♪ >> They've been telling Kentucky story for 50 years.

Kentucky Humanities, the esteemed leader of the organization is a familiar face to KET audiences.

Learn about what former KET host Bill Goodman and my good friend.

He's been up to in addition to his think history said much that you hear on public radio that's now on connections.

♪ ♪ ♪ Thank you for joining us today on connections.

I'm Renee Shaw.

I'm reunited with an old friend and co-worker who set the standard for moderating public affairs programs here on KET for more than 20 years.

Bill Goodman, about 6 years ago built set off on a new adventure with some familiar territory.

>> A highly respected journalist to change directions to head Kentucky, humanities, which trumpets the contributions of Kentuckians from all walks of life.

The organization celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

And Bill Goodman joins me now to talk about the year-long celebration.

Hello, I call you by your nickname Uncle Henry.

>> Who you are so sweet and so kind and so generous with your comments.

And I'm not so much.

Every one of them was true about that.

I have no right anything but the truth right?

>> No, it was a it was very sweet for you to.

>> Control like We had some good times together.

>> For 20 years.

You're right.

You got here several months before I did.

But I you taught me a lot of things.

I felt like your you are an enormous part of my career in development here at you a lot.

Well, you're so nice to say that.

And you >> A big part of the everything that I did hear me.

We worked right next to each other.

Was literally funny.

are offices were yeah, next, Egypt right next to each other.

We often joked about knocking a hole in the wall and just making it a connecting because we were always yelling back and forth.

Yeah.

To the annoyance of all of other co-worker, we did some good work and you continue to do such a also work for Kentucky educational television with with so much that you do.

the new program keeping up with politics, which I've kind of set >> Oh, yeah.

Have I And I know that might be surprising to people.

Yeah, that that don't have an interested.

I don't I think winter.

>> In journalism and in you always have you always have that curiosity.

I I brought that to Kentucky.

Humanities to a degree and I and so but I will have to tell you that.

I just spoke with our former director.

You're you're having these currently on the rise here at KU Tina mentioning a couple of things.

Honestly, a week goes by.

This is literally the truth.

If I'm out and in not in my office because my doesn't say a word to me.

Most of the But if I'm out in public, if I'm out in the state somewhere.

Somebody will say something about K E t and they'll say it in a way in the present tense.

I just love your It you did such a good job of the other on that interview, the book club that you did will Kentucky town.

>> It does do some.

I said, you know, I was up at 02:00AM the other morning.

I couldn't sleep and you you are.

You are on there.

>> And I went to sleep after now getting its turn because all of those program still air.

>> I mean, yeah.

So people may not even realize that you've been really go on it touches me.

Yeah.

Was in a lot of people is fine with me.

And I've gotten to the point I was telling Nick that I don't even take the time to explain that anymore.

Right?

I just nod and say thank you and I appreciate very much that they remember the work did.

And it means a lot.

>> Well, because you did a lot of great work, you know, inducted in the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.

Right before you left, right?

Well, that was in 2013, 2013.

0, wow.

That was a few has what?

Time flies by.

You can KET track.

That's right.

That's right.

So you did amazing work here and will eyes.

I was flipping through some photos and I saw some of us at Fancy Farm and other places.

You know, just it was always fun.

And I think people now we're attracted to the kind of chemistry that we had.

You know, that people thought they're having fun and they look like they really enjoy their work in and we made a good team so well, I know get the same kind >> comments and accolades when you go outside of the broadcast center, when you go on the road when year it at Fancy we recently did a in western Kentucky in Paducah.

And it was amazing to me the people that they might have been there for the event that we were having.

It was a terrific event.

By the way, you would have loved.

It was a cooling area of Nasher.

Yeah.

I saw that and it was terrific.

But so many people came up and remember the work that we at Fancy Farm or the work that I've done in Paducah in some way when I was at KET.

So it continues to follow you, And I know it will with you the rest of your life.

Yeah, that's a good thing.

Don't had possible.

Yeah, you're out there.

Well, it is.

We said the work that you did here.

I mean, it was a perfect little segue.

It was a nice smooth path for you to do.

>> What you're doing with the Kentucky Humanities and I'm gonna say Kentucky, Humanities Council.

I'm used to the different name.

You know, things have evolved.

>> But this is same type of work.

I mean, you're still connecting people here telling their stories.

I mean, the book fair is tremendously popular, right?

And all of the work that you've been doing for this 50th anniversary from the culinary events to having the poet laureates here, both ours and the U.S..

I mean, you really have pulled off.

Some extraordinary gets, as we say in this business.

