Everything is a Primary Source

Reaching for the Stars II: "Those are the Toys You're Looking For"  EPS Podcast Short from Loaded Question Brewery As you know from yesterday’s full-length show, Star Wars was a cultural phenomenon that no one could have predicted, least of all toy makers.  In fact, Kenner, the company which received the contract to make Star Wars toys, barely had any ready in time for Christmas 1977.      Bernie,...

Reaching for the Stars I :"I'm Here to Rescue You" Analyzing "Star Wars" (1977) as a Primary Source with Alex Robinson Not long ago, in various places around my house and on my commute to work, I began listening to Star Wars Minute.   The conversational podcast dissects each Star Wars Movie by the minute, producing some of the most interesting and entertaining content in the podcasting galaxy.  Th...

"Wernham Blogg Investigates": Looking at "The Office" as a document of its time period In January 2001 a BBC documentary crew filmed the everyday goings on in a typical workplace. Now, nearly 22 years later, we return to find out what has happened to the employees of …The Office.    Of course this program is not actually a documentary, but rather a brilliant TV mockumentary series.  And just like...

  EPS Podcast Shorts: "The Mystery of 8/24/22" Who doesn’t like a good mystery?  Following along with the adventure of solving a puzzle is fun for all ages and manifests itself in many forms of media, all of which are primary sources, by the way. Frank and Joe Hardy have helped their Detective Dad, Fenton, solve mysteries for the better part of a century now.  And each iteration of the Hardy Boys,...

"It's Really Not So Scary" - Dissecting Disney's Haunted Mansion rides as Primary Sources with Nick Vincent Barbera Halloween is just around the corner which means this week’s episodes of the EPS Podcast will involve things that relate to the spookiest time of the year.  And who better to discuss the season of witches, ghosts, jack-o-lanterns and goblins than the pumpkin king himself, Nick Vincent...

EPS Podcast Shorts: "Illuminating the Mask" Halloween is almost here which means this week’s episodes will involve things that relate, at least to some extent, to the spookiest time of year.  First up, Tuesday’s short: what could be more eerie than light being emitted after what sounds like the crack of a bone?  And what goes better with Halloween than masks, or in this case, Jim Carrey’s The Mask...

Generation X is pretty easy to identify, and everyone knows the Millennials, but what of the people born right on the cusp of these two groups?  Tim "Elvirus Outsider" Aballo stopped by my podcast studio...er garage...this summer to compare ideas about how those of us who arrived in the very short window of the late 70s and early 80s constitute a "microgeneration," and what that tells us about the...

EPS Podcast Shorts: "You're the Topps!" Trading cards have witnessed an ebb and flow to their popularity over the last one hundred years or so, but the late 80s into the 90s mark a period when they were enjoying the spotlight.  While sports fans have had their niche carved out with the four major North American sports represented in card form for a very long while, making a series of cards became...

"The Western, Unchained": Analyzing Quentin Tarantino's Western films as Primary Sources  with Laura Cayouette It’s odd to consider 2012, just ten years ago, as part of history, but technically everything in the past is.  Likewise, Everything is also a primary source, including—or in this podcaster’s opinion, especially—movies .  2012’s Django Unchained was the second of three Quentin Tarantino-di...

EPS Podcast Shorts: "Air and Space (Needle)" The two segments that make up this, the sixth short episode of Season 2, were recorded a few weeks apart from each other during two separate visits to Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, and the subject matter of both parts are separated by about six decades.  But what’s interesting is that while Charles Lindbergh’s famous solo flight across the Atlan...

"Turn On, Tune in, & Tap Out": Analyzing UFC 1 as a Primary Source To the casual observer, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, may come across as little more than modern gladiatorial combat.  However, a closer look will reveal that the mixed martial arts tournament that began in 1993 is far more complex and regulated.  UFC, meet EPS on this episode of the Everything is a Primary Source...

EPS Podcast Shorts "Brothers and Sisters" Aka "Beach Boys and Little Women" “Brothers and sisters” is the common thread between the two segments  that make up this week’s EPS Podcast Short episode.  Brothers Brian, Carl and Dennis Wilson made up the core members of the Beach Boys, the group responsible for the many rock n roll hits collected on the first segment’s topic, “Endless Summer,” While th...

