Simple Rediscovery
25 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 7 years ago - ★★★★★ - 6 ratingsFrom art and architecture to film, fun, fashion, and infamous behavior, Simple Rediscovery brings the best of the past to light for a new age. Relearn, relive, and relove subjects that we revive and refresh for today. Find us at simplerediscovery.org.
Homepage Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Episodes
Push Back the Norm: Start a Neo-Modernist Movement
September 11, 2016 19:24 - 10 minutes - 14.4 MBThe best changes in history are made by the best people. As much as we might want to think ... and imagine ... that today we are far more advanced, artistically and creatively, than any of our predecessors … I’m sorry to clue you in, but we are wrong. Creativity and artistic expression, and pushing back against the norm, are the things that have positively made changes within the world for thousands of years. So to truly learn how to make changes in the world that not only help now but he...
Play the Funky (Story) Music! Rock and Roll!
September 02, 2016 16:59 - 11 minutes - 16.4 MBIn just around three minutes, a good pop story song gives us an abbreviated account of a love affair, or the details of an adventure (or misadventure), or the particulars of a personal tragedy that wasn’t our own, but was something that touched our soul. The first twenty or so years of the Rock and Roll Era (from the mid-1950s to the mid-70s) were, what could be, the heyday of the story song. Singers and songwriters of the 1950s to the 1970s made sure that as soon as you got one story son...
Rediscover Lessons Good and Grimm
August 23, 2016 20:38 - 11 minutes - 16.3 MBRediscover the frightening tales from our collective past. We’ll come to see that things really haven’t changed that much since the Brothers Grimm collected their tales. How we teach our children to learn about life, culture, society, history … is an important part of making people healthy, accepting, understanding, and welcomingly coherent about how it is we all live. Without creating this kind of intelligent and emotional balance among ourselves and children … we might rediscover that such...
Rediscover Fashion Mojo
August 19, 2016 00:42 - 9 minutes - 12.8 MBIt’s true that vain people can be slothful ... and slothful people can be vain but most of these double-duty offenders exist only on the fringes of polite society. For those of us in the middle—particularly those of us in the middle financially—there is limited means to fund the expense of immense vanity or the time-wasting nature of ultimate sloth. However, many would argue that, in America, the middle is becoming a little too vanity deficient and slothfully inclined, especially when it com...
Rediscover How Books Pop-Up!
August 17, 2016 17:05 - 10 minutes - 14.1 MBRediscover the pop-up book — which isn’t only a book — it is art. Explore the modern masters of pop-up books: Matthew Reinhart, Robert Sabuda, David Carter, and Marion Bataille. And the early creators of paper engineering: Matthew Paris, Ernest Nister, Lothar Meggendorfer. You probably recall at least one title you treasured beyond all others. For the oldest among us, that might have been a book in the Doctor Dolittle series by Hugh Lofting, or perhaps a more obscure title like The Magi...
Rediscover Local Theater: Curtain Up!
August 12, 2016 22:27 - 8 minutes - 11.3 MBA night of theater—be it a high-end, professional production in a major city; or a touring company performance in a mid-sized regional hub; or a Little Theater, community theater, or school drama department show in a suburb or small town—the “night of theater” is considered a luxury. However, in a time when many Americans have become inordinately discouraged and increasingly disconnected from their fellow citizens, regular patronage of live theater may just be the key to our survival as a cr...
Rediscover Mary Blair: Disney's Magic, Color, and Flair
April 18, 2014 02:46 - 12 minutes - 11.8 MBEven if you haven’t heard of Mary Blair (1911–1978), you’re probably very familiar with some of her classic illustrations and designs. Just close your eyes and imagine the colorful, iconic faces of the children depicted in the “It’s a Small World” attraction at any Walt Disney Park, or visualize the well-loved images in theGolden Book of Little Verses that most of us read as children. All of that—and much more—sprang from the sharp mind and nimble paintbrush of Mary Blair.
