Listening to Studs Terkel interview a poet is to realize that the power and music of poetry occupy a special place in the range of Terkel’s intellectual and emotional interests. He listens with great relish as poets read their poems, occasionally joining in the recitation, and reacts to the work with a rare combination of wonder and insight.

One of the remarkable distinctions of Studs’ interviews with activists struggling for social justice is his deep curiosity and empathic sensitivity to the personal dimensions of their experiences. This sensibility is memorably evident in his long roundtable discussion with the young African American freedom fighters of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Terkel was a much a person of the theater as he was a journalist, having started his career performing in radio drama including with the great Richard Durham’s Destination Freedom series in the 1940s so it is little surprise that he adored talking with actors, directors, and playwrights.

The war in Vietnam loomed large in Terkel's radio program in the 1960s and 70s and he devoted dozens of programs to insightful conversations with many of the key figures who shaped the debate about the war.

It took 21 years and a lot of work to launch Studs Terkel's digital audio treasure trove and, as it turns out, the timing is just right.

Studs Terkel’s interest in the visual arts is best embodied in a famous program he created in 1967 to mark the occasion of a new public sculpture by Picasso in the heart of Chicago.

Long before “world music” was even a recognized category Studs Terkel had an immense appetite for music from all continents.

Terkel had an abiding curiosity to hear the ideas of younger generations, not only about their own lives and tastes but also about the biggest social and philosophical issues.

In 1971, analyst Daniel Ellsberg gave parts of a Department of Defense study on American involvement in Vietnam to a New York Times  reporter, Neil Sheehan.