The Firehouse Salon

We delve into the multifaceted world of attention in today's digital age, traversing the spectrum of focused obsession and casual consumption, unravelling how attention works, its implications for both content creators and consumers.

Join hosts Ashley Polak and James King as they delve into the inventive world of advertising legend Howard Gossage.  In this episode, they explore Gossage's unique approach to capturing attention through the ingenious paper airplane competition, created to entice major airlines to advertise in Scientific American. Discover how Gossage's playful and interactive campaign not only met its o...

Welcome to The Firehouse Salon Live. In this episode Emma Stackhouse, Ashley Pollak, Sam Richardson, Adam Skuse, and Justin Obermann discuss how Gossage’s approach to interactive and participatory advertising is still relevant. The panel explores how modern brands can integrate personalisation and tactile experiences, akin to Gossage's use of coupons, in a digital age. They delve into the imp...

"This is a story about an ad. It also says a good many implicit things about the ad-reading public... You can take a look at the ad here The ad is question sang the praises of a certain make of shirt, and it appeared in the New Yorker . In order to demonstrate the excellence of the shirtmaker's workmanship, a handkerchief-sized piece of shirting mysteriously equipped with buttonhole and...

Join us as we recreate the Firehouse Salon that Howard Gossage and his gang ran in the 1960s. This month, we will be discussing a campaign created by Gossage which inspired a fashion revolution, and exploring if that's STILL possible today...

A beer company, classical music radio station and clothes manufacturer walk into a bar... and create a never-seen-before product paving the way for fashion in years to come. You can take a look at the ad that started the story here But instead of a bar, imagine an ad agency in the heart of San Francisco. And instead of a bartender fixing the drinks, imagine Howard Gossage (ad-man meets Socrates) f...

In this live edition of the show join recovering journalist Pia Hinckle, New Yorker journalist Nick Romeo, Radio Producer Jago Lee, Writer James King and your host Ashley Pollak as we explore all things radical, including what it means to 'stir the beehive.' 🐝 Hinckle gained his reputation as the radical author and editor of Ramparts Magazine - a spectacular San Francisco muckraker that...

In this episode we "uncover the largely untold story of Ramparts magazine, the spectacular San Francisco muckraker that captured the zeitgeist of the '60s and repeatedly scooped the New York Times, changing American journalism forever" You can see a selection of the amazing covers from the magazine here We interview Peter Richardson who has written critically acclaimed books about t...

In this live edition Sherry Horowitz and Neil Davidson join our host Ashley to explore how Marshall McLuhan's predictions have to come to pass in the age of AI, and the role that creative people can play in leveraging the possiblities. About the show - We've now got into a rhythm with our format. New episodes will now be released fortnightly on Wednesdays. The Firehouse Salon live events...

In this episode we explore the ideas, observations and 'predictions' of Marshall McLuhan, the Canadian professor who Wired magazine called their patron saint. Our hosts on this episode - Ashley Pollak and James King, discuss the relevance of McLuhan's thinking today, sharing archive clips for context. We also are really grateful to Andrew McLuhan for joining us for an interview. Mar...

Join the Tediophobes and friends as we recreate the Firehouse Salon that Howard Gossage ran with his gang in the 1960s.  In this second edition we bring together inspiring speakers to discuss the work of EF Schumacher and debate the idea that growth is an essential part of the global economy. This leads us onto discussion and examples of how thinking small and local can lead to big things.

In this episode we explore the economic concept 'Small is Beautiful' and it's relevance to the Howard Luck Gossage story. Howard always believed in keeping things small. His ad agency for example never grew beyond 12 staff, and his infamous New Yorker ads would run just once. His discovery of an anarchic, philiosopher, economist Leopold Kohr led to his involvement in a revolution in...

Join the Tediophobes and friends as we recreate the Firehouse Salon that Howard Gossage ran with his gang in the 1960s. This time the goal of this workshop is to explore ideas of how to help activists sell the message of how we can Save the World, (small goal for a Thursday afternoon ; >)

In this episode we explore the Grand Canyon campaign - "It was the introduction of direct action and that was the first time it had ever happened. Now every political campaign or every cause, it's all about direct action.  And they did it in this analog time when you had to literally cut it out, put it in an envelope and post it." You can take a look at the ad that the story here Th...

In this first episode hosts Sarah Luck Gossage and Ashley Pollak talk about how they both started on the journey to explore the life of Howard Gossage and how that led to the BBC Radio 4 documentary which was first broadcast on the 20th May 2023. Theme music - Translucent Mind by Jamison Dewlen

Welcome to the Firehouse Salon. A show inspired by a man who became known as the Socrates of San Francisco.  This series has developed following a radio show for BBC Radio 4, so it seems only fitting to give you a flavour of that radio documentary to get you in the door of our intentions with this podcast.  If this catches your imagination make sure to login to BBC Sounds to listen to the whole sh...