Transcript
What inspires you from WFSU Public Media? Here's this week's Voices That Inspire. I'm Madeline Carr and I'm a generalist, a historian of American culture in particular. As a historian, I came to realize that I'm a generalist because I like to look at the different facets of history. We have a very broad understanding of world history. I didn't know that term until I went to FSU and I studied American history, particularly 20th century cultural history in America. And that's when I realized I am not really a specialist in any particular thing. I'm a generalist. Jazz was a very instrumental part of my growing up in Switzerland and I'm very grateful that I had that opportunity. It's really a way of improvising on a theme. And in my life, I'm finding that I'm improvising on a theme. And it's ongoing. I find it just exciting. Every now and then you connect with somebody else. It's not that it's done in a vacuum. Every now and then you connect with somebody who is also into improvisation and they're playing their part, you know? And then it's like, oh, okay, it's like a giant puzzle. We can bring this together. And it's going to work fine. So I feel like really inspired by the United States of America having been created as an improvisation. It's still going on. You know, we're improvising on a theme all the time. And those who want to copy, hold it and say, it's got to be this way or that way, it's not going to work. I am Madeline Carr. I live in Wacola County. It's part of my improvised life. And I am a generalist historian. You're listening to voices that inspire.