Meet American Routes creator and host Nick Spitzer

Art Works Podcast

In this podcast, folklife presenter, educator, host and producer of “American Routes,, and 2023 National Heritage Fellow Nick Spitzer discusses his multifaceted career, his upbringing, and his understanding of cultural innovation in America. We talk about his life-long passion for radio and his discovery and embrace of American vernacular culture, his career as folklorist in academia, government, and media, including his NPR and Smithsonian collaborations and “American Routes”, Spitzer’s renowned radio program which blends music from many different traditions with cultural storytelling. Spitzer discusses his fieldwork in Louisiana and experiences with Afro-French Creole music, his understanding of cultural dynamism, and his journey through different American regions, absorbing and understanding not just the diversity but the dynamic and innovative interactions among American cultures. He also reflected upon the significance of receiving the Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellowship, the privilege and responsibility of working in American vernacular culture, and the future of “American Routes” and Spitzer’s commitment to its continued contributions to cultural understanding.