Speechification

In 1929 the Rockefeller Institute published a scientific study of a "typical American city." Middletown: A Study in Modern American Culture took an intimate look at church, school, family and work in Muncie, Indiana. Never intended to be generalised, Muncie nevertheless became a symbol of "average" or "real" America - and one of the most studied places on Earth.

In Hard Times in Middletown Stephen Smith reports from Muncie on how the economic crisis is affecting the people who defined the American middle class - and finds that many are struggling. None more so, perhaps, than Ashley, whose run of bad luck assumes almost unbelievably horrific proportions during recording.

There's more info on Roy and Ashley, and many of the others, at American Radio Works, from where the original programme was sourced.

Crossing Continents episodes are available as an official podcast, but I didn't want anyone to miss this, so am reposting here. [MP3]

This entry was posted by by James Bridle on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 2:42 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.