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Very much looking forward to listening to this Podcast! I love Philly centric stories and with all the driving I do for work, I’m going to binge the hell out of this!

I have two questions for you;

1. Are there any other Philly specific podcasts or stories you’d recommend? I’m currently subscribed to “The Statue” and “Found in Philadelphia”.
2. What’s your favorite statue/monument in Philadelphia? Or any that are hidden and you want more people to know about?

I remember the hullabaloo when they moved it back to the art museum from the Spectrum. How does the art museum feel about the rocky statue today? Are they mad that people run up the steps but don't go inside?

If you could, no restrictions, have a monument to any person or idea placed anywhere in the city, what would you pick?

Also what's the worst statue or monument you've ever seen

What books would you recommend to learn more about monuments or the Rocky statue?

Which US monument is most worth visiting today?

What are your thoughts on the Harriet Tubman sculpture discourse? Why doesn't (or does it?) Philadelphia already have a monument for such an important figure in our history?

Are there other "traveling monuments" that you know of?

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What do you think of the new MLK statue in Boston? Did they miss the mark on this? Have not seen in person but it looks quite strange and has had critical reviews.

Two questions:

Why are you telling this story now? And are there other Philadelphians (real or fictional) that you think should get their own statue next?

it looks a lot better in person, where you can walk around it and also view it from elevation

but there's no one angle of it that looks good, in my opinion

In your professional opinion, what is the meaning of life?

Love WHYY and the pod! 2 questions for you!

- Not sure if you get into this in the most recent episode of The Statue, I haven't listend to it yet unfortunately, but are there any efforts being made to open up a boxing gym at Joe Fraziers old gym? There is some development going on in North Philly so curious if this is on the table.

- Any idea why boxing is such a big part of Philly? Was this solely because of Rocky or did it predate Rocky? I feel like it's such a huge part of Philly history.

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Can't wait to hear more!

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Thanks for your feedback!

1. A few Philly-specific podcasts to recommend: City Cast (timely discussions of life and culture), Love + Grit (co-hosted by one of Philly’s best, Laiya St. Clair), Serum (made in Philly, fascinating on public health history), and March On (from our WHYY producer Michaela Winberg!).
2. I have a few favorite monuments in the city. The Clothespin, the Octavius Catto statue, the Your Move game pieces on MSB, Ellen Phillips Samuel Memorial, are among my favorites. I also appreciate sites of memory like the Boxer’s Trail, the Archives at the William Way LGBT Center, and the President’s House.

Great questions!
For those who may not know the background, the Museum steps was the place where the statue was installed for the filming of Rocky III, left there, moved around to other sites including the now demolished-Spectrum, and then returned to a place at the bottom of the steps. We cover the story and relationship between the Art Museum and the Rockyverse in Episode 1 of the podcast.
The museum and Rockyverse are beginning to co-exist in more meaningful ways. I hope there are more public programs recognizing this. I got a Rocky pin at the museum gift shop!

Hey Paul, thanks for doing this AMA!

Can you describe the process of putting together the podcast - i.e., you've got a bigger story that you're working to tell by the end - so how do you decide which pieces of your research fit into each episode?

I don't have a question but I gave your podcast 5 stars

When we were preparing for the series, we read through lots of books and materials, to dive into the Rocky story and monuments. Here are a few we refer to in the series and/or who guided our process:

• Laura M. Holzman, Contested Image: Defining Philadelphia for the Twenty-First Century
• Chris Holmund, The Ultimate Stallone Reader
• Lewis Hyde, A Primer for Forgetting: Getting Past the Past
• Mark Kram Jr., Smoking’ Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier
• Monument Lab, The National Monument Audit
• Kirk Savage, Monument Wars: Washington, D.C., the National Mall, and the Transformation of the Memorial Landscape
• Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
• Sylvester Stallone, The Official Rocky Scrapbook
• Salamishah Tillet, Sites of Slavery: Citizenship and Racial Democracy in the Post–Civil Rights Imagination
• Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History
• Alex von Tunzelmann, Fallen Idols: Twelve Statues That Made History
• Michael Vitez and Tom Gralish, Rocky Stories: Tales of Love, Hope, and Happiness at America’s Most Famous Steps

Hi Paul, really enjoying the podcast so far!

What is your favorite Rocky movie?

Are there any tidbits that didn't get included in the pod but you still think are super interesting?

-Thanks for your question. Episode 3 (which was released this week) dives into the story of Joe Frazier, in and out of the Rocky films. We looked at his cameo in Rocky I, told the story of how he was almost cast as the co-star in Rocky III, and then spent time looking at places he is remembered in the city.
The gym is an important place. We spoke to Brent Leggs from the National Trust, who was behind the building getting its historic designation. You can also check out a companion doc from WHYY Digital Studios on Frazier.
-Boxing in Philly runs deep! The Rocky story tapped that backstory and expanded it. One of the best places to learn about boxing in the city is Boxers' Trail in Fairmount Park.

