Popular culture. Culture, its quite more than that. Ive k theres what been trying to do at this site was go into more detail with how impacts the re politics and sports and other arenas. Pop culture. About what we have on the site are popular music, sports biography. We have a history of media entities, newspapers, history. Theres a range of things. I when i formulated the site, purposely cast a wide net to see what would work. I have it on minute lap and dying tot ive been look at it. I warn you, itss an ipad. Am not sure if i eel be that by dexterous. Now, rumbles riles censors. Ill come back to that. Ell talk about some of the different item ms. But step back little bit before we do that . Okay. Whyd you do this . Well this, is sort of a me. Nd career for i had spent almost 30 years working in public policy, 20 of were here in washington working on environmental public poll sip. 2006, 2007, i started some other work or and i came up with the the web was so intriguing, i thought to venture into the web and start something that could possibly be a small business. Some retirement money and i hired a couple of young teams out in fe new market where i live. New market, maryland . Yeah, new market, maryland. Little outfit called mind storm interactive. Site. Helped to build the they did the coding. And im not skilled on the oding, but i knew about word processing so that once they stepped the architecture up, i forward. Ke the site what kind of subjectings how many subjects do you have on there . A at the top site, theres a category list. There are about eight different there. Ries of topics media, entertainment, sports marketing, and politics. If you browse through each of category buttons, thumbnail sketches for stories that you and go to any of those stories. O there are now like 170 stories on the website in various topics. How many of those have you written . Them. L of i mean, this is the chief cook and bottle washer. The whole operation. About what intrigued me the web is to try and one person can do that. Can jump into this and if youre really interested n research and writing as i am and have been for most of my career, the web is just a marvelous pool. Its just a wonderful opportunity. Here we are. N so my age. 1959. Back to 1958, rumble in quotes, riles censors. Was rumble. In rumble. Ew sound an instrumental song. But what happened is it started become popular. And some registrations would not it because they believed it incited juvenile delinquency is of the time. You know, what some people who are instrumental have been banned. How successful was the song . It into the top ten. It was a popular song. Lets watch a little bit of the song. I doubt if young people will this. Er and watch a little bit of link ray. He called it link ray and the monday. Yeah. Thats right. Okay, lets watch it. I said i dont know a stroll. Duck said i know the beat behind it. E said, i said, okay, i went like this. And my god, man, watching me, you know . He said, bam. And my brother, ray, he microphone, right . Because the only mic he had back singers. Ys were the they didnt mic the amps or anything. They took the mic and stuck it here. I took my amp and turned it wide open. Amplifier, premier right . Link wray and the wrayman. What kind of chance would that have today . Was used inhe music the tarantino film. Im using this in the article. Couple of the tarantino wray i believe have link instrumental music in them. So, you know, the music is music. Ental you can always adapt it and use it for other purposes and film whatever. I want to ask you a question, the censor part of it. Im hile you answer it, going to show how much content you have on an article like this and what it looks like. Was it censored by the government at all . No. No. Are radio hese stations, tv stations that ecided that, you know, that they didnt like the association with gang warfare. Rumble. Name but apparently it really didnt hurt the song. Some i think if im not mistaken, the article miller may have come out and said something well. Ve about it as but the song became popular and showed y, that clip you has link wray in the later years to europe nt he went and had quite a successful career there. Continued his his music making for many years. How do you decide what youre going to write about . Thats an interesting question. Things do a balance of on the website. But its usually its quite on a visual. If i dont get a good visual to start the story, a good video or maybe a though i dont use videos that much. Throughout the site. But im trying to make it a good isual experience as well as providing a good narrative along with the story. Im working on one tory that i will try to find the photos, ill find Something Else and ill put it away an use ill it gives me idea for another story. So the process is pretty random. Do i am trying to alance the topical matter, politics, sports, whatever. Page here. He opening if in it is the atomic and punch on that, it will punch up as the full story. Why did you pick this . Whats the story. That was the First Political ad. He first negative political ad in the American Campaign history. For that reason, i thought it was historically significant that you have the first negative campaign ad where at the time was suggestive unleash water would and Barry Goldwater the republican candidate in the that year would unleash Nuclear Weapons to the pearl of world. And though johnson exploited ad, theth the daisy girl same as daisy girl ad. Firm, en the advertising doyle not mistaken was dan birnback no relation. That firm had been chosen by assassination e doyle dean in the subsequent campaign. Think smallseen the volkswagen ads and he liked very much what they were doing so he they would be a good agency to have in his campaign . Lets run the ad. Its been seen, im sure, by most people watching. Ad l show the goldwater after that. One, two, three, four, five, six, six, eight, nine. