Voices In The Wind – Oscar Brand (L) – Odetta (Upper Right Corner) Robert Penn Warren (Center) Garson Kanin (Lower Right Corner) – just one episode.
Somebody once told me our society was doomed once we stopped being curious. Curious about people, about places, about events, about the day-to-day. When we stopped being curious we stopped caring, we stopped learning and as a result, our world shrank to oblivion.
I was reminded that, particularly on Radio, Going Places and Doing things was something of an obligation and an integral part of being a member of society. Some of it was dry as dust, some of it came with the caveat “if we knew then what we know now” – but the bottom line; we knew there was a world out there and it was huge and the more we learned about it, the better felt we about ourselves being a member of society and less susceptible to Doom scenarios because we knew it all happened before, and we all managed to survive.
And radio was a treasure trove of history and information. One of those places was NPR (back when it was known as National Public Radio) who, in addition to All Things Considered and Morning Edition also ran weekly shows like this one: Voices In The Wind.
Hosted by singer-songwriter-folk-guitarist Oscar Brand, Voices In The Wind was an audio tour of Everywhere with interviews and backgrounds of everyone from Legends to innocent bystanders. All crammed into an hour, it was a wealth of information and observations spread out over some 250 episodes during its run in the 1970.
This episode, which was broadcast on November 24, 1974 features interviews with legendary singer Odetta, writers Robert Penn Warren and Garson Kanin and several other segments from Symphonic Band Music to The Khalsa String Band, a “Rock Orchestra In Turbans” – all crammed into an hour.
Just a reminder that still being curious is crucial to living on this planet – more so now than ever.
Dive in for a listen.
