The Marshall McLuhan Tapes

This is the way it looks from the ground up inside the steel girders of the world's tallest self-supporting television tower shown April 3, 1956.

Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan had a lot to say about radio, television, and what was then, the coming information revolution.  His friend and fellow cybernetic guru, Tony Schwartz liked what McLuhan had to say and used him often in his WNYC series Adventures in Sound and Communications Journal. Give a listen to him now and see just how prophetic he was.

Stories

Reading and Guessing

Guest Marshall McLuhan says that, because every word has so many meanings, to read is to guess.
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Replay

Tony Schwartz talks with media theorist Marshall McLuhan about the meaning of "replay" in the world today.
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Instant Information

Tony Schwartz presents an audio montage exploring media theorist Marshall McLuhan's comment that, "instant information creates involvement in depth."
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Education in the Electronic World

Marshall McLuhan talking about how hard children have to work to grow up, about the environment as a school, and about the democratizing power of electronic education.
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Radio Today

Marshall McLuhan shares his thoughts on radio as a new medium.
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Marshall McLuhan, Ralph Salerno, Peg Bracken

Organized crime, arguments and cliché
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The Sound Around Us

Tony Schwartz talks to the world's foremost media theorist and philosopher, Marshall McLuhan., about an upcoming project to document the sound environment of a single city block in New York City.
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Cities

Tony Schwartz revisits a 1968 conversation with the media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who discusses the development and future of cities.
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The End of the Story Line

Tony Schwartz and Marshall McLuhan on the disappearance of the "story line" from mass media due to the proliferation of new electronic mediums of communication.
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After Dinner Jokes

Media theorist Marshall McLuhan tells, and analyses, his own jokes.
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Jobs and the Electronic Environment

Media theorist Marshall McLuhan on jobs, work, roles, and the electronic environment.
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All the News Fit to Print

Marshall McLuhan (and a high-school student) on the New York Times' slogan, "All the News That's Fit to Print."
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WNYC Archives

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