The Firehouse Salon

"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 pocket was offered free to readers who would write in and say what they thought the thing was for. Suddenly the "Shirtkerchief" was famous and Miss Afflerbach was deluged with mail. At last count, 11,342 people had written in - a record-breaking response in The New Yorker's experience..."

Howard Luck Gossage, 1960

This podcast episode documents that marvel.

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) fixing all their business problems with one simple ad.

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 captured the spirit of the 60s and repeatedly scooped the New York Times, revolutionising American journalism forever.

Today, when journalism has largely become an extension of clickbait marketing or the all-too-familiar 'safe zone', it's hard not to question if journalism is hitting the mark. What does it take to create a radical piece of copy? And who is doing it today?

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 the Grateful Dead, Ramparts magazine, and Carey McWilliams, the radical author & journalist of The Nation magazine.

About the show - We've now got into a rhythm with our format. New episodes will now be released fortnightly usually on a Wednesday. The Firehouse Salon live events take place once a month.

Theme music - Translucent Mind by Jamison Dewlen

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 take place the second Thursday of each month.

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. Marshall's grandson runs the McLuhan Institute and helps to make much clearer the key tenets of McLuhan and how we can apply the thinking to be more aware of the effects technology has on us.

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 take place the second Thursday of each month.

Archive source:
This Is Marshall McLuhan - The Medium Is The Massage (1967)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFwVCHkL-JU&t=676s

Theme music - Translucent Mind by Jamison Dewlen

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 the Carribean. We'll be covering that story about Anguilla in a future episode.

In this show we get the chance to hear more from Kohr himself, along with his pupil E FSchumacher. Their thoughts are especially relevant now to the challenges of economic growth, the digital world and Artificial Intelligence.

Archive sources:

1989 radio interview with Leopold Kohr, interviewed by David Cayley
https://www.davidcayley.com/podcasts/2017/11/25/leopold-kohr

Small Is Beautiful: Impressions of Fritz Schumacher
Directed by Donald Brittain, Barrie Howells and Douglas Kiefer - 1978 | 30 min
NFB.ca
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIlsgMngyhE&t=533s

Theme music - Translucent Mind by Jamison Dewlen

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 ; >)