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The Kitchen Sisters Present

159 — Nomadland with Frances McDormand

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.61.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2021

⏱️ 27 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sometimes you read a book and it alters the course of your life. That’s what happened to Frances McDormand. Twice. First it was Olive Kitteridge, the HBO series she produced and starred in based on the book by Elizabeth Stroud. This time it's Nomadland.

Academy Award winning Frances McDormand talks about the making of Nomadland which is coming to Hulu and select theaters and drive-ins starting February 19, 2021.

Directed by Chloe Zhao, based on the nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving in the Twenty First Century by Jessica Bruder, Nomadland is the first film to ever premiere at the Venice, Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals all on the same night — where it took home all the top prizes.

The story is a tale of our times centering on the very “now” many Americans find themselves in. People uprooted from their old jobs and old neighborhoods, places they've called home for decades, now living in DIY customized vans, migrating for work with the seasons. Christmas near the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Virginia, the sugar beet harvest in North Dakota, cleaning latrines and being campground hosts in National Parks. They were already on the road by the thousands before the pandemic uprooted even more.

Frances McDormand plays Fern, a woman in her sixties who, after losing everything in the Great Recession, sets out on a journey through the Midwest living as a van-dwelling itinerant worker — a modern day nomad.

Frances talks about her experiences making the film in the van-dwelling community with clips from director Chloe Zhao, author Jessica Bruder, van-dwelling guru Bob Wells, and clips from the film.

“…Zhao’s fable speaks to us, in 2020, as John Ford’s The Grapes of Wrath did to audiences eighty years ago.” Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

Transcript

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0:00.0

Radio to you.

0:02.3

Welcome to the Kitchen Sisters' presenter, PRX.

0:05.7

We are the Kitchen Sisters, Davian Nelson, and Nikki Silva.

0:09.7

Whether it's high speed rail or offshore wind, it seems like America is not great at building

0:15.0

infrastructure.

0:16.4

And if you're wondering why that is, then check out a podcast called The Big Dick.

0:21.2

It's the story of one of the most notoriously expensive projects in American history, and

0:26.4

it will change the way you see the infrastructure in your life.

0:29.9

Find The Big Dick from GBH News wherever you listen.

0:38.6

Sometimes you read a book, and it alters the course of your life.

0:43.1

That's what happened to Frances McDormand.

0:45.7

Twice.

0:46.7

First, it was all of Kitteridge, the HBO series she produced and starred in, based on the

0:52.2

book by Elizabeth Strout.

0:54.7

This time, it's No Mad Land.

0:58.2

There is only now, the new now.

1:02.0

That's the moment so many of us find ourselves in.

1:04.6

Appruded from our old jobs and our old neighborhoods, places we may have called home for decades.

1:10.9

No Mads.

1:12.2

Appruded, migrating with the seasons.

1:15.2

Christmas near the Amazon fulfillment center in Virginia.

1:18.8

The sugar beet harvest to North Dakota.

...

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