Guests examined the life and career of journalist H. L. Mencken. He became a reporter for the Baltimore Morning Herald and later joined the Baltimore Sun. He eventually became one of the most influential voices in American literature and was often critical of what he perceived as American weaknesses. He often railed against pretension, provincialism, prudery, organized religion, and the Middle Class. By the 1930s his opinions became increasingly conservative and sometimes reactionary. In The American Language, which was revised several times, he chronicled American expressions and idioms. The program was telecast from Union Square in Baltimore, the site of his family home.