Rediscover Troubled Times—U.S. Civil War
January 19, 2014 05:31 - 7 minutes - 3.58 MBIn 1989, when Allan Gurganus published his debut novel, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, he did something amazing: Through a work of fiction, he managed to bring to life what was, to date, the most divisive period in American history, the Civil War years—a time in which as many as 620,000 of our fellow citizens (2% of the population) died. Perhaps even more astounding, Gurganus made it clear that although the war ended in 1865, the fallout it produced has lingered in the national a...
Rediscover the Typewriter
November 10, 2013 00:45 - 10 minutes - 14.5 MBOne could argue that the introduction of the modern typewriter just a tad over 110 years ago did more to change the way that humans communicate than any other single mechanical device before or since. Although Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press began churning out manuscripts around 1440, most written communication was still done by hand until the mid-1800s. This meant that all personal and business correspondence, contracts, and communiqués had to be composed in legible, hand-written scri...
Rediscover Great American Museums
October 31, 2013 20:32 - 16 minutes - 10.4 MBYou might be surprised to learn that most public museums didn’t appear until the eighteenth century; even then, it was often difficult for many middle- and upper-class patrons to gain access to their collections. And if you were working class or poor, you had little chance of getting beyond the front gate, ever. From the beginning, most museums made a point of being exclusive to the point of ridiculousness. Although American museums long ago adopted an egalitarian philosophy in which all me...
The Meaning of True Friendship
October 27, 2013 20:53 - 8 minutes - 7.88 MBThe current philosophy seems to be the more “friends” that we can amass on Facebook, or the more “followers” that we can attract on Twitter, the better we can feel about ourselves. Although making scads of new acquaintances via the Internet and calling them “friends” isn’t the worst thing that a person can do, the rate at which we are doing it as a society (and the possible price being paid for that behavior in terms of the loss of real friends) says a great deal about us. Before we comple...
Rediscover Silent Movies
October 11, 2013 20:12 - 16 minutes - 2.81 MBThe silent film era lasted from 1894 to 1929; however, the history of projected images is much longer. Beginning in the late sixteenth century, traveling magic lantern shows (which used a device with a concave mirror and a candle or oil lamp to project transparent paintings onto walls) thrilled audiences throughout Europe. Although none of us can ever truly know what it was like to live during those heady yet somewhat quieter times, we can still experience a bit of silent movie magic today....
Good Transmissions: Rediscover Radio
September 10, 2013 22:31 - 7 minutes - 3.78 MBFor more than a century, radio—in its various forms—has changed the way we experience the world. What began as a means of military and ship-to-shore communication in the early 1900s had, by 1922, developed into an assortment hundreds of broadcast stations with signals cross-crossing the United States. To understand the tremendous effect that those who dedicated their lives to the development and elevated use of radio had on their fellow citizens, consider the work of one of its preeminent f...
The Old Write Stuff: Rediscovering Elementary School Cursive Training
July 25, 2013 18:15 - 10 minutes - 4.5 MBToday, with so many school systems rendering the instruction of this historic form of handwriting voluntary or (in the case of schools in Hawaii and Indiana, obsolete), cursive training is becoming a lost privilege, perhaps soon to be available only to the type of children whose parents are inclined to enroll them in after-school cotillion and manners-training programs. That, of course, would be a great shame. Before cursive instruction becomes yet another victim of the current budget-cutti...
Rediscover Inconspicuous Consumption
July 07, 2013 01:28 - 9 minutes - 4.37 MBBefore the self-indulgence fever and over-the-top acquisition bug infects everyone, let’s all take a deep breath, back away from the sales counter, and rediscover inconspicuous consumption. There’s no telling when the first human came to the ill-informed conclusion that the number of things an individual owned directly correlated with his or her personal value. But if we’re not taught to overcome this most basic of misunderstandings early in life, eventually we begin to buy whatever strikes...
The Art of Mindfulness: Simple Rediscovery
June 26, 2013 05:19 - 10 minutes - 4.74 MBMindfulness can be defined as “a state of active, open attention on the present. When you’re mindful, you observe your thoughts and feelings from a distance, without judging them good or bad. Instead of letting your life pass you by, mindfulness means living in the moment and awakening to experience.” That sounds nice, doesn’t it…awakening to experience? So then why aren’t we, as a people, practicing mindfulness on a regular basis? Perhaps it’s because we’ve never been encouraged to do so. L...
