Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Pope Brock is a writer, teacher and DJ living in Arlington, Massachusetts. He is the author of three books: Indiana Gothic (Doubleday/Nan A. Talese), about the murder of his great-grandfather; Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, The Man Who Pursued Him and The Age of Flim Flam (Crown), about the most successful quack in American history, and Another Fine Mess: Life on Tomorrow's Moon (Red Hen Press), a work of what might be called speculative nonfiction. His articles have appeared in GQ, Esquire, Rolling Stone, the London Sunday Times Magazine and many other publications.
Since 2005 he has taught in the low-residency MFA Writing Program at the University of Nebraska.
Pope Brock's website
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Why did you decide to tell this story?
I had never heard of John Brinkley before, but within two minutes after
stumbling on his name on museumofhoaxes.com I was hooked. Any guy who would
build the biggest radio station in the world to convince other men to get
goat-testicle transplants is a pretty unusual character. He made millions of
dollars at this during the Depression even had women coming in for goat
ovaries, which he plugged as a wrinkle-reducer and bust developer. When I
learned he was also a pioneer in radio, in advertising, in politics, I knew what
I'd be doing for the next two or three years.
What surprised you most about Brinkley's story?
I suppose his enormous impact on pop culture, which he's never gotten credit
for. He's like Shoeless Joe Jackson: he's been kept out of the Hall of Fame
because he's regarded as a crook. But John Brinkley seized on radio in its
infancy with a sort of evil glee, before corporate America had any idea what to
do with it, and showed the world the huge potential of broadcast advertising. He
also accidentally changed the American pop music scene by giving country music,
and later the blues, its first national audience. When he ran ...
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