From 1980 to 1997, the National Humanities Center produced the popular weekly radio show Soundings.
Soundings featured interviews with scholars and writers in the humanities. 862 half-hour episodes aired on more than 350 radio stations throughout the country and were broadcast internationally on the stations of the Armed Forces Radio Network.
During that era, "culture wars" and "deconstruction" galvanized parts of the scholarly community, often spilling over into public awareness. Soundings captured these currents, and its episodes now constitute a review of intellectual theory and practice in the latter part of the 20th century. The microphone captured the voices of world-class scholars and others speaking passionately about their work in the arts, classics, education, ethics, Southern literature, religion, world histories, politics, music, philosophy, and more.
Among those interviewed by Soundings' host Wayne Pond were university professors in the humanities and sciences, journalists, poets, novelists, documentary film makers, musicians, state governors, members of congress, parliamentary members of European nations, and leaders of technological innovation.
The Soundings Project is a joint collaboration between the National Humanities Center (NHC), the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), and the Libraries of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). The project seeks to preserve the original archives and provide access to the digitized episodes of the radio program.
