Villa Aurora X Lookout FM Radio - Episode 6 of "if the house could speak"
In January of 2025 the Palisades Fire came within feet of Villa Aurora. Miraculously, the house survived, and with it the radio transmitter that broadcasts from there throughout the Santa Monica Mountains and the beaches below.
This series explores the voices, past and present, that reverberate at Lion and Marta Feuchtwanger’s former home. For the past 30 years, Villa Aurora has been an artist residence, a place where exile and expression meet, where history and contemporary events converge.
During the process of rebuilding and awaiting our artists’ return, we will be broadcasting newly produced, archival and historical footage for you to listen to and maybe wonder: Is this really only a house or, like Carl Jung suggests, can the composition of a room induce the realization of new truths?
Each episode of if the house could speak will be broadcast on a loop for 24 hours with no interruption starting at 12 PM Pacific Daylight Time. For our listeners across the world, that corresponds to 7 PM Coordinated Universal Time and 9 PM Middle European Time.
Episode 6
Thomas Mann's Antifascist Radio Addresses, 1940-1945: Listen, Germany!
As part of the ongoing programs honoring Thomas Mann’s 150th anniversary, this episode features a conversation with literary scholars Jeffrey High and Elaine Chen, editors of Thomas Mann’s Antifascist Radio Addresses, 1940–1945 (Camden House), the first English language translation of Mann’s anti-fascist BBC broadcasts.
Although it was illegal to listen to foreign radio in Nazi Germany, many people secretly tuned in to Thomas Mann’s addresses. Shortwave radios were common, and the BBC’s German-language service could often be picked up, especially at night. The Nazi regime declared listening to “enemy radio” a criminal offense and threatened severe penalties, but enforcement was uneven and difficult to control. As a result, thousands of Germans secretly tuned in, seeking uncensored information about the war and enjoying the sense connection from exile.
These speeches urged resistance to fascism and established Mann as the most influential German voice abroad. His belief that the “social renewal of democracy” was both the condition and the guarantee of victory remains strikingly relevant today.
JEFFREY L. HIGH is Professor in German Studies, Comparative Literature, and Honors at California State University, Long Beach and Guest Professor at the German Summer School of the Pacific at Portland State University.
ELAINE CHEN is a PhD candidate in the Departments of Germanic Languages and Literatures and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, MA.
Recorded on August 12, 2025 at the Thomas Mann House
Thomas Mann’s Antifascist Radio Addresses, 1940–1945. Listen, Germany! (2025)
Edited by: Jeffrey L. High , Elaine Chen and Hans Rudolf Vaget
Preface by: Frido Mann
About LOOKOUT FM
LOOKOUT FM is a West Coast terrestrial radio home for the broadcast of "transmission art:" experimental audio composition, modern serials, data sonification, radio plays, multi-day compositions, and radio-centric performances. Their licensed stations in Burbank, Hollywood, and Pacific Palisades function as FM exhibition spaces where radio art is presented without regard to constraints of time, structure, or commercial consideration.
