#transom.org

On the afternoon of September 8, 2012, I saw the Pacific Ocean. An hour more of walking, and I was there on the beach. Mom was waiting for me and Dad was, too. And so many friends, all of them surrounding me in a big circle. Even some people I'd met along the way mad it. The men from Navajo country drove from the reservation. And they led me to the water, drumming and singing a chant. And I was weep walking. I was in the water. I was floating in this dream. And there were so many voices, 4,000 miles of them. It's been six months since the ocean and the end. I'm not walking anymore, or not like that. And so sometimes I find myself forgetting everything the walk was to me. When I listen, though, I remember. And then I forget again. When I was on the road, I loved asking people what they'd say to their 23-year-old self if they could go back in time. I would tell myself three things. You know exactly what to do. There's no need to be afraid. Keep walking.

Culture, in this era, is recombinant, and it is probably recombinant because (in a time of global interdependence) there is no difference between the cultures of the developing world and the industrialized world. Culture is all thrown together now, and as with the stew of subatomic particles that makes up matter and the fundamental forces, little bits of things are always annihilating their opposites, existing only briefly enough to leave traces and allusions behind. This collage-oriented and non-linear way of viewing the world, therefore, is the humanism of this moment, it’s how the people live and breathe, and if documentary radio would harness the spirit of humanism, it would capture it in the style in which this humanism is lived.

Broadcasting, as audio ad genius Tony Schwartz told me insistently, is 'not a medium of information; it’s a medium of (emotional) effects.' That must go for most interviews, most conversations. It’s not those facts and figures that sink deep so much as the excitement and passion, boredom or hypocrisy they’re pitched with. Studs Terkel celebrated 'that fabulous instrument, vox humana.' Voice came first, in evolution and to everyone in childhood; and voice is still freighted with endless key signals of connection. So use the hell out of it.