A couple weeks ago I had the unbelievably lucky experience of being asked to record Studs Terkel reading a selection from Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass for Christopher Lydon’s new show Open Source. Once the recorder was running, Studs told me, “I’ll do this the way I think he intended it to be done.” It was completely riveting.

Listen to the results here. If you don’t have time to listen to the whole hour, take the time to listen to Studs’s thoughts on Whitman’s relevancy.

Riding my bike back home after recording this, I felt saddened and angry, but also changed. But you knew words and a voice could do that didn’t you?