Silent Generation

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On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan talk about father figures in their personal lives and in society more broadly. The episode opens with a discussion of familiar archetypes such as coaches, scout leaders, teachers, and bosses. The boys also note that children sometimes latch onto “parasocial father figures” like Mr. Rogers and Hank Hill in the absence of real-life ones. They then share observations about “daddy issues” (the negative traits that emerge in the absence of father figures) before deliberating whether daddy issues and mommy issues can arise independently of one another. 

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"Friendly Guy in a Pub" starter pack meme

Sweet middle aged vietnamese ladies calling their customers handsome boy meme

Various memes about the lunch lady calling you sugar

Look Me In The Eyes (Air Jordan ad)

The Joy of Six: US athletes' pushy parents by Les Carpenter

The Slap (2011)

Japanese adult adoption

Best of Jenelle & Barbara (Part 1) | Teen Mom 2

The Jenelle Evans Dating Timeline - A Visual Guide

Big Brother Big Sisters of America - History That Spans More Than A Century

The Making of a Misogynist: How Andrew Tate inherited his father's toxic beliefs by Claudia Cockerell

Artwork:

Recorded on 9/14/2025

Nothing expresses the aesthetics of infrastructure as clearly as American rest stops. On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Nathan is joined by artist and professor Madeline Rupard, whose paintings “consider the American landscape” and frequently depict rest stops. They begin by defining what constitutes rest stops (fast food chains, gas stations, motels, and plentiful car-oriented infrastructure) before surveying their aesthetics. Amongst other things they discuss how the history of rest areas differs from that of service areas, how America’s first transcontinental highway (the Lincoln Highway) was financed through private sources, how Buc-ee’s lures in customers with spacious and clean restrooms, and how Eden, Idaho is home to a spectacular Garden of Eden themed rest stop. 

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Madeline Rupard - Instagram Page

Luxurydeptstore - Instagram Page

https://www.madelinerupard.com/ 

Passages / Madeline Rupard

An Interview With Madeline Rupard

The sky at grocery stores meme

The European mind can’t comprehend this meme

The Real-Life Places Along Route 66 that Inspired Cars

Before Route 66: The Story of America’s First Highway

restareahistory.org

Daniel Everett - Instagram Page

What Internet Memes Get Wrong About Breezewood, Pennsylvania by Amanda Kolson Hurley

Breezewood, Pennsylvania Is Not What You Think It Is by Classy Whale

A “lost” photo set of sorts…

Traveler’s Oasis “Garden of Eatin’” in Eden, Idaho

The Store (1983)

Nonstandard - A Documentary (2025)

Why our buildings lost their soul by Pearlmania500

Artwork:

Photograph provided by Madeline Rupard

Recorded on 8/30/2025

The aesthetics of infrastructure are often treated as an expensive afterthought, noticed and appreciated only by artists. But can it even be beautiful to begin with? On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan begin by discussing the four primary ways that infrastructure achieves beauty: engineering and design, paint, public art, and disguise (as is the case with stealth towers). Amongst other things they discuss how it is cringe when infrastructure is made to look like public art, how redesigned streets with painted bike/ bus lanes are a rare instance of society becoming more colorful, how many people assume that hostile design choices that impact homeless people are aesthetic ones, and how infrastructure built by the Works Progress Administration incorporated ornamentation and vernacular architectural traditions. 

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Around the Antenna Tree by Lisa Parks

A Prehistory of the Cloud by Tung-Hui Hu

How Infrastructure Works: Inside the Systems That Shape Our World by Deb Chachra

Rust: The Longest War by Johnathan Waldman

The Danger of Minimalist Design 

A Visual History of the British Telephone Box by Nick Sturgess

The Hand by Jiří Trnka

Places & Traces

'Ridiculous' Blue Seats Face Buildings, Don't Attract Shoppers, Critics Say by Mina Bloom

Ampelmännchen

Hall of Waters

Artwork:

Glenn Jackson Bridge aerial

Steve Morgan, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Recorded on 8/24/2025

Full episode available on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration

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Artwork:

Recorded on 8/17/2025

On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan discuss all things men’s fragrances. They begin by weighing the reasons men typically wear fragrances (“sex sells,” general presentation) versus why they might not (fragrance sensitivity, “men should smell like men”). They then review several fragrances: Dior Sauvage, Bleu de Chanel, Paco Rabanne Phantom, 4711 Original Eau de Cologne, Greenbriar by Caswell Massey, Maii Bogue, Weekend for Men by Burberry, and Knize Ten. They round out the episode by discussing Jeremy Fragrance’s career as “the number one fragrance icon that follows the teachings of Jesus” before reflecting on the totemic qualities of fragrances. 

