George Bailey was Never Born

Created by Kurt Engfehr, the editor-producer of Oscar- and Palme d’Or-winning documentaries, and Ray Nowosielski, 2022 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Podcast, the series is a co-production of iHeartMedia and Double Asterisk, in association with True Stories.  Narrated by a familiar angel, listeners are taken back and forth between the part of the multiverse where the events of Wonderful Life really happened and our own – one where George Bailey was never born!  The podcast is encouraging listener donations to their local Habitat for Humanity and to AFSP American Federation of Suicide Prevention, in honor of the movie's twin causes of affordable homeownership and suicide prevention.  (We’re not affiliated with them though!)

The podcast features conversations with “George Bailey” Jimmy Stewart's daughter Kelly Stewart Harcourt, co-star Donna Reed's daughter Mary Owen, Capra's grandchildren Frank Capra III and Monica Capra Hodges, original story writer Philip Van Doren Stern’s grandchildren and others, as well as American influencers, artists and real modern small-town corollaries to the characters from the movie.

The 10 episodes of George Bailey Was Never Born detail many never-before-told stories, ranging from the whoops by Rashida Jones’ grandfather to renew the film's copyright to how Republic managed to regain control of it in 1993, from how the New York Times helped start a popular phenomenon of upside-downing the traditional meaning of Wonderful Life to the abolitionist and anti-fascist intentions behind the movie’s creation, with implications for the MAGA movement today, and much more.

Three episodes take listeners inside the "real Bedford Falls,” Seneca Falls, New York, one spotlighting community banker Menzo Case's efforts to bring affordable housing there through his own Bailey Park. The podcast has launched George Bailey Day, promoting nationwide viewing parties on Saturday December 9th, and is hosting a live streamed AMA event that day from Seneca Falls to push continued momentum on Menzo Case’s vision for affordable housing there.