Broadcast: May 17, 2026 at 4:00 p.m.
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Route 66 Forever traces the roots of the route, from Indian trails and cattle runs through the birth of the railways which laid out Route 66’s stops and grade. We travel across the tracks to explore how rich and poor travel side by side, and explore the road’s prehistory and construction. We reminisce with motel owners from Route 66’s earlier days on 1930’s travelers and how the freeway, and the closing of Route 66 in 1985, affected small towns.
Writers and filmmakers have long characterized American culture from our most-famous road—and of course musicians. We’ll hear from Ry Cooder, Bobby Troup, and Dave Sanger of Asleep at the Wheel, and hear excerpts from everyone from the New Lost City Ramblers to Chuck Berry.
We’ll visit the Route 66 birthplace of one of America’s greatest African American Poets, Langston Hughes, hear his poetry and learn how a race riot drove his family from town. We’ll meet a Laguna Indian woman born in a boxcar village on Route 66. We’ll eavesdrop on Orson Welles’s classic drama, “The Hitchhiker” and hear Wolfman Jack explain how he saved his Border Blaster radio station XER from attack.
Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story, a three-part radio documentary about the influence of the "Mother Road" on America's literary and artistic culture.