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PODCAST

Silent Generation

Silent Generation

Silent Generation is a Chicago-based cultural analysis podcast that surveys the cultural consequences of car-oriented development in the mid-20th century. It explores what was lost between the Silent Generation and Generation Z. Topics discussed include aesthetics, fashion, history, and urbanism.Find us on Instagram: silent.generation

society & culture

All Episodes

05:04

Ep. 46: Copenhagen [TEASER]

Silent Generation ·

2024/11/01

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration Why did Joseph go to Copenhagen last week? Did he bike around a lot? How many hot dogs did he eat? How was Malmo, Sweden? These are some of the important questions Nathan asked Joseph on this week’s episode. Artwork: Street photo Copenhagen ... Summer and sun by Ivan Naurholm Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Recorded on 10/27/2024

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01:29:48

Ep. 45: Hyperpop w/ E

Silent Generation ·

2024/10/30

Hyperpop is a music genre that is noted for its hyperfeminine, artificial, and childlike sound. The term “hyperpop” came into popular use after Spotify staff created a hyperpop playlist in 2019. The music the term described emerged much earlier however, with the earliest examples coming out of the renowned UK record label PC Music starting in 2013. This week Nathan is joined by his friend E to delineate the three main subgenres of hyperpop: future pop, internet pop and digicore. They discuss music

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01:33:04

Ep. 44: Net Art w/ Kevin Heckart

Silent Generation ·

2024/10/24

Kevin Heckart is a Kansas City based artist who created the artwork behind seapunk’s original aesthetic. This special episode coincides with both the one year anniversary of Silent Generation and the relaunch of the seapunk clothing line Mainframe, which features many of Heckart’s designs. The first half of episode is an interview with Heckart that serves as a spiritual threequel to Silent Generation’s prior two seapunk episodes while the later half is a broader conversation about net art and net

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05:20

Ep. 43: Megalopolis [TEASER]

Silent Generation ·

2024/10/08

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration For this week’s episode Joseph and Nathan watched Francis Coppola’s latest (and likely final) film, Megalopolis. The film draws parallels between Ancient Rome and modern day New York City and has been met with widespread confusion. The boys discuss the film in the first half of the episode, detailing the performance of several actors (notably Aubrey Plaza’s role as the brilliantly named Wow Platinum) and the film's

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01:24:00

Ep.42: Chautauqua

Silent Generation ·

2024/09/24

What is Chautauqua? Chautauqua began in 1874 in Chautauqua, New York as a Summer camp that trained laymen to be Sunday school teachers. President Ulyses S Grant visited the assembly shortly after its founding in 1875, which gave Chautauqua widespread attention and engendered a national movement; the original Chautauqua (now known in the modern day as the Chautauqua Institution) gave rise to hundreds of “daughter” Chautauquas. They offered week long or month long retreats to religiously minded

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01:30:19

Ep. 41: American Summer Camps

Silent Generation ·

2024/09/16

In a more anecdotal direction, this week’s episode is on American Summer camps. The boys detail how camping was first developed in 1861 by Frederick Gunn before discussing their own experiences as campers and counselors at American Summer camps. Amongst other things they discuss how modern Summer camps have felt the need to hyperspecialize and give parents an ROI, how Summer camp aesthetics are 1970’s by default, how Summer camps were depicted as WASPy in Addams Family Values, and how Summer camps

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05:02

Ep. 40: The Scouting Movement [TEASER]

Silent Generation ·

2024/09/12

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration Scouting is a grassroots, child-led movement that began in the early 1900’s after children discovered Robert Baden-Powell’s written accounts of his time working as a scout for the British Army. After learning of children’s interest in his work, Baden-Powell conducted an experimental scout camp at Brownsea Island in 1907 and subsequently published his seminal work Scouting for Boys in 1908. Dozens and hundreds of official

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01:35:24

Ep. 39: Rio de Janeiro

Silent Generation ·

2024/09/06

Why was Nathan in Rio de Janeiro last week? Why was he there in 2018? What did he do there? What new fruits did he try? These are some of the important questions Joseph asked Nathan on this week’s episode. Links: Brazil with a Z vs Brasil with an S - example 1 Brazil with a Z vs Brasil with an S - example 2 Artwork: Picture of Rio de Janeiro taken by Nathan from Pão de Açúcar Recorded on 9/2/2024

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01:26:52

Ep. 38: Espionage & Spy-fi

Silent Generation ·

2024/08/31

How did the spy-fi literary and cinematic genre come to be? This week Joseph and Nathan chronicle how detective fiction authors took inspiration from sensational espionage cases such as The Dreyfus Affair and The Rosenberg Trial to imagine what the front lines of The Cold War might look like. The boys cover “realistic” spy movies such as James Bond’s Dr. No, Three Days of the Condor, and The Bourne Trilogy before going into fantastical depictions of spies in Children’s media like The Spy Kids, Kim

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05:00

Ep. 37: Male Desire w/ Charles Livingston [TEASER]

Silent Generation ·

2024/08/15

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration This week the boys are joined by local filmmaker Charles Livingston to discuss male desire. They begin by first discussing straight male desire (the derision of the male gaze, male jealousy and possessiveness, and gender performance) before going into a deep exploration of Nathan’s thesis that yearning is the most universal and inexorable difficulty experienced by gay men. Amongst other things they discuss how the Ancient

