Silent Generation

Full episode available on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration

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 unions, and how unions mitigate but don’t eliminate the deleterious effects of monopolization. 

Links:

How Chicago’s Past Resulted in Disproportionate Lead Poisoning of Minority Children of the Present: A Narrative Review

The Redneck Army Refuses to Stay Buried by Cassady Rosenblum 

Ep. 164: Labor Union Depictions in Hollywood by Citations Needed

Ten cities facing the worst of the pension crisis

CTA has only netted 4 rail operators this year Reddit post

Noisy and Unsafe: Stop Fetishizing Old Homes by M. Nolan Gray

A ton of variation in construction labor cost M. Nolan Gray tweet

Der Streik by Robert Koehler

Recorded on 7/28/2024

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 ideology is nihilism. They examine the causes of Millennial nihilism (The Great Recession, 9/11, New Atheism) and the effects that nihilism has had on Millennials (“cutting off your family” discourse, distrust of authority, the proliferation of sexwork, and the increasing number of deaths of despair). Amongst other things they discuss what generation they personally identify with, how nihilism has been slowly accumulating from generation to generation, and how both Rick and Morty and Everything Everywhere All at Once use the idea of multiverses to create worlds in which nihilism is justified. 

Links:

The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch

The Revolt of the Elites by Christopher Lasch

“Optimistic Nihilism” Tiktok Video

The Nihilism of Generation X is an Artifact of Privilege by Shane Burley

The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama

“I’m tired of living through historic events” meme

The Case Against the Sexual Revolution by Louise Perry

‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ in the Age of #StopAsianHate and Millennial Nihilism

Recorded on 7/21/2024

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 in in professional environments, female students at the Seven Sisters schools who dressed Ivy in a strikingly masculine way, and Black civil rights activists who dressed Ivy in order to persuade White Americans that they were equals. The boys then round off the episode by critiquing the Ivy League as an institution. 

Links:

Ivy League Pinterest Board

The Ivy Style Primer

American Ivy: Chapter 1 - Articles of Interest

Take Ivy by Hayashida, Teruyoshi

The Weird and Glorious Culture Shock of “Take Ivy”

Kiel James Patrick’s Instagram

Man fired for being ‘too American,’ old, wearing khakis: EEOC complaint

Visual snow syndrome grid pattern post

What is Black Ivy, and why you've never heard of it

The Zoomer Question by Isaac Wilks

Air rage triggered by walking past first-class seating, study says

Liquidated: An Ethnography of Wall Street by Karen Ho

Pete Buttigieg McKinsey tweet

Artwork:

Sunday in the Ivy League from Take Ivy

Recorded on 7/15/2024

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 emergence, how insects appeared in pre-modern still lives because of their association with death, and how decline in insect biomass could result in systems collapse and a sixth extinction.

Links:

https://www.petrich0r.com/ (online shop)

Petrichor (Instagram)

Marissa’s Neurobasis Kaupi Are.na Channel

Maria Sibylla Merian

The Insect Asylum

Cicada Parade-a

Carravagio’s Basket of Fruit

Durer’s Stag Beetle

Eating Bugs to Save the Planet by Dana Goodyear

The Collapse of Insects By Julia Janicki, Gloria Dickie, Simon Scarr and Jitesh Chowdhury

Earth Is Not in the Midst of a Sixth Mass Extinction by Peter Brannen

Ocean Trash Is a Lifesaver for Insects by Daniel Strain

Artwork:

Neurobasis Kaupi by Marissa Macias

Recorded on 7/10/2024

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 than other early Tumblr aesthetics? On this week's episode the boys explore how the aesthetic was later commandeered and mishandled by the controversial former Chicago club kid Johnny Love. Amongst other things they discuss how the aesthetic side of Tumblr often made them feel “Tumblr fatigue,” how local DIY scenes are a recipe for drama and GoFundMe disasters, how goth clean girl looks eerily reminiscent to health goth, and how phonk seems to be health goth music incarnate. 

Links:

Health Goth Pinterest Board

Health Goth Facebook Page

healthgoth.com

Cottweiler: 2014 S/S Collection

What Health Goth Actually Means  by Adam Harper

Health Goth Fitness Manifesto

#HealthGoth - Hashtags Season II by Red Bull Music Academy 

execussion.tumblr.com 2012 by Celestial Youth

Is the Health Goth Movement Selling Out to the Mainstream?

meme about scene rants

famous 2012 basement group photo w/ Johnny Love

Johny Love’s recent health goth facebook post

The DigiFairy’s goth clean girl Instagram reel

Phonk Aesthetics

Artwork:

Jazzelle Zaughnatti wearing a Dead Worldwide shirt

Recorded on 6/30/2024

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 things they discuss how movie studios used to bundle blockbusters and B-movies together in a now illegal practice called “block booking,” how the stars in the ceiling of The Music Box theater remind them of Grand Central Station, how modern movie theaters have an Art Deco-esque aesthetic that is called Decoplex, and how Alamo Drafthouse Cinema workers are unionizing. 

