Route 66, which ran 2,448 miles from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, was decommissioned 40 years ago. It may have given way to a modern, high-speed interstate, but it’s far from forgotten. In Where the Distance Shimmers, a meditation for Radio 4 on what Steinbeck called the Mother Road, Laura Barton (whom I’ve followed on some tremendous radio road-trips) “explores 66’s shifting identity, from migratory route to America’s Main Street”.