Note: This is an encore edition of Reader's Corner. The episode originally aired in October 2020.
In "Sunny Days," through rigorous research and extensive interviews of key Sesame Street figures, bestselling author David Kamp has produced a fun and fascinating work of cultural history.
He captured the unique political and social moment that gave us not only Sesame Street, but also Fred Rogers’s gentle yet brave Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood; Marlo Thomas’s primer for gender-politics Free to Be...You and Me; The Electric Company: and Schoolhouse Rock!, an infectious series of educational shorts dreamed up by Madison Avenue admen. It was a time when an uncommon number of media professionals and thought leaders leveraged their influence to help children learn—and, just as notably, a time of unprecedented buy-in from American parents. As the book’s subtitle tells us, it really was a revolution that changed America.
David Kamp is an author, journalist, humorist, lyricist, and a charter member of the Sesame Street—viewing audience. A longtime contributor to Vanity Fair, he has profiled such cultural icons as Johnny Cash, Sly Stone, Bruce Springsteen, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge. Among his books is the national bestseller The United States of Arugula.
