[Low regard for artists, composers, and thinkers in the United States]

This episode is from the WNYC archives. It may contain language which is no longer politically or socially appropriate.

Quotation from former ambassador to Russia (Kennan?): the artist, writer, composer, or thinker is held in general low esteem in the United States.

Cover story in Time about the current situation for intellectuals in the United States.

Another article in Time about a radio figure, R. Todd Stortz, who has radio scavenger hunts.

Kennan thinks any artistic development must be connected to international contact. Mass media eradicates divergences that create creativity. Motion pictures and television have a narcotic effect. His program is part of the same system.

McLeash's (?) radio dramas. Jacques Barzun article in Time magazine.

It's nothing new for the cultured person in the United States to retreat himself from society. James Fenimore Cooper and Van Wych Brooks. Mortimer Adler.

At the time of the New Deal, an influx of artistic people, a "brains trust." ALl of us who discourse in anyway value those who do the same.

Audio courtesy of the NYC Municipal Archives WNYC Collection

WNYC archives id: 71534
Municipal archives id: LT7530