It’s the holidays, which often means spending time with family — and maybe growing a collection or two at the same time! So, for this month’s episode, Andrew and I got together with our parents to talk collecting. Our dad, who is an extreme collector of many things, shares some stunning poetry broadsides. Our mom tells us about some of her funky and fantastical wearable art jewelry. Andy talks about his screenprint poster collection, and I explain my love of bags and purses.

Since 2010 Doc Mack has been the operator of Galloping Ghost Arcade, an old school arcade in Brookfield, Illinois, outside of Chicago. It’s the world’s largest public arcade game collection. Doc grew up on fighting games and developed an interest in martial arts, game design and arcade electronics restoration. Since then he has helped open new arcades, legitimize professional gaming through high score verification and is currently working on bringing the next generation of fighting game, Dark Presence, to arcade floors from his own Galloping Ghost studios.

Earlier this month, we released episode 10, “The Mysteries of Old Letters,” which was an interview with collector Hallie Bahn, who collects letters written roughly between 1900 and 1960. We thought some of these letters—particularly the juicy love letters—were worth hearing in full, so we asked two actors to interpret them dramatically through voiceovers. Enjoy!

Hallie Bahn collects old letters, and she has more than 200 individual missives in her collection. Oftentimes, she has a packet of letters that are all from the same person: the mother of a soldier in World War I; a housewife writing to her husband who’s a traveling salesman. Hallie enjoys the enigmatic quality of these letters. She tries to piece together the lives of the letter writers, and, as an artist, she uses their stories as inspiration for her stop-motion animations. Keep an eye out for our bonus episode, coming October 15, in which two actors will read from some of the letters.

As a graduate student in the ‘90s, Stephanie Lake became friends with the legendary fashion designer Bonnie Cashin, who is known as “the mother of American sportswear.” Stephanie wrote her dissertation on Cashin’s legacy, and, along the way, they formed a close friendship. When Cashin died in 2000, Stephanie ended up with her entire fashion archive, as well as many of her personal belongings. Stephanie is the author of the monograph “Bonnie Cashin: Chic is Where You Find It” and has her own jewelry company, Stephanie Lake Design. We talked to her about Cashin’s impact, what it’s like to own a historic fashion archive, and how Cashin has influenced her jewelry designs.

Monty Smith is a musician and a rail fan. His fascination with trains started at 14 months old! He collects many different types of trains, and his primary medium for design and exhibition has become LEGO trains. He maintains a blog of his collection and creations at MontysLegoTrains.Net.

Susie Frank is a collector of novelty salt and pepper shakers. Susie is an interior designer and a fine art photographer in Pasadena, California. She spent roughly two decades collecting salt and pepper shakers that were made from the ’30s through the ’60s, ultimately amassing a collection of 4,000 sets. Now, Susie’s into collecting something far weirder: debris balls …

For the past 25 years, Tam Keihnhoff has collected “early Texas art”—which is not exactly what it sounds like. It’s art made by an artist who was born, lived or worked in the state, and it was made more than 40 years prior to the present date. So, “early” doesn’t necessarily mean a century old—or even a half-century old! Tam, who lives in Houston, is an incredibly curious and tireless collector. She loves learning the stories behind artworks, and she’s particularly fascinated by 20th-century women painters in Texas, who struggled to earn reputations in the male-dominated art world. She’s even gotten to meet some of these unorthodox women. Tam has served as board chair at the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art, and now she works for the antiques dealer David Lackey (who you might know from Antiques Roadshow).

Our guest this month is Bill Volckening, quilt collector and author. Bill owns more than 400 quilts, from all different periods of American quilt history, including quilts from the early 1800s. But lately his real passion is sharing quilts that have rarely, if ever, been shown in museums: groovy polyester quilts and vibrant Hawaiian scrap quilts, all from the 1970s. His quilts have been shown in museums around the country, and he’s written two books about quilts, New York Beauty and Modern Roots. Beginning on May 26, an exhibition of ’70s polyester quilts from his collection will be on view at the International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Adam Rosen is an Apple Consultant and has an impressive collection of over 100 Macintosh computers, period-specific software and Apple nostalgia. He is curator of the Vintage Mac Museum, which he runs out of his home in Malden, Massachusetts, outside of Boston. Our discussion covers rare items in his collection, and photos are from his website, VintageMacMuseum.com. Adam also speaks more broadly about the Apple ethos and the future of the Macintosh platform.