Everything is a Primary Source

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, technologically-minded youth used their know-how to work the monopolistic phone system to make free calls to telephones all over the world.  This at the forefront of the computer rev...

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 dissect the Declaration of Independence as an artifact of its time and place. This is the first episode of a special season of the Everything is a Primary Source where, in celebrat...

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 title character, to discuss Major Payne as a document of its era.  As you'll hear, the talk about the 1990s movie and Steven's latest projects transform into a discussion on copyright...

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 they both can tell us about time and place. This is fitting as one month from the publication of this podcast, I’ll be wrapping up a Freedom Quest of my own. I’ll be taking the Ever...

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 Kinzua Bridge State Park in Western Pennsylvania.  Although on the shorter side, we covered topics that are very relevant as we round out Preservation Month and approach Memorial D...

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 short recording from few years ago about Roger Corman’s 1960 B Horror Comedy Little Shop of Horrors. Let this be a cautionary episode of the Everything is a Primary Source Podcast....

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 drop-in guest named Ted about the 1994 book Lost Moon, which was the basis for the 1995 film, Apollo 13. It may have taken a few years but my guest’s wish is about to come true. I wi...

S5E30: "Greetings from the Jersey Shore: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band as a document of time and place." Melissa Ziobro is the Director of Curatorial Affairs for the Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music , which is set to open to the public in its brand new building later this Spring.  Melissa is also a native to the Jersey Shore, and therefore the best person to s...

S5E29: "Back to L.A.: SCA and Historic Preservation in Los Angeles" This episode is a callback to three years ago when I spoke with members of the Society for Commercial Archeology during their conference. One of the top priorities of SCA is historic preservation, particularly of signage and structures along America’s roadways and throughout our developed towns and cities. My summer roadtrip proje...

S5E28: "There's No Place Like Home:  The Wizard of Oz as a Primary Source" This episode of the Everything is a Primary Source features a discussion about The Wizard of Oz. It was recorded a few summers ago at Prescott Park in Portsmouth, NH, just before a performance of Little Shop of Horrors. This portion was originally included in with a longer dialogue in Season 3, but is now taking its own pat...

S5E27: "The Bad Boys of Boston: Aerosmith's origins as a document of the early 1970s" We learn about the early days of Aerosmith from one of their original roadies, who just happened to be in the right place and the right time to get the gig. His story is very telling about this era of rock n roll, and perhaps the status of things in general as the 60s transitioned to the 70s.  This was recorded a...

S5E26: "Welcome to Sinclair Dinoland: Evaluating dinosaurs' evolution in pop culture media" My son has contributed to several episodes of the Everything is a Primary Source Podcast over the last five seasons, and this is his latest contribution.  Using a guidebook to the Sinclair Oil "Dinoland" experience at the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York as the basis of our discussion, we take a look at the...

S5E25: "First Day: An 1853 letter and how it depicts everyday life in the era" Jonathan Ahl of the Rokeby Museum in Vermont returns to the podcast to walk us through an 1853 letter from his museum’s archive that simultaneously tells us so little but shows us so much.   Rowland Robinson, who would go on to be a well-recognized writer and artist, wrote a letter to his mother Rachael, describing the...

S5E24: "War Games: a breakdown of a deck of cards from 2003 featuring Iraqi high command" I met with a group of pre-service social studies teachers from Plymouth State University at the NHCSS conference last fall and they selected a deck of cards that I had received from another exhibitor just that day to talk about.  Looking back on the conversation about a deck of cards that would've been issued...

S5E23: "I Just Called to Say: treating telephones through the ages as primary sources" Graham Gifford is theExecutive Director of the New Hampshire Telephone Museum in Warner.  She and I connected at the NHCSS conference in Concord last October.  I think we were really dialed in with our talk, and I hope you enjoy the tone of the conversation as we connect lines between all iterations of telephoni...

S5E22:"Stars of the Second City: The 1893 and 1933 World's Fairs in Chicago as documents of their time periods" Plymouth State University History Professor John Kruekeberg and I speak about two of the shining stars in Chicago's storied past, the Columbian Exposition of 1893 and the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair, by way of a souvenir deck of cards I have from the former event. #worldsfair #...

S5E21:"Program 1: The Beatles on 8-Track as a primary source of the early 1970s" Morgan, who works with Creative Guts , a creativity-centered non-profit and podcast, stopped by my exhibit last year at the NH Makers Fest held at the Children's Museum of New Hampshire.  He chose my Beatles/ 1962-1966 compilation on 8-track to talk about, but we spent less time talking about the Fab Four themselves a...

S5E20" "Blinded Me With Science: Seeing versions Henrik Ibsen's An Enemy of the People as a reflections of time and place" Shoshannah Boray is the Education Coordinator for Vermont Stage, a Burlington-based theater company, whose Public Square Play this season is Gracie vs. The People .   The performance is an adaptation and update for modern teen audiences of Swedish playwright Henrik Ibsen's An...

S5E19: "Strictly In It: Analyzing a 1907 postcard to determine what it tells us of time and place" Jonathon Ahl is the Education coordinator at the Rokeby Museum in Ferrisburgh, Vermont, and therefore is no stranger to dissecting a document on the spot, sight unseen.  We applied our analytical skills to a postcard from Oregon featuring a cartoon duck, printed and filled out in the first part of th...

S5E18: "This One's For Chuck: Chuck Mangione and his Album Feels So Good as a document of the late 1970s" The waning days of December is the time to reflect on the previous year and that includes notable people we have lost.  Jazz musician Chuck Mangione was one such purpose, and I had the pleasure of speaking to one of his biggest fans about Mangione's most recognized album, Feels So Good at a co...

S5E17:"Gee the Traffic is Terrific: Navigating with road maps and travel culture as documents of time and place" John King teaches in Florida, New York, and joined me at the Mid Hudson Council for the Social Studies conference this Fall to talk about some of the road maps in my collection that caught his eye.  This is not the first time that road maps have come up on the show, but as John demonstr...

S5E16: "Ready to Relaunch: The Atari 7800 Pro System as a document of the mid 1980s" In 1986 American video game pioneer Atari responded to the growing popularity of Nintendo by introducing their 7800 machine, a game system with graphics and (some) games that rivaled the NES, but never quite took.  On this episode my guest Jason and I trade stories of how we got our 7800s, the features and games w...

S5E15: "Everyday is Woman's Day: The magazine and the crafts it has inspired as primary sources of several eras" Since 1931 many women have turned to Woman's Day magazine to get inspiration on home economics, recipes, remedies and arts and crafts.  Monica is a social studies teacher in New Hampshire and my drop-in guest back in October at the NHCSS (of which she is the president) conference where...

S5E14: "Giving Thanks: The Mayflower II project as a symbol of post-War trans-Atlantic relations" Richard Stone literally wrote the book on the 1950s Mayflower II project, which saw two groups--one British and one American--simultaneously work to create a replica of the ship which ferried the Pilgrim Separatists from England to America in 1620.   We discuss the context of this project both through...

S5E13: "I Am Sam, Sam I Am: Uncle Sam as a measurement of Americans' view of the the US Government" 2026 NH Teacher of the Year Megan Philbrook joined me in dissecting Uncle Sam--the character more than the real person--and deciding how the bearded, star-spangled figure acts as a regular indicator of how Americans view their government as well as America's identity and place in the world. #history...