A Sticky Wicket—Croquet: Simple ReDisciovery
June 11, 2013 00:00 - 16 minutes - 4.27 MBWhen played correctly, this seemingly delicate pastime becomes a game of cunning and strategy that brings out the competitive beast in the meekest of players. Play just one game of croquet with a group of friends (and perhaps a few enemies thrown in for good measure) and you’ll learn a great deal about human nature—primarily your own. Discover us at SimpleReDiscovery.org.
The Mutt: Simple Rediscovery
May 31, 2013 04:52 - 11 minutes - 2.98 MBYou’ve probably noticed that the world seems to be increasingly overrun with little yapping dogs. They’re everywhere—in markets, in airports, on busses, and peering out at you from expensive and not-so-expensive cars on the freeway. It’s more likely that the growing interest in having a canine Mini-Me that can be dressed like its owner and toted from one overpriced designer boutique to the next denotes a deeper issue: As a society, we’re growing shallower by the minute! Discover us at Simp...
Permanence: Simple Rediscovery
May 25, 2013 04:31 - 16 minutes - 4.04 MBA disposable society does not last. We need Permanence, but the state or quality of lasting or remaining unchanged indefinitely might appear to be an outmoded, unrealistic concept. However, the value of permanence—and the comfort it provides during the span of a lifetime—is priceless. Discover us at SimpleReDiscovery.org.
I see London, I see France ... Rediscover the Clothesline
May 10, 2013 04:11 - 5 minutes - 3.01 MBThe clothesline was a common feature of the landscape of mid-to-late twentieth-century America. Sheets, towels, clothing, and all sorts of “unmentionables” flapped in the breeze and were bleached (and, yes, even sanitized) by the sun without fear of inviting theft or some exotic form of perversion. Although Old Glory might have been our nation’s symbol of freedom, a gigantic, frayed brazier or stretched out panty girdle wafting in the breeze was the true emblem of the American hometown. In a...
Paging Mr. Caulfield: Rediscovering The Catcher in the Rye
April 29, 2013 04:08 - 6 minutes - 3.03 MBWe’ve all learned that youthful angst and juvenile rebelliousness are nothing new. Each generation has its share of adolescent cynics and post-pubescent radicals. Although Holden Caulfield, the protagonist in J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, appears to be just another angry kid, unhappy with his lot in life and everything around him, he’s much more. Caulfield is a teenage everyman, who is unwilling to accept the status quo and who passionately rages (both internally and externally) ab...
Curses! : Simple Rediscovery
February 26, 2013 18:29 - 6 minutes - 3.11 MBSwearing has been part of the human lexicon since Adam shouted, “Oh God!” the first time the Good Lord caught him with his hand beneath Eve’s fig leaf. Rediscover the interesting and creative “swears” that previous generations used to express their frustration with others while still retaining their dignity. Visit us at SimpleRediscovery.org and GSEbooks.com.
Civility: Simple Rediscovery
February 25, 2013 22:18 - 7 minutes - 3.32 MBPlease take some time today to review and refresh your knowledge of the ancient art of civility.
Eccentrics: Simple Rediscovery
February 25, 2013 22:13 - 6 minutes - 2.99 MBShould your personal sanity ever begin to slip—which it could any day now—you’ll know that there are still people out there who will enjoy your eccentric company and, perhaps, even help you dust your giant ball of twine or your enormous collection of Pez dispensers.
Simple Rediscovery: Old-Fashioned Telephone
February 25, 2013 07:14 - 7 minutes - 3.36 MBOn this episode of Simple ReDiscovery: the old-fashioned telephone. Before you cancel your landline service, take a moment to rediscover the benefits of old-school telephonic technology. Make a trip to Goodwill (or your Aunt Martha’s attic), pick up a vintage phone, plug it in, and start dialing. You might just find that it’s one, not-that-modern convenience you don’t want to live without.