Table of Contents

• The Lede

• Listen to Episode 1

• A 1960 Playlist

The Lede

Every now and then I try something as a father that doesn’t work. Okay, it happens more than occasionally, and to tell the truth it might actually be considered a theme of my time as a father. For example, when things get chaotic¹ in our family, for some reason I typically conclude that what the situation calls for is a little shock and awe. The little voice in my head says something like, “Things are out of control; you need to get everyone’s attention,” and what follows is always a classic dad fail. Every time I’ve listened to this little voice it has turned out to be wrong, but it still seems like a good idea at the time.

Take, for example, the time I was making sandwiches and a skirmish between small humans erupted in the hallway. As I strode towards the sounds of battle with the loaf of bread in my hands that little voice spoke up, and as usual I listened. In an effort to get the attention of warring factions of toddlers I swung the loaf of bread into the wall, and as it turns out, I really did get everyone’s attention.

Not to get too deep into the science of air pressure and force, but when I swung the bag of bread into the wall, all of the air in the bag had to go somewhere. I was firmly holding the end of the bag with the tie on it, and since the air couldn’t escape out of the bag’s opening, it ruptured the bottom of the bag in an explosion of air, crumbs, and 100% whole grain slices.

In a lot of ways, reading about the decision-makers of the 60s feels like my misadventure with the exploding bread. Situations occurred, crises erupted, and the adults in charge pulled whatever levers they had available to them to try and solve the problems. In retrospect, some of those levers were never going to work, some of them had already not worked many times before, and some of them probably should’ve worked. Unfortunately, much like my fatherhood foibles, all too often everyone ended up covered in bread crumbs and regret.

Listen to Episode 1

Episode 1 is here! We know you’re excited, but get ahold of yourself and get to listening. The episode is available pretty much wherever you listen to podcasts, but since 69.6% of podcast listening is done on Spotify and Apple Podcasts—I promise this is an actual statistic and not made up² —we’ve given you links to those platforms here.

A 1960 Playlist

As we go through the ‘60s, these playlists will get longer, because in Aaron’s opinion the music gets better, but for now we’re giving you a playlist of Aaron’s top ten songs from 1960.

1  By chaotic I mean multiple kids screaming, music blaring, baseballs flying around the room, a drink spilling, a vase breaking, and somebody loudly sobbing all at the same time.

2  https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/most-popular-podcast-platforms