August 29, 2025 • 8 mins
Dr. Bob Thompson has the latest entertainment news including Bruce Springsteen's album Born to Run was released 50 years ago!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. Professor
(00:02):
of pop culture from Syracuse University. You want to talk
about TV, I'm acting like I know what I'm talking about.
Doctor Bob knows what he's talked about. Bob, Good morning.
How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm doing pretty well? How about you?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Very very good.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We mentioned We've mentioned this on and off throughout the
week much too. Campy's chagrin, the huge and ridiculous response
to the Engagement of the Century Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You know, it was almost like we went temporarily insane.
Do you ever see a little kid, maybe I don't know,
three or four years old and they go to the
Science Museum on a field trip and they discovered dinosaurs
for the first time, and like, they go completely bananas
over it. That And it wasn't just the usual places
(00:50):
that you were getting all these alerts about this. I
first heard from a big breaking news blast that came
from the New York Times the Washington Post. This is
the same newspaper, of course, that all the President's Men
was based upon that broke the Watergate story. They had
it as one of their top seven stories, and their
(01:11):
daily little newsletter thing that they send out. I remember
I was talking to someone on the phone about it,
and right on CNN in front of me, this is CNN,
And there were a lot of other things going on
in the world at the time. They had these financial
experts and they were all in a panel discussing the
(01:32):
following subject, how does it work when a person worth
a billion dollars that would be Taylor Mary someone worth
seventy million dollars that would be Travis how does that work?
And they had all these experts discussing the ins and
outs of that. It was like nuts. But fortunately it
was maybe twenty four hours and now people seem to
(01:53):
have taken a deep breath.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Thank goodness, really, thank goodness. I mean, my phone was buzzing.
I was doing my phone was upside down. I was
doing some work and my phone is what is going on?
I flip it over and same thing. I see all
these breaking news alerts like Taylor Swift is engaged.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I'm like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
It's one of those we talked about, you know, last
week or the week before. We both remember where we
were during the Survivor finale. Oh yeah, right in two thousand,
so in twenty years, are you going to remember where
you were when you learned that Taylor and Travis got engaged.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, I guess we will now that we're pointing it out.
But I'll tell you what I would have remembered forever.
If all those blasts would have come that said Taylor
Swift is engaged and it was someone else other than
Travis Kelton, that would have been big news.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Doctor Bob Thomson, Professor of Pop Culture of Syracuse University. Well,
now we get to speculate on you know, when and where,
you know, all of the all the stories about the
ring and how much it costs and all of this.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So it's it's just beginning. My friend, I.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Think I know, I believe it or a five point
five million, correct.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I think that's what I heard as well, A mere
five million dollars on an engagement room.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Wrong about us both knowing.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That that's right. Well, a friend was saying, how do
you know so much about this? I'm like, don't ask,
just don't ask. It's just being in this business, you
have to know things that maybe you don't want to.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, you know, I think that's part of the appeal
here is that you know all this stuff because you
can't help it. It's everywhere, and we're in an era.
You and I have talked about this many times, where
it used to be we shared all kinds of different things.
We all heard the same music, and we all listen
to watch the same TV and everything. Now there's only
a few things like that anymore. And Taylor and Travis
(03:37):
happened to be one of us.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Certainly, Yes, the shared experience is a thing of the past,
and thank goodness for Taylor Swift that we can all
rally around this shared experience. In twenty twenty five, doctor
Bob Thompson from Syracuse University a more sobering note.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We mentioned this last half hour.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Today is the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans,
and there's a three part Netflix doc series that talks about.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
This, right and it's there was another one just what
a month or two ago. Ryan Coogler was among the
executive producers. That was a five part that was done
with National Geographic and Disney Plus. I think this one
is a three part and Spike Lee is the executive
producer and he does the third and this will in
(04:21):
fact be the third documentary Spike Lee is done on Katrina.
He did a in two thousand and six when the
levees broke, which was a really moving thing. Twenty ten
he kind of went back and did another one and
now this is his third Katrina documentary. If you watch
the two, the Disney National geographic one that was a
(04:43):
couple months ago or a month ago and this one,
there is a lot of overlap, but I think they
are worth watching. That was a big, big, big story
on a number of different levels that revealed a number
of different things, and an enormous casualties.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I mean, we.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Forget I think the confirmed dead is right about fourteen
hundred now and there's a bunch missing still. It was
an enormous national disaster, no.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Doubt, and there are ceremonies and remembrances today in New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
But I mean, just some of the video of people getting.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Rescued from the roofs of their homes with the water
like lapping up onto the roof, that's how high it was.
