Forty years ago this month, Paul Simon released Graceland, an album that became one of the defining records of his career, and one of the most celebrated and debated albums of its era.

The record would go on to sell millions of copies and win the Grammy for Album of the Year. It would also generate enormous controversy over Simon's decision to record in apartheid South Africa during a cultural boycott.

Music historian Ashley Kahn tells the whole complicated story in his new book, Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland.

Here Ashley talks about his career, the making of Graceland, Paul Simon's unusual creative process, and the complicated cultural and political questions that have followed the album for forty years.

www.third-story.com
https://www.wbgo.org/podcast/art-of-the-story/2026-08-19/ashley-kahn-on-the-miracles-and-wonder-of-paul-simons-graceland
https://leosidran.substack.com/

For his 83rd birthday, Ben Sidran revisits a 1974 DownBeat profile (done when he was 30) and considers what has changed - and what hasn't - over more than half a century of music and life. In his annual birthday conversation with Leo, he reflects on aging, ambition, practice and the surprising persistence of a worldview formed long ago.

www.third-story.com
www.leosidran.substack.com
www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story

https://youtu.be/SZY4QRpJCTw

Ben Wikler has spent his career moving between comedy and politics, communication and organizing. Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, a city shaped by civic engagement, academic inquiry, and the satirical spirit that gave rise to The Onion, he developed a worldview in which humor isn't a distraction from democracy, but one of the ways people learn to trust one another enough to participate in it.

Wikler has become one of the country's most closely watched political organizers. He was the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from 2019-2025, and is the author of This Is the Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy.

But this conversation isn't about campaign tactics or election cycles. Instead, it's about the values and experiences that shaped him: the Wisconsin Idea, the role of humor in public life, the changing media landscape, and why curiosity, optimism, and solidarity remain essential ingredients of democratic life. Recorded at the Madison home where Ben grew up, and where he and his wife are now raising their own family, this is a conversation about place, purpose, and what it takes to keep believing in the promise of democracy.

www.third-story.com
www.leosidran.substack.com
www.wbgo.org/podcast/the-third-story