Phone Messages

Phone Messages

By Paul Mason FotschSociety & Culture
Download on the App Store

Phone Messages episodes

  • 111 Food a la Floyd (James 15)
    Food a la Floyd was a series that ran on the Lifetime Channel from May to October 1989. It starred Keith Floyd, who made his first cooking series for the BBC in 1984 and continued to make new shows until his death in 2009.
    7 min
  • 109 My House with Anjali (Julia 2)
    In 1991, the University of Chicago ranked number 10 in U.S. News and World Report's list of top universities. Two years later it ranked at the bottom of Inside Edge Magazine's survey of schools where students have fun.
    9 min
  • 107 Sitting at Home (Anjali 3)
    Even before the pandemic forced us into isolation, some worried we faced a loneliness epidemic. Surveys have shown we have fewer close confidants, and some scholars argue that new media technology limits our ability to connect. Other research has challenged the handwringing about isolation and suggested the impact of social media is more complicated.
    8 min
  • 106 Mr. Girly Man (James 13)
    In 1991, Arnold Schwarzenegger made a guest appearance on the Saturday Night Live sketch Pumping Up with Hans and Franz. Charles Atlas, legendary bodybuilder from an earlier era, appealed to kids with a comic strip story of sandy revenge.
    7 min
  • 105 Good Night (unknown)
    In 1989, only one in four U.S. households owned an answering machine. A decade later, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! began offer a prize of Carl Kasell's voice on contestants' answering machines.
    4 min
  • 103 The Oven Repairman (Brian 6)
    Rural Illinois may lack microbrews, but The Barrel Society in Princeton specializes in craft beers and whiskey. A small midwestern town was also home to an engineer who designed the modern sealed bicycle hub.
    10 min
  • 102 I'll figure something out (Anjali 2)
    In 1975 The Foundation for the Community of Artists published a Health Hazards Manual, an early effort to warn painters about the risks of poor ventilation. Another risk involved being stranded somewhere in Chicago after midnight without a ride home.
    10 min

About Phone Messages

From the publisher's feed

This podcast will play and discuss old phone answering machine messages. In the late 1980s, while living in Chicago, I selected certain messages to be duplicated using a double cassette recorder. Playing them back leads me to explore the intersection of personal history and the larger social and cultural context through the lens of an outdated technology.