It was definitely just a surreal, surreal visual.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, that image with the holding up the signs help us, Yeah,
probably the single most iconic image from that time. However,
there were other images that many stations and cable networks
were reluctant to play that were a lot more gruesome
than network.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yes, indeed, twenty years ago today, and I think earlier
this week, we had I guess a happier anniversary, the
fiftieth anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh right, Yes, it's hard to believe that's fifty years,
but I remember I moved into my college dormitory in
the fall of seventy seven, so Born to Run would
have been out two years already, but that thing blasted
from above me, below me, next door to me. That
(06:16):
album was playing constantly. I was in an all male dormitory,
so it wasn't just you're right. I think it was
Wednesday or Thursday at fifty tent versuy of its release.
But that thing continued to well continues to to this day,
play everywhere. And the marketing that was done for that
(06:39):
even back then some people began to roll their eyes
over it, but that really was launched with this enormous,
very modern, ahead of its time kind of marketing. By October,
there was a week I think late October that it
was on the cover of Newsweek and Time the very
same week.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Springsteen is a guy who I think either you love
or you don't. I don't know if there's casual Bruce
Springsteen fans. I mean, you cannot doubt his songwriting ability
at all. A great songwriter, you know, but you listen
to him vocally and you're like, really, I mean it's
almost like Bob Dylan esque, Like Bob Dylan amazing songwriter,
but can he sing?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
And this is the question. And I my dad was
a huge is still.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
A huge Springsteen fan, and I can remember him playing
that album NonStop.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Right, you know. Dylan also had a album in nineteen
seventy five, Blood on the Tracks I think was his
seventy five album, that's right, and Patty Smith Smith's Horses.
You could you could argue, strangely enough, that Born to
Run wasn't even the greatest album of nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Wow, it's it's you know, it's crazy that we're talking
about the nineteen seventy five being fifty years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
It's oh yeah, that that I have trouble.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It hurts Bob, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
That's that's that's the best verb to use.
On the Legacy Retirement Group dot com phone line. Professor
(00:02):
of pop culture from Syracuse University. You want to talk
about TV, I'm acting like I know what I'm talking about.
Doctor Bob knows what he's talked about. Bob, Good morning.
How are you.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I'm doing pretty well? How about you?
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Very very good.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
We mentioned We've mentioned this on and off throughout the
week much too. Campy's chagrin, the huge and ridiculous response
to the Engagement of the Century Taylor Swift, Travis Kelsey, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
You know, it was almost like we went temporarily insane.
Do you ever see a little kid, maybe I don't know,
three or four years old and they go to the
Science Museum on a field trip and they discovered dinosaurs
for the first time, and like, they go completely bananas
over it. That And it wasn't just the usual places
(00:50):
that you were getting all these alerts about this. I
first heard from a big breaking news blast that came
from the New York Times the Washington Post. This is
the same newspaper, of course, that all the President's Men
was based upon that broke the Watergate story. They had
it as one of their top seven stories, and their
(01:11):
daily little newsletter thing that they send out. I remember
I was talking to someone on the phone about it,
and right on CNN in front of me, this is CNN,
And there were a lot of other things going on
in the world at the time. They had these financial
experts and they were all in a panel discussing the
(01:32):
following subject, how does it work when a person worth
a billion dollars that would be Taylor Mary someone worth
seventy million dollars that would be Travis how does that work?
And they had all these experts discussing the ins and
outs of that. It was like nuts. But fortunately it
was maybe twenty four hours and now people seem to
(01:53):
have taken a deep breath.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Thank goodness, really, thank goodness. I mean, my phone was buzzing.
I was doing my phone was upside down. I was
doing some work and my phone is what is going on?
I flip it over and same thing. I see all
these breaking news alerts like Taylor Swift is engaged.
Speaker 3 (02:10):
I'm like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 1 (02:11):
It's one of those we talked about, you know, last
week or the week before. We both remember where we
were during the Survivor finale. Oh yeah, right in two thousand,
so in twenty years, are you going to remember where
you were when you learned that Taylor and Travis got engaged.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
Well, I guess we will now that we're pointing it out.
But I'll tell you what I would have remembered forever.