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Smellmaxxing

Studio Ready

Teen Spirit in Pink Crush

Fragrance sensitivity: why perfumed products can cause profound health problems by Sirin Kale

Last of the NYC Leathermen

Fragrance Concentration Guide

Everything You Need To Know About Fragrance Concentration Levels - EDT, EDP, Parfum, & MORE

Official cologne flowchart of the 4chan fragrance board

Fragrance Groups 101

fragrantica.com

Dior Sauvage - Fragrantica page

Bleu de Chanel - Fragrantica page

Paco Rabanne Phantom - Fragrantica page

4711 Original Eau de Cologne - Fragrantica page

Greenbriar Caswell Massey - Fragrantica page

Maai Bogue - Fragrantica page

Weekend for Men Burberry - Fragrantica page

Knize Ten - Fragrantica page

Dior Sauvage in 2015 according to The History of the Hero: Dior Sauvage by Sarah Karmali

I Wore The World's Oldest Cologne For a Week

Bogue Profumo Maai: Valkyrie Chypres & Vintage Animalism

Knize Ten - A Masterpiece from 1925

Kniže & Co.: A First-Hand Look at Vienna’s Most Storied Tailor by Sven Raphael Schneider

Jeremy Fragrance: The Smell of Success

Jeremyfragrance - Tik Tok page

How Abercrombie, Victoria’s Secret and Vitamin Shoppe use smell to get you to spend more

Say Goodbye To The Scent Of Fierce In Abercrombie & Fitch Stores by Christopher Luu

Subway: What the Hell Is That Smell? by Joel Burrows

The Woman Who Wants to Give Birth to a Shark by Nikhil Roy

Gabriel O’Hara (niche fragrance brand inspired by Chicago streets)

Artwork:

Knize Ten Eau de Toilette

Recorded on 8/11/2025

Gorpcore is a hiking-inspired aesthetic that was first identified in a 2017 article published in The Cut. On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph begins by interviewing Nathan about his gorpcore-esque wardrobe. The boys then detail the various elements of the aesthetic (outerwear, technical fabrics, face concealment, and high definition landscapes) before introducing a vintage sub-aesthetic they call “lindy gorpcore.” Towards the later half of the episode they discuss Death Stranding 1 and its recent sequel Death Stranding 2: On the Beach, which are standout examples of the gorpcore aesthetic in gaming. 

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Recorded on 8/2/2025

Full episode available on Patreon:

https://www.patreon.com/SilentGeneration

Links:

Artwork:

Recorded on 7/28/2025

On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph interviews Nathan about his recent trip to Poland and the Czech Republic. He recaps his travels to Gdansk, Warsaw, Krakow, and Prague. Amongst other things he discusses how Gdansk was once a city-state known as the Free City of Danzig, how Warsaw’s Museum of Communism is above a KFC, how one of Krakow’s largest tourist attractions is a salt mine in the town of Wieliczka, and how Prague is home to the largest European castle still in use. 

This is the second installment of a four part series that explores the cultural figure of the Bohemian and its origins. This segment briefly explains how “Bohemia” is a region and kingdom that is now part of the modern day Czech Republic.

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Recorded on 7/13/2025

Manouche jazz is a musical genre (or musical idiom) pioneered by Django Reinhardt, a French-Romani jazz guitarist and composer who lived from 1910 to 1953. He developed manouche jazz in collaboration with Stéphane Grappelli after being inspired by American jazz musicians, and the genre is notable for its percussive guitars, virtuosic lead guitarists, and reliance on acoustic instruments. Joseph and Nathan are joined by Kelly from the Significant Lovers podcast to discuss the genre. 

This is the first installment of a four part series that explores the cultural figure of the Bohemian and its origins. The French believed that the Romani people came from Bohemia when they first arrived in their country, and the term “Bohemian” meant “Romani” for several centuries. “Bohemian” came to be associated with all of the stereotypes of the Romani people (positive and negative) before coming to only be associated with positive Romani stereotypes by the end of the 20th century: artsy, creative, free-spirited, and prone to wanderlust.

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Recorded on 6/29/2025

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

On this week’s episode of Silent Generation, Joseph and Nathan discuss one of the biggest culprits of car-oriented development in the mid-20th century: malls. The boys begin by surveying several malls in Chicago (900 N. Michigan, The Water Tower Place, Block 37, and Ford City Mall) before delving into the largest malls in the country (Mall of America, American Dream Mall, and King of Prussia Mall). They then discuss a multitude of mall brands, noting the mall goth feedback loop generated by Hot Topic and the toxicity of Bath and Body Works. They conclude by discussing the urbanist critique of malls and what should be done with dying ones. 

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Recorded on 6/22/2025