Bill Moyers Interviews Irish Historian Thomas Cahill On The Pope, Poverty And Poetry

Preview: The Pope, Poverty and Poetry

December 19, 2013

Bill talks to best-selling author Thomas Cahill about why Pope Francis has conservatives up in arms and Philip Levine, who explores how his years working on Detroit’s assembly lines inspired his poetry.

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Preview: The Pope, Poverty and Poetry

December 19, 2013

In just a few months, Pope Francis, the first in history to take the name of the patron saint of the poor, has proven to be one of the most outspoken pontiffs in recent history, especially when it comes to the widening gap between the rich and poor. This week on Moyers & Company Bill talks to author and historian Thomas Cahill to get his perspective on what Pope Francis could achieve during his papacy and why he has some conservatives up in arms.

Also on the broadcast, poet Philip Levine joins Bill to discuss why Americans have lost sight of the working-class Americans with whom he worked side-by-side on the assembly lines of Detroit’s auto plants — and inspired several of his poems. Described by one critic as “a large, ironic Whitman of the industrial heartland,” Philip Levine recently served as the nation’s poet laureate at the Library of Congress.

The full show will air on December 27, 2013.