>> Well, I was going to use the word extraordinary because frankly, this has been an extraordinary year for Kentucky.

Humanities.

I don't think that and I know the that preceded the ones that will come after will have great years, too.

But the small staff that do you know that we operate with?

I have done a wonderful job putting together and really telling Kentucky story across the Commonwealth.

We had or 7 and I'll explain the 7th win.

We had a really 6 events that were produced by the people that I work with every single the way all of that occurred is a year ago, I'm in 2021 when we started thinking about how we're going to celebrate our 50th anniversary, there are a lot the legislation forming the humanities councils across the country was formed in in 1965.

In the Lyndon Johnson administration.

And the legislation called for the Humanities councils to reside in the state.

Some under state government.

So we are not a state agency and to receive any state and funding but we wanted to celebrate in a way that we could share it with the people.

And one of my staff members said we could go to a board member's home in a particular They have a nice garden area and we could talk about the humanities.

You could get up and say a few things.

We could have a few little cocktail cookies and some of the little leads and things like that.

And then we go on to the next to said, I wouldn't walk across the street to hear Bill Goodman talk about humanities.

So put our heads together and came up with the very first one that you is the David Brooks David which we had to do virtually.

But that was just He is an amazing a columnist and writer and human being thank or and thinker.

we started doing >> Under the guise of doing that in in Pike full of that's where we were going to be live and had to switch it virtually last March.

And from we went to Northern Kentucky with to pull laureates one crystal Wilkinson.

The state put laureate and joy Harjo at that time.

The U.S. port laureate and then we went to Owensboro for our first music event.

Was Sam Bush from Bowling Green on Green.

Yes, originally from Glasgow, Kentucky, my hometown, and he was in conversation with Michael Jonathan, who's well known in the Central Kentucky area about the origins of new grass music.

Then we did our culinary down in Paducah 5 ships, one from Memphis, a couple from Louisville, one from the the boat that travels up and down the just had a great to turn out there over about 400 people there.

They all got a little sample 9.

That was all about again, sort of defining what makes the humanities.

And it's all of these things that we're talking about.

We went to Louisville.

To the public library with a music and justice with Lincoln Bridge in conversation with moderator who had written studied how we can bridge the gap between what we're all doing and trying to understand the divide in the country.

Lincoln Bridge was amazing and they were just beautiful.

And then just a couple of weeks ago we brought in the astronaut story Musgrave, Doctor, story Musgrave, 87 years old and still just as sharp as a tack.

Yeah, amazing.

And he talked the humanity in space right in made us think about.

Yes, we there might be.

Some defense mechanism is going on.

We might be in a race for space with another country like the Soviet Union.

But are we going to take a book up there?

We're going to have a library.

What are we going to do with their waste product?

Is there going to be climate We were talking about some really serious questions that you had to ponder.

So that was fun.

And to our culminating event was last Saturday night up Hermitage that Steve Wilson, Laura Lee Brown, operate in Oldham County and this was a a a friend razor more than it was a fund-raiser.

And I don't know if you know of the Raymond McClain family band, they're primarily a bluegrass band.

Raymond grew up in Hanneman Kentucky where they've had the flooding.

he now lives in Lexington.

But he's traveled all over the world has been on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry and they put on a show the the people who wanted to hear them.

It was just a great sort of We've been on the across the country and across the commonwealth.

And it's it's really it's really been a terrific experience.

We have such a wonderful state.

And we wanted them to know that we wanted to give back a little bit after 50 years.

It was our time to say thanks for being supporters of a Kentucky man and with COVID having taken a big impact on in-person gatherings for the last couple years.

It was probably nice to be able to connect.

>> In person with people who really value them.

And of course, many of us can't wait to hear the thank history segments on public radio.

I'm not know your voice right off the bat.

You say one syllable and I'm like, oh, it's time for.

>> It's time for Uncle Henry and thank history.

So well, we've honored those to do.

>> We've their fun.

Yeah, they're they're fun because their educational and the way all segments little now.

And they're they're short.

Yeah, and they're very well written.

I wish I lay claim to the fact research and write all of them, they're written by a scholar in Louisville name Thomas There and it'd by our marketing director.

Marion stands in our office.

>> We have a podcast it 60's Maxwell.

And in Lexington, where I do my podcast.

But that's my recording studio to and we've recorded over close to 900 of those.

Oh, my goodness.

100 of those in the can.

And we're on in every public radio station except W FPL in Louisville.

And you're working on of these days, walking on that it's phenomenal.