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. These are the stakes. O make a world in which all of gods children can live tore go dark. The e must either love each other or we must die. Vote for president johnson on november 3. The stakes are too high for you to stay home. You say in your piece on this it was only run once. Thats right. But its been seen thousands of times. Even in the year when all took it off of the air, the news organizationings had it. Effect d a wide spread even then. And it kicked off the whole notion of negative campaign ads. Do you know and any of whether president johnson knew about this ad before it ran . Thats a good question. Im sure they must have had some kind of a preview. And i dont know that for a fact. But it would seem that the to have would have had known what they were doing there. What did the goldwater ampaign do as retribution or what they hope to be retribution . Well, i believed as they came up with their own ad, with School Children pledging flag if im the not mistaken. It. Ere going to show yeah. Whole ts where the negativity thing started. Have a truce ey after that in that campaign. Since then, negative campaign of the world. Y sometimes you connect the video, sometimes you dont. Whats your own philosophy for putting it together . Thats the learning curve. Invest the videos, the owner will shut them down. You dont have any control over that. Careful what be care fful. Ou pick to incorporate you dont get pulled back. Political ads most advertising the public of in domain. So heres the the goldwater ad for those havent seen it. Hand over her heart. Ready, begin. I pledge allegiance. The flag of the United States of america. [ speaking german ] for which it stands, one nation, under god, in divisible. And justice for all. I want American Kids to grow americans and they will if they have the guts to make their intentions clear. So clear they dont need interpretation just respect for prepared as no country in all of history ever was. Hes your heart, you know right. Vote for Barry Goldwater. In the election, johnson really swamped goldwater in the election. It was one of the great land victories. The ad goldwater added is interesting. Used the equivalent of khrushchev. It was a negative piece as well. Worked in politic s . I worked in environmental here, i washington did i didnt work in campaigns, per se. Worked around the edges of public policy. That i grew up in pennsylvania. Where did you go to school . Small State College. The small State College in lancast lancaster, pennsylvania. School in ate pennsylvania as well. Is there anything in the past you tould lead worked around the edges of public policy. That i grew up in writing th blog you think call it a blog or a website . Website. That you totally invented. To the high back school days. I went to a school in longer ania which is no there. Its no longer a high school. They do these tests called the preference test for children. And in high school, tests have revealed i had a predilection persuasive arts. Thats all i knew at the time. My career did move into writing and research. I went to school and i Regional Planning and graduate school. At the time i went to school, who would imagine the web . Its just a this how been doing long now . . The website it really when it on the Search Engine when we first engaged the search function, in a was june of 2008. Had a bunch of stories. I have lots more that i can execute. I have more to come. More. Es one one that we have thats no longer alive. Enemy of the people. The portion of the larger paul cartoon in the 1970s showing president nixon caught in the watergate spider web. Why did you pick conrad . I believed conrad had just passed on. He was in the news. Visual. K was and that graphic there, the very ate graphic is dramatic. Subsequently ers used in the piece. He wasng about conrad is on nixons enemy list. That knead story more important to me. I just had the visual elements i look for. It. Ust ran with i did a quick sketch of his career and incorporating some of his drawings. Me go down the page here and pick up some other cartoons. The nixon toon, characatured repairman saying he says hes from the phone company. That cartoon by conrad was the watergate mess. He was probably one of the the Washington Post is the one normally with watergate and they did. To make ath was quick the nixon association and very early on. Picture of him there from website. How about rights on this . How do you get rights to publish a lot of these cartoons . Heres one, by the way, so people can look at it. Enemys list his own worst enemy. Thats what it says at the bottom. Conrad, his work is he feels no he was no fan of nixon. Nor was nixon of he. I used most of this claim and r use because what im doing here is asically for Public Education purposes, though. I had most of the material kind of give credit where i can, where i find the source. But its use in the interest of education. One last cartoon. Have to come get me says Richard Nixon with a out the window. Does it have to do anything with politics . Ou consider yourself a journalist at some point . I consider myself a kind. List of the and ive written several books in the past. Politically, i try to stay balanced. But i do lean lean in a progressive. Ction lengthy piece there on Richard Nixon and his engagement with the watergate some years after with david frost. Theres a long piece there about nixon trying to trying to vindicate himself there. On that, we have some video. For those who have never seen david frost exchange, heres seconds. What did haldeman tell you during the 18 1 2minute gap . Haldemans notes are the only recollection i have of what he told me. Haldeman was a very good note weve ecause, of course, had other opportunities to look at his notes. He was very making the notes president ial files. The notes indicated the offensive, yeah. Thats right. You asked me what it was. That the ction was notes checked the eob to see bugged. Or not its obviously i was concerned about whether or not the other side was bugging us. What are the things that you say in your piece on this is money. Th made a lot of yeah. I believe the initial contract for nixon was 1 million or so. And then well, the hope the piece the focus of this i try to lly what i try to carve out a unique cut on these stories. You know . Lot of it is history. And were