Everything is a Primary Source

America at 250 Episode 11: "Voice of the People: the democratization of media and its reflection of time and place." Having spent fifteen years working as a reporter and news anchor for different news affiliates around...

America at 250 Episode 10: "Staying in the Loop: Chicago's WLUP radio as an example of terrestrial radio's role in civic life." The Museum of Broadcast Communications has a special exhibit dedicated to its hometown Rock...

America at 250 Episode 8: "X Marks the Spot: How The X-Files represent 1990s society and culture. " Val is the archivist at the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, and therefore a deep thinker about...

America at 250 Episode 7: "Full Circuit: 'Electronic Selector' as a refection of the 1950s' " Ric chose to discuss "Electronic Selector," a cross between a trivia board game and a electrical tutorial from the 1950s as...

America at 250 Episode 6: "Future Boy: 1985's Back to the Future as a primary source " Gwen asked to chat about 1985's Back to the Future for her podcast segment and I was glad to oblige considering it is one of my...

America at 250 Episode 5: "A Telephone's Ring: The many tales the telephone tells" If you host a drop-in podcast at a telephone museum, you're bound to get more than a few conversations about the world-changing device...

America at 250 Episode 4: "A Lineman for the Country: A conversation about the evolution of telecommunications with a career phone company man." This is the kind of episode I imagined making when I started taking the...

America at 250 Episode 3: "Our House: Virginia Lee Burton's 1942 picture book, The Little House as a primary source." Sage took the time to speak with me at the New Hampshire Telephone Museum this Spring, selecting...

America at 250 Episode 2: "Telecom Rebels: Phone Phreaking as a Document of the 1970s" Dave met with me at the New Hampshire Telephone Museum in Warner to discuss the "Phone Phreaking" trend of the 1970s. Rebellious...

America at 250, Episode 1: "We Begin." Historian Jim Ambuske, Ph.D. specializes in 18th Century studies, and the American Revolution specifically, so I could think of no more appropriate guest to have on the podcast to...

S5E35: "No Payne, No Gain: Dissecting 1995's Major Payne as a document of its time." Eric is joined by filmmaker Steven Martini, whose break out role as an actor came as Cadet Alex Stone, the foil for Damon Wayan's...

Debora Masterson is the guest on this episode of the Everything is a Primary Source Podcast, discussing the 1970s band, Freedom Quest, of which she was a member, and her new book , Freedom Quest: A Love Story, and what...

S5E33: "Bridge to the Past: Kinzua Bridge State Park in Pennsylvania as a Primary Source" This is an interview from 2023 with Professor Kevin Patrick, an active member of the Society for Commercial Archeology, regarding...

S5E32: "Somewhere That's Green: 'Little Shop of Horrors' as a primary source Since it’s that time of the year again when people begin to plan out their planting for the season, I figured I’d cultivate an episode from a...

S5E31: "Failure is Not an Option: Apollo 13 as a primary source of the mid 1990s" This episode of the Everything is a Primary Source podcast is another clip extracted from the archives, this time a conversation with a...