Bruce Springsteen and the American Reckoning: Breakups, Ghosts, and Trump’s America

Get in touch!Part Four is where the story cuts close to the bone. Bruce lets the E Street Band go, stares down his own failures on Tunnel of Love, and writes The Ghost of Tom Joad for the people that some Americans prefer not to see: migrants, the unemployed, the left-behind. The band reunites, “American Skin (41 Shots)” forces a conversation about race and fear, and The Rising and Wrecking Ball turn grief and economic anger into something like a shared civic ritual. We carry all of that forward into Trump’s first administration and Charlottesville, and we hold Bruce’s choices up as a different model of Americanness—one where loving your country means telling it the truth and standing with the people it’s hurting, even when that costs you.Music in This Episode: Bruce Springsteen (With and Without) the E Street BandTunnel of LoveHuman TouchLiving ProofThe Ghost of Tom JoadTheme from Ken Burns 'The Civil War'*The Price You Pay**American Skin (41 Shots)This Land Is Your LandArchival InterviewsRick Rubin/ Malcolm Gladwell Mark Maron Howard SternBank Street Podcast*As performed by my second cousin, Molly Hines of Wilmington, NC. A massively talented violinist, during our family reunion in Yellowstone National Park; Summer, 2025. Thank you, Molly! Visit https://www.mollyjhines.com/** E Street Band backing track; no vocals.