Links:

Downtown Chicago’s Historic Movie Theaters by Schiecke, Konrad

Avondale Time Machine posts about movie theaters in Avondale

All Extant Louis Sullivan Buildings in Chicago

The Last American Possession screening at the Music Box on July 24th 

CTA Bus Hit, Damaged Ramova Theatre Days After Building Earned Initial Landmark Status

Alamo Drafthouse Made Millions. Exhausted Workers Said Enough

The Music Box 

Recorded on 6/23/2023

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 Mentality, to explain how bunkers fit into the story of how Americans shifted from being citizens to being consumers. Amongst other things they discuss how the towers that existed in medieval Italian cities were an early form of bunkers, how prepper culture seems to thrive in the interior of the United States rather than the coasts, and how the prepper aesthetics depicted in Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding were beautiful but ultimately not representative of prepper culture. 

Links:

Prepper Aesthetics Pinterest Board

Anya is Typing…

Anna Savina's Zine on bunkers: Bunker Mentality

Anna Savina’s Twitter

Prepper Lingo: Terms, Slang, and Acronyms from A-Z

Towers of Bologna, Italy in the 12th Century

San Gimignano

Preppers in Death Stranding

New Survivalism by Parsons & Charlesworth, The Object Guardian

Conservative guy afraid of cities meme

Why We Love the Apocalypse - EP183 by The Casual Preppers Podcast

Wikipedia Database download

Graph of the Population of Rome Through History

Artwork:

How to build a fallout shelter, 1957

Creative Commons CC0 License

Recorded on 6/19/2024

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 McDonald's, CrackDonald’s, Jungle McDonald’s, and the McDonald's Global Menu Restaurant. Amongst other things they discuss the decline of fast food architecture from its Googie architecture highs, chains that are holding on for dear life like KewPee Hamburgers and Quizno’s, and their favorite discontinued menu items. 

Links:

White Castle #16

Googie 101: A Space-Age Pop-Architecture Primer

Tokyo Toni 80 Pieces of Chicken

McDonald’s Broke My Heart from Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History Podcast

Rock N Roll McDonalds by Wesley Willis

Why McDonald’s looks sleek and boring now 

Nonstandard McDonalds

The site of the former “jungle Mcdonald’s” on Google Maps

The rise and fall of Wendy’s sun rooms

Breaking Points: We Were TRICKED By Red Lobster Endless Shrimp Excuse!

What Happened To Chipotle?

Artwork:

Art Deco McDonald’s from Nonstandard McDonald’s

Clifton Hill, Melbourne, Australia

Recorded on 6/9/2024

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 1990s, how cyclists were depicted in The Triplets of Belleville, and how coaches (like Tom Landry and Pat Riley) dressed better prior to league-wide contracts.

Links:

Sportswear Pinterest Board

American Apparel’s Poly Mesh Football Jersey

Gay baseball raglan meme 1, Gay baseball raglan meme 2

How Hockey Jerseys Became Standard Wear for Fans

When a Sweater Defined One of the Best Rivalries

The Rise Of Athleisure In The Fashion Industry And What It Means For Brands

Artwork:

John Stockton

Recorded on 6/2/2024

Why has the general public been skeptical of nuclear energy, seemingly even before the technology existed? Joining the boys on this week’s episode of Silent Generation is Madison Hilly, founder and director of the Campaign for a Green Nuclear Deal, to discuss how the discourse around nuclear energy has been heavily influenced by its depictions in popular culture. They examine The China Syndrome, The Simpsons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Chernobyl (2019) to examine how erroneous depictions of nuclear waste and nuclear meltdowns have fomented fear. Amongst other things they talk about when Madi went viral for taking a picture next to nuclear waste while pregnant, how the baby boomer strain of environmentalism leans more “conservationist,” why nuclear waste and slime in childrens’ media is always depicted as being green, and how left wing opposition to nuclear energy seems to come from subconscious fears that radioactive material isn’t “natural.” 

Links:

The Campaign for a Green Nuclear Deal

Madison Hilly’s Twitter

Pregnant Woman Poses With 'Nuclear Waste' To Prove Point About Radiation (Newsweek)

By the Waters of Babylon by Stephen Vincent Benét

Cornelia Hesse-Honegger’s Mutations

Science Behind Science Fiction: How do Teenage Turtles become Mutant Ninjas?

Studies Show That, As We Age, Our Ability To See Vivid Colors Decline

Holtec reports “remarkable progress” towards restart of Palisades

Artwork:

Nuclear power plant LCCN, Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division

digital ID highsm.13019, CC0

Recorded on 5/26/2024