The Rocky Statue: A Famous Monument to a Fictitious Hero

Why do millions of people from around the world flock to Philadelphia, PA, to visit a statue….of a fictional character? We ask Paul Farber, host of the WHYY podcast The Statue.

Many who have been to Philadelphia have visited the iconic plaza outside the Philadelphia Museum of Art that houses the Rocky statue. But what does a statue celebrating a fictional boxer tell us about how and why we create monuments? Paul Farber is a Philly native, director of The Monument Lab, and host of the podcast The Stature. He joins host Kai Wright and executive producer André Robert Lee to discuss the complicated facts surrounding the famous site– and what he decided to do about it. You can hear more about how Paul explored this peculiarity on WHYY Digital Studio’s The Statue. 

Companion listening for this episode:

American Political Myths Have Consequences For Us All (2/9/2023)

From the “Southern Strategy” to the civil rights movement, we’re surfacing what is true about our nation’s past and what is propaganda masquerading as history.

“Notes from America” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on notesfromamerica.org or on WNYC’s YouTube channel.

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Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.