For Christmas in 1999 my grandmother bought my grandfather a box set of sixty "old-time radio" shows selected by Walter Cronkite. The first show we listened to together was an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's "Nightfall," originally broadcast on 12.7.1955 for NBC's X-Minus-One. It hooked me instantly and I took an active interest in old-time radio and any kind of old film I could get my hands on. 

The rest, as they say, is history.  

As part of the The WallBreakers, I produce a podcast called Breaking Walls. I launched in 2014 with a scalable and linear concept: sit-down conversations with luminaries, centered around helpful topics, all laddering up to a monthly theme. 

Later Breaking Walls expanded to include on-the-scene reporting at places like The American Museum of Natural History, The Maggie Flanigan Acting Studio, and Industry City, and now, is on the history of American radio broadcasting. It seems that the golden age of radio is never far from my heart... and I ain't complainin'! 

Los Angeles, 1935—The heart of the great depression, with glitz and glamour right next door to misery and suffering. It’s the kind of world where those with money don’t want to share it and those without it have no idea how to get it. It’s the kind of world where Philip Marlowe will take a case he’ll regret, but will he get to live with them?

Author Raymond Chandler set The Big Sleep, the first of his novels involving famous private detective Philip Marlowe in (then) present-day 1936, but who was Marlowe before The Big Sleep? In A Man Named Marlowe, we’ll find out.

It’s a story with an empowered woman, heinous crimes, back room deals, gruesome murders, hundreds of thousands of dollars of gold, and two long-dead ghosts that teach us heroes can live forever.

Soundscape playlist