Grieving Vets Remember Their War

For many Americans, Veterans Day means merely a long weekend of relaxation or a parade of patriotic display and brouhaha.   But for many of the veterans who fought and killed in war, the psychological wounds engendered by the carnage continues long after the guns have gone silent. I asked a group of everyday vets, many homeless, most with PTSD, to remember their war experiences, and to talk honestly about the toll war continues to take on them and those around them.

Elsewhere on this blog, see also my Memorial Day story in which veterans remember the fallen comrades in arms in all their human particularity.


Posted in Americana, History, Holidays-Season Specific, Oral History-oid

Labor Day: Everyday Americans Reflect on the Meaning of Work

Labor Day in America is a day most Americans associate with a three day weekend and a farewell to summertime. However, this national holiday is also a time to honor workers and the central place their labor has in our lives. For this report, Adam asked a range of New Yorkers about what “work” means to them.


Posted in Americana, History, Holidays-Season Specific, New York, Person on the Street Interviews

Masonry as a Spiritual Path for Men

The Masons have long been the subject of curiosity, derision, persecution and admiration for their tight brotherhood, which claims millions of members worldwide, and which has been a mainstay for most American presidents and untold numbers of movers and shakers. The purported “secrecy” of their rites and symbols,  which are sometimes riffs on the belief systems of non-Christian cultures, notably that of Egypt and ancient Greece, has added to their allure and cache.  I met with a group of elite Amercian Masons, who described for me the spiritual path that Masonry can represent for men, and was granted some insight into how this fraternity works.


Posted in History, Religion, Science, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , , ,

Memorial Day: Vets Remember The Fallen

Memorial Day in America is supposed to be a time to remember those who have died in our wars, and to thank them for their sacrifice.  However, for many of us, Memorial Days does not mean much more than a three-day weekend, and perhaps some flag-waving and parades.  I wanted this piece to serve as a counterpoint in which  veterans from World War One, World War Two, and the wars in Korea, Vietnam and the First Gulf War actually remember and speak about someone they personally knew who died alongside them in combat — who were they, what were their names, how did they die, how did they live?


Posted in Americana, History, Holidays-Season Specific, Oral History-oid Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Middletown NJ: A Town Aims to Heal (9/11/02)

The middle class suburb of Middletown New Jersey lost upwards of 45 people in the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, devastating the town. This piece checks in a year after the event on some of the families who lost loved ones that day, along with town officials, as Middletown continues its path toward recovery — or not.

It is a follow-up from a mini-doc made with many of the same people in the immediate aftermath o 9/11.


Posted in Americana, History, September 11th and Its Aftermath Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Middletown NJ: A Town Reels in Grief (2001)

The soldily middle class town of Middletown New Jersey is a peaceful suburb populated largely by people who left the city for a quieter life of green lawns and Little League.  Many residents work in Manhattan and take the ferry or the New Jersey Transit train home.  On September 11th 2001, upwards of 45 residents lost their lives in the World Trade Center, devastating the town, which tried to cope and help its own. This is a profile of several residents and officials soon afterward.

It is followed by a mini-doc of similar length which I made near the first anniversary of September 11th 2001 in which I interviewed many of the same people, in order to chart and report on their trajectory of continued grief and healing.


Posted in Americana, History, September 11th and Its Aftermath Tags: , , , , , , ,

Old-Time Communists Reminisce (May Day)

People often think of the American Communists of the 1920s and 30s as angry political types alone. There is no denying that the systems that grew out of the Bolshevik and other revolutions failed miserably, largely discrediting Communism in practice. Still there a powerful spiritual vision underlying the embrace of Communism — equality, justice, brotherhood (generically understood), and a day when people would help each other without the self-interested and hamfisted mediation of the politicians, the police or the priests. For this interview connected with May Day 2004, I interviewed two darling octogenarian women living who remember their youths in Communist New York during the 1930s. The fact that I did it for the Voice of America heightened its appeal for me.


Posted in Americana, History, Holidays-Season Specific, New York, Oral History-oid, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , ,

Poet Robert Bly and the Wild Man (CBC 1990)

This is a look at the Iron John aka the Wild Man, an archetypal figure representing the deep masculine found in the Grimm Brothers tales, and other traditions. This was popularized by the poet Robert Bly as a story with much to tell modern Western man, who may have lost touch with their own wildness, and therefore their capacity to protect others, and to live fully.

See also my profiles of Robert Bly himself elsewhere in this blog.


Posted in Books, History, Poetry, Profile, Religion, Spirituality Tags: , , , , , , ,

Profile: Art Spiegelman “Maus” Creator & Comics and Graphics Novel Artist

Art Spiegelman is most famous for his Pulitzer Prize winning work “Maus,” a graphic novel about the Holocaust in which Nazis are portrayed as cats, and Jews are depicted as mice.  In this profile, Spiegelman talks about his roots as a Mad Magazine afficionado, underground cartoonist, and his experience growing up in a Queens NY family overshadowed by the Shoah.


Posted in Americana, Arts, Books, History, Immigrants and Ethnic Life, New York, Profile Tags: , , , , , , ,

Profile: Barney Rosset, Publisher and First Amendment Activist-Hero (VOA 2009)

This is a profile of the entrepreneurial publisher and First Amendment activist Barney Rosset. During the mid 20th century Rosset tirelessly fought America’s anti-obscenity laws in order to publish now-classic works by D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, William S. Burroughs and scores of other non-Establishment writers, several of whom went on to win the Nobel Prize.  Barney talked with Adam in the labyrinthine Greenwich Village apartment he shares with his wife Astrid, and the Evergreen Review offices.


Posted in Americana, Books, History, New York, Profile Tags: , , , , , , , ,
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