About

The analysis of a primary source helps us to learn about the time period and the place from which it came. Too often we limit the term "primary source" to mean just newspapers, letters, diaries and such, when in reality EVERYTHING, from toy packaging to movies, websites to toothpaste, restaurant menus to , well, podcasts, can be dissected. This podcast focuses on American Popular Culture and treats films, songs, food, comic books, toys, games, TV shows, clothing...& etc as artifacts waiting to inform us about the time period and society that produced and embraced them.

Primary sources are the "Google Maps street view" or the reporter in the field of history.  They reveal as much, if not more about an era, a place and a society than secondary sources (the bird's eye view or the news anchor) can and do.