It is important to ask the experts when it comes to certain primary sources as there are details that casual observers will miss.  That’s why I turned to Jon McCormack to stop by my home and record a podcast about the Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, because if guitars were rifles, he’d be a sharpshooter. Jon’s resume as a guitarist is extensive, having been in several bands over the years, includ...

EPS Podcast Shorts: "Kids 'Cast 2: Kids Say the Smartest Things!" What do Mr. Potato Head, an Abraham Lincoln Finger puppet and a plush bald eagle mascot of the 1984 LA Olympics have in common with each other?  Seemingly very little, other than the fact these three items were chosen by kids during my EPS Podcast Live exhibits this summer at Strawbery Bank Museum in Portsmouth.      Listen to the f...

"We'd Like to Solve the Puzzle": Analyzing "Wheel of Fortune" as a Primary Source with Dawn from DAWNVERSATIONS Dawn is a fellow podcaster and her fabulous show, Dawnversation s, is a lot like mine in that she’ll be glad to talk about most anything with her guests.  When I approached her about doing a podcast together the brainstorming for a topic began.  A side mention that she had been a contest...

EPS Podcast Shorts: "Far and Near Sighted" Segment 1: Postcards are not as common as they once were thanks to technology allowing us to make custom images of our travels and post them to social media. But throughout the 20th century these mailable documents of tourism grew in popularity thanks, in large part, to an ever growing cohort of people going places.  Those of us who grew up in the 20th ce...

S2E2 Everyone has a story, but what they do with that story speaks volumes about who they are.  Leah Angel Daniel’s story is one of obstacles and trying times as she navigated the foster care system in Western New York through the 80s and 90s.  Her experiences make her story a document of the time period and place in which she has lived. Leah is  the author of I Shall Not Be Moved: My Extraordinar...

EPS Podcast Shorts: "Tell Me More, Tell Me More" EPS Podcast Season 2 Short #2 I knew I’d get at least one person wanting to sit down and talk about Grease when I packed my copy of the Soundtrack LP and brought it to EPS Podcast Live a few days after Olivia Newton John passed away, and I was right, actually getting two different people wishing to share their nostalgia for this nostalgia film.    T...

Season 2 Episode 1: "All the Way"  Dissecting both The Ramones and "On the Road with the Ramones" as Primary Sources with Monte A. Melnick Monte A Melnick was with the Ramones as their tour manager for their entire 22 years trotting all over the globe.  In 2003 he released a book called On the Road with the Ramones which chronicles the period from the mid 70s to mid 90s through quotes and anecdote...

Season 2  Shorts Premiere:  Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH is unique in the realm of living history museums in that the vast majority of the buildings that make up the museum are original to the spot where they stand.  Also, unlike its peer institutions such as Colonial Williamsburg or Old Sturbridge Village, Strawbery Banke interprets each of the homes to a different time period, so vis...

Summer Short 6 "Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits 8-Track" This is the last Summer Short that was recorded live at the NH Maker's Fair in Dover.  A very nice family stopped by and the 8-Track of Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits stuck out to them.  We had a great conversation deciding just what this version of the album tells us about the time period in which it was made.

Summer Short 5 - "Raggedy Ann" I knew when I chose to bring along a handmade Raggedy Ann doll from the 1940s to my remote recording session that it was going to be selected by a visitor for a podcast episode.  The character is probably one of the most enduring figures in American Pop Culture, and the fact that, unlike most toys, she can made from home, means that each version of the doll tells a s...

Summer Short 4 - "Plastic People" This is the fourth installment of conversations recorded at the 2022 Makers Fest at the Children’s Museum of New Hampshire in Dover.  I was very happy to speak with Nathan Grey of Plastic Recycled and Caitlin of UNH Cooperative Extension 4-H .    The first segment is all about how, while recycling has been part of pop culture since the late 80s and 90s, it is so o...

Seeing as how the Children’s Museum of NH Hosts the annual NH Maker’s Festival it only makes sense that several of visitors to my booth were kids.  This week’s summer short is regarding a wide range of topics, ranging from baseball cards to Little Shop of Horrors to hand drawn maps.  

Darren Windham, who is the economic developer for the Town of Exeter, NH stopped by at my booth at the Makers Fest 2022 for an impromptu conversation.  We had a very nice chat about how craft breweries have really come into their own in the last few decades, elevating their status in society and local economies.