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We start the episode in 2025, at Springsteen's show in Manchester, UK where he makes a landmark statement about America's "leadership" before we flash back to his formative years.

A cramped house in Freehold. A father smoking in the dark kitchen. A kid staring at the radio like it’s a way out and a way in. In Part one, we meet Bruce not as a legend, but as a working-class American kid learning early what struggle, pride, and community look like. As we follow him into those early Jersey bar gigs and up to the Cherry Hill shows, we start using his story as a counterexample to our current politics: a picture of American life rooted in responsibility, neighborliness, and the refusal to quit on your own town.

Music in This Episode: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

Land of Hopes and Dreams

Growin' Up

Baby I* 

It's Hard to Be a Saint in the City

Spirit in the Night

Rosalita

* Bruce's first teenage band, The Castiles. 

Archival Interviews

Mark Maron 

Howard Stern

Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell

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