Everything is a Primary Source

S4E12: "American Classics: Betty Crocker Recipe Cards from 1971" Just in time for Thanksgiving, here's a breakdown of some Betty Crocker recipe cards from the early 1970s. Join the conversation at everything-history.com

S4E11: "Stay Gold" Two short talks about two short books just in time for National Book Week. everything-history.com

S4E10: "Favorite Things: The Sound of Music (1965) as a Primary Source" Recorded with Molly Meng at 3S Artspace in Portsmouth, NH, prior to the recording of Long Story Short . Take part in this and many other conversations at everything-history.com

S4E9: "It Belongs in a Museum: The character of Indiana Jones as a primary source" Jonathan Nichols is the director of the Woodman Museum in Dover, NH , an over 100 year old museum which houses such a wide assortment of artifacts, it just needs to be seen to believe.  His work makes a character like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones a natural favorite of his.  We talked at Free Com...

S4E8: "Look Who's Talking: Ouija as a Cultural Indicator" John Kozik is the owner and director of the Salem Witch Board Museum and founding member of the Talking Board Historical Society .  He joins the EPS Podcast to walk us through Ouija and other talking boards' place in popular culture since their popularization in the late 19th century. Go to everything-history.com to interact with the conver...

S4E7: "See You in the Fall: 2019's Midsommar as a reflection of the modern era" Recorded with Eli at Free Comic Book Day in Rochester, NH, May 4, 2024 Check out everything-history.com to add your voice to this and countless other History through Pop Culture conversations

S4E6: "Miller Time: Batman Year One comic book as a Primary Source" 'Tis the season of bats and people dressing up like them...or this guy, Batman.  Spencer of Dime Bros. Comics Podcast joined me at Free Comic Book Day back in May to talk about the book that changed the character of Batman forever, and how that is reflective of the era of the late 1980s. Find this entry at everything-history.com t...

S4E5: "Younger and More Vulnerable Years: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald as a Primary Source" Just like last week's episode about Charlotte's Web, this week is about a book and is comprised of two separate conversations that were recorded on the same day.  Listen and enjoy Marcus's and then Andrew's insights about F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby . Visit everything-history.com to ad...

S4E4: "Radiant: Analyzing the 1952 book Charlotte's Web by EB White as a Primary Source" with special mention of Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle Two separate conversations recorded at Free Comic Book Day with Crystal and Jack. Join in on the conversation at everything-history.com

S4E3: "Star Tracks: Dissecting The Star Wars Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, composed and conducted by John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra as a Primary Source." Recorded with Peter Vinton, Jr. at Free Comic Book Day, in Rochester, NH, on Star Wars Day, May 4, 2024 Add to the conversation and help build educational materials at everything-history.com

S4E2: "That's Life: The Game of Life (1977 version) by Milton Bradley as a Primary Source"  Recorded at the Association for Experiential Education Northeastern Conference, Spring 2024 Add to the conversation and help build educational materials here: https://www.everything-history.com/gameoflife

S4E1: "Here's the Story"  The Brady Bunch (1969-1974) as a primary source.  Recorded during a NHCSS webinar in April, 2024 Add to the conversation and help build educational materials here: www.everything-history.com/bradybunch

 This is a special bonus episode of the Everything is a Primary Source Podcast, the show where popular culture is looked at to learn about history. Eric Paul. We’re celebrating Independence Day with a pair of interviews with some young historians that were recorded last year at Exeter New Hampshire’s Independence Day festivities at the American Independence Museum.

Summer Bonus Episode Just in time for Canada Day, which celebrates the 1867 merging of the different parts of Canada into one confederation, here's my conversation with Michele, an experiential educator from the Maritime Provinces.  She and I met at the Association for Experiential Education conference this Spring and had a wonderful conversation comparing the movement and settlement histories of...

S3E34: "Lucky to Be There" Season Finale What a way to cap off season 3 of the Everything is a Primary Source podcast; it was an absolute honor and pleasure to speak with storied 60s photographer Rowland Scherman and his friend, Michael E Jones, two makers and stewards of historical documents.   This podcast is a bit different from most EPS episodes in that we don't dissect a single piece of media...

 Today we’re headed to the public library where, after 1994, you could borrow a copy of both Forrest Gump the novel and Forrest Gump the movie.  Plenty of people, including my first guest, did not realize that the 1994 Robert Zemeckis film began life as a book by celebrated writer Winston Groom, published in 1986. That’s a tendency credited to the positive critical and popular response the Tom Han...

S3E32: "The Flowers are Still Standing!"  Today’s episode has us going back forty years to talk about one of the first–and one of the biggest—blockbuster movies of its era, 1984’s Ghostbusters .  I spoke with Michael, a native New Yorker who now lives and teaches in Minnesota, and we chatted about some of the analytical questions needed to define Ghostbusters as a document of its time and place—th...

S3E31: "At Large" 2004 fits into a rather brief era when documentary films were marketed on the same level as other theater-bound movies.  It is also a time period where more and more people were becoming acutely aware of counting calories and organic choices at the grocery store.  This was a perfect recipe for "Super Size Me," Morgan Spurlock's hands-on experiment with fast food and its ill healt...

S3E30: "Dawning of a New Era" Twenty years ago saw the Internet evolving in ways unimagined just a few years before.  Mike, a fellow teacher, joins the EPS Podcast to dissect Eve Online, the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game, which could be the best example of the radical changes taking place at the time on the World Wide Web.

S3E29: "Not as a 'Was', but an 'Is'"  This episode touches on the Civil War’s presence in American popular culture by way of two artifacts-- Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs, published in 1885, and the National Civil War Wax Museum which opened in Gettysburg Pennsylvania in April 1962—with a pair of interviews that were recorded on the same day last summer. I’m not exactly sure why these artifacts conne...

S3E28: "Ship of Dreams" This episode reaches across the 20th century, connecting 1912 to 1997 through Titanic ; the ship itself and its Edwardian-era disaster, as well as the 1997 blockbuster film about it that was such a huge success. I spoke with Gena Oppenheim, the Senior Education Fellow for the Hamilton Education Program at the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the leading organization in history edu...

 Welcome to the Everything is a Primary Source Podcast, where we use popular culture to learn about history. It was this week in 1917 that the United States entered World War I, so what better time than now to dissect the song that is forever attached to America’s involvement in the Great War, George M. Cohan's "Over There." Everything is a Primary Source is building a digital archive, and you can...

S3E26: "Bringing Home the Bacon" Today’s episode starts about bacon and eggs but ends up a conversation about industry and infrastructure. You’ll have to listen to see how it gets there. I was so glad to be joined by two fellow social studies teachers-turned-podcasters, Phil and Phil of Canajoharie High School in New York, co hosts of the Missing Chapter Podcast to chat about the famous Beech-Nut...

S3E25: Cards, Cards and More Cards An episode made from two podcast karaoke interviews. Part 1) Comedian Shawn Carter talks Garbage Pail Kids Part 2) Bryson discusses Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes and Pokemon cards

S3E24: "It Stinks?" I ran into a fellow NH social studies teacher, Jeff, this Fall while recording at the NCSS conference in Nashville, and he and I gave 90s TV's The Critic a pretty solid critique.