美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Working' Then And Now: Studs Terkel's Book Interviews Resurface As Audio

'Working' Then And Now: Studs Terkel's Book Interviews Resurface As Audio 

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Studs Terkel had a gift for connecting with people and collecting their stories. In the early 1970s, Terkel traveled the country and interviewed ordinary Americans about their jobs. The result was a best-selling book, and the title pretty much sums it up. It's called "Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day And How They Feel About What They Do." It's a lasting² snapshot of American life at the time.

Our partners at Radio Diaries and Project& were given exclusive access to the original recordings³, most of which have never been heard before. All this week on NPR, they'll introduce you to people from Studs Terkel's archives. "Radio Diaries" producer Joe Richman joins me now to talk about the project.

Hi, Joe.

JOE RICHMAN, BYLINE⁴: Hi, Rachel. How are you doing?

MARTIN: I'm well. Thanks.

So no one had ever really gone through these recordings before? How come? Why'd it take so long?

RICHMAN: Well, you know, these were just stored in boxes in Studs' house for, you know, 30-some years. And when he died in 2008, people were thinking, well, we got to protect these - got to do something with these. And these are just - you know, they were never meant for broadcast. They were just to be used for the book. So yeah, for almost 40 years, no one really heard most of these. And, you know, for me, it was like, you know, the Dead Sea Scrolls⁵ or something like that. It was, like - you know, just to, like, hear, you know, the voices that were on those pages.

MARTIN: Yeah. So I imagine you had a lot of fascinating people - stories you could have profiled. How did you make decisions about who you were going to use in this project?

RICHMAN: Yeah. I mean, there were more than 130 interviews. So we started out looking for people who were still alive. And we also were just looking for, you know, good stories and just good talkers, too.

MARTIN: So can you introduce us to one?

RICHMAN: One that I really loved was an interview that Studs did with a private investigator⁶ in Brooklyn. I remember when we actually found Thomas Buscetti (ph), of course, being a private eye, one of his first questions that he asked us was, how did you find me?

(LAUGHTER)

RICHMAN: Back when Studs talked to him, he told Studs about one of the cases he was just working on.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

STUDS TERKEL: What were you supposed to uncover there?

THOMAS BUSCETTI: A theft - they had a theft of butter. It sounds ridiculous, but it ran into quite a bit of money. Seventy-pound cartons of butter were being swiped on an average of once a week. And this was going on for six months to a year, which amounted to something like 4,000 or $5,000. So they sent me in there, and I got a job as a mixer. I was a dough⁷ mixer. So I had a week to bust⁸ this case.

RICHMAN: I just want to tell you that by busting⁹ the case, what he did was he staked out on top of the refrigerator for eight hours a day for a week until he found a guy stealing butter. You know, and around our office for two months, we've been saying a theft - a theft of butter.

MARTIN: And as you mentioned, you went back to some of these folks to talk to them to just get an update on their lives now. How did you decide who you were going to do that with, who you were going to call up and have those conversations with?

RICHMAN: We started researching just to find out who was still alive. We found, you know, probably more than a dozen people who were still around. And, you know, we were just trying to figure out, what were the most interesting jobs and most interesting people to talk about how things have changed or not changed over those years.

There was one that I think was really interesting with a black police officer in Chicago named Renault Robinson, who at the time, the early '70s, was very active in trying to change the issue of race in the police force and between the police and the black community - was trying to push for change. And his old interview from the '70s was just really frank and blunt and honest.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

RENAULT ROBINSON: Certain units have really developed a science around stopping the automobile¹⁰. In other words, in their minds, if they stop a hundred cars in the black community, the likelihood of them finding one or two or three violations¹¹ of some sort is highly possible. Now, of course, you've got teachers, lawyers, doctors of just average, working people who haven't broken any law and are very irritated and aggravated¹² by being stopped by the police. And black folks or minority tolerance¹³ of that police brutality¹⁴ has grown very short.

TERKEL: Of course they won't accept it.

ROBINSON: They won't accept that treatment. They won't accept that dehumanizing, degrading treatment.

MARTIN: Amazing to hear that tape.

RICHMAN: Yeah. And when we interviewed Renault Robinson, I remember he was - you know, he was really emotional. And I think listening to his words, his own voice from the early '70s when he was really trying to push for a lot of change in the Chicago police force and to hear those words just feel so, as he said, it's like deja vu. That was a really powerful interview.

MARTIN: What do you think it is about this book, "Working," that still has resonance¹⁵ today?

RICHMAN: Well, I think the book was, you know, celebrating the uncelebrated. It was like taking these ordinary lives and ordinary people and just - and kind of putting them on stage in a way that I think, especially back then, we weren't used to. And I think the idea of paying attention to people that have different backgrounds, different locations, different political views, different jobs, that kind of spirit of the book, I think, is still so important.

MARTIN: Joe Richman of "Radio Diaries." You'll hear more stories from the series Working: Then & Now all this week on Morning Edition, All Things Considered and on the "Radio Diaries" podcast.

Hey, Joe, thanks so much for talking with us.

RICHMAN: Thank you.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 lasting   

adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持

参考例句：

• The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
• We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。

3 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

4 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

5 scrolls   

n.（常用于录写正式文件的）纸卷( scroll的名词复数 )；卷轴；涡卷形（装饰）；卷形花纹v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的第三人称单数 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Either turn it off or only pick up selected stuff like wands, rings and scrolls. 把他关掉然后只捡你需要的物品，像是魔杖(wand)，戒指(rings)和滚动条(scrolls)。 来自互联网
• Ancient scrolls were found in caves by the Dead Sea. 死海旁边的山洞里发现了古代的卷轴。 来自辞典例句

6 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

7 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

8 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

9 busting   

打破，打碎( bust的现在分词 )； 突击搜查（或搜捕）； （使）降级，降低军阶

参考例句：

• Jim and his wife were busting up again yesterday. 吉姆和他的妻子昨天又吵架了。
• He figured she was busting his chops, but it was all true. 他以为她在捉弄他，其实完全是真的。

10 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

11 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

12 aggravated   

使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火

参考例句：

• If he aggravated me any more I shall hit him. 假如他再激怒我，我就要揍他。
• Far from relieving my cough, the medicine aggravated it. 这药非但不镇咳，反而使我咳嗽得更厉害。

13 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

14 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

15 resonance   

n.洪亮；共鸣；共振

参考例句：

• Playing the piano sets up resonance in those glass ornaments.一弹钢琴那些玻璃饰物就会产生共振。
• The areas under the two resonance envelopes are unequal.两个共振峰下面的面积是不相等的。