Joan Summers
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
Yeah, it's funny. So much of my relationship to our, let's say, diva history here in the United States, something I concern myself with quite a bit, actually came from watching various Kennedy Center honor tributes of people like Shirley MacLaine, Stephen Sondheim. These are performances that uplift
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
and celebrate and sort of enshrine the greatest artists that we have who have contributed work to the arts across the field from music to the performing arts to writing.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
And these institutions like the Kennedy Center, or if we're also thinking of other institutions under attack by Trump right now, like the National Archive, these are part of our living memory as a country, whether that's living memory through documents in the case of the archive or archives our living memory through the arts and sort of the story of the American arts.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
And so for him to sort of infiltrate and attack and seek to dismantle these institutions, it is a great blow to the American arts community, even if it isn't something you think of as impacting your everyday life.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
Yeah. So the Trump world and its many proponents from the tech overlords like Elon Musk to the anti-DEI, anti-woke crowds and spokespeople that surround him, that entire world I don't think has produced art of value. They've certainly produced messaging that is effective. They have produced pieces of propaganda through radio broadcasts and... their television programs on Fox News and stuff.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
We've seen that be extremely effective. But when it comes to the movies, when it comes to music, I don't see anything being made that I could see being enshrined in a place like the Kennedy Center without being at least seen as laughable or at least coming off as laughable. Look at the inauguration. Look at how badly the arts programming at the inauguration went for them.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
No, 100%. But the reaction to Carrie Underwood, and I think her reaction to the reaction to her, I think does speak volumes.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
I think that we're seeing a few different social forces converge all at once. First off, people are increasingly mistrustful of the powerful, whether they are the powerful that look like us or the powerful who stand against us. I think that that is something that is true. I also think that at the same time as that, the public's trust in and need for art has shifted dramatically since even
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
we three have been alive. I think that we live in a time more than ever where we see illiteracy rates are skyrocketing. We see that the relationship people have to the movies, how many people are buying albums, how many people are buying books, all of these arts institutions that have Mm-hmm.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
And I think that with different forces now that can sort of pierce through the medium of art, just speaking directly to people on TikTok or like news programming, I think that people have sort of bypassed like what art maybe was communicating and just gone right to people who are going to tell them what they want to hear, tell them what they want to believe, tell them who they are in a society and who to follow.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
Oh, God. Okay. I want, obviously, Carol Burnett to read my tweets and also my blogs from the beginning of my career. Like, that would be the greatest thing ever.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
And I think that all of these things are kind of swirling around us and battling for power at this very moment.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
Thank you. Of course. Always a pleasure to go on my favorite podcast.
It's Been a Minute
Artists vs. the White House
And fun fact, of those 895 episodes, Mr. Fred Rogers wrote 895 of them.