Podcast Summary: Selected Shorts – Ken Burns Presents Willa Cather’s America

Date: January 8, 2026
Host: Meg Wolitzer
Special Guest: Ken Burns
Featured Readers: Sonia Manzano, David Strathairn
Location: Symphony Space, New York City

Episode Overview

This special episode of Selected Shorts is a celebration of Willa Cather—an often under-appreciated giant of American literature—guest-hosted by acclaimed documentarian Ken Burns. Through dramatic readings of two Cather short stories, “The Way of the World” and “A Wagner Matinee,” the episode explores Cather's unique sense of place, her nuanced characters, and her lasting impact on American writing. Commentary from Ken Burns and host Meg Wolitzer illuminates how Cather’s works transcend time, revealing universal truths about identity, art, memory, and change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction to Willa Cather’s Landscape and Legacy

• Ken Burns and Meg Wolitzer open the episode discussing Cather’s place in American literature and her distinctive focus on the Midwest prairies and the urban world of New York.
  • Burns notes that, while overshadowed by more celebrated (mostly male) predecessors, Cather possesses “a clear eyed sense of the world around her” ([00:08]).
  • Wolitzer highlights Cather’s “sense of place she made permanent in words, a landscape that has largely disappeared from the United States” ([03:07]).
• Ken Burns’s Personal Connection:
  • Burns’s admiration is personal—he named his daughter Willa ([01:50]).
  • “All the writers I know love Willa Cather. My friend Mary Gordon says she loves her because Cather is not afraid of impossible situations to which there are no solutions. And Mary adds, she's a tragedian.” ([00:08])

2. Story 1: "The Way of the World" (Read by Sonia Manzano)

• Summary:
  • A tale of childhood, imagination, and gender roles, set in a boys’ imaginary town on the Nebraska prairie disrupted by the arrival of a determined girl, Mary Eliza.
• Themes and Motifs:
  • Imagination and Power: Speckle is “mayor and postmaster, and he conducted a bank…his imagination was the coin current of the realm and made those store boxes seem temples of trade” ([04:28]).
  • Gender and Inclusion: The arrival of Mary Eliza challenges the boys’ exclusive world.
  • Social Change: Mary Eliza becomes not only a citizen but a beloved leader, yet her shifting alliances ultimately lead to the collapse of Speckleville.
• Notable Moments:
  • Mary Eliza’s entrepreneurial spirit: “Only my father keeps the bakery, and I could have cookies and cream puffs and candy to sell in my store. Chocolates and things none of your old Texas mixed.” ([10:38])
  • The boys’ resistance turns to enthusiasm when faced with cream puffs and sweets but turns again to resentment as Mary Eliza asserts herself.
  • The poignant ending sees Speckle musing on loss and change: “he sat down with his empty pails in his deserted town as Caius Marius once sat among the ruins of Carthage.” ([31:05])
• Ken Burns’s Commentary:
  • Burns notes the gender reversals and underlying autobiography—Cather herself was “mayor” of an imaginary childhood town ([31:32]).
  • “Every writer is in fact the mayor of their own imaginary town...the writer both sees and oversees an invented and fully populated world.” ([31:32])

3. Story 2: "A Wagner Matinee" (Read by David Strathairn)

• Summary:
  • A young Bostonian receives a visit from his Aunt Georgiana, a farm wife from Nebraska, whose earlier life was filled with music and culture. Attending a Wagner concert, she is emotionally overwhelmed by the return of beauty after decades of hardship.
• Themes and Motifs:
  • Exile, Memory, and Longing:
    • “It never really dies, then, the soul; it withers to the outward eye only like that strange moss which can lie on a dusty shelf half a century and yet, if placed in water, grows green again.” ([51:10])
  • Sacrifice and Loss:
    • Aunt Georgiana’s musical gifts are nearly lost to years of harsh prairie life.
  • Power of Art:
    • The concert stirs deep emotion and regret, cutting through “the inconceivable silence of the plains” ([43:08]).
• Notable Quotes:
  • “Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you. Oh, dear boy, pray that whatever your sacrifice be, it is not that.” - Aunt Georgiana ([39:12])
  • The devastating catharsis: “She burst into tears and sobbed pleadingly, ‘I don’t want to go, Clark. I don’t want to go.’” ([57:40])
• Ken Burns’s Reflection:
  • “So interesting that Cather chose to let us see Georgiana through her nephew’s eyes as he witnesses the way the concert breaks through her religious narrative and changes her.” ([57:45])

4. Wider Reflection: Cather’s Place in American Letters

• Enduring Relevance:
  • Meg Wolitzer encourages listeners to pick up My Ántonia or O Pioneers! and discover Cather’s enduring resonance ([58:20]).
  • Burns jokes that if everyone reads Cather, “the name Willa might top the baby name charts. Just a thought.” ([58:46])

Notable Quotes & Moments by Timestamp

• On Cather’s Unflinching Realism:
  • “Cather is not afraid of impossible situations to which there are no solutions. And Mary adds, she's a tragedian.” - Meg Wolitzer quoting Mary Gordon ([00:08])
• On Writing and Imagination:
  • “Every writer is in fact the mayor of their own imaginary town...the writer both sees and oversees an invented and fully populated world.” - Ken Burns ([31:32])
• On Loss and Beauty:
  • “Don’t love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you. Oh, dear boy, pray that whatever your sacrifice be, it is not that.” - Aunt Georgiana ([39:12])
  • “She burst into tears and sobbed pleadingly, ‘I don’t want to go, Clark. I don’t want to go.’” ([57:40])
• On Cather’s Literary Legacy:
  • “If these stories piqued your interest, pick up Cather’s My Antonia and then O Pioneers. If you all do, we’re pretty sure that you’ll become just like the Cather loving Ken Burns.” - Ken Burns ([58:14])

Segment Timestamps

• Opening and Cather Introduction: [00:08–03:42]
• “The Way of the World” Reading (Sonia Manzano): [04:28–31:32]
• Ken Burns’s Story Commentary: [31:32–33:07]
• Short Story Prize Segment: [33:08–34:22]
• “A Wagner Matinee” Reading (David Strathairn): [34:22–57:45]
• Final Reflections and Recommendations: [57:45–59:35]

Tone & Atmosphere

The episode is warm, inviting, and reverent—balancing literary insight with accessible storytelling. Ken Burns’s genuine affection for Willa Cather shines through, as does Meg Wolitzer’s appreciation for Cather’s artistry and emotional depth. The dramatic readings, especially by Sonia Manzano and David Strathairn, lend poignancy to Cather’s themes of memory, place, and the transformative power of art.

Takeaways

• Willa Cather’s writing combines the mythic possibilities of the American landscape with intimate psychological insight.
• Both stories—one light and playful, one deeply poignant—reveal the power and limitations of imagination, gender, and art across generations.
• Ken Burns and Meg Wolitzer argue for Cather’s enduring place among the greats of American letters, inviting listeners to join in rediscovering her work.

Listeners are encouraged to explore Cather’s novels and stories, promising a literary journey across vanished landscapes and timeless hearts.