Tricks of the TradeTrump's Second TermMy EconomyI've Always Wondered ...

Loading...

0:00
0% played
Support the fact-based journalism you rely on with a donation to Marketplace today. Give Now!

My Analog Life

We’re looking back at how work used to get done.
Whether it’s firing up a Telex Machine, navigating with paper maps, or dialing up a rotary phone, we want to hear your memories of work from way back when — whether you remember it fondly, or not.

From This Collection

My Analog Life

A former motorcycle messenger rides down memory lane

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 12, 2024
“I used up eight of my nine lives in that job,” said Ray Charlton, who drove paperwork around Los Angeles in the 1980s.
A motorcyclist splits lanes as drivers sit in traffic in Southern California in 2024. In the 1980s, motorcycle messengers zoomed around Los Angeles delivering papers.
Kevin Carter/Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE
My Analog Life

A physician recalls life before electronic medical records

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 10, 2024
Technology has allowed Dr. Winnie Lau of Florida to see more patients, but the level of care she's giving is the same, she says.
Before the widespread adoption of electronic medical records, doctors filled out a lot of paperwork in triplicate.
Peter Dazeley/Getty Images
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE
My Analog Life

Remember what “9 to 5” used to look like?

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 3, 2024
“Office jobs involved a lot of paperwork,” recalled Stephanie Sharf, who entered the labor force in 1968.
"Our word processing center, it was the model for the movie '9 to 5,'" said Stephanie Sharf. "Jane Fonda actually came into our office and walked around and observed." Above, a screenshot from the documentary “Still Working 9 to 5.”
Mighty Fine Entertainment
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE
My Analog Life

A former file clerk remembers the camaraderie at her first job

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 2, 2024
As one of five teenage girls on the file clerk team, Lisa Cintron said her days were filled with chit-chat and music reverberating from a boombox in the back. 
A photo of Lisa Cintron’s office where she worked as a file clerk, circa 1980-1981.
Courtesy Cintron
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE
My Analog Life

In the era of hand-drawn drafts, one landscape designer remembers: “I was creating a piece of art”

by Maria Hollenhorst
Jul 1, 2024
In the first installment of our series “My Analog Life,” a landscape architect reminisces about drafting by hand.
A hand-drawn landscape design by Eric Weishaar in 2001. The project was for a client whose son was in a wheelchair and wanted an accessible landscape on their home.
Courtesy Weishaar
ListenLISTEN
HTML EMBED:
COPY
EMBED EMBED
Share Now on:
SHARE
Subscribe Using:
SUBSCRIBE SUBSCRIBE