Carl Sandburg called Pete Seeger “America’s Tuning Fork.”
The radical balladeer who knew that as long as he could play the banjo he would never starve to death, is synonymous with almost every American uprising of the latter part of the 20th century: The Civil Rights Movement. The Vietnam War Protests. He worked for workers rights and to clean up the environment.
And he’s not mellowed or slowed down with age. The 81 year old folklorist will look you in the eye and proudly say, “I am still a communist,” even after being blacklisted during the McCarthy era and receiving a Kennedy Center Honors Medal from Bill Clinton.
Now that he’s helped clean up the Hudson River, he’s turned his thoughts to new technology and is wondering where have all the poor people gone in the planning stages of this brave new way of communicating?
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Pete Seeger