This week, the National Constitution Center held its annual Liberty Medal ceremony honoring America’s storyteller, Ken Burns, for illuminating the nation’s greatest triumphs and tragedies and inspiring all of us to learn about the principles at the heart of the American idea. In this episode, Jeffrey Rosen and Burns’s co-director Sarah Botstein talk about Burns’s life and work, followed by Ken Burns’s inspiring acceptance speech. Burns then sits down with Rosen for a conversation about the American Idea.
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Today’s episode was produced by Karen Homer, Advanced Staging Productions, Lana Ulrich, Samson Mostashari, and Bill Pollock. It was engineered by Advanced Staging Productions, David Stotz and Bill Pollock.
Participants
Sarah Botstein is an American documentary filmmaker who has produced some of the most popular and acclaimed documentaries on PBS. Her work with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick includes Jazz, The War, Prohibition, The Vietnam War, College Behind Bars, and Hemingway. The U.S. and the Holocaust marked Botstein’s debut as a co-director. Currently, she is working on an epic six-part series on the American Revolution and a three-part series about the life and presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.
Ken Burns has been a pioneering force in American documentary filmmaking for nearly half a century. He has directed and produced some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; Prohibition; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; The Vietnam War; Country Music; The U.S. and the Holocaust, and, most recently, The American Buffalo. His films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including 17 Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards, and two Oscar nominations. He is a recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and a member of the Television Academy Hall of Fame. His upcoming projects include Leonardo da Vinci, airing November 2024, and The American Revolution, which will premiere in fall 2025.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. Rosen is also a professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. His most recent book is The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.
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