Bill Moyers is such a thoughtful, sagacious, wordsmith, a man of such profound reflection on democracy, a humanist full of personal anecdotes dating back to his Texas youth...well, he is so remarkably wise that there is no place for him at the table on the mainstream corporate networks -- and he had to pretty much get the funding to buy his return to PBS.

As one online reviewer noted, when Bill Moyers speaks you get a chill down your spine. He crafts his words so that he takes you on a journey through the underpinnings of democracy -- about whose future he is sorely worried -- and you put your brain in gear because you don't want to miss a word.

Moyers talks to a crowd as it must have been in the days before radio and television, when speechmaking was an art and words and delivery were handcrafted for the audience at hand, not for the soundbite that would end up on the evening news.

"Moyers on Democracy" is a just-released anthology (May 6, 2008) of some of his most stirring speeches. We've heard a few of them, because hearing them is something that touches both the mind and the soul -- as well as a truly patriotic vision of an embracing democracy.

“Bill Moyers has been my North Star, in his eloquence, his quiet passion and courage, and in the way he presents me and millions of others with the ideals of our nation, from our past to our present to our uncertain future. Always he offers the gifts of thoughtfulness and of hope.”

-—Studs Terkel