My Lobotomy
From Sound Portraits | 28:33
One man's quest to uncover the hidden story behind the lobotomy he received as a 12-year-old child.
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- My Lobotomy
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- Sound Portraits
On January 17, 1946 a psychiatrist named Walter Freeman launched a radical new era in the treatment of mental illness in this country. On that day he performed the first-ever transorbital -- or "ice pick" -- lobotomy in his Washington, D.C. office. Freeman believed that mental illness was related to overactive emotions, and that by cutting the brain he cut away these feelings.
Freeman was equal part physician and showman and became a barnstorming crusader for the procedure. Before his death in 1972, he performed ice pick lobotomies on no less than 2,500 patients in 23 states.
One of Freemen's youngest patients is a 56-year-old bus driver living in California. Over two years he has embarked on a quest to discover the story behind the procedure he received as a 12-year-old.
Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter
From Devon Strolovitch | Part of the Inside the National Recording Registry series | 05:50
Loretta Lynn, Harold Bradley, and Jack White tell the story of "Coal Miner's Daughter," selected for the National Recording Registry in 2009.
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- Loretta Lynn: Coal Miner's Daughter
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- Devon Strolovitch
This hit country song was written in 1970 by Loretta Lynn. With her plaintive, but proud voice, Lynn tells the story of growing up poor in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky. Lynn, Nashville veteran Harold Ray Bradley, and Jack White of The White Stripes explain what makes the song a classic.