How many little segments of history, whether it's about a movie star that was from bug tussle or whether it was a temp that a fact that you might not know about Abraham Lincoln's having part of his jaw removed because he had an abscess I don't know if Jon Meacham has included that in his latest.

All right.

I doubt it.

there's some amazing stories in Kentucky that are just now being told in.

We're so privileged to do that on our.

>> Thank you.

And hopefully it spark some curiosity to for listeners to want to go deeper into understand into look toward the humanities, Kentucky, humanities.

I mean, we often think of to right off the bat and we've even had some programs era.

KET about the talk was series and when we have, you know, people like us on Davis, Haley McCoy, who now runs the economic development for the state was to actor.

And so it's it's interesting the backgrounds of the people who put ravings character, we did something the woman who portrayed and to mama.

>> Yeah.

Denver Faulk, Deborah Falconer and show great job.

All some job.

A lot of people a on edge about that character and what we're trying to do there that they thought maybe that that would interpreted the wrong way.

But what Deborah had already impressed upon us is that stereotypes in Syria, typical portrayals of African Americans at that time where exactly that what she did is show that you could play that character in then show the way she grew into a leading business woman in Chicago and ended up passing away is a very wealthy and prominent biz, which for most of us did not even know, didn't know the full extent of that.

So they're important to.

>> You know, Renee, we we've probably talked about this many times in We know this.

>> from educational statistics that have just been rewarded, right, we're not doing real well in the state of Kentucky.

you now go back to the to Paul Patton's days of entre of education, education, education.

>> An education pays, right?

And it does pay.

And and we have got to step up and begin to think.

>> That our Kentucky children and adults need to know a lot more about their state through history.

And the Kentucky Historical Society does such a great job of that.

The Heritage Council, Kentucky, Humanities, we all need to work together to be sure that happened there.

That is happening.

Yeah.

>> The book fair, which would have happened a little bit before this conversation would air.

That's always your your pinnacle event.

Wright, was that how you would describe it?

And the thousands of people that come through?

I mean, literally we're talking.

It's got to be thousands of people.

It sells and Yeah.

Last year we >> Over 3,000 people in one day and we have events so that occur throughout the week.

It's our largest, a public I we we this year, we had such a great lineup of a Pulitzer Prize winners.

We are familiar and study other book festivals around the And I don't know of any book festival that has occurred this fall with 3 Pulitzer Prize winners that are attending or did attend our book festival.

>> So how do you make it work?

How do you recruit them?

>> Well, you it's a year-long process again with a very small staff.

It it I left and Lee said in another interview not too long ago that last year's planning started.

I think our book festival was own November, the 7th and we started on November the 8th time this year.

It's a it was on October 29th and will we started on October 30th?

It's really a year upright.

You have to establish relationships with publishers.

You have to if you get as we did this year, Jon Meacham, David blight to Pulitzer Prize winning scholars and historians think enough of Kentuckyian of the Kentucky book Festival to attend your event.

Then next year, another historian or another scholar who has written a book will think will if David Blight or Jon Meacham was there, maybe that's where I need to go right?

Maybe I need to sell my book as ticket to 200, 300 people.

I'd rather do that than be paid And that's the that's the way we play the game these days.

It's a it's it's something that you have to work on all the time.

Well, I remember in Frankfort the year that I moderated with Scott Pelley.

You know, I mean, I was fan Girling.

>> One of the best.

But the book truth Worth telling still a quote from that book today.

Just about some of the it you just, you know, gold nuggets of information he shared about journalistic standards and integrity and through the examples of his coverage all those many years and just it's just a very great guy was.

And and what an approachable accessible person.

I think that's another thing that's so surprising that that they just mingle with the crowd and and they really engaging they're not stand office.

I think people are really surprised by how accessible they are.

>> Well, I'll give you a real quick story on Geraldine Brooks who won her Pulitzer in 2006.

Her book is Horse in.

It's a really Kentucky She's Australian.

She calls herself Australian American.

She lives in Martha's Vineyard.

She stayed Lexington a lot to do her research.

She says a glowing things about the Kenan library.

People helped her.

Her book is about racing and and she went back uncovered.

>> A lot of negative stories about black jockeys and how they were treated.

>> In the 19th century.

She was on stage with Frank X Walker, who knows a little bit about black jockey.

That's right now to talk about Isaac Murphy and about how they were at that time.

So you put 2 people like that together Jodi Brooks, Pulitzer Prize winner, a best-selling author.

And she is just a nice, comfortable person to be around just a human being.

Yeah.

loves people and wants to answer every question and send every book.

So but we talk about the national authors.