revisiting history. But in this case, i tried to story around what i thought was a giant business emerged just around the nixonfrost interviews. Books re were subsequent and there was a stage production and there was a film a followed. Film that so a lot of business emerged the frostnixon debates, engagements. I found that fascinating. T was a quite lengthy piece on that whole period. When you do your research, own rule s . R i try to have good sourcing. Include it in all of the pieces that i twisting at the end of each article. So people can ks see what ive done and go to the primary sources themselves. Try to be fair and balanced as ive learned as ive ve done this website structure, ive learned how to build the stories, how to incorporate links, and which valuable, which arent, that kind of thing. The rules for me are just doing good Solid Research and not going out on a limb, not making wild statements. You pick up the phone and call somebody that tell writing about to them about your piece. I havent i really most work is usually secondary sources and its not really the primary. Because most of what im doing im history, its taking novel slices of things that have already been done and repackaging them. And so much of our society goes so quickly, one of the reasons i decided to try to tackle these topics is because, know, i want passes us by daily. Lots of things go through our ives and we dont always focus on what happens. So im rehashing some of these things. Repackaging them to have a second a second look at what whats happened. Address . The website pop history dig. Com. How long did it take to invent the title . Interested in Popular Culture and the history of Popular Culture. Part is not slang but sort of meant to suggest like an diggingogical dig, like for the truth. And, in fact, we played with my time, we playede with a logo type which would man a little man and an open book with a little shovel digging we tried to that kind of a visual logo. But we couldnt come to agreement on that. Put the logo aside. So the dig is the idea of etting into the research and digging into topics. When did you know that you that people wanted to read . Well, im still its still a work in progress. Ut the thing that keeps me going is the fact that the you make a f relative query for something one written, it will come up the Google Search page as the first or second page or bing or search r any of the engines. Thats frankly whats kept me going in this. Been its been that to see that occur strikes me as, doing something right. Because the stories are coming up early in searches. Thing that has been encouraging to me are the fact that schools and colleges are using it. Can see i have whats called Google Analytics to take visiting the s site and how long theyre staying on pages and that kind of thing. Quite a get quite a following in schools and professors use the stories they link to stories and that kind of thing. Is naders raiders 1968 to 1974. What got your attention on ralph nader . Have you ever met him . Meet him once on the steps of one of the Senate Office buildings when i was back in the early 80s, i believe. Blurb for a book industry in auto taken for a ride. But thats my previous life when i worked on environmental policy issues. But the nader story i mean, i that the nader story is fairly really i wants a its a visual because instigated a lot of publication. He his raiders, you know, came out with the paperbackworthy books that were studies on various federal issues of the day. And i incorporate a number of books throughout the piece. But, you know, i looked around good ere hasnt been a story that sort of tried to capture what nader had done in window from about 68 to 74, i believe. The raiders, they did great work. He paperbacks that are incorporated in the story are pieces of policy work. Felt i could do a website in and to help Teachers College professors and bring his history, this popular rim, this publishing history, bring this to light. You know . What nader did. Theres a lot of negativity nader and the and the 2000 election, of course. Of course, we have to remember that this man really the way he anged really did, you know, sort of spur investigative reporting in way at that time. The whole raider nation was a idea. And it it really did change the culture. Yeah. Where do you find most of the artwork you put in ike im looking right now to the interstate commercial . Its almost all all of it comes from the internet. I i know when i do my to ches, ill make queries find a particular book, a cover see there. So and and sometimes its hard to find really crisp and photos. But the history sometimes equires that you just use whats available to it so a viewer can see see the history. Another subject j. F. K. And the watch. Ad. The what was that what got your attention there . The time, i think i was subscribing to wired magazine. Im not mistaken, it was 2009 issue had a twopage spread giving a speech, his peech we will go to the moon speech, i believe it was from in in s where he made it houston b. Used. The omega watch photo to use people for their watch. That got my attention. How many times do you see a president being used to here was cts and j. F. K. It was a pretty dramatic photo. Is it allowed . Apparently so. Images case, i guess the was owned by the j. F. K. Library. m not sure about that, you know, in that ad, theres a ittle section that has the j. F. K. Library in engraved in the ad there. So apparently there was some lets watch it and then we can see what youre talking about . We choose to go to the moon. To go to the moon. Go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. First and only watch on the moon . It was. In thelater incorporated moon program. All of the astronauts used it. Nd it became, you know, quite the quite the watch of the nasa watch. Know, there you had kennedy not making a specific obviously, but the association is there. Thats all advertisers need. Where do you live . Newmarket, maryland, four or the city. North of the office pc from my desk. Theres a way if to analyze this. When you first started and you andthe first piece on there website, whatwith did it