Skip to content

Jad Abumrad on Dolly Parton: 'The Unicorn of Unicorns'

2026-08-26 · collab / interview · Hank, Jad Abumrad · 6:14 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Pop culture · mode: Q&A & conversation · tags: guest or collab, self promotion

Hank shares an edited excerpt of his Humans interview with Jad Abumrad about Dolly Parton: Jad describes interviewing her many times without feeling he knows her, Hank argues she understands power and cannot believe in villains, and Jad tells how she left Porter Wagoner with I Will Always Love You.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Hank introduces his Humans interview with Jad Abumrad and recommends Dolly Parton's America

  • ★★ A few months ago Hank interviewed Jad Abumrad, known from Radiolab, for Humans, to ask how he made his Dolly Parton series and about Dolly Parton herself. — 00:00:00 · Humans
  • ★★ Hank recommends Jad's series Dolly Parton's America, for which Jad sat down with Dolly Parton a lot; it is available in all podcast places. — 00:00:00 · United States
  • ★ Jad happened to be in Hank's town in Montana, so they filmed the episode in a little studio with three cameras, unlike most Humans episodes. — 00:00:31 · Montana, Humans
  • ★ Hank edited this section quickly because his household has been thinking a lot about Dolly and he wanted to listen to it again. — 00:00:31

00:01:01 — Jad on interviewing Dolly Parton again and again, her quip, her hidden genius and humor

  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad says that in all his interviews he goes back again and again: an interview is never just one, but three or four with the same person. — 00:01:01
  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad talked with Dolly Parton many times; in one of the last interviews she asked whether he was still here and what he was doing, and he felt the weight of the question. — 00:01:01
  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Looking back, Jad says an interviewer always wants to reach the point where the subject asks why you are still around. — 00:01:44
  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad confirms Dolly gave him her quip every time: ask her anything, and she will tell you what she wants you to hear. — 00:01:44
  • ★★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad came away thinking Dolly is a genius you don't see because she doesn't want you to, using humor as judo to redirect uncomfortable questions in interviews. — 00:02:07
  • ★★ Hank says people should teach college courses about communication based only on Dolly Parton interviews. — 00:02:07
  • ★★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad says he asked her every question he could, yet he does not feel he really knows her: she creates the feeling of knowing and plays the game too well to get past. — 00:02:37

00:03:05 — Hank's insight: Dolly's understanding of power, America and the partisan divide, no villains

  • ★★★ Hank offers his insight that Dolly Parton has a very interesting and nuanced understanding of power. — 00:03:05
  • ★★★ Hank says Dolly Parton's America is a series about America, power and the partisan divide, and about how Dolly occupies a space where it is okay to just be American. — 00:03:05 · United States
  • ★★ Hank observes that the kinds of people at a Dolly Parton show are not in the same room together in many other places. — 00:03:35
  • ★★★ Beyond her communication skill, Hank thinks Dolly has a complex understanding of human relationships that makes it very hard for her to believe in villains. — 00:03:35

00:04:17 — Jad's story of Dolly leaving Porter Wagoner with I Will Always Love You; the unicorn of unicorns

  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad says Dolly came to Nashville at 21 in 1967 to join Porter Wagoner, then the biggest deal in country music with a syndicated show, ostensibly as his backup singer. — 00:04:17
  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad says that within a year Dolly was all anyone wanted to see; Wagoner grew jealous, bad-mouthed her in the press and sued her for $3 million when she tried to leave. — 00:04:17
  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad says Dolly left by telling Wagoner she had her own dreams and wrote I Will Always Love You for him, a song that went to number one in three successive decades. (hedged) — 00:04:46
  • ★★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad says Dolly left with an incredible act of kindness while also insisting on her own power. — 00:04:46
  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad says Dolly embodies the better ideals of Christianity more than almost anyone. — 00:05:23
  • ★★ Hank adds that the song she walked away with will make her far more than the $3 million she was sued for. (playful) — 00:05:23
  • ★ Jad Abumrad: Jad jokes that seven generations of her family will live off the song. (playful) — 00:05:23
  • ★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad says Dolly does it all in solitary gestures, as if mid-game of chess she reveals a piece you didn't know about. — 00:05:52

  • ★★★ Jad Abumrad: Jad calls Dolly the unicorn of unicorns: he doubts there will be anyone like her once she is gone, but everyone keeps benefiting from what she made. — 00:05:52

    “she is like the unicorn of unicorns”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Dolly Parton · Dolly Parton's America · Jad Abumrad

Also: People: Porter Wagoner

Projects: Humans

Works: Chess · I Will Always Love You

Concepts: Christianity · kindness · political polarization

Places: Montana · Nashville · United States

Only in the description or credits: Radiolab

← Previous: The Great Thing about Infectious Disease · Next → Why the Deadliest Virus Was the Easiest to Kill