Informações:
Sinopsis
A retrospective meditation on media, art, and technology from the 1950s onward. Hosted by Bruce L. Edwards gregariously and with wit and wisdom up until his passing.
Episodios
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19 - The Tweet Is Not All: Books in the 20th Century and the Future of Reading
16/11/2015 Duración: 01h01minIn this final episode with Bruce, we discuss the rise of the paperback, the heyday of 20th century publishing, science fiction’s origins in magazines, and the meaning of books and reading. Also, some good old fashioned speculation on the future of reading and literacy: Why haven’t ebooks overtaken physical books in popularity? How is social media affecting literacy? And are writers being reduced to simple soundbites and Good Reads quote pages and bad graphic design posters?
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18 - Politics in the Mid-20th Century
19/10/2015 Duración: 52minWhat were presidental and congressional elections like in the pre-internet era? What were the clichés and labels of political discussions of the time? This and much more discussed as we examine politics in the mid-20th century.
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17 - California Dreaming
21/09/2015 Duración: 39minMany of us in the Midwest grow up with California dreams. So this podcast is about what this dreaming consists of, where it comes from, and how it is or is not achieved. Some people do make this dream come true. Some people make it to Denver or Alaska, but two of the four of us, Matt and Justin, made it all the way to San Diego and L. A., with some detours.
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16 - The Men from A.C.R.O.N.Y.M: The Golden Age of Cold War Narratives in 60s TV, Film, and Fiction
24/08/2015 Duración: 52minWhy did millions of Americans flock to NBC on Tuesday, Sept. 22, 1964 and remain rapt viewers until Batman destroyed their showrunning savoir faire? What do writers like Ian Fleming, Stan Lee, and John Le Carre, have in Common? How did organizations like MI6, CIA, KGB, U.N.C.L.E., THRUSH and SPECTRE become commonplace lingo with the moviegoing public?
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15 - Imagine There's No Internet: The Rise of Personal Computers in the Life of an Academic
10/08/2015 Duración: 01h05minComputers in the 50s and 60s were glorified calculators, existing as giant mainframes in large rooms, before the personal computer revolutions of the 70s and 80s. See how these dramatic changes affected the lives of normal citizens through the lens of an english professor at a university who brought computers to the classroom in the early 80s and sent his first email in 1983, travelled to Africa with a laptop in the 90s, and still plays with the latest gadgets to this day.
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14 - School’s Out: 4 Ever? Hey, What About Chess Club? Schooling from the ‘60s to the ‘10s
27/07/2015 Duración: 01h20minWhat is schooling in a democratic society? Focus on the schooling this Akron boy received in the 1960s, from grade school to junior and senior high and the differences and similarities between now and then--through the eyes of a boy, dad, now a grandpa.
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13 - JFK and The Day Camelot Died
13/07/2015 Duración: 43minBruce reflects on his experiences of the day Kennedy died, and what occurred in the heart of the nation and the news media as remembered through the eyes of a young boy growing up in Akron, Ohio. Justin Edwards co-hosts this week and they get into what the assassination meant for America, and how our “Camelot” was never the same.
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12 - Disneyland, Elfego Baca and Mary Poppins: Disney's Impact in the 1950s and 60s
29/06/2015 Duración: 51minDisney played a prominent role in establishing animation as a mainstream medium for children and adults, but lesser examined might be their impact on American culture through television, live action film, and Walt Disney’s obsession with creating a total experience such as Disneyland.
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11 - From Hootenany to Shindig: Music Television Circa 1964
15/06/2015 Duración: 01h02minTV played a surprisingly subversive role in diversifying musical genres and introducing some American pop and folk groups and Motown R&B stars that people otherwise may not have heard. We review shows such as Hootenanny, Shindig and Hullabaloo from the 60s, and examine how they broke the hold of AM radio formats and advertisers on programming.
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10 - Sputnik: the Space Race and Disney’s Tomorrowland (Nostalgia for a Future That Never Happened)
01/06/2015 Duración: 52minSputnik was a 58 cm (23 in) diameter polished metal sphere, with four external radio antennas to broadcast radio pulses. It was visible all around the Earth and its radio pulses were detectable. A surprise launch. As was its success. Learn how the launch of Sputnik affected American culture, arts and politics.
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9 - Comics in the 1950s and 60s -- Green Lantern is Too Yellow to Defeat Yellow
18/05/2015 Duración: 58minWhat was it like discovering comic books in the 1950s and 60s? Learn why Bruce favored DC Comics over pre-rebirth Marvel, his fascination with superhero origin stories, and what the first superhero tv shows were like. Finally, learn the fate of Bruce's sizeable collection of Golden and Silver Age comics.
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8 - Robot Parade: From Klaatu to the 6 Million Dollar Man
04/05/2015 Duración: 57minIn cinema, robots have been our friends, our helpers, or our enemies and destroyers. This episode is a deep dive into how robots have been depicted in tv and film, including such classics as The Day The Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet, and Kronos, to the Jetsons, Twilight Zone, and eventually George Lucas' Star Wars.
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7 - Our Nightly Noir: TV’s Dark Anti-Heroes in the 1950s and 1960s
20/04/2015 Duración: 01h11minTracing its roots in German Expressionism and other sources, we examine the development of Noir as a genre in American cinema, including the careers of Roy Huggins and David Janssen, television shows like The Fugitive and Richard Diamond, Private Detective, and the expansion and lasting impact of noir today, including films such as Blade Runner, Dark City and the work of the Coen Brothers.
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6 - I Don't Care If I Never Get Back: The Golden Age of Baseball Radio Broadcasts
06/04/2015 Duración: 01h06minHow did baseball come to be America's national pastime? Also, a deep look at how and why radio dominated professional sports in the mid-century, and why baseball is still the sport of the future.
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5 - Watch Them Talk: The Evolution of TV Talk Shows in the 50s & 60s
23/03/2015 Duración: 01h06minAn examination of the genesis of 'talk shows' in the 1950s and 60s and how they have evolved into the panoply of shows airing virtually round the clock.
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4 - My Narnia, Not Yours: Why C. S. Lewis Mistrusted Film
09/03/2015 Duración: 53min1950’s Narnia-fantasist C. S. Lewis distrusted film’s ability to render a story well, convinced it short-circuited the imagination. Here’s why--and what may have changed his mind if he’d lived a little longer.
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3 - Brian Wilson - Surf, Sand, and Studio Revolution
26/02/2015 Duración: 01h05minA discussion of the revolution in music delivery and listener access in the transition from the 50s to the 60s.
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2 - How The West(ern) Was Won - and Lost
19/02/2015 Duración: 59minAn analysis of three iconic TV westerns from the 1960s (Gunsmoke, Bonanza and Maverick) and the demise of their genre.
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1 - The Signpost Up Ahead - The Twilight Zone
03/02/2015 Duración: 43minIn this first issue we look at the phenomenon of a half-hour TV drama program that debuted in 1959 on the CBS television network, Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. Special guests Justin & Michael Edwards join the conversation.