Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dredmorbius | Hacker News Reader

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A possible tie-in to this topic is this 1968 interview with Ralph Nader, discussing Unsafe at Any Speed, by Studs Terkel:

<https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/ralph-nader-discusses-...> (Audio, 32:31).

Direct audio link: <https://s3.amazonaws.com/wfmt-studs-terkel/published/11364.m...> (MP3).

Nader covers a number of topics, including auto safety. Among the key points he makes is that (as of 1968), the contribution of the automobile itself to accidents was simply not legible, in the James C. Scott sense (Seeing Like a State), to the point that police accident report forms had no options for noting the contribution of the vehicle to the accident.

Built environment and highway design are another factor, of course, but the Nader interview came immediately to mind. I've listened to it several times, and it bears a few more listens as well.

(The Studs Terkel Archive itself is a true gem and recommended for those who enjoy podcasts.)

> Studs Terkel Archive

I had never heard of this, but I've read his Working, which was an impressive tome. I'll be checking it out.

Unusually enough, I found out about it while reading a book I had bought at City Lights Bookstore (Sabotage in the American Workplace: Anecdotes of Dissatisfaction, Mischief and Revenge), which cited it as a major inspiration.

The interview archive is immense and diverse. It spans 45 years, from 1952--1997, ran 1 hour each weekday, and the interview guests range from the highly famous to street and school interviews. I've hit on a few gems in particular.

The AWS back-end could be browsed or downloaded directly via AWS tools a ways back, and was about 600 GB last I'd checked. You'll have to sort out your own directory of content, however. Much of what's in there still isn't included in the official directory, again, at last check, though that includes numerous fragments and partial-tape interviews.

<https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/>

I strongly suspect that Working leveraged Studs's interviews, though all but certainly went beyond them as well.

Thank you very much for informing me of this.

It's also excellently curated. The transcripts are a plus that is often missing and the cross-linkage between transcript and audio is a wonderful gift to the listener.

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