11 Studs Terkel Conversations for Black History Month

Just a few of the Black voices from the Studs Terkel Radio Archive.

Beats & Boxing: How Music Adds Power to Ken Burns’s ‘Muhammad Ali’

Jennifer Dunnington creates emotions for a living. For Ken Burns’ latest film, Muhammad Ali, Dunnington, an Emmy-winning music producer and music editor, used music to convey emotions, introduce momentum, and ratchet up drama in the rink.

Muhammad Ali (11/26/1975)

In November 1975, Studs Terkel used his portable tape recorder to capture an interview with one of the best-known and most indelible figures of the 20th century: boxing great Muhammad Ali. That conversation took place shortly after the publication of Ali’s autobiography, The Greatest: My Own Story. Studs aired the discussion in the first half of the hour, and then …

Watch WFMT’s Classical Conversation With ‘Approaching Ali’ Composer D. J. Sparr and Star Soloman Howard

Ali was among the most important, most charismatic, most unique figures in American (not just sports) history. So how do you adapt the monumental life of the People’s Champion into an opera?

Studs Terkel Turns 107, His Archive Turns 1

Studs Terkel, the gregarious, cigar-chomping oral historian, used to say of his birth that, “when the Titanic went down, I came up.”

The Studs Terkel Radio Archive, One of the World’s Great Spoken-Word Collections, Goes Public

On May 16, 2018, what would have been Studs’s 106th birthday, listeners will have more access to this incredible gold mine of materials than ever before.

Author Alan Wieder on His Book ‘Studs Terkel: Politics, Culture but Mostly Conversation’

Wieder’s book is the first attempt to synthesize many facets of Studs Terkel’s life, including stories and details about Studs’ 45 years at WFMT.