Ken Burns on America’s National Parks and Telluride

Ken Burns and “National Parks” Producer Dayton Duncan

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been moved to tears every night this week watching Ken Burns’s six-part series, “The National Parks:  America’s Best Idea,” on PBS.  This work was a labor of love for this master documentarian for some ten years and I think most of America is grateful for it finally being available for all to see.  “It is the history of the ideas and the individuals that made this uniquely American thing happen,” Ken told me in a Travel Fun interview I conducted with him early September.  “For the first time in history, land was set aside for the people,” he continued.

You may listen to the entire forty-minute interview I conducted with Ken by clicking on the play button here:

Ken also chats about his twenty-year relationship with Telluride.  “It’s my lover,” he says. Listen to the podcast to find out why.   You’ll also learn more about Ken’s two-decade long relationship with the Telluride Film Festival and why he calls it “the best festival on the planet.”

I was lucky enough to see one of Ken’s films on our National Parks on the big screen at Telluride’s Mountain Film Festival last May.  Read about that experience here.

Book Picks

“Ken Burns:  The National Parks:  America’s Best Idea” at www.shoppbs.org/home.  You can buy this must-have tome and the DVD and receive the CD soundtrack for free.

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