Follow America's Main Street from Chicago to Los Angeles, travelling through history or literature, meeting the people, or following the show's producers as they explore America's Main Street in Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story - a three-part radio documentary about the influence of the "Mother Road" on America's literary and artistic culture.
In Route 66 Prairie and Plains (Pt. 2 of the series) we drive from Chicago to Amarillo, cutting across the tracks of America’s heartland to explore Route 66’s terrain. In Normal, Illinois, we find out how normal is Normal and the rest of Route 66’s population. We debate the meaning of “Hillbilly” and “Ozarker,” examine the site of Route 66’s newest park, on the site of the dioxin-contaminated Times Beach—is this Route 66 destination safe for tourists? We learn the state of dry-country farming and ranching in the globally warmed era. We hear from dispossessed Okies and the film Grapes of Wrath and discover a town where African-Americans set up independent existence, as in Toni Morrison’s novel Paradise. We visit Cadillac Ranch, an outdoor art exhibit of Cadillacs in the ground, immortalized by Bruce Springsteen, and talk with its wacky creator Stanley Marsh.
