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How did the arrest of a Nebraskan for teaching German to students in the 1920s set a precedent for the U.S. Supreme Court? Fascinating historical events become relevant in a new podcast on Nebraska Public Media, hosted by Bill Kelly. “Once Again” premieres May 1. Nebraska Public Media’s Dale Johnson sat down with Bill to talk about the six-episode series.
Bill Kelly: The first episode is about a U.S. Supreme Court case that originated in Nebraska. It involves a teacher who was teaching German in the 1920s, illegal in Nebraska at the time. There are really fascinating parallels to what's going on in the news, but also some really unexpected ways that case ended up affecting law nationally. We talk about the rise and fall of the horse-racing industry in the state of Nebraska, through the lens of the Ak-Sar-Ben race course up in Omaha. We talk about passenger rail service, how Amtrak took over service from Nebraska-based Union Pacific back in the 70s. And there's a lot of discussion right now about there being a resurgence of passenger rail. We're talking about a nuclear power plant south of Lincoln and Hallam that was only in operation for two years. But as it turns out, they're looking at reviving some of the technology that they were researching back in the day in 1962-63 with this Hallam plant. So in every one of those, there are these really interesting parallels with stuff that's going on right now.
Dale Johnson: I'm familiar with your award-winning documentaries, but this is a podcast form. What's different about this?
Kelly: I'm having so much fun with this being a different way of storytelling, in a couple of ways. First of all, I have a terrific co-producer in Emily Kreutz, who's an audio engineer, and we're getting an opportunity to kind of take people sonically through audio, kind of back in time with the school teacher case again, we give a kind of an idea of what it must have kind of sounded like, what it felt like in the classroom when the county attorney came and observed and ultimately arrested this school teacher. I think the other important part is I get more of a chance than I ever have to kind of bring my own voice to it, writing in the first person and sharing what it felt like in these locations, a little bit of my own observations based on the research. So that's really different from traditional reporting and the kind of stepping back and let other people tell the story in entirety. I'm much more involved in this than I'd been comfortable doing previously, but it's been really fun doing that.
Johnson: Take me on the road with you. How successful have you been finding people who are still alive that are willing to tell the story?
Kelly: That's a really interesting point, because in some of these instances, there aren't necessarily a lot of people who are even familiar with the stories we're telling. We're digging up some stuff that people did not know previously. In the more recent stories, we talk about divisions in the Methodist church over conducting same sex marriages. We do track down the pastor who was put on trial by the Methodist Church for conducting this unauthorized wedding ceremony in the 90s. Fascinating discussion. He had not been back in Nebraska since then, and we were able to talk with people on both sides of that debate who are still around. We're also taking accounts from books that were written. We're taking newspaper accounts, and we're kind of introducing those observations as almost characters. We have voice actors, in some cases, reading transcripts or reading from the newspaper accounts at the time, and that's part of that sonic landscape that we're presenting that has been really interesting to work with.
Johnson: Favorite moments, favorite discoveries?
Kelly: Probably the favorite moment, you mentioned the train trip to Chicago on Amtrak. I had the opportunity, my seat mate, unexpectedly, was a candidate for President of the United States, and I'm not going to provide a spoiler. You've got to listen to it to appreciate it. Charming gentleman. He did not end up becoming president of the United States, but it's kind of through his eyes that we experience current rail travel and its usefulness and its joys, really. That was a favorite moment.
Johnson: Nebraska Public Media's new Once Again history podcast, where the past meets the present with Senior Producer Bill Kelly. It begins Thursday, May 1, but it's out there.
Kelly: We've got a trailer out there to give an idea of what it sounds like.
Johnson: Listen to it. Download episodes of the Once Again history podcast on all major podcast platforms, Spotify, Apple podcast, YouTube, Once Again, it's available online at Nebraskapublicmedia.org/onceagain. Good job, Bill.
Kelly: Thank you, Dale.
Johnson: Thank you. Dale Bill Kelly joining me on Nebraska Public Media.