America's Town Meeting of the Air
What Should America Do for the Joads?
by
America's Town Meeting of the Air brings public questions to the radio as open forums for discussion. In this broadcast, the question is “What Should America Do for the Joads?”—a reference to the family at the center of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and its portrayal of migrant hardship.
The program's town-meeting format puts a timely issue before speakers and listeners, inviting argument and consideration rather than presenting a conventional dramatic story. Its subject connects the Joads' fictional experience with a broader question about how the country should respond to people facing displacement and poverty.
The result is a snapshot of public debate shaped around a recognizable literary work and a pressing social concern. Listeners can hear the issue framed as a question for collective discussion, with the emphasis on competing viewpoints and civic engagement.
This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.
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