Everything is a Primary Source

"Hojo's Motel/ Holiday Inn" with the Retrologist, Rolando Pujol  I was delighted to be joined recently by the Rolando Pujol, to discuss and dissect two 20th century documents of American road culture , Howard Johnson’s and Holiday Inn.  And while I promote listening to the Everything is a Primary Source Podcast in any setting, I have to say that this episode is absolutely perfect listening for dri...

EPS Podcast Shorts: "Hitting the Road" Road Rash II was developed by Electronic Arts in 1992 for the Sega Genesis, the 16 bit video game platform that had itself been created to compete with home video game giant, Nintendo.  Both game and system were a product of commercial outlets trying to get the attention of the teenage demographic that Nintendo and other brands were falling behind with.   Bri...

Crystal Blue Christmas - Studying The Breaking Bad Store ABQ with owners Ed and Marq Admittedly, Breaking Bad has little to do with the Christmas season, but considering how much fun I had making this episode, I felt compelled to release it before the mid-season break which will arrive towards the end of December. House museums, themed restaurants, amusement park rides that simulate real earthquak...

EPS Podcast Shorts "The Ballad of Kevin McCallister" Home Alone was a topic for season one of the EPS Podcast last year, but honestly, as my guest Shay remarks, one could devote several podcasts and college courses to the story and still have more to say. Take a listen to what Shay and I discussed about the 1990 movie after she volunteered to talk about it at a recent podcast karaoke event held at...

"At the Mall!": Analyzing shopping malls as primary sources, with Kyle Lincoln It’s December first, the holiday shopping season is well underway, and if it was December at anytime between the early 70s and the early 2000s you’d probably be at the mall right about now.  Afterall, malls were the centerpiece of commerce and social life for many suburban communities during that time period, and whethe...

EPS Podcast Shorts: "And We're Putting it on Wax" I try to connect my short and long episodes in some way each week, so seeing as how Thursday’s episode is all about shopping malls, I figured a source that comes from the early 2000s, the last hurrah for mall culture, made sense. Skylor, my on-the-spot guest last month at Defiant Records and Craft Beer in Laconia, NH, dove into the business’s exten...

"A Bountiful Book" Analyzing the "Out of Vermont Kitchens" cookbook with Erin E. Moulton The holidays bring up at least a few opportunities to pull cookbooks off shelves in order to find the perfect recipe for an occasion.   These collections of cooking directions are often dog-eared and bulging from the newspaper and magazine clippings that act as addendums to the original text.  Pencil marks cro...

EPS Podcast Shorts "Shipping Spice From Boston" I have a shelf surrounding my breakfast nook at home where various knickknacks and junk store finds are displayed, and items get regularly selected to go with me to my EPS Podcast Live! Exhibits.  One such artifact, a Stickney and Poor’s allspice container from the first half of the 20th century, caught the eye of Jeff from Loaded Question.  You may...

"Up Against the Clock":  McDonald's as a Primary Source both in the US and Sweden McDonald’s has two origin stories in the United States.  The first came in the 1940s as a product of the economic boom immediately following the Second World War and the harnessing of efficiency and quality by Dick and Mack McDonald involving their San Bernardino, California burger stand.  The second is the franchise...

The EPS Podcast Shorts: "I-C-J-P" Jurassic Park is the ultimate blockbuster movie, and what blockbuster movie’s marketing would be complete without collectible cups from a fast food restaurant.  John, our resident dinosaur expert, and creator of much of the music you hear on the eps podcast, sat down with me to break down one such cup from McDonald’s (which might be one of the only such items to f...

Reaching for the Stars III :"Bridging the Gap" Dissecting Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" with James Maynard This week has been all about the stars and anniversaries, so a good combination of the two is releasing an episode all about the PBS program Cosmos on the anniversary of its creator and host, Carl Sagan’s, birthday.  This is the EPS Podcast and I’m glad to have you listening.    James Maynard, the ho...

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...