If all those blasts would have come that said Taylor
Swift is engaged and it was someone else other than
Travis Kelton, that would have been big news.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Doctor Bob Thomson, Professor of Pop Culture of Syracuse University. Well,
now we get to speculate on you know, when and where,
you know, all of the all the stories about the
ring and how much it costs and all of this.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
So it's it's just beginning. My friend, I.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Think I know, I believe it or a five point
five million, correct.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I think that's what I heard as well, A mere
five million dollars on an engagement room.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Wrong about us both knowing.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
That that's right. Well, a friend was saying, how do
you know so much about this? I'm like, don't ask,
just don't ask. It's just being in this business, you
have to know things that maybe you don't want to.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, you know, I think that's part of the appeal
here is that you know all this stuff because you
can't help it. It's everywhere, and we're in an era.
You and I have talked about this many times, where
it used to be we shared all kinds of different things.
We all heard the same music, and we all listen
to watch the same TV and everything. Now there's only
a few things like that anymore. And Taylor and Travis
(03:37):
happened to be one of us.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Certainly, Yes, the shared experience is a thing of the past,
and thank goodness for Taylor Swift that we can all
rally around this shared experience. In twenty twenty five, doctor
Bob Thompson from Syracuse University a more sobering note.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We mentioned this last half hour.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
Today is the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans,
and there's a three part Netflix doc series that talks about.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
This, right and it's there was another one just what
a month or two ago. Ryan Coogler was among the
executive producers. That was a five part that was done
with National Geographic and Disney Plus. I think this one
is a three part and Spike Lee is the executive
producer and he does the third and this will in
(04:21):
fact be the third documentary Spike Lee is done on Katrina.
He did a in two thousand and six when the
levees broke, which was a really moving thing. Twenty ten
he kind of went back and did another one and
now this is his third Katrina documentary. If you watch
the two, the Disney National geographic one that was a
(04:43):
couple months ago or a month ago and this one,
there is a lot of overlap, but I think they
are worth watching. That was a big, big, big story
on a number of different levels that revealed a number
of different things, and an enormous casualties.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
I mean, we.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Forget I think the confirmed dead is right about fourteen
hundred now and there's a bunch missing still. It was
an enormous national disaster, no.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Doubt, and there are ceremonies and remembrances today in New Orleans.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
But I mean, just some of the video of people getting.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Rescued from the roofs of their homes with the water
like lapping up onto the roof, that's how high it was.
It was definitely just a surreal, surreal visual.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, that image with the holding up the signs help us, Yeah,
probably the single most iconic image from that time. However,
there were other images that many stations and cable networks
were reluctant to play that were a lot more gruesome
than network.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yes, indeed, twenty years ago today, and I think earlier
this week, we had I guess a happier anniversary, the
fiftieth anniversary of Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run album.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Oh right, Yes, it's hard to believe that's fifty years,
but I remember I moved into my college dormitory in
the fall of seventy seven, so Born to Run would
have been out two years already, but that thing blasted
from above me, below me, next door to me. That
(06:16):
album was playing constantly. I was in an all male dormitory,
so it wasn't just you're right. I think it was
Wednesday or Thursday at fifty tent versuy of its release.
But that thing continued to well continues to to this day,
play everywhere. And the marketing that was done for that
(06:39):
even back then some people began to roll their eyes
over it, but that really was launched with this enormous,
very modern, ahead of its time kind of marketing. By October,
there was a week I think late October that it
was on the cover of Newsweek and Time the very
same week.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
Springsteen is a guy who I think either you love
or you don't. I don't know if there's casual Bruce
Springsteen fans. I mean, you cannot doubt his songwriting ability
at all. A great songwriter, you know, but you listen
to him vocally and you're like, really, I mean it's
almost like Bob Dylan esque, Like Bob Dylan amazing songwriter,
but can he sing?
Speaker 3 (07:22):
And this is the question. And I my dad was
a huge is still.
Speaker 1 (07:26):
A huge Springsteen fan, and I can remember him playing
that album NonStop.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Right, you know. Dylan also had a album in nineteen
seventy five, Blood on the Tracks I think was his
seventy five album, that's right, and Patty Smith Smith's Horses.
You could you could argue, strangely enough, that Born to
Run wasn't even the greatest album of nineteen seventy four.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Wow, it's it's you know, it's crazy that we're talking
about the nineteen seventy five being fifty years ago.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
It's oh yeah, that that I have trouble.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
It hurts Bob, you know.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
That's that's that's the best verb to use.
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