{"id":21050,"date":"2015-06-25T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T07:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=21050"},"modified":"2015-06-25T00:01:15","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T07:01:15","slug":"im-a-studs-terkel-wannabe-he-captured-american-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/im-a-studs-terkel-wannabe-he-captured-american-voices\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m a Studs Terkel Wannabe — He Captured American Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Studs
Studs Terkel.<\/a> Photo by Nina Subin<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I’m a big fan of Studs Terkel. I love his books\u00a0Working<\/em>,\u00a0The Good War<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Hard Times<\/em>. I admire the way Terkel captured voices, the individual, distinctive voices of Americans at work, at war, and in the throes of the Great
\nDepression.<\/p>\n

Studs let people talk and tell their stories. Every voice was different. The way Studs did it, it felt like you were sitting in a room with that World War II sailor or that\u00a0guy who lost his business\u00a0in the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

Imitating\u00a0Studs Terkel<\/h5>\n

It was with Studs in mind that, way back in 1996 when I was the religion reporter at the Contra Costa Times here in the Bay Area, I yearned to record the voices of Americans talking about their doubt, their faith, their religious practice — but most of all their encounters with the divine, with God.<\/p>\n

As a religion reporter I talked to a lot of people about topics like the church budget, the vacation Bible school, and the new stained glass windows.<\/p>\n

But these conversations were short and formal; there wasn’t time to ask questions about\u00a0anyone’s\u00a0deepest thoughts and feelings, let alone squeeze them into the twelve-to-twenty-inch stories I was writing. I wanted to know, for example:<\/p>\n