Arden was a comic actress, most often 0:00:36.120 --> 0:00:39.839 the wise cracking sidekick and any number of American movies 0:00:39.880 --> 0:00:43.640 in the nineteen thirties, forties, and fifties. I knew her 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:48.000 mainly from her radio show, though Our Miss Brooks. It 0:00:48.080 --> 0:00:51.680 ran from nineteen forty eight to nineteen fifty seven and 0:00:51.840 --> 0:00:57.600 was rebroadcast on WRL, an AM station in Raleigh, North Carolina, 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:02.160 where I grew up. My first episode when I was thirteen. 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:06.080 It was instantly hooked, not just on Eve Arden, but 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:09.759 on audio. I couldn't just sit in a chair and listen, 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.160 so I began timing my baths for seven point thirty, 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:16.560 which was when the program came on. When they started 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:20.399 airing other classic radio shows. After our Miss Brooks, I 0:01:20.440 --> 0:01:23.480 took up drawing just something to do with my hands 0:01:23.600 --> 0:01:28.960 as I listened to Fibermaghee and Molly or Suspense from 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.240 thirteen on. If I had a choice between listening to 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:36.280 music or listening to people talk, I'd most often go 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:40.400 with the latter. Even call in shows would do so 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:45.280 that's a Tarborough accent, I'd think as someone named Myron 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.320 or t W phoned in. It wasn't about agreeing with 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:52.920 any particular person or point of view. It was about 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.280 the speaker's ability to hold my attention. How did they 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:00.920 do it? Not just professionals like Jack Benny, but some 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:06.800 guy from Apex, North Carolina suggesting that we castrate Draft Dodgers. 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.040 I listened to church services for the same reason. Not 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:12.880 a big God fan, but you have to respect a 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:18.520 charismatic preacher, even if he's conflating homosexuality with pedophilia and 0:02:18.560 --> 0:02:21.120 calling for you to burn in hell for an eternity. 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:25.400 I remember when I discovered MPR and when they serialized 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.360 Star Wars, a movie I had prided myself on not watching. 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.280 Listening though, who could resist it? A Prairie Home companion 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:38.920 Ken Nordine's word jazz, strange short plays written by the 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:43.440 great Joe Frank. I got so much work done while 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:47.160 listening to these people, went from drawing to painting to 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:51.600 wood carving, anything to keep my hands occupied. This was 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.240 long before podcasts, before you could hear whatever you wanted 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.680 and whenever it was most convenient for you. You had 0:02:58.720 --> 0:03:00.919 to be right there in front of the radio or 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.400 else you'd miss out. And so I was in front 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:08.240 of my radio, essentially tethered to that spot. As for 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:12.040 audio books, I started listening back when they were mainly 0:03:12.080 --> 0:03:15.720 made for the blind. The narrators weren't great back then, 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:18.720 but I learned to get beyond them and concentrate on 0:03:18.800 --> 0:03:22.800 the story. Then there were scratchy recordings hard to find, 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:27.480 but they existed. Of say, Flannery O'Connor reading A Good 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:31.200 Man is hard to find. Of Frank O'Hara and Robert 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:35.240 Lowell reciting their poetry. I'd hear them and think, really, 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:40.240 that's what you sounded like. I'd expected such authority in 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:44.640 their voices. Now it seems that most new books are 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:50.280 available on audio, some spectacularly so. Tom Hanks reading Ann 0:03:50.400 --> 0:03:55.440 Patches The Dutch House Donna Tart reading True Grit, George 0:03:55.480 --> 0:04:00.880 Saunders reading George Saunders, My artistic love hit a wall. 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.720 At around the same time, portable cassette players became popular. 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:08.840 So now instead of painting or sculpting, I walked while 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:13.160 listening to books on tape. Then came iPods and podcasts, 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:18.039 then phones, meaning you could access whatever you want, whether 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:20.200 in the tub or off by the side of some 0:04:20.400 --> 0:04:25.000 two lane road. A play on BBC Radio four, a 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:29.640 podcast about mental illness, Raymond Carver reading what we talk 0:04:29.720 --> 0:04:33.320 about when we talk about love? Call in shows for 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.960 Reptile Owners and White Nationalists, or any of the programs. 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:42.320 The stories and this collection first aired on Narrowing Your 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:46.760 Choices is I suppose what makes you you. The way 0:04:46.800 --> 0:04:50.400 to grow, though, is to occasionally step outside of yourself. 0:04:51.000 --> 0:04:53.800 We've gotten so used to being our own curators. I 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.760 think we've forgotten the pleasure of having something foisted upon us. 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:00.320 If you'd asked me if I was interested, did in 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:05.760 say Rose Bushes, or more accurate still rose Bushes vis 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:10.320 a vis God, I'd probably have said, that's okay, I'm 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:14.159 happy listening to these Alan Bennett diaries. That, though, would 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.560 have meant missing out on Armand's Garden, one of the 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:22.039 many diamonds thoughtfully selected for this collection. The same is 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.880 true of ear Hustle's Last Memory, though if you'd asked, 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.880 are you interested in stories about life in prison or 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.120 the lives people led before being incarcerated, I'd have said yes, 0:05:33.200 --> 0:05:37.400 of course, with hopes this anthology will broaden your idea 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:41.279 of what interests you, or just deepen your appreciation for 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:44.880 all these people, many you've likely never heard of, who 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:49.320 are so very deserving of our attention. The collection was 0:05:49.360 --> 0:05:53.760 curated by the executive editor of Pushkin Industries, Julia Barton, 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:59.160 and it's her voice he will hear next.