Favorite Pokemon?

I started thinking about this project several years ago. I went to the Rocky Statue, the line, and the Art Museum steps almost every week for the last two years. I watched every Rocky sequel and all the documentaries on the subject. Poured over every meme and parody. I read everything written by Sylvester Stallone, public art scholars, and just people who live their lives for all of this, the movies, the statue, and all the hype around them.
When the team at WHYY Digital Studios – Tom Grahsler, Mike Olcott, and Michaela Winberg – began working on the project, it really brought the process and the idea to life. They brought such creativity, important perspectives, and angles to the narrative. We workshopped each episode, worked with some great sound designers and musicians at Rowhome Productions and Moqita, and then we tinkered with each episode to bring them to life.
Can’t overstate how important the team was to making this a reality.

Thanks for the response! It's a very well-produced product, so congrats to everyone on your team!

I’m always thinking about monuments. Coming off a year-long audit of America’s monuments, I kept driving or walking by the line at the Rocky Statue that fills up every day, and began digging into why millions go there each year. With the release of Rocky-spinoff Creed III coming this spring, it felt timely to look into the story of a statue that bridges the past and present.
There are many notable Philadelphians worthy of monumental spotlight. Among them, William Still, Gloria Casarez, Julian Abele. They and others have been remembered in murals, historic markers, and could be further celebrated and spotlighted.
And just saying: Gritty may be a monument in of itself.

In the words of Rocky: “Life's not about how hard of a hit you can give... it's about how many you can take, and still keep moving forward.”

If you could have a monument erected of a unpopular/controversial person, who would it be?

There were so many! Maybe we’ll include in a future season, who knows 🙂
One to share: We know of the iconic Rocky Statue, made by A. Thomas Schomberg. What we found is that there are actually numerous other versions. Some we cover in future episodes, but some we will have to save for another time: The Lego Rocky Statue, the recycled materials Rocky Statue, and the candy Rocky Statue, among others.

Great question! I think a lot about how monuments change over time – and hope we can make that more of a reality for more monuments. I want to see a monument that changes each generation, builds in intergenerational stories, makes room to update itself, and has living detoxifying plant materials as a part of it.
Sadly, there are so many to choose from. Here’s an obvious one: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/ugly-nathan-bedford-forrest-statue

Thank you for listening and for the 5-star rating!
As gratitude, here is a tidbit from the behind-the-scenes of the series. In a future episode, when we visit a Hollywood Museum to see a Rocky Statue there, we found Rocky in the same room as wax Forrest Gump and the wax stars of Men in Black.

I'm gonna be real with you Paul wax statues are weird so don't bring that juju back to Philly.

Thanks for listening!
Rocky III, of course. That’s when the statue comes into the series.
One of my favorite scenes is in Rocky V when Balboa and his son visit the statue at the Museum, and then decide to go inside and see the art.
I had a great conversation about the film series with Mike White at the Projection Booth podcast, if you want to check that out. We talked about the films and the statues

I would rather do other things with my time, but your question is fascinating. Will be thinking about it!
In the meantime, check out this museum in Berlin, which houses old toxic monuments and contextualizes them in new thoughtful ways.

I recommend reading Philly Inquirer’s Valerie Russ and her ongoing writing about this topic. She has been following this story in meaningful ways. WHYY also reported a few years ago about a really important part of the Tubman story in Philly. You can read more about monuments to Tubman in Monument Lab’s National Monument Audit. For traveling monuments, check out Hank Willis Thomas’ All Power to All People with Kindred Arts.

Hey folks. I have to get back to work, but thank you so much for the great questions. We hope you enjoy listening to WHYY’s The Statue.
Follow us on Twitter or IG [@]WHYY [@] Paul_Farber [@] Monument_Lab #TheStatue
Thanks again to the r/philadelphia mods for making this AMA possible!

Oh I know! Kept at a distance :)

Looks like a cool museum!

I saw you speak when I was a grad student at Northeastern just before the pandemic!

What’s your favorite “weird” monument in the city? Mine is the strange Tammany statue in Old City presiding over I-95

Does Philadelphia have any “lost” monuments that were destroyed and you wish were still around?

Sadly I only just saw this pop up on my feed, thanks for doing the AMA, and I will listen to your show tomorrow.

If you're still answering questions, will you be covering other statues/ monuments in the city on the future, such as the fellows around city hall, or a summary of all the Franklin statues throughout the city?

Mods please sticky the AMA threads in future so we all see them in time.