Imagine yourself in 1933: food prices have skyrocketed, migrants from the Dust Bowl wearily cross the great unknown, and food lines drape the sidewalks of New York City like ragged streamers after a parade. Little hope is kindled within working-class eyes until a unifying voice comes through the radio waves. President Roosevelt – the first Executive Chief to utilize mass communication as a means of unification, the man who narrowed the gap between the President and the People.

These broadcasts became known as Fireside Chats, and consist of 30 recordings from 1933-1944. Informal in nature and understandable in tone, they brought communities together around the radio during bleak Depression and the outbreak of war. We picture a quiet living room, father in the leather armchair, mother sewing, with children draped on couches and strewn across the floor.

This atmosphere of familial warmth and optimism inspired us to create the Fireside Chat, and we hope – like the original Fireside Chats – that it keeps you warm throughout the coldest months.