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Route 66\u2014The Main Street of America\u2014 the first continuously paved highway linking east and west was the most traveled and well known road in the US for almost fifty years. From Chicago, through the Ozarks, across Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, up the mesas of New Mexico and Arizona, and down into California to the Pacific Ocean. The first road of its kind, it came to represent America\u2019s mobility and freedom\u2014inspiring countless stories, songs, and even a TV show.

Songwriter Bobby Troup tells the story of his 1946 hit \u201cGet Your Kicks on Route 66.\u201d Mickey Mantle says, \u201cIf it hadn\u2019t been for US 66 I wouldn\u2019t have been a Yankee.\u201d Stirling Silliphant, creator of the TV series \u201cRoute 66\u201d talks about the program and its place in American folklore of the 60s.

Studs Terkel reads from The Grapes of Wrath about the "Mother Road," and the great 1930s migration along Highway 66. We hear from musicians who recall what life on the road during the 1930s was like for them, including Clarence Love, Woody Guthrie, and Eldin Shamblin, who played guitar for Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.

We travel the history of the road from its beginnings through caverns and roadside attractions, into tourist traps and bunko joints, through the hard times of the Dust Bowl, Depression and the \u201cRoad of Flight,\u201d and into the \u201cGhost Road\u201d of the 1980s, as the interstates bypass the businesses and roadside attractions of another era.

Produced by The Kitchen Sisters and narrated by actor David Selby.\xa0

The Kitchen Sisters Present is produced by The Kitchen Sisters (Nikki Silva & Davia Nelson) with Nathan Dalton and Brandi Howell. Part of Radiotopia from PRX, a curated network of podcasts created by independent producers.