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 were depicted as somewhat utopian in the 1964 Soviet film Welcome, or No Trespassing. This is the second installment of a three part series that explores interconnected topics that deal with American culture and the outdoors. 

Links:

The Not So Happy Campers by Mimi Swartz

About our Founder - The Frederick Gunn School

Summer Camp Capitalism

The History of American Jewish Summer Camps

I can tell from her tweets that she had to go live with grandma for a lil bit meme

Wednesday’s revolt from The Addams Family Values

Long accused of Indigenous misappropriation, Boy Scouts ask if it’s time to change

Welcome, or No Trespassing (1964)  

Artwork:

Photograph by Andy Sweet

Recorded on 9/15/2023

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

On this week’s episode the boys detail the history of various figures and organizations in the scouting movement. Amongst other things they discuss how arbitrary it was that the scouting movement was inspired by scouting, how scout badges and scouting uniforms create an archive of people’s childhoods, how Cub Scouts truthfully don’t create their own pinewood derby cars, and how the TTI industry and wilderness therapy are “dark scouting.” This is the first installment of a three part series that explores interconnected topics that deal with American culture and the outdoors. 

Links:

Scouting for Boys by Robert Baden-Powell

The Zoomer Question by Isaac Wilkes 

Remembering the Wandervogel by John Savage & Johnny Ryan

David Hahn, The ‘Radioactive Boy Scout’ Who Tried To Build A Nuclear Reactor In His Backyard

Joseph as a Cub Scout

Nanook of the North (1922)

Scouts Honor: The Secret Files of The Boy Scouts of America (2023)

Artwork:

Scouts with canoe - National Parks Gallery

Creative Commons CC0 License

Recorded on 9/9/2024

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

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 Possible, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Amongst other things they discuss the difference between state and industrial espionage, Austria’s constitutionally mandated status of neutrality, and Edward Snowden’s modeling portfolio. 

Links:

Artwork:

Recorded on 8/16/2024

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 Romans conflated sexual conquest with imperial conquest, how Cleopatra in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra weaponized mens’ desire, and how straight men and gay men seem to equally match each other in terms of desire.  

Links:

Charles Livingston’s Instagram

Wings by Charles Livingston

Oscars 2018: Facts and figures about the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences - Orange County Register 

The VICE Guide to Being Gay

Armond and Mark scene from the White Lotus

Artwork: Germanic Warrior with Helmet, Osmar Schindler, 1902

Recorded on 8/11/2024

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 areas, and how the antiques industry acts as a point of intergenerational exchange between different generations of gay men. 

Links:

Antiques Pinterest Board (Nathan’s antiques are at the bottom)

A Lamp & Fixture Corp 

Tighlman Chicago 

Justanswer Antiques

The Blue Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang 

Campbell House Museum

The Slav Epic by Alphonse Mucha

THREATENED: Hector Guimard’s Art Nouveau Metra Entrance

Restor-A-Finish Youtube demo

The Roger Brown Study Collection

Artwork:

Art Deco Cubist Armchair in Vermilion Mohair Velvet and Maple, Belgium, 1920s

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