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James Davenport & John Steinbeck

James Davenport grew up in Deer Lodge, MT, at a slower pace than his urban peers and without the surfeit of pop culture that informs their language. In his 1962 bestseller, Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck observes that Montanans seem unaffected by television and the homogeneity overtaking other rural places:

"The calm of the mountains and the rolling grasslands had got into the inhabitants...It seemed to me that the towns were places to live rather than nervous hives. People had time to pause in their occupations to undertake the passing art of neighborliness."

(Broadcast: Reflections West, 8/19/14 & 8/20/14)

Beth Anne Austein has been spinning tunes on the air (The Folk Show, Dancing With Tradition, Freeforms), as well as recording, editing and mixing audio for Montana Public Radio and Montana PBS, since the Clinton Administration. She’s jockeyed faders or "fixed it in post” for The Plant Detective; Listeners Bookstall; Fieldnotes; Musicians Spotlight; The Write Question; Storycorps; Selected Shorts; Bill Raoul’s music series; orchestral and chamber concerts; lecture series; news interviews; and outside producers’ programs about topics ranging from philosophy to ticks.
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