We have a only a few big that come in most of our book festival makeup, our Kentucky in regional I mean, you can name those Wendell Berry, Mister Wilkinson, Solace, House, all of those real well on.

But it is also authors that are writing the book for the first or the first time, which that that's what you love to see them in the same room, kind of mingling together and, >> you know, been developing a mentor, mentee relationship.

That's what I noticed when I was yet.

It's just a real collegial atmosphere of people who love to learn to love books and love Kentucky.

M and and and all kinds of books, right?

There's not one particular genre that dominates.

I mean, you have the whole gamut, which is really fun.

>> Let me mention one program of the Kentucky book Festival and we call it school days.

And fortunately we raise enough money to be able to send authors into schools.

Usually underserved schools in eastern Kentucky.

In urban areas like the west end of Louisville where the author goes in with their books, talks to the kids does a little presentation maybe reads to the kids and then each kid in that class gets a free book.

All cool.

some of these kids don't have any books at home.

That's right.

So it's really special to them.

And often overlooked.

Part of the Kentucky book Festival that I need to do a better job of telling people about.

>> Now, that's wonderful cause we've learned a lot to in recent months weeks about the importance of having a at-home library for kids where they have those books on the shelf so they can see them and their parents can read with them.

And if the parent has some literacy struggles, right?

I mean, this is a time or maybe perhaps you could have a family literacy program.

And I think that we have to do a better job of addressing that kind of generational illiteracy.

>> That speaks to our prime time family reading Time program, which been operating since 2004.

That's where we are gather kids in fathers, mothers, parents, guardians, together to go through a reading program with them and sort of get them to read together.

So that's another program of Kentucky.

Humanities.

Yeah.

>> Well, it's all great stuff when you think about and now going to get reflective in deep on you in 4 minutes.

But when you think about what you've accomplished in your career and, you know, I mean, even run a candy store, right?

And you were a news director and in Texas and Nashville.

And you think about what you're doing now, do you think that this is I don't know.

It's a full-circle, but I always say that every experience in life is scaffolding that it builds on the next thing, right.

That nothing we do is in isolation or just for that one purpose that if we're really paying attention, everything builds upon itself.

If were intentional about trying to make it do so.

Do you view your career like that?

>> Well, I'm going to ensure this way and I know you're facetiously.

Also, you're not writing the obituary of my memoir right because I'm not just yet.

I'm not quite finished at a Kentucky man.

These are a few other things I want to do there.

And then I have projects that I would like to after a leave God willing and the creek don't rise.

I you're going to say that.

And at Kentucky, Humanities.

I've been told that this pie in the sky and that I'll never accomplish this.

But I'm gonna try.

What is this?

I would like for everyone to be able understand what the humanities are.

Yeah.

And to be able to recite back to me that elevator pitch about what it means to be human wow.

I know that's that's a big ask and would be a big But I want to people in Kentucky to be more aware of what we do and the work that we've been doing for 50 years.

I think after 50 years our profile, if you will, should be a higher and it's not.

And I'd like to to on on raising the profile of Kentucky manatees in the time we'll be there.

that's at Kentucky.

Humanities personally, I'm there are individual projects.

One of those, as you know, my art is cousin Joe Western Kentucky University ties that we both have.

I want continue to research and write his biography and publish that because I think he's so well deserving of his own book and his own life Western is still a Kentucky University is still very much had to him.

I don't know if you there was an auction recently for the for the College Alumni Association that raised a tremendous amount of money for scholarships.

I'd like to to continue to to raise him up and make sure people know who he is.

Yeah.

So for those are very noble things indeed.

>> But so if you had to give your elevator speech about humanity's and what it means to be human, which I think is a good question.

What would you say?

Well, I think it's a it's a term to define for people.

>> But the humanities is what makes us all human.

It's those.

>> Elements that I mentioned earlier.

It is the art is music.

Its philosophy, it's history.

It's all those things that create the human being that we.

Are born with and that we grew up to be.

it a lot of elements that go into making what all of us are.

And that the human beings that we we are today and can become in the future.

>> And to appreciate each other.

Well, Bill Goodman, I always appreciate you all to Henry.

You know that.

I don't say it often enough.

And I don't see often enough to say it but know how much I'm indebted to you for all that you've done for KET and that you still do for Kentucky.

Thank you very much.

Nicer.

Thank you for watching connections today.

You can KET in touch with us on Facebook, Twitter and even listen to programs at KET DOT Org.

Slash podcast.

Take good care.

♪ >> I mean, is that turns?

It's the Turner's.

Well, it is very nice.

Appreciate I appreciate it.

Appreciate the time.

Present that.

>> A commercial.

What that?