Most of America is familiar with Meet the Press that exists in the 21st Century. It is a television panel focus on the newsmakers of the day. What many people may not realize is that the original idea, that is the precursor to the modern NBC Sunday morning program, had its beginnings on the radio in the late 1950s and early 60s. The press panel would incorporate various journalists and news people from newspapers and broadcasting networks, including the regular member Laurence Spivak, who produced the program. The Korean war, Cuban Missile Crisis, politics in general were on the minds of millions of Americans and Meet the Press radio program allowed the listener to have an "ear" into the workings of government and the possible scandals that might cross paths of the Washington insiders club. However, Meet the Press did not just focus on the government happenings. In fact the radio show went international and into the cultural paths of the day. Writers were illuminated, foreign leaders were lit-up and the notorious did not go unnoticed. To Meet the Press was to sit on the proverbial hot seat and be placed under the media microscope. The listening citizenry would tune in, expect an a program that was insightful and inspiring and always felt compelled to become established in the issues and news that overlayed their lives. "Meet the Press" was an invitation to meet the mind and the heartbeat of the American landscape.