LAURA INGALLS WILDER’S COMPLICATED LEGACY TO BE EXPLORED IN NEW PODCAST
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life and legacy will be examined in a new iHeartPodcasts’ series debuting Thursday at the 2023 Tribeca Festival.
Hosted by Glynnis MacNicol, podcast editor and author of No One Tells You This, Wilder is an eight-part series looking at the work and impact of the American storyteller and scribe behind the famous Little House on The Prairie books. Wilder will release its 42-minute premiere episode on Thursday as part of the festival, with new episodes to follow every Thursday.
Published beginning in 1932, the books follow the Ingalls’ family as they settle the Western frontier, their popularity inspiring a TV show, pageants and fashion lines. “This is my childhood fantasy come to life. Laura’s books have been read by millions,” MacNicol teases in the podcast’s premiere episode. “In many ways, her story is the American story of being on the road. As a young girl, she traveled thousands of miles in a covered wagon, her family in search of a better life. She’s a Hollywood Western. She’s Jack Kerouac, but in a nap dress with braids.”
Behind that franchise is the prolific author, who lived nearly a full century of U.S. history, making her first trips in a covered wagon before flying a jet plane later in life. And over the decades, Wilder’s life and legacy have remained a powerful and mesmerizing pop-cultural presence. But her stories speak to a dark, more violent moment in American history, with the Little House series itself based in the mythology of the frontier and the concept of manifest destiny.
“Her books are based on her life, but in the process of telling her story, she erases a lot of others,” MacNicol says in the podcast’s opening. “I didn’t think about any of this when I read these books as a kid. I just fell in love with Laura and basically mainlined her story straight into my DNA, which is where they stayed for a long time. But with any kind of love comes responsibility. One of the reasons for this trip is my desire to look honestly at the thing I loved the most.
“Laura Ingalls Wilder, whose stories embody the best and the worst of America, who seems to reincarnate with each generation, her problems are still our problems,” she continues.
During the first episode, which is currently available to stream, MacNicol touches not only on that double-edged legacy but also how she and others became so connected to the descriptions and revelations about Wilder’s life and the Little House series. MacNicol also takes a trip to the Wilder Pageant, an outdoor live performance drama based on the author’s life; talks to members of the Hmong community that has settled around one of the towns Wilder’s family grew up in; and explores the Japanese fan base that emerged around the show.
Co-created by Jo Piazza, Emily Marinoff and MacNicol, Wilder asks who the author really was, what sparked the famed books’ story and how, in the decades following their publishing and her death, should we think about them now? Ultimately, it wonders what can those stories tell us about America today. Recorded last summer while traversing the Midwest to Wilder’s homes, the podcast turns to her fans and critics for answers.
“We felt like, in this moment of America rethinking its own past, this was a perfect time to take to the road and reconsider both Laura and her legacy,” MacNicol tells The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s been a huge undertaking. Laura has touched a lot of lives — in America, and globally — and is the subject of extensive scholarship. We worked hard to put her in the perspective we felt her impact demanded. I think listeners will be shocked and moved by who she really was, and all the ways these books have trickled into our lives and histories.”
The series, which comes from the iHeartMedia podcast publisher iHeartPodcasts, will debut as part of the festival’s audio storytelling lineup, alongside 17 other world premieres from independent and established narrative audio creators. Creator Piazza will also join the Tribeca Festival’s Established Audio Artists panel on Monday to discuss the podcast, its origins and development and the obstacles its production team faced.