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01:30:54

Ep. 36: Antiques w/ Kamara

Silent Generation ·

2024/08/09

On this week’s (sans Joseph) episode of Silent Generation, Nathan is joined by his friend Kamara to discuss antiques. They talk about how they first got into antiques, the best antiques that they own, and the defining characteristics of several antique furniture styles (Victorian, Arts & Crafts Movement, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Mid-century Modern). Amongst other things they discuss how Victorian antiques and houses are construed as being haunted, how antiques seem to be most popular in rural

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01:49:21

Ep. 35: Unions

Silent Generation ·

2024/08/03

This week the boys cover a listener suggested topic that is closely associated with their lines of work: unions. Nathan is currently a librarian represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and Joseph works in the heavily unionized construction industry. Amongst other things they discuss how violent strikes were prior to the formation of the NLRB in 1935, how the Haymarket Affair lead to creation of the 8 hour work day, how YIMBYs feel ambivalent toward

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05:01

Ep. 34: Millennial Nihilism w/ Bobby [TEASER]

Silent Generation ·

2024/07/30

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration Christopher Lasch identified narcissism as the dominant pathology of the Baby Boomer generation in his seminal work The Culture of Narcissism and suggested that prior and future generations of Americans would also exhibit collective pathologies. What is the dominant pathology or ideology of the Millennial generation? On this week’s episode Joseph and Nathan are joined by their friend Bobby to present evidence that said

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01:39:49

Ep. 33: Ivy Style

Silent Generation ·

2024/07/20

Ivy Style, otherwise known as Ivy League, is a style of men’s dress that became mainstream at Ivy League schools during the 1950’s. Students started wearing casual versions of the traditional menswear staples worn by their fathers and started wearing clothing originally designed for recreational activities outside of sports fields. On this week’s episode Joseph and Nathan delineate various Ivy Style staples and talk about several groups that adopted the look: Jews who dressed Ivy in order to blend

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02:04:52

Ep. 32: Insect Aesthetics w/ Marissa Macias

Silent Generation ·

2024/07/16

This week Joseph and Nathan are joined by Marissa Macias, a local artist and fashion designer who owns the insect-inspired clothing brand Petrichor, to discuss insect aesthetics. They begin by examining 7 of the ~30 extant insect orders: hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps), odonata (dragonflies), coleoptera (beetles), orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets), mantodea (mantids), lepidoptera (butterflies, moths), and heteroptera (true bugs). Amongst other things they discuss Chicago’s recent dual cicada brood

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05:00

Ep. 31: Health Goth [TEASER]

Silent Generation ·

2024/07/03

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration Originally started as a Facebook page by three Portland natives, health goth was an online internet aesthetic that proliferated from 2013 to 2015. Health goth imagery and fashion incorporated monochrome color schemes, performance wear brands (particularly Nike, Adidas, and Y-3), chav culture, light weaponry, face masks, and fitness culture. Where did it go, and why has it been erased from public memory to a greater degree

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01:31:48

Ep. 30: Movie Theaters

Silent Generation ·

2024/06/28

While many recent episodes of Silent Generation have focused on decline, this episode explores how movie theaters have had multiple golden eras. Vaudeville theaters, nickelodeons, movie theaters, drive-ins, and multiplexes have each offered unique ways for moviegoers to enjoy films. Joseph and Nathan begin by discussing the history of movie theaters before examining four iconic movie palaces in Chicago: The Garrick Theater, The Chicago Theater, The Music Box, and the Ramova Theater. Amongst other

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01:32:30

Ep. 29: Preppers w/ Anna Savina

Silent Generation ·

2024/06/22

In response to the Berlin Crisis of 1961, President John F. Kennedy chose to encourage everyday Americans to construct homemade bunkers. Civilians could suddenly mitigate their fears of a nuclear holocaust through consumption, and thus prepper culture was born. This week the boys are joined by the writer and community builder Anna Savina to discuss preppers, survivalists, and other groups that have doomsday inspired “exit strategies.” They begin by examining the zine she created on bunkers, Bunker

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05:00

Ep. 28: Fast Food Culture w/ Mathieu [TEASER]

Silent Generation ·

2024/06/12

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration Many themes thus far discussed on Silent Generation are present in fast food culture: car-centrism, postwar decline, Americanism, and uniforms. This week the boys are joined by Mathieu (who goes by Sleepy on Discord) to talk about McDonald’s, CosMc’s, Taco Bell, In-N-Out Burger, Wendy’s, and Culver’s in detail. Chicago has four (in)famous McDonald’s locations that they pay particular attention to: Rock 'n' Roll

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01:39:04

Ep. 27: Sportswear

Silent Generation ·

2024/06/04

On this week’s episode Joseph and Nathan examine sportswear worn by both athletes and their fans. Episode 14 of Silent Generation already covered Olympic sports, so this week’s episode focuses on major league sports. They cover each of the following: baseball, basketball, football, golf, hockey, and soccer (plus rugby, road cycling, and tennis for good measure). Amongst other things they discuss how White Sox players briefly wore shorts in the 1970s, how rappers popularized